Holding up the Train

A few months ago, I got a phone call from my brother, Pierre. It was fairly early in the morning so I thought it a bit strange to hear from him, at that time of day, since we normally caught up with each other late at night.

He started off with some innocuous conversation & then said: "I have some news." I replied: "Does it start with 'H?' He said: "How did you know?" 

I said: "I didn't; but I have been praying about you and Heather for some time now." How amazing is our God- answering a prayer that neither my brother nor my newest sister-in-law knew anything about.

Friends, the right spouse is truly worth waiting for, no matter what, (or who), may come your way.  Pierre and Heather both lost their spouses in the past few years; spouses whom they loved.  This marriage diminishes none of the former loves.  On the contrary- the joys and sorrows, the mountain peaks and the valleys- have shaped them both and I have no doubt that their life together will be to the glory of God.  With so much love to give, they are a perfect complement to one another, and to those whom they will serve in the coming days.

"Lord, may You continue to shape them in Your image; may their marriage be a wonderful reflection of Your love for Your bride, the church. Amen." 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJsx3GtXgxI

Be careful what you ask for

They asked for it.  And they got what they asked for.  The Israelites wanted a king, oh so badly.  They sent a delegation of elders to speak to the prophet, Samuel. (An aside: beware the delegation that comes knocking without heed to God’s purposes).  

They said: “Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” (1 Samuel 8:5)  “That we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles”  (1 Samuel 8:20); sounds like noble reasons to have a king. However, earlier on:. “And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7)

So, God gave them a king, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin. “And he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice and handsome man, and there was not a more handsome person than he among the sons of Israel; from his shoulders and up he was taller than any of the people.”  (1 Samuel 9:2).    From 1 Samuel 10:23, 24: “So they ran and took him from there, and when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward.  And Samuel said to all the people: “Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen?  Surely there is no one like him among all the people.  So all the people shouted and said: “Long live the king!”

Discussing this in our small group, it was said that the people chose someone who was ‘tall and handsome;’ hardly good qualities for ruling a nation-so vain and so shallow.  I, in a way-too-authoritative-voice, stated that it was actually God who had chosen Saul, as in the above verse and also here: “When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, ‘Behold the man of whom I spoke to you!  This one shall rule over my people,” (1 Samuel 9:17).  And while this is true, it is also true that God chose the one that the people wanted.  Basically, God gave them a King “after their own hearts,” in direct contrast to their next king, David, whom God said was a man after His own heart. 

I am very glad that the ladies in our small group gave their understanding of the passages, as I was in need of a more gentle and humble spirit; I owe them an apology.  It was a fitting lesson to be drawn out of the biblical narrative of judging by appearances and rushing to conclusions; both of which the Israelites had done in wanting a king and what I had done with an overbearing attitude of superiority.  It was also a direct application from our pastor’s morning message, whereby he challenged us to always, everywhere, be focused on pleasing God. 

Saul turned out to be quite the wrecking ball.  The nation was at war and in chaos for the thirty-two years that Saul reigned as king.   He harboured an insane jealousy of David, whom the people had honoured above him, evil spirits haunted him, he used a witch to call up Samuel from the dead, he tried to murder his own son and he died an ignoble death; to name only a few of his missteps.  Well, the people had asked for a king and essentially got what they deserved, a king after their own hearts; handsome, tall and perhaps “dark,” in the sense that he was so proficient at not obeying God.

Be careful what you ask for; you just might get it.

In a world that is still characterized by much war, violence and sin, I pray: “Oh God, spare me from setting myself up as king; but rather let me be one who is after your own heart, so that I might be a light in a dark and dreary land.”  I am greatly heartened by Samuel’s prayer, during the reign of King Saul: “Moreover, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way,” (1 Samuel 12:23).  

