The cardinals that built a nest in the shrub outside my front door have flown away. I was fascinated with them for the duration of their stay. They persevered when we had the shrubs pruned and even after I discovered the nest and wanted to visit it every hour, but limited myself to twice a day. They had four little ones and now at least one of those is returning to our feeders. I learned that after they leave the nest, the mother bird leaves to start another nest, but the father stays close and continues to feed them occasionally. One of the young ones now inhabits our hedge, and the father does come to visit it and sometimes to feed it. I feel as if these cardinals are almost my own family, but they don’t return the feeling. They live in a different world from mine, and I understand only a fraction of their world.

Yet, we have one thing in common: Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows (cardinals?)(Luke 12; 6&7) We are both God’s creation, and Jesus reminds us to take comfort in our place in the natural world, a place of importance to God.

The lives and activities of the birds are fascinating, especially because so much of them are hidden. We might see a flash of red at the birdbath, or in the trees, but keeping track of their whereabouts and their activities is difficult, as if they live in a world within a world. Their beauty makes them irresistible reminders of God’s creation, of His beauty and His sharing it with us. C.S. Lewis once wrote, But for our body, one whole realm of God’s glory would go unpraised, for the beasts can’t appreciate it. . . I fancy that the ‘beauties of nature’ are a secret God has shared with us alone. That may be one of the reasons we were made—and why the resurrection of the body is an important doctrine.

(C.S. Lewis, Images of His World) Jesus knew of our love of beauty in the natural world. He knew, too, that we share this love with his Father.

Cardinals have flown in earth’s skies for at least hundreds, if not thousands of years, spreading delight in their color and song, to any who claimed the moment to look and listen. They are one more small bond between God and His people.

Love in Him,

Prue

The Prodigal

For five months the millionaire Harvey Cheyne Sr. and his wife Constance believed that their only son, Harvey Jr., who had been swept off the deck of a trans Atlantic ship on a trip to Europe, had perished in the ocean. They were still immersed in grief when the telegram in Harvey’s office began to click a message from the boy who had actually been picked up by a small fishing boat and was finally safely on land and waiting for instructions from his father.

This begins the climax of the story Captains Courageous,by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1897. The author was a master at detailing monumental moments in his character’s lives. The telegraph put into motion the parents’ journey from California to Massachusetts to re-unite with their son, and to witness the changes wrought in him by his five months on a working fishing boat.

What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? I tell you he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:11)

In the novel Harvey junior had been “wandering away” for most of his young life. His rescue onto the fishing boat brought him into a life of hard work, discipline, and adventure for five months on the ocean. When the boat returned to land Harvey was a changed person. His father noted: “Someone’s been handling him”. . . Cheyne slapped his leg and chuckled. This was going to be a boy after his own hungry heart.”

The reunion of a father with his wandering son is the centerpiece of Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. While both stories are centered on the son who leaves and returns, the hungry heart of the Father is extraordinarily blessed, by the return of the son. Jesus himself said, The son of man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10) In describing the joy that is in heaven at the return of one of God’s own, Jesus is sharing the very heart of his Father with us. It isn’t just for our own advantage that we return to Him, but for the sheer joy of sharing fellowship with our God. The Prodigal’s father in Jesus’ story is personally, deeply gratified by his son’s return. Jesus tells us that this is true of his Father when one of Jesus’ brothers or sisters returns to the fold. When Jesus accepted the sins of the world on the cross, he “left” his Father for a moment in eternity, only to return for all of us. He is his Father’s son.

Love in Him,

Prue

Lydia (not her real name), the five year old girl we were fostering, had been taught by her mother that she must never tell the truth about her own activities: where she had been or what she had been doing. This remarkable piece of advice Lydia communicated to me after I had noticed that she, in fact , didn’t give me simple answers to simple questions in “normal” conversations. I told Lydia that it didn’t work well in trying to understand each other if we don’t”tell true”. Then I said, “And God wants you to be a straight arrow. Do you know what that means, Lydia?”

“It means telling true! How do you know that God wants me to tell true?” she demanded. “I know because He wants me to tell true,” I answered. “Oh”, she said. She seemed convinced, and I was sure that this message was over, so I suggested that she do some coloring, and opened the coloring book randomly. It fell on a picture of a single straight arrow placed diagonally across the page. I asked Lydia if she’d like to color the straight arrow. “Yes”, she said. While she colored I talked about the difference between a straight arrow and a crooked arrow, and she listened.

Lydia didn’t stop lying after that, but she responded when I asked her if what she said was”straight arrow.” She would tell me “yes” or “no”, almost always truthfully. It wasn’t a giant improvement, but it was enough for me to thank the Lord for giving me another way to cope. I had felt that, though I could live with someone who might be less than truthful sometimes, I couldn’t live with someone who believed that lying was an important life skill.

I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to keep that which I’ve entrusted to Him until that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12)

Everything about this foster placement I had to entrust to Christ, for I was entirely inexperienced in dealing with the adults and the children in the system. Most of them were from circumstances I had only read about in the newspaper. My caseworker told me that while poverty and death of parents used to be the main reasons for the need for foster care, today the situation is much more complicated by drugs and crime. It was a small glimpse of a world that is very hard on children as well as on adults. It’s a world in which God is alive and active, looking for those , like St.Paul, who have entrusted their choices to Him.

Lydia is grown up now, and has three children of her own.

Love in Him,

Prue

You Need Me

Waiting in my car in a line at the school to pickup the little girl whom we were fostering, I started to pray. I prayed, “Lord, you know that I have no skills to deal with a young girl who has come from such a traumatic life. I know nothing about therapies, or behaviors that could help her heal. Lord, