Lydia, the five year old foster child who came to live with us, was afraid of men and boys. She had been abused by her mother’s boy friend since she was only two years old. She asked me if Jack was “safe”, and I told her, “ Yes, He won’t hurt you.” It wasn’t long before she did trust him, and one day Jack invited her to go to a nearby park and look for turtles. She was delighted and they went off with a bucket to hold the turtles they would find.

It turned out to be a futile search, but as they were turning back toward home, a boy walked up to them holding a bucket full of dewberries. He asked them if they knew where the berries grew, and Jack had to say “no”, so the boy told them that the berries were quite close, and how to find them. “Then,” said Lydia to me later, “he picked the biggest berry off the top of his bucket and gave it to me!” She marveled almost as if she had had a supernatural experience. I said, “Was it good?” “Yes,” she said. It was really good! They didn’t find the berry patch, as it was getting late, but I thought that they had found something better, better even than a turtle. That night I thanked our Lord for that boy and his gift to Lydia. I felt as if the boy was an unknowing messenger of grace to a little girl who desperately needed it in her life, and my gratitude has never disappeared.

With the foster children I was daily praying for help, as each child had problems I had never confronted . Each had had experiences I had never had, and I needed “Someone else” to enter the relationship and place a path at my feet. That “someone else” actually worked on each child. I can honestly say that I didn’t achieve anything with them, but the Lord achieved great things: This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy one of Israel, says: In quietness and trust is your strength. (Isaiah 30:15) Both the Old and the New Testaments offer a relationship of ease and even rest with a sovereign God: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

When I pick up the “burdens” of everyday life, it’s easy for me to forget this promise,and that reality; but He never forgets. He always offers something better.

Love in Him,

Prue

A great deal of time, energy, and imagination is spent in making projections of the time and place, or places, of Jesus’ return and the end of the world as we know it. It seems incongruous to me to speculate on something so clearly addressed by Jesus in the books of Matthew and Mark, that he, Jesus and the angels as well, did not have knowledge of the date or the place of Jesus’ “Second Coming.” (Mark 13:32)

On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus did impart serious mews about himself and his Father. He gave his disciples knowledge of their new relationship with their Father and his Father: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you . Now remain in my love. 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. . . My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. (John 15:9&12)

In Exodus God addresses Moses when He delivers the Ten Commandments: “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. . . showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)

This message resounds throughout the Scriptures. David in the Psalms expressed his love for God: “For the King trusts in the Lord; through the unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken.” (Psalm 21:7)

With all the other issues at stake in the formation of Israel and in confronting the enemies and the temptations of their state, the theme of God ‘s love, and His desire for the love of His people is an unbroken theme throughout the history of His people. When Jesus contemplated the sacrifice he was about to endure, it was in terms of love. On the same night that he spoke to his disciples of his Father’s love, he said: “Greater love has no man than this; to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) Jesus saw his very life as an expression of love. It was a love for his Father as well as for his disciples and those others who followed him. That night he prayed, “I have given them the glory that you gave me. . . so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:22)

This is a powerful, unmixed message of love worth spending my life to experience, full of the knowledge of God Himself.

Love in Him,

Prue

The pursuit of pleasure is surely at least part of the root of all the the evil on earth. The many addictions, the ignoring the suffering of others, the struggle for money, are all at least tinged by the search for pleasure. For this reason some historic Christians have seen “pleasure” as the very core of selfishness, having no value or role in a life devoted to Christ. Jesus said, in the parable of the seeds that represented the word of God, “The seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear. . . but they are choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures and they do not mature.” (Luke 8:14)

There is, however, a thread of references to “pleasure” in the Bible, that connect it with a holy God. Beginning with Genesis, there is a vision of a pleasure that is experienced by God Himself in creation: God saw all that He had made, and it was very good..” (Genesis 1:31) David in several places expresses his pleasure in his relationship to God: You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalm 16:11) In this psalm David sees pleasure as an integral part of God’s Kingdom, and of our relationship to Him. This is only the beginning of finding holy pleasure on earth, a pleasure that the psalmist asserts lasts eternally: His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in His unfailing love. (Psalm 147:10)

The earth is full of pleasures that God welcomes us to share with Him, though Jesus warned that worldly pleasures can distract us from the lasting pleasures of God. The power of God’s pleasure is displayed in all creation, but the temptation to love the creation instead of the Creator is the subject of warning from St. Paul as well as Jesus: People ( in the last days) will be lovers of themselves. . . treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having the form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. (2 Timothy 3:2&5)

Christianity has been accused of “taking all the pleasure out of life”, while God has displayed a transcendent level of pleasure in His word and in His son. To his disciples Jesus gave this assurance: Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. (Luke 12:32)

In his Spiritual Diary, Pope St. John Paul II wrote: “God finds pleasure in those who find pleasure in Him.” Jesus said, Seek and you shall find (God’s pleasure).