The devil is in the details

I had not even noticed how my time had been spent from 9:55am to 10:05am.  Mom and I were on our way to church.  That morning, our pastor was preaching about anger, about the foolishness of how our need for hurry causes ridiculous anger, and this plague of hurrying, (not his exact words), has its root in selfishness.  “In your anger, do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry and do not give the devil a foothold.”  (Ephesians 4:26,27). 

I envisioned a ‘slowed-down’ version of me helping my Mom put on her winter coat, not even 50 minutes before his message.  I am always in such a big rush to get out that door.  So, of course, I force my Mom to go faster.  But she cannot. 

She cannot, because she gets stuck in the smallest of details, like pushing her hand past the ribbing at the end of her coat sleeve, or fumbling with a zipper that is now too complicated for her to manage or trying to get her hood on because she absolutely hates the wind.  And I know all of these things.  If only I would slow down.  But I cannot.

I cannot, because I will not.  I am in too much of a hurry, which ultimately means that, as our pastor said: “It’s all about me.”  If I had planned just a little differently, I would have had time to chat with Mom as I helped her with her coat.  We could joke about the weather, and talk about the days when she taught in a one-room schoolhouse with a pot-bellied stove and a little boy whose dog followed him into that same schoolhouse on a blustery, cold winter’s day.  And oh, does she ever love to tell that story!  Her face lights up and she gets so excited that half-way through, she switches from English to French, and then back to English.

The devil, as they say, is in the details. I allow him to shatter my day with little frustrations and minutiae about unimportant matters.  I refuse to see interruptions as God’s means of grace to me; as His means of taking the time to help my Mom push her hand through that sleeve and hear her say, “that’s what I needed, a little push,” and her tinkling laughter at her own little joke.

We all have an average of twelve to sixteen breaths per minute; I plan on using mine more wisely.  By God’s grace, I pray that I will not, and therefore, cannot, be hurried along at the expense of someone else’s joy or at someone else’s pain; nor do I want ungodly anger to be a hallmark of my days.

The devil is in the details.  But so is God, and He is greater than the devil. 

“Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”

(1 John 4:4)

Breath-taking

I've been wasting my breath.

There will be no more explanations from me, about why Mom doesn’t seem to hear so well, or trying to make excuses for a seemingly random behaviour.  I’m done with all of that.  And it is such a relief.  I suppose I have felt a need to protect her, and there is a place for that; for advocacy.  But my Mom should not need protection from her own community. 

You think I would have caught on a long time ago.  As signs of dementia continued to add up, I dug deeper into my arsenal of excuses; explaining to strangers, friends and family, that Mom has dementia and it is affecting everything about her life, and about mine.  Since when has it been the seeming norm to have to explain a loved one’s uncertainty; of their loss of memory; of their confusion over being given several steps in a process, all at once? 

Here’s hoping that people will not look at her askance, but rather that they will simply love her, enjoy her, interact with her, and show kindness and patience.  She is a delightful, funny, capricious, kind, compassionate, kitty-loving, energetic, busy, creative, insightful, thoughtful woman.  She can also be very annoying, with her obsessive attention to little details; so unlike me. But, we manage.

Here’s hoping we will still sing, savour fresh lobster sandwiches at local eateries, shop for groceries, poke around in second-hand stores, go to concerts, read out loud to one another, and dance, dance, dance.  There may come a time when we will no longer be able to do these things.  So be it, but even then, I won’t be wasting my breath.  I’ll save it for the laughter and the tears that are sure to come; by God’s grace.

I love you, Mom.

“Beloved, let us love one another,

For love is from God;

And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”

(1 John 4:7)

Those Hands

I try to hold my mother's hands as often as possible.  There are 93 years of character etched into those beautiful hands.  One day, I will hold them no longer and I want their memory to be etched onto my heart.  She held my hands, as a baby, and now I have the privilege of holding hers.

