When they brought my new-born brother home from the hospital, my parents lived in an upstairs apartment in a small New York State town. The baby, Burr, was their first born. One day soon after bringing him home, Mildred, my mother, put him down in his crib after feeding him, softly closed the door, and went into the kitchen to do the lunch dishes. She remembered that she needed something from the grocery for dinner. Mildred got her sweater and purse, and headed down the stairs. It wasn’t until she reached for the front door knob that she remembered Burr asleep upstairs. She actually hesitated, then turned and ran back up to their apartment. When she told me this incident years later, my mother said, “That was when I knew that my life had changed forever.” Four more babies later, she had never repeated this event.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-18) The “new creature” in my mother was motherhood itself. It was a new relationship that would shove aside old habits and ways of spending time. It would produce a love she hadn’t experienced in this way before. It would change her focus and give her new purposes, and even new friends as she met other mothers of infants. It would indeed be a “new” life for her.

St. Paul is probably the most often read of the apostles for his remark about the new life in Christ, but Jesus himself spoke to Nicodemus about it when he said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’. ( John 3:5 &7)

For a Christian, new birth implies a new relationship with someone familiar in name, but still unknown until the “new birth.” God promises this relationship with us: I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. . .and I will be your Father, and you shall be my sons and daughters.”(2Corinthians 6:18, Leviticus 26:12) All mothers experience the taste of a change in their physical lives; God gave us Jesus so that men and women alike could find new birth in Him. During this Lenten season, it’s good to rediscover the words in God’s Book.

Love in Him,

Prue

Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar . Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.” Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. . . Moses and Aaron and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel and they ate and drank. ( Exodus 24:6-11)

Ancient as these words and events are, they are the beginning of a covenant between God and the entire people of Israel. God had earlier covenanted with Abraham, but this is with the whole nation fathered by Abraham. In both covenants blood was shed. In this one the blood of bulls was sprinkled on the whole nation, including Aaron and the seventy leaders of the people. The sprinkled blood of of animals sacrificed as “fellowship” offerings to God, was sufficient to allow these men to enter the presence of God and eat and drink. The ritual sprinkling of the blood of animals on the altar and on the garments of priests would continue for centuries in Israel. It’s significance is simply that blood represented the very life of the animal (Deuteronomy 12:23), and God is the God and creator of life. It is a powerful bond, one that has lasted for millennia, transformed by Jesus into the ceremony that became the Communion in the Christian churches.

St. Paul wrote in Corinthians 6:10-20, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God? You are not your own. You were bought at a price.” The “price” is the blood spilled by God’s son on the cross. It is the prelude to Easter when the Holy Spirit was given to Jesus to give to whom he chooses. It’s a new covenant and a new way of life.

During Lent we can trace the gift in scripture and acknowledge it in our daily routines. We can pray to have more insight and understanding of God in our lives, acknowledging the mystery of Christ’s resurrection, and experience the fellowship of others who seek Jesus’ presence in their lives. On Maundy Thursday we return to the altar in communion, and recognize the gift of God in the bread and the wine. He has given us many ways to know Him. Lent is a good time to recognize the blood .

Love in Him,

Prue

For Lent one year a pharmacy in a small southern U.S. Town, advertised a drawing for a rabbit. Sarah, a friend of mine , was a young girl at the time. She and her sister saw the ad and went into the store. They were too young to enter the drawing, so they filled out a card using their father’s name and phone number. The girls were elated to have done this, but they never mentioned it to their father. On the Saturday before Easter he received a call from the pharmacy informing him that his name had been drawn, and he had won the lovely rabbit. He could hardly grasp what the caller was saying, but he called Sarah and she confessed to putting his name on the card for the drawing. Her father was annoyed , but he drove the girls back to the pharmacy to collect his “prize.” At the store a clerk told them that the rabbit was in the back room, to which he soon went to get it for them. He emerged carrying a very large rabbit. . . made of chocolate. All three of the family were amazed, the girls perhaps slightly disappointed, and their father utterly delighted.

