Heidi, a friend of mine from Germany, once told me that “Texas is to America what Bavaria is to Germany.” In what way?” I asked. “Texas is like a whole different country inside the united States,” she answered. Heidi had probably seen more of the U.S. Than I had, as her husband was on an assignment in his job that would end in a year., and they were traveling the country in all his spare time. “Is Texas really so very different?” I asked. “Oh!, yes.” she replied. I didn’t get much more from her than that.

I myself was an import from New York State, and so her remark surprised me. When I had arrived in Texas from Central New York, the most notable difference I found, was the warm hospitality in neighbors and acquaintances. People seemed eager to share their homes and iced tea with me, and I was impressed. Maybe Texas really was a “land within a land.”

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household, to the land I will show you. . . So Abram went, as the Lord had told him. (Genesis 12:1&4) Into the land of Canaan God led Abraham and Lot. This was God’s destination for Abraham, and it was there that God gave Abraham the promise of a son, and unending heritage of descendants, and a land.

Abraham’s descendants became a slave nation in Egypt until they returned hundreds of years later to the land promised to Abraham, the land that became the land of Israel, named for one of Abraham’s grandsons, Jacob (Israel) When Jacob dreamed of the angels ascending and descending on a ladder to Heaven, he knew that the dream was a glimpse of the land within the land that was filled with the Spirit of his grandfather’s God. The land within the land of Jacob’s grandfather’s heritage is the spiritual land of uncompromising relationship that Abraham proved to have, Jacob acquired, and eventually the whole liberated nation of Israel, after a forty years’ walk, entered into.

The land within the land is the place where our devotion lives, where connection is made with our God, and promises made and promises kept. Jacob’s older brother Esau could see only his material inheritance; Jacob risked everything to acquire the inheritance of his father and grandfather, the land within the land.

Love in Him,

Prue

In the midst of issuing a list of laws and instructions to Moses for His people, God paused and said to Moses, “Say to Aaron and his sons, ‘Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, ‘ The Lord bless you and keep you: The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. ‘ (Numbers 6:23-26) In this short blessing, God changed the direction of all his instructions into a recognition of His own Person-hood and His unique relationship with His people. He spoke of His face and His countenance and His desire to bless, and not berate. In this short blessing God shared His heart with His people, and, furthermore, He wanted them to know it.

When I was a teenager, our youth group ended every meeting with this blessing. I used to wonder what a “countenance” was, and how it was different from a “face”. Our pastor said that it was God’s whole being, more than just His face. I liked asking God to turn His whole being toward me, and that He Himself had said that we should ask.

Many years after God spoke this blessing to Moses, the Psalmist reflected upon the reality of God’s countenance in the lives of His people:…For not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm give them victory: but by your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance, for you did love them.

(Psalm 44:3) God’s Countenance clearly shines. It shone through all the rules and regulations and the on-the-ground lives of the people of Israel for forty years, and for hundreds of years afterward, sometimes obscured, until, as Isaiah prophesied even later,: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. (Isaiah 9:2)

We have just finished celebrating the great light, more than two thousand years after that light appeared on earth. When he, Jesus, said Ask, seek, and knock (Matthew 7:7), he was talking about God’s countenance. Ask for the whole being of our God. Seek Him out, knock at His door, and receive Him who alone answers our needs, for God’s whole being is the love that He displayed even before His son came to seal it.

In the midst of bringing order to His newly liberated people, God’s heart moved, and He blessed His people. The blessing itself was a gift that has survived the ages, for it extends the whole countenance of God to His people, and that countenance is love, for He does love us.

Love in Him,

Prue

We hadn’t driven our second car for about two weeks when Jack went out to start it up and drive it to an errand. He had trouble starting it, so he lifted the hood and to his astonishment found a messy nest of leaves and a young possum staring at him and hissing. Jack came into the house to get some heavy gloves and I went back with him to see the intruder and marvel that it had built the nest and moved into the front of our car without our ever noticing. Our neighbors were outside, and came to marvel with us. It caused a minor sensation.

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground. . . they are given into your hands. (Genesis 9: 1-2)This was the moment when God changed Noah’s relationship with the very animals that he had saved from the flood. The utter fear of mankind would reign in wild animals from then on.