What was it like for Mary?  What was it like for her to hold Jesus' tiny hand in hers, at His birth; to have Him curl His little fingers around one of hers, in that sweet baby-pose; to hold His hand as they walked through the little town of Bethlehem?  Mary, holding his hand ever-so-tightly, so that He did not fall.  And then, in the middle of the night, she had to take Him up in her arms and flee for their very lives.  Jesus, Mary, and Joseph - refugees.  Escaping to Egypt.  At night.  And Jesus was two years old. (Matthew 2:13,14,16)

Their return,(Matthew 2:15), was prophesied in Hosea 11:1 "Out of Egypt have I called my Son."  But this had actually happened before; to a different son.  God called the nation of Israel, "my son," in Hosea's prophecy. And now, hundreds of years later, it is Jesus who is spoken about, in the same prophecy.  I am fascinated by these mountain-peak vistas in the bible.  At once, looking back to a crucial point in salvation-history and yet also looking ahead to Jesus Christ.

In the first instance, Moses, humbled by his time as a shepherd in the wilderness, led the nation out of Egypt; that mass exodus of close to a million people who had been slaves to the Pharaoh,(Exodus 12:40,41).  And then Jesus, "...being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."(Philippians 2:8).  He was lead out of Egypt to become the Saviour of the world; leading countless numbers of people out of the slavery of sin and into His righteousness.  I cannot imagine anything more humbling - God becoming flesh.

What was it like for Mary; knowing  that her son who would be born was the Son of God, (Luke 1:35)? Jesus in the womb of Mary; taking on human form, walking with His mother hand-in-hand.  The little boy's hands that she held at His birth would soon enough be nailed to a cross.  His death would be for her, (Luke 1:47); and for me, and for you.

Jesus had allowed humanity to handle Him:  "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled concerning the Word of Life,"(1 John 1:1).

Hands held Him: at His birth, in His mother's arms; at His death, nailed to a cross by Roman soldiers; at His burial, having been taken down from the cross by two believing Pharisees; at His resurrection, where Mary Magdalene held onto Him, and Thomas was told to put his finger in the nail-prints and place his hand in Jesus' riven side.

I thank God for this greatest of gifts, celebrated at Christmas-time.  Jesus' little hands eventually stretched out to encompass the world; offering forgiveness of sin through His life, death and resurrection.  I thank God He called His son out of Egypt.  I thank God those hands are forever etched with the imprint of the nails; those hands that I will one day see.

The Unexpected One?

Waiting in line can be annoying.  Bus lines. Coffee lines.  Grocery lines.  Pregnant-with-a-baby-absolutely-no-one-expected lines.  Wait a minute!  Lots of women are pregnant when they have least expected to be so.  Some, because of horrible rape - perpetrated by evil.  Others, because they have tried for so long to get pregnant; adoption is the option and “Voila,” an ultrasound brings tears of joy. 

And then there was Mary.  An unsuspecting virgin teenager, betrothed to Joseph, an even more unsuspecting carpenter-turned-stepfather.  This is the stuff of fiction and wild imaginations.  But, truth be told, it is the work of God.  No one was really expecting the Messiah, except maybe Mary.  She was afraid, but not unwilling, when Gabriel the angel spoke to her about becoming pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit.  God had not spoken to His people for four hundred years- why would He speak now?  Little did people know that the Word of God would soon be made flesh, (John 1:14).  Jesus, the God-man, knew from the beginning of time that He would come, as a child growing in the womb of a young mother.

Nine months is a very long time to wait- just ask any mom; for that matter, ask my own mom who birthed eight children.  But this unexpected, yet well-announced baby had been coming for millennia.  And the world was caught in unexpected and ever-so-normal routines.  People going about their daily lives: in the market, at the temple, in Herod’s castle, in Bethlehem’s wee little town square where women met to draw water.  No one there had really expected a young woman to show up with her son; the son whom those shepherds had gossiped about a few days ago.  The Son who lived with His parents in Bethlehem for two years after He was born.  You see, those wise men from the East took two long, expectant years to get from their kingdom to visit the King of Kings- following a bright and shining star.