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. (Proverbs 16:9) From the time that God first engaged Abraham in conversation, and even before, there has been on earth an alternative to human plans that is the priceless dialogue between God and humans. At that intersection, when human spirits are open and in prayer, the futility of human planning disappears and great things, like the Exodus itself, can and do happen. In 1784 Robert Burns wrote, “The best made plans of mice and men often go awry.” It has been true ever since the fall in the Garden of Eden. Solomon wrote, “In their hearts humans plant their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)In the season of Lent we have an opportunity to offer to God our “best made plans,” and all the things planted in our hearts that do not have the sign of Christ in or on them. It’s a time of surrender to the greatest love the world has ever or will ever know. Lent is a time of separation from our own selves and re-attachment to our divine Father and brother. It’s a season made joyful by the knowledge of Christ’s resurrection, letting us know unequivocally that though we die, yet we will live: “ I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” (John 11;25)

Sara and her sister had no real idea of what they were doing. Their father didn’t even bring a box to carry the “rabbit” home. No one thought of the consequences of his or her plans, but none of them forgot this Lenten rabbit. The Lord alone knows our ways.

Love in Him,

Prue

The people of Israel returned from exile to rebuild their ruined temple and made a start on the foundation when Ezra was asked to read to them the Old Testament laws given originally to Moses to give to the whole people of God. (Nehemiah 8:1-9) the words of the law were new to many in the crowd, since they had lived far from the holy land. The contrast between their lifestyles and the picture of life in the laws of God was startling and caused the crowd to feel a disconnect from their God. There was weeping and moaning and distress among the crowd. Then Nehemiah said, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

When I first read this I was surprised . I had always thought of “joy” as a byproduct of happy times, or the love of someone we love, but not a source or a manifestation of strength. What could possibly be “strong” about “joy”?

On Ash Wednesday we place literal ashes on our foreheads as a reminder of our own mortality. Like those early Hebrews, we may remember gaps in our relationship with God. We may experience grief for the missed or ignored opportunities to do His will, or ways in which we failed to respond to Him. The powerful message of Nehemiah is simply that having our minds on Him and seeking His will and ways is a strong connecting bond to Him, and a source of joy itself. That joy brings us the strength to draw even nearer to our God. On Ash Wednesday we remember the power and strength of the resurrection of Jesus, a strength that extends to us as well: I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.”(Philippians 4:13) The strength of God is seen In Christ’s resurrection , and even hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, Nehemiah knew the strength that is in the presence of God in His people. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” The Psalmist wrote, “Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob!” (Psalm 81:1-2)

Ash Wednesday speaks directly to our spirits. At the Last Supper Jesus spoke about his joy and ours: As the Father has loved me , so have I loved you. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ( John 15:9-11) The ashes we wear on Ash Wednesday are ashes of connection to our God. They are ashes of joy.

Love in Him,

Prue

In the story Silas Marner, written by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) in 1861,the main character is a young man engaged to be married, but who is unjustly accused of a crime he didn’t commit, and his accuser eventually married Silas’ fiancé. Silas was a linen weaver by trade, and so he traveled to a smaller town in England, bought a very simple house, and set up his loom to practice his trade. He lived a quiet reclusive life, but his work was so well done and timely delivered, that he had several customers. Some tried to befriend him without success. Silas worked every day at his loom and acquired a small bag of gold coins in savings, as he spent very little on himself. His sad existence was made sadder when he was robbed of that bag when he went out to deliver some of his work. He came home to find his meager belongings ransacked, and he became even more reclusive.

One snowy winter day when he returned home from gathering firewood, Silas saw something in a pile by the fireplace that shone in the light like gold, and his first thought was that somehow his savings had been returned to him. As he ran into the room he soon saw that the “gold” was the lovely curls on the head of a very little girl who was lying asleep by the fireplace. Silas followed the footprints of the child and found her mother, who had died in the snow, and he rushed back to notify the villagers of what had happened. Ultimately Silas was asked to care for the child until someone might claim her. Such a person never appeared, and Silas became the adoptive father to the child he named Hephzibah. and called “Eppie”.

The golden haired Eppie was more truly “gold “ to Silas than any bag of coins. A neighbor woman with children helped him raise Eppie, and the child bonded quickly with Silas. For the first time his house became a home, and his life was forever changed.

The wise men brought gold to the baby Jesus, and there was gold in the tabernacle as well as in Solomon’s temple. The gold displays the preciousness to God of communion between Himself and His people: “I will put my dwelling place among you. . . I will walk among you” (Leviticus 26;12)

Silas Marner’s gold coins were replaced with a living child who changed his life and gave it meaning. Our lives are changed when we come home to discover the limitless value of our living God in Jesus, the purest of pure gold.

Love in Him,

Prue

Before Jesus was born, before David was born, before there was a nation called Israel, there was a prophecy given to Jacob on his deathbed, a message to his sons: “Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies, your father’s sons will bow down to you. . . .The scepter will not depart from Judah nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.” (Genesis 49:9&19)

Judah was the fourth son of Jacob, and not the favorite one. By the time of Jacob’s death, Judah had displayed few clues that he would be the father of kings and a leader of the nation that would come from his family, much less a leader of “nations.” Hundreds of years later another prophesy was spoken about kingship in Israel, long before there was a king of Israel. It was spoken by a prophet named Balaam, who had no reason to lie: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. . . a ruler will come out of Jacob.” ( Numbers 24:17&10) Balaam’s prophesy was less detailed that Jacob’s, but it was equally a vision of the future of Israel as a unified nation securely placed in the mind and heart of God. It would be centuries before David was born and anointed king, and then more centuries before the one “to whom it belongs” would be born in Bethlehem. The angel told that one’s mother, “You will conceive and bear a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever: his kingdom will never end” (Luke 2:31-33)

Soon we will enter the season that the churches call “lent”. It is forty days of contemplation about all these things that concern the Christ from very ancient times until this mornings’ breakfast. The forty days are set aside in preparation for glorious Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, carrying the message that the prophesies continue to be fulfilled in our time. Neither Jacob nor David, nor Balaam lived on earth to experience what we experience in reading the scriptures and finding the history of salvation open in its pages. St. Augustine of the fourth and fifth centuries wrote, “The New Testament is in the Old, concealed. The Old is in the New, revealed. Today we live in the never ending kingdom of “the one to whom it belongs”; Jesus, the son of God. We are not all descendants of Jacob, but we are received into the kingdom over which Jesus reigns, as brothers and sisters of the one to whom it belongs.

Love in Him,

Prue

As the Israelites coalesced around Moses and began their journey toward the Promised Land, God gave them the ten commandments and other decrees and laws and began to fill them with a vision of His intention for them that came from an even more ancient time than theirs. He began to picture for them His deepest motive for their Exodus: If you pay attention to these laws. . . then the Lord your God will keep His covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. He will love you and bless you. . . He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land, the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. . . None of your men or women will be childless. . . The Lord will keep you free from any diseases. (Deuteronomy :7:12ff)

This partial inventory of blessings comes before a longer description of the curses awaiting God’s people if they fail to obey Him. The blessings also occur in the book of Leviticus, culminating in: I will walk among you, and be your God, and you will be my people. (Leviticus 26:11) In listing the many ways of blessing that God extends to His people, He reveals His sensitivity to the human heart: children, crops, freedom from disease, love, and the companionship of God Himself. We might think that God dangled these blessings in front of His people simply as bait to convince them to keep His covenant, but I believe that these lists of blessings come from deep inside our God, and share with us God’s very purpose for creation. Far from being a futile dream that cannot be realized, these blessings are behind God’s work in our lives, and His real intention for all His people.

God certainly knew that His first generations would not fulfill the vision that He put before them, but He doesn’t hesitate to reveal it anyway. His reasons are limitless, but in part,at least, He is planting a glimpse of what He really shares with humanity: the love, peace, joy, and fruitfulness of life.

Jesus spoke about fruitfulness: Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown. (Mark 4:20) God doesn’t dangle His blessings before us to get us to keep faith with Him, Instead, God reveals His personal desire for each of us. In sending His son, He put in motion the reality of goodness and salvation that would bridge the gap between Himself and His people. God’s vision for His people is still available in His book. It has never died.