When I stared at that little possum, I regretted that we couldn’t be friends. He had sought refuge in our car, and we were going to have to turn him out.

Every year I begin the first of January with reading the first chapters of the Bible. Strange as it might seem, I feel real renewal in returning to those scriptures, maybe because they address the basic circumstances of life on Earth, and the inescapable perception of the presence of God in all of nature. When God gives His gift of the rainbow to Noah, God makes sure that this is actually a covenant gift to all living things on the planet. It applies to all animals, as well as plants, that never again shall God destroy the whole world with a flood.

The early Genesis chapters are the beginning of the unveiling of God’s own character, His desires and intentions for His creation, and His massive creative capacity. Every part of it echoes throughout the Bible, as well as in my mind when I looked under the hood of our car at a terrified possum protecting “his” property. I alone knew that we were both His property.

Love in Him,

Prue

A voice calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3)

I always imagined the desert in this passage to be like the image in my mind of the Sahara Desert, and the rolling dunes I had seen in pictures. It would be hard, I thought, to maintain a straight line in the shifting Sahara with sand everywhere you could see. It didn’t seem stable enough to support a working highway.

Nevertheless the prophet Isaiah had written of a voice calling out the message to straighten the wilderness through the desert. I thought that it must be an internal wilderness, a spiritual wilderness of uncertainty that God was calling His people to straighten, that He Himself might bring new life to them and enter their lives.

With the upheavals and changes and difficulties our world today experiences, the call to straighten and open a highway for God seems even more urgent thanin Isaiah’s time. The call is more focused since Jesus’ resurrection, leading God’s people straight to His heart. The apostle John wrote, This is how we know that we live in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His son to be the Savior of the world. . . and so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. ( 1 John 4:13 &16) John made a straight highway when he wrote these words, for he reached the hearts of both God Himself and His many people who could come to perceive Him in their own lives thanks to John’s testimony.

Before Jesus began his ministry John the Baptist was preaching and teaching in the wilderness of Judea. He was a voice calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight paths for Him.”(Matthew 3:3) The Romans might have interpreted this message to build a literal road, but the Hebrews knew the words of Isaiah, and that John’s message was personal to every single soul to open their eyes and hearts to a straight highway to their God.

The straight path in my life is daily Bible reading. I read to hear the voice that speaks a straight highway to my understanding of the presence and will of God. Of course there are dry passages like the desert itself that occur, but they’re followed by straight highways to the Lord. I look forward to more in 2026.

Love in Him,

Prue

Sometimes we may think that the “Christmas Spirit” was invented by Charles Dickens, and that it is simply reinforced by commercial interests and Hallmark movies in modern times; but the Christmas Spirit exists even in the Bible, even before the actual birth of Christ a merry heart is praised in the book of Proverbs: The cheerful heart has a continual feast, ( Prov.15:15) and A cheerful heart is good medicine. (Prov.15:15)

A thirteenth century carol includes the line, “May joy come from God above to all those who Christmas love.” The connection of great joy with the birth of Jesus is irresistible at Christmas. The joy at Christmas mingles with the joy of a welcome new born baby and the knowledge that he fulfills prophecy and is sent from God. The joy is virtually mandated by the host of angels who sang to the shepherds.

One of the most common Christmas card greetings is the greeting referring to the joy experienced at Christmas, and the hope of extending it throughout the year. The author of the book of Hebrews laid out an unexpected path to receive that joy: Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2)The joy of Christ’s nativity was intended to reach across the centuries in festivals and celebrations, but also with encounters with angels themselves, whether we know it or not.

Christmas and Easter both draw us closer to our God, and the Scripture keeps alive the spirit of joy that accompanies both celebrations…Both center upon the life of Christ, Easter on his resurrection. Both fill out the year with acknowledgments of the bond created by Jesus’ arrival on earth,, his life, death and resurrection that has changed the hopes of believers to rejoice in the eternal life he both promised and displayed in his resurrection.

Tonight is New Year’s Eve, a celebration in itself. The year ahead will be graced with another Christmas and another Easter. Both will spread the joy that has kept these holidays alive for more than two thousand years. We may search everywhere for joy in 2026, but God has given us both His son, and His book to read and to find His joy. If we make any resolutions, daily reading His book might be a good place to start.