Now, there’s a story of patiently waiting!  Two years.  One star. Travelling at night.  Riches in their bosom – gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They didn’t know that Jesus and Mary and Joseph would use up most of those gifts when they had to flee to Egypt, seeing as Herod the “bought-my-throne-by-murder” king tried to trick them into showing him exactly where this born King was staying. 

But God knew.  All along, God knew.  All along, Jesus knew.  All along the ages, this Unexpected One was prophesied about.  Answering every question, if someone dared to read the Scriptures.  Where He would be born and When and Why and How and Who and What on earth is it all about?

It is all about the salvation of humanity.  Not to be found in a palace; not to be found within your self.  Rather, the unexpected One - laid in a manger, sought out by shepherd-strangers, this greatest gift to humanity.   Mary had waited for nine long months for this miraculous baby to be born.  This is the One whom she marvelled about and of whom she treasured all things up in her heart,(Luke 2:19). It is hard for me to imagine what those nine months were like; anticipating arrival of this miraculous baby.  But it was so worth it.  And we get to harvest a great blessing, because she waited, and wondered at God's provision.

Maybe this Christmas, you have come to realize that this long-awaited baby came for you.  Yes, for you; unexpected as that may seem.  Are you tired of waiting for something great to happen?  It has already taken place, and you don’t need to miss the blessing of it!  Are you weary of the wait for answers to your deepest questions? Jesus is your answer.  Are you fatigued by profound regrets and unmitigated sorrow over your sin?  Jesus is your solace, your comfort, your joy.  When you acknowledge your sin, He will save.

“She will give birth to a son, and you shall give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 

Behold! The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, 

and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means, “God with us”). 

(Matthew 1:21,22,23)

Communication is Key

Have you ever tried to learn a new language?  It is so fascinating and by times, frustrating.  Teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) classes was such a joy for me.  I loved engaging with people from, literally, all over the world.  So often, as people learned, I could see a pattern.  A few lessons in, they started to understand basic phrases, and then short sentences.  Once we moved on to longer phrases, many students would hear the beginning and the end, but would not catch the middle. 

So, you can imagine the funny responses to a question such as: “What did you have for dessert, once your dinner was finished?”  A response: “I finished my homework!”  Or, “I had apple pie dessert; all finished.”  Another interesting pattern was how common expressions, such as: “You’re pulling my leg,” could be rephrased.  One student came to class and stated:” You are pulling my ankle!”  We laughed a lot, we cried some, and to their credit, these students learned a lot.  They truly longed to communicate; to speak of their families and homeland and challenges and joys.  And I, I would love to have been able to talk with them in their native tongue.  Memorable lessons, and much time and energy was spent in the learning.

In his sermon this past Sunday, our pastor shared with us that people all over the world are wanting to know who God is; how can we know Him; where can we find Him; how can we communicate with Him?  I thought of the lovely Christmas carol: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!”  To my great joy, I have discovered that God already speaks my language! Thankfully, I didn’t need to go to any classes to begin a relationship with Him, to communicate with Him.  

  

There are three ways in which He has made Himself known, this God who wishes to be known: through Creation, through the Living Word, and through the Written Word:

Ø  He speaks in Creation – “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)

Ø  He speaks FOR me – in the Living Word, in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, the one whom the apostle John calls: “The Word of Life” (Gospel of John 1: 1 and in his 1^st epistle: 1 John 1:1). He speaks as My Advocate, (1 John 2:1).

Ø  He speaks TO me – in the Written Word, the Bible, to assure me of eternal life, (1 John 5:13); to teach me all I need for life and godliness, (2Peter 1:3)

And finally, wonderfully, He speaks WITH me – in the conversation of prayer (1 John 3:21,22,23; 1 John 5:14,15). 

God really is the absolute best communicator, ever.  

 And He speaks my language; your language.  

  

 He speaks Truth.  He speaks Love. 

He offers to us the Key of Life- found in Jesus Christ.

 Jesus Christ, who is the express image of God.

Jesus Christ, who said to Philip: 

“If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

He is true to His character - you can take Him at His word.