Love in Him,

Prue

When Jan, a friend of mine from church, stopped at my house to drop off some materials for a project on which we were working, brought her four year old son Evan along and warned him to sit on the couch and not interrupt us. I thought it was quite a tall order for one so young, but Jan said, “Don’t worry, he knows he’ll be in trouble if he makes trouble.” My daughter was in school, and so we were alone in the house. I watched as Evan ‘s face grew sadder and sadder as he sat with his hands folded in his lap on the couch. I mentioned to Jan that I could supply some crayons and paper for him, but she declined, and said, “He’s fine; you don’t have to entertain him.” Finally I said to Evan, “Close your eyes,” and I excused myself to go upstairs to my daughter’s bedroom, and her pet miniature rabbit. I vividly remember the light in Evan’s eyes when he opened his hands and found the rabbit in them. It was as if he was surrounded by rainbows. We laughed and talked as we watched the small rabbit while Evan petted her. Even Jan smiled with delight and suddenly the visit was transformed.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary, and increases the power of the weak. (Isaiah 40:28-29) God is in the very business of transformation. While we lose touch with the joy that we have once experienced, He never does. While we some times sink into despair, He never does. The powerful words of Nehemiah echo through the millennia: “The Joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10)

There is much in theology that explains our relationship to a perfect God, but if His character is truly “Love”, then we are the objects of love in God. With that love goes unimaginable joy and pleasure and peace, so far beyond our understanding that we often miss the strength in Him to transform our lives. As St. Augustine wrote, “ Your love must migrate; cast off your moorings from creatures; moor yourself to the Creator.” (Saint Augustine, sermon no. 313A) We lose nothing in loving God more, as He Himself loves all those persons and things even more than we do. Mysterious as it is, the Scriptures themselves express the truth of Augustine’s words. We can welcome transformative power into our lives by embracing Jesus, the son of our creating, saving God. Both the Old and the New Testaments show us individuals who have left their moorings and taken on the supernatural moorings of God for their lives. Their stories are meant for you and for me.

Love in Him,

Prue

One of he least known of the apostles of Jesus was Thaddaeus, often referred to as ‘Judas (not Iscariot)’. Some scholars assume that after Iscariot’s betrayal of Christ, the other “Judas” needed to use another name, and that is Thaddaeus. Thaddaeus speaks only one line in the Bible, but it comes at a pivotal moment in Jesus’ life on earth. At the Last Supper, Jesus gave rich and lasting information to the twelve about himself and and his Father. He told the disciples about his own leaving, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. He told them that they, the disciples, would know and understand true things that the “world” would reject, and that they would find themselves much at odds with the “world” They would still have access to him, Jesus, but the “world” would not. (John 14:21-24)

Jesus did not frame his answer about “the world” in an attitude of foreboding or warning against evil. Instead, his words were in personal terms of himself and his Father’s very character of love: Thaddaeus said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:22-23) Jesus expressed the deepest need of the disciples on the night that he would be arrested: the need of himself in their lives. In his answer he placed his entire ministry in front of them. “If a man loves me, he will be united both with me, who you know, and my Father, who is our God Himself.”( paraphrase). It would be too much to fathom if it were not for Jesus’ humanity, about to be tested to the extreme on the cross.

Thaddaeus, like all the disciples, was waiting for a leader to establish God’s people as an independent nation again, fulfilling so any prophesies and hopes based on Israel’s history with their God: A star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. (Numbers 24:17) It must have been nearly impossible for the disciples to believe that there could be something even better than the triumphs of their nations’ past, but Jesus knew that they had acquired a love for him that would grow and be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus prayed, I pray also for those who will believe in me, through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in me, and I am in you. (John 17:20) Jesus’ words to his Father were spoken literally of you and of me.

The Armenian Christian Church traces its origin to the ministry of Thaddaeus.

Love in Him,

Prue

In the Houston area where we once lived, we had frequent afternoon showers. During one of these, a neighbor called me to say that there was a cat lying in her driveway not moving and she thought that it was our cat Scuffy. I went to he driveway and found that it was indeed Scuffy and carried him home. He was alive, but limp, and couldn’t stand up. Praying all the way, Stephanie, my nine year old daughter and I took Scuffy to our veterinarian Stan. He took Scuffy in his arms and told me that he would have to keep him over night and would call me in the morning. I agreed, and left Scuffy there. At home we prayed some more.

The call came the next morning, and Stan said that we could pick up Scuffy any time. “He’s standing, and purring , and eating and drinking,” he told me. “Wow!” I said. “You really did a good job on him!” “I didn’t do a thing,” he answered. “Someone Else

worked on that cat. Remember how his mouth was open? That was a sure sign that he was dying of kidney failure. I fully expected to find a dead cat in the morning. I was surprised that he lived long enough for you to bring him in, and now he’s up and ready to go home. He doesn’t even need any of my medicine. All I have given him is food.”

Scuffy lived to be an old, much loved cat in our family.

Don’t be deceived my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17) One friend laughed to think that we would ascribe Gods intervention to a dying cat’s recovery, but no one could deny that we had received a “good and perfect” gift. It seems intelligent to doubt the presence of “Someone Else” at work in our lives in usual and unusual ways, but the Bible makes sure that we understand that “Someone Else” is at work in the world, and that ultimately everything besides that Someone will be changed. “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5)

It is easy to see evil and sadness in the world, but St. Paul has a different vision: If any of you is in Christ, that person is a new creation . The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Which is easier, to heal a dying cat, or to transform a human being? In my experience, God is able to do both, and much, much more.

Love in Him,

Prue

When asked what kind of ice cream she would like, my mother always answered, “Anything but strawberry!” I didn’t think much about it until someone asked her, Why don’t you ever eat strawberry ice cream, or even strawberry jam?” She answered, Whenever I had to take a pill, my mother always crushed it up in strawberry jam . I came to hate it.” We tried to talk Mom out of her aversion for things strawberry, to no avail. She did, however, like fresh strawberries.

In every soul there are pathways that link us to our own past in ways that may or may not be relevant to our present lives. In some cases those pathways are beneficial, or at least harmless. I did laundry every Friday until recently, only because my mother had always done it on that day. Many of the pathways in our souls are almost hidden from our own selves. Attachments to people and things that were developed in years past, and attitudes that we pick up from those around us, form pathways in our spirits that are not always wholesome. Bitterness at old offenses and regrets for lost opportunities form pathways that are like threads woven into our spirits. Griefs from the loss of loved ones can leave a bitter pathway. Sometimes we are not even aware of them, but usually we assume that no one else is aware of them in us, and we can ignore them.

The psalmist perceived a different truth: “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.”(Psalm 139:1-4)

Doubts, fears, resentments, angers, and self pity all make pathways into our spirits, but the psalmist says there is a God who transcends these, with the full knowledge of where the pathways reside in us. Our work is to relinquish these and let them go. For a Christian the pathway of the Holy Spirit enables us to shake off the grip of our most hidden pathways ; and by abandoning them, we receive the gift promised by Isaiah: “Forget the former things!. . . See, I am doing a new thing! I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:18,19)

Jesus added confirmation of Isaiah’s words hundreds of years later: “Whoever believes in me, . . . as the scripture said, Living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37) When we really surrender our own “pathways”, God sends living water to replace them.

Love in Him,

Prue

The story of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first American woman to receive a degree in medicine, after being rejected by twenty-nine medical schools, inspired me wen I was a schoolgirl. In the biography that I read, Elizabeth was appalled when she was presented with a human hand to dissect and analyze. At first she was afraid that she would faint and sat staring at the object on her desk. Gradually she came to believe that the hand in front of her was a marvel, and her curiosity woke her up to try to understand all she could about it. Her natural revulsion disappeared, and she came to see the severed hand as “beautiful.”

Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil?