Happy New Year!

Love in Him,

Prue

Mary’s Face

In tombs of Egyptian royalty there have been found hand mirrors made of polished brass from as long ago as three thousand years. These mirrors were owned by the wealthy and royalty.

Mary, on the other hand, almost certainly never owned and had possibly never even seen a mirror. She likely never saw her own face. While her family and Joseph saw her every day, she herself may never have seen her face. The same was true for most of the humble people in the ancient world.

God’s choice of Mary was like His choice of Moses. Both were people who lived in a social, family environment and both had no expectation or ambition to change their lifestyle. Neither Mary nor Moses was seeking a mission or even a close relationship with God. Their lives were apparently uncomplicated, as Moses worked for his father-in-law and Mary was a young woman living at home until her marriage. Both were startled by God’s call: Moses at the burning bush, and Mary at the visit of the angel Gabriel. God waited for each of them to agree to his calling. Mary agreed promptly.

Mary, who seldom if ever, had seen her own face, was able to believe the angel and to accept his word that she had found favor with God, and that the Lord was in fact “with” her. (Luke 1:28) She was also able to keep to herself the news from Gabriel as well as the news from the shepherds: Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart. (Luke 2;19) She “treasured” the visit of unkempt shepherds to the stable where her baby lay in swaddling cloths in a manger. She was moved by their testimony of the angels’ appearance. These events , and many more, must have stayed with Mary for her whole life, as even today mothers remember the details of their child’s birth.

When Jesus grew , Mary saw God in her son’s face at a wedding reception when she said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you to do.”(John 2:5) and Jesus turned water into wine.

At the cross, Jesus saw Mary’s face, and said to his mother standing near his disciple, John, Here is your son, and to his disciple he said, “Here is your mother.”(John 19:26)

Mary never needed to see her own face. She lived with and helped shape the son of God for all his growing up. As he was dying he saw her face.

Love in Him

Prue

Charles Spurgeon once wrote that for him, one of the marvels of Christmas was the willing and even joyful presence of the angels. It was remarkable, he thought , that they displayed no jealousy over the fact that God had chosen humanity to receive His son, instead of choosing the angels themselves to receive him.

I thought it was an odd perception. It was prompted by the enormous joy displayed by the angels to the shepherds, and the amount of participation of individual angels with Zechariah and Mary and Joseph. Unrestrained joy was the angels’ mood. There is no other display of hosts of angels such as greeted the birth of Jesus with their song.

With Spurgeon’s remark I thought how hard it is for us to comprehend the Spirit of God at work in our own world. Angels at least have supernatural qualities and would seem to be closer to God than human beings. Yet God chose two human beings to parent His son, and celebrated his birth with the dazzling display of the contents of heaven. His audience was a carefully chosen group of shepherds who responded as only the faithful would: they went joyfully at the angel’s word to visit “This thing that has come to pass.”(Luke 2:15)

In Jesus’ birth we catch a glimpse of God’s heart in welcoming the arrival of His son to live among human beings as one of them, while all the time belonging to God. That Fatherly love poured out on that night has never been extinguished, though it has been tried very hard for more than two millennia. When the baby grew up he expressed it to one who came to seek him out. Nicodemus had caught a glimpse of God in Jesus; And Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that He have His one and only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

God chose to visit us that we could draw closer to Him. The psalmist wrote, Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8) At this time of year, there is much to taste! All along it had been God’s intention to draw human beings closer to Himself than even the angels. Not just at Christmas are we invited to Come see this thing that has come to pass!

Merry Christmas!

Love in Him,

Prue

Once while teaching a Sunday School class to sixth graders I mentioned that it might be hard for us to imagine the situation of the Israelite slaves in Egypt, since we in America knew no one who owns another human being. Phillip raised his hand and said, ”Yes we do! A person can be adopted, and then he is owned by his parents.” Only later did I learn that he had just been to court with his parents where his own adoption was confirmed. It was imperative that I agree that he was “owned” by his new mother and father, and could not be removed from them.

You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. (1Peter 2:9) Mary became “God’s special possession” when she said to the angel Gabriel, “Let it be to me as you have said,” (Luke 1:38) and it was confirmed by Elizabeth when Mary visited her. Mary responded, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is His name.”

