Shadows -- Light

       Last Sunday afternoon Bill took me for a drive through our beloved Morrow Mountain State Park. It's been an unusual autumn-- cold, warm, wet, dry--  and so the colors around our house have been muted at best. We hoped gaining a little bit of elevation might make a difference. As we approached the gently rising hills not much change was evident, yet we enjoyed the familiar curves in the road, the paths through the woods we had hiked so often in years past. We shared memories of lying in the fallen leaves gazing straight up through brilliantly-colored trees to a sapphire sky. We caught glimpses of the nearby lakes -- such an explosion of God's artistry abounds in our little-known "neck of the woods"! Yet even from the top, the colors still disappointed. 

      As we turned around and headed back down, rounding the same turns, we both shouted, "Look!" at the same time. There, among the dusty-brown shadows, a golden glow drew our eyes upward, ever upward. Bill stopped the car as we gazed at the sight: the angle of the sun, just so, was backlighting trees that from the other direction had appeared dull, making us think they were dead, past being beautiful to our eyes. As he snapped the  picture below, Bill commented, "Now isn't that just like us? We're dull, even dead, until we let the light of the Son shine through us!" Now how's that for Truth?!

      My life has seemed pretty brown the past couple of years, but yesterday we had a glowing Thanksgiving, thanks to the presence of beloved family bringing the Light of Life and Love into our home. It wasn't a fancy meal-- we ate on paper plates. No roasted turkey came out of my oven-- Johnny's barbecue from the microwave filled our tummies just as well. But oh, the joy that filled my heart, making me smile even now. Love, hope, and the Light of Christ shining through. What more could I possibly need or ask for?

   "Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes."  (Ephesians 3:20 TLB)

      "Don’t hide your light! Let it shine for all; let your good deeds glow for all to see, so that they will praise your heavenly Father."  (Matthew 5: 15-16 TLB)

    

      

The Gift -- Grace

      I remember as if it were yesterday, though it must have been some sixty-five years ago. It was an ordinary visit with my cousin with the extraordinary red hair. I'm sure we had played dolls all day, while our mothers shared their sister-lives through sign language. We must have let our Tiny Tears dolls exchange clothes during our play, but now it was time to gather my own things and go home. I'm sure I carried on about how much I loved a particular yellow dress belonging to my cousin's doll-- perhaps because it matched a favorite yellow dress my mother had made me. Seemingly without a second thought or regret, my cousin said, "You can have it, Charlanne." 

      Even then, my eight-year-old self tried to reject her sweet offering, the sacrifice seeming too much, but she insisted, and I rode home in mild disbelief at a child's atypical unselfishness. As you can see, the dress has faded with age, and well, Tiny Tears is somewhat broken like all of us, one rubber leg having fallen off. But it was a lesson that never left me, as I held onto that dress all these years-- that totally selfless, spontaneous offering, given for no other reason than love. I had done NOTHING to deserve the gift, given nothing in return except my awe and gratitude.

      Now isn't that the perfect picture of God's Grace?! The widely accepted Christian definition of "grace" is God's unmerited favor, as explained in The New Dictionary of Theology (Komonchak at al (eds), 1990): "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved." No matter how many prophets had foretold the coming of God's Messiah, throughout hundreds of years, how few accepted the Gift, have accepted the Gift of Jesus until this very day! I could have stubbornly refused that yellow doll's dress, so freely given, from my dear cousin. What I would have missed, even more than the pleasure of seeing it on my own doll, was the overwhelming awe and gratitude that stays with me to this day for the gift of love it symbolized. The dress will one day disintegrate, just like our our bodies, but the LOVE will never end.

      I know this with all my heart and soul!

      "Long ago the Lord said to Israel: 'I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.'"  (Jeremiah 31:3 NLT)

      "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him." (1 John 3:1 NIV)

      "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus."  (Romans 8: 37-39 CSB)

Lament -- Praise

   











  I find myself at a loss for words this week in the midst of an extended period of pain and weakness. I am sure there are others of you who are or have been in the same position. And so today I'm leaning into King David's song of lament, followed by praise, in Psalm 22 (NLT). Please ponder these beautiful words with me and rest in the assurance that God knows and will relieve all our suffering! 

      1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
    Why are you so far away when I groan for help?
      2 Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.
    Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief.

      3 Yet you are holy,
    enthroned on the praises of Israel.
      4 Our ancestors trusted in you,
    and you rescued them.
      5 They cried out to you and were saved.
    They trusted in you and were never disgraced.

      6 But I am a worm and not a man.
    I am scorned and despised by all!
      7 Everyone who sees me mocks me.
    They sneer and shake their heads, saying,
      8 “Is this the one who relies on the Lord?
    Then let the Lord save him!
If the Lord loves him so much,
    let the Lord rescue him!”

      9 Yet you brought me safely from my mother’s womb
    and led me to trust you at my mother’s breast.
     10 I was thrust into your arms at my birth.
    You have been my God from the moment I was born.

     11 Do not stay so far from me,
    for trouble is near,
    and no one else can help me.
     12 My enemies surround me like a herd of bulls;
    fierce bulls of Bashan have hemmed me in!
     13 Like lions they open their jaws against me,
    roaring and tearing into their prey.
     14 My life is poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax,
    melting within me.
     15 My strength has dried up like sunbaked clay.
    My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
    You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead.
     16 My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs;
    an evil gang closes in on me.
    They have pierced[a] my hands and feet.
     17 I can count all my bones.
    My enemies stare at me and gloat.
     18 They divide my garments among themselves
    and throw dice[b] for my clothing.

     19 O Lord, do not stay far away!
    You are my strength; come quickly to my aid!
     20 Save me from the sword;
    spare my precious life from these dogs.
     21 Snatch me from the lion’s jaws
    and from the horns of these wild oxen.

     22 I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.[c]
    I will praise you among your assembled people.
     23 Praise the Lord, all you who fear him!
    Honor him, all you descendants of Jacob!
    Show him reverence, all you descendants of Israel!
     24 For he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy.
    He has not turned his back on them,
    but has listened to their cries for help.

     25 I will praise you in the great assembly.
    I will fulfill my vows in the presence of those who worship you.
     26 The poor will eat and be satisfied.
    All who seek the Lord will praise him.
    Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.
     27 The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to him.
    All the families of the nations will bow down before him.
     28 For royal power belongs to the Lord.
    He rules all the nations.

     29 Let the rich of the earth feast and worship.
    Bow before him, all who are mortal,
    all whose lives will end as dust.
     30 Our children will also serve him.
    Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord.
     31 His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born.
    They will hear about everything he has done.

 “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 7:17; 21:4).

      

Broken -- Restored

     I wept today over a brief glimpse on a PBS show of an art restorer painstakingly applying gold leaf to a Seventeenth Century work of art in Italy. The time and care it must take to return something so old and damaged to its original beauty astonished me. I have struggled the past few days with hopelessness, feeling the deep loss of a suddenly broken body. Earlier this week I learned of a sweet friend looking on helplessly as her two young dogs drowned each other in a freak accident. Not many years ago that same friend watched her severely handicapped sister slip slowly away. When she learned about the dogs, the girls' mother said, "We'll just have to think of your sister playing joyfully with your dogs in Heaven! The Bible does tell us, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV)"

      I needed both of those reminders. Kristen had no idea her tragic story would somehow give me hope, but isn't that God? If we could only remember how temporary our time on earth really is: "For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!" (2 Corinthians 4:17 NLT)  And yet, we are His crowning creation, the one thing He breathed His very life into: "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it." (Berean Study Bible)

      My friend, the Creator of the Universe, the All-Powerful Jehovah, cares about you and me that much! He has immense patience with us, even on days of doubt and fear, and He WILL restore us to glory beyond our imagining, if only we accept the free gift of His Son, the ONLY perfect sacrifice for all our sins. 

       " For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16 KJV) Now THAT'S Good News!

Time -- Eternity

      I woke up at 3:00 this morning thinking about a beautiful cantata my college choir sang -- Mary Caldwell's "Of Time and Eternity." I don't remember much of it, except that the opening lyrics echoed Ecclesiastes 3:1 -- "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:"  

      Perhaps this music came to mind because yesterday I celebrated and grieved the birthday of a precious friend who went to her heavenly reward much too soon and suddenly for those of us who loved her. Nearly two years after her passing, I have just now been able to bring myself to watch the videos of her memorial services. I have tears, because I still miss my friend, who was like a twin soul almost from the moment I met her. But a word kept coming up in her remembrances: peace. And my heart has an indescribable peace now, because of the messages I've just heard.

      Most of her friends, family, and pastors spoke in one way or another of Jackie's assurance of eternal life in the presence of God her Father and Jesus her Savior. In both of the services a video was played of her testimony at the Moody Church, where she worshiped and worked. As her sister put it, Jackie "shone" because of the Light of the World Who was in her, and this Light beamed on anyone who crossed her path. Her brother, who had spoken with her the day before her passing, pointed out that we never know when might be the last time we see or speak to a loved one.

      I don't believe it was an accident (See "Coincidence -- God's Incidence") that I first met Jackie in Israel. I remember how we both wept as Jerusalem's hills came into view, while "The Holy City" played through the speakers on the bus. We always talked about going back there together some day. That won't happen now in our earthly bodies; but oh, how glorious will be our return together to the Holy City with our Wonderful Savior, King Jesus, in all His glory!

      " For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the archangel's voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord."  (I Thessalonians 4:16-17 CSB)

      "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.... I, Jesus, have sent my angel to attest these things to you for the churches. I am the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star."  (Revelation 22:14, 16 CSB) 

     *You can watch Jackie's testimony at Moody Church here:
                       A Life Changed