To save life, or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger, and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was completely restored. (Mark 3:3-5)

No one questions the need for healthy hands, yet for many, our focus is on ourselves, and not on the One who designs our hands: “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you. . . Do not fear, for I myself will help you”, declares the Lord. (Isaiah 41:14)

Elizabeth’s attitude changed as she realized that the “hand” was the beginning of a way for her to heal other hands and bodies of patients as a doctor. She confronted her own fears and was helped by a sense of the beauty in an otherwise distressing object. Jesus made the man with the withered hand to stand up publicly so that others could see the miracle clearly and know that something very good had occurred. Nevertheless, it was possible for observers to deny the goodness in the healing, and reject the one who performed it. Isaiah’s words from God are a preview of Jesus’ words to us as believers: “Do Not be afraid, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

Elizabeth graduated at the head of her class, and had a long career as a doctor. Her achievement opened the door for her sister Emily to become a doctor also, and eventually many more women, both in the United States and in England.

This very day Jesus’ words are bringing eternal life to all who are willing to hold his hand.

Love in Him,

Prue

All things on earth, including the earth itself, have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There are villages in some parts of the world built upon the successive ruins of as many as nine previous communities on the same site. Beginnings, middles, and ends are pervasive throughout the known universe. It is hard to imagine any reality other than “time.”

Nevertheless, there is one reality, intimately close to us, and also far away, who does not have a beginning, a middle, or an end: the very Spirit of our God. For this reason we sometimes have trouble imagining Him, or even praying to Him. He seems so unlike us that we hardly know Him.

The first clue in the Bible that God intends to share the lives of His own creation is this: Let us create man in our own image, in our own likeness. . . (Genesis 1:26) God had many ways of revealing Himself to people in the Old Testament. None of those were wasted, but God knew that the great divide between Himself and His creation would have to be bridged by Himself. While human beings barely knew Him, and He wanted more than a casual relationship, He knew that He must send Himself as a human being with a beginning in Bethlehem, a middle in Israel and Samaria, and an end on the cross of Golgotha. Jesus would be the bridge between humans who live in time, and God Himself, who lives in eternity.

To make sure that people understood his relationship to his Father, Jesus said to some leaders of the people, “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) When asked, “What must we do to do the works that God requires?”, Jesus answered , “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.” (John 6:28) These words of Jesus convey life itself to those who believe, for they are an invitation to join the bridge and become part of the very relationship between God and His son. His words are common, but their meaning had never been expressed before he said them. He speaks of a relationship between beings who are confined in time, and a Being who lives in eternity. Jesus, the bridge, is vital to both His Father, and to us. Through him we reach the Father and become part of the family God sought at creation.

Love in Him,

Prue

When I was in my early twenties, I went on a blind date with a New York State Trooper. He was very courteous. At one point his hand brushed across my cheek as I was getting into his car. “Oh,” he said. I had forgotten how smooth girls’ skin is!” I remember nothing else about that date, not even his name; but I thought that communication might not be clear or easy.

In a wonderful number of ways the Scripture expresses God’s intention for our relationship with Him: He has given us His great and precious promises, so that through them you my participate in the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4)

Hardly anyone seems to be interested in “participating in the divine nature,” and only recently has it seemed too me to be a real life pursuit. Peter wrote that the “Great and precious promises” were the path to sharing God’s life, and the life of Jesus as well, and so I looked at some of them and turned first to the promise of the rainbow. Beside being an object of delight for nearly everyone, it conveys a promise and reveals the sensitivity of our God, that His people not panic whenever it rains.

The promises, though, become larger and stronger. God shows His desire for human beings to be able to fellowship with angels and with God Himself, a promise laced with His very great promise of eternal life. The promises accumulate and find expression in individuals who experience God’s presence in their lives: Both the One who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family, so Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:11)

The greatest promise of God was made by His son Jesus to Martha, the sister of Lazarus: “Jesus said to her, “.. . . ‘The one who believes in me will live, even though they die’” (John 11: 25) the promise was fulfilled at the resurrection following Jesus’ death on the cross. The promises hold the “secret” of God’s desire for His relationship with us. There are countless other promises, as well, all converging on the cross. His promises contain His desires and His intentions.

The state trooper was polite and even generous, but I could not connect with him. Our God communicates His divine nature to every soul who seeks Him, and more.

Love in Him,

Prue