(Luke 1:46-49)

We are the spiritual descendants of Mary. Over the expanse of two millennia, we could still say “The Mighty One has done great things for me.” In carrying, delivering, in nurturing and loving the son of God, Mary experienced all that she proclaimed. She did it as a human being, and recognized that the events of her pregnancy and delivery were both great and holy. She and Joseph rejoiced at being “God’s special possession.”

Young Phillip in my class had already tasted the goodness of living with the couple who adopted him. He knew that he desired nothing more than to be their son. We have all tasted and know that our Lord is good, (Psalm 34:8) and Peter assures us that there is much more in a relationship with Him. There is the bonding that gives strength and joy to each one, a bonding that God loves to share and that Peter knew as “God’s special possession.” It is a possession of love.

Love in Him,

Prue

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that He may come and rain salvation upon you. (Hosea 10:12)

The love of God is a steadfast love that lived in eternity but emerged onto a human being the moment that Adam walked on earth. It was God’s love that would be made very clear in some in some ages, and less clear in the times when the objects of His love had turned away.

The prophet Hosea urges his people to sow righteousness by drawing close to their God, by obeying His laws and instructions, by turning their attention and obedience to Him. A few were able to do that, but the nation fell short of those who would experience the fruit of steadfast love.

At the beginning of the first century, at least two individuals responded to Hosea’s call to sow righteousness. The young woman, at first perplexed and even afraid by a visit from the angel Gabriel, was told, Don’t be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” (Luke 1:29) Instead of turning away, Mary listened as the angel told her of God’s plan to give her a son and that he would be God’s son as well. Mary’s simple response, I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled,” (Luke 1:38 ) revealed one soul who truly sowed righteousness. The other righteous sower was the man Joseph, to whom Mary was engaged: After he had considered divorcing Mary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:2) These two people unconsciously and personally responded to the call of God in a private way that sowed righteousness in their own lives . Mary and Joseph “broke up their fallow ground,” and in spite of inconvenience or difficulties, accepted God’s plan for their lives. For them, Christmas was living their lives in the consciousness of God’s presence in a stable, in their trip to Egypt, and in their home in Nazareth. They daily lived with the fruit of steadfast love in their home. The real steadfast love is that very love which entered the world and has never left. At Christmas we see it in the infant Jesus who grew and died to rain salvation upon even us.

Love in Him,

Prue

Angels cannot preach the gospel. . .Presumably they do not hear the gospel the way we do: in their purity they have escaped the effects of sin and are unable to comprehend what it means to be lost. Rather, God has commanded the church to preach. . .Only man can speak salvation’s experience to man…(“Angels”, by Billy Graham)

The story of the nativity of Jesus is awash in angels; not just one angel, Gabriel, but an entire host of angels who sang to the shepherds. At no other place in scripture did God empty His heaven of angels to visit earth in celebration. They came to reveal the identity of the baby Jesus to the shepherds, but also express the very heart of God to this handful of men who on that night would share God’s own love and anticipation wrapped in swaddling cloths and in a manger. The angels also shared and participated in the great joy that they expressed: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. (Luke 2:14) The joy of the angels reflected the joy and delight of God Himself at this tiny event made huge by His angels. God had sent Gabriel in advance, first announcing the pregnancy of Elizabeth, who would bear John the Baptist in her old age, and then greeting young Mary with God’s plan for her.

Later, angels would attend to Jesus at critical times in his life on earth. When he was tempted in the wilderness, and when he prayed on Gethsemane, at the beginning and near the end of his earthly ministry, angels attended him. At his arrest, Jesus said, “Do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled. . That say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26;53-54)

Everything about Jesus’ birth fulfilled scripture. All of his life fulfilled scripture, too. The scriptures were fulfilled as Zechariah,the father of John the Baptist said, “God has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He said through His holy prophets of long ago.” (Luke 1:69-70)

The scripture was fulfilled when Mary said “yes” to the angel Gabriel. In his parents, Mary and Joseph, Jesus saw scripture being fulfilled. In his life he experienced the ministering of angels. It was angels who announced his resurrection to the disciples. The angels do not preach, but they do work God’s will in the lives of His people, and they have never been retired.

Love in Him,

Prue