Love in Him,

Prue

Martha hesitated when Jesus told her to move the stone from Lazarus’ grave. Jesus said to her: “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”(John 11:40-41)

This is a picture of Jesus ‘ ministry on earth, and an actual bridge between us and our God. It is also a model for us of ways of praying to God, as Jesus begins with a thanksgiving for the benefit of those standing nearby and listening. This prayer is like a lesson in prayer at an emotionally charged moment. Jesus is teaching bystanders as well as all of us, who he is, and how to pray by starting with thanksgiving. It’s a prayer that serves as a direct message to our hearts of how to pray, and ranks along with Jesus’ teaching the disciples the “Lord’s Prayer,” and his “Gethsemane” prayer. In these prayers we have a blueprint of the way to approach God. We are witnessing the model for prayers of petition, probably our most frequent type of prayers. We express our belief and trust in Him, and gratitude for the opportunity to come before Him.

All this the people witnessed, not even imagining that the words would be fulfilled with what happened next: Jesus called out in a loud voice, “ Lazarus come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped in strips of linen. . . (John 11:43-44)

Jesus meant to restore Lazarus to life, but he also meant to restore all of us to believe and to pray with thanksgiving. He thanked God even before God responded with the healing. It was, as Jesus said to Martha, “If you believe, you will see the glory of God.” She could not have imagined the depth, the width, the strength and the reality of what would fill her heart when she saw her brother alive. Mary and Martha were both believers, and this was an indescribable confirmation of their faith. It was God’s glory in the center of their lives. It was life itself from death.

Jesus waited to arrive until after Lazarus’ death. His Father God knew that this moment would reverberate through all of history in the lives of many generations. Jesus did this for all those generations, including ours. He did this to show us who he is, and to teach us to pray as Jesus prays.

Love in Him,

Prue

“Very truly I tell you, the son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the son also does.” (John 5:19) “Because I live you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14:20)

The oneness that Jesus describes here is mysterious. It is a new relationship with God that Jesus has always had, into which the disciples are being introduced on the evening of Jesus’ arrest and separation from them. Jesus knew that they barely grasped a word of what he said, and he also knew that his words would stay with them for their whole lives and could reach thousands of years into the future to illuminate even the twenty-first century and beyond. Even before this Jesus had said, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. (John 12:44)

When we look into the face of an infant, we seek some comparison with the child’s parentage, and we usually find it, accurate or not. “ Who does he or she favor?” we wonder, but Jesus says he was sent so that we could know who we ourselves “favor”, to whom we really belong. In these scriptures Jesus was talking to eleven mostly unrelated men, who seemed to have little in common, but each one would find his calling in the one that they all followed. Jesus was telling them that the oneness he had with the Father would transfer to them when he was physically no longer with them. After his resurrection he would call them “brothers”, and they would bring more and more brothers and sisters to share this family relationship with God Himself.

Jesus’ ministry on earth was complete. He made provision and gave direction for everyone to find oneness with him and his Father: “If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. (John 14:15-16) Oneness will always be a mystery to us on earth; we can’t control or shape it ourselves, but there is enough of Jesus and understanding in the Bible for us to recognize him in our very fractured world; and when we do, we can know that we are one, not only with him, but also with his Father, for they are one.

Love in Him,

Prue

“I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you. . . it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame . . . I am afraid that if that cord of communion is snapped, then I’ve a nervous notion I would take to bleeding inwardly.”

These are the words given by Charlotte Bronte to a character in her novel Jane Eyre. Mr. Rochester is expressing his love for Jane just before he asks her to marry him. The novel follows the progress of Rochester’s attachment to Jane and hers to him.

The image of the string joining him to the person he loved more than any other, and the very life in him sustained by that string, seemed to me much like St. Paul’s relationship to Christ. Paul speaks of on inner connection that is inviolable: “I was given a thorn in the flesh. . . three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. . . That is why, for Christ’s sake I delight in weaknesses. . . for when I am weak, then I am strong.”(2Corinthians 12:12:9-12) The communion between God and Paul enabled Paul to become “the great apostle”: “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13).

King David of the Old Testament knew of such a relationship. In Psalm 51, David has experienced the snapping of the “string” that joins him to God. He pleads with God to restore it: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalms 51:10)

St. Paul experienced such intensity in his relationship to Christ. His words have informed the world that there is in truth such a relationship that can be had with the Lord Himself: For, now abides faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. (1Corinthians 13:13)

Bronte’s novel concerns human love, but is expressed in the terms that we can all recognize as a love that comes only from the source and Person of love itself, our God in Christ. May we all experience the “string” than binds us to Him.

Love in Him,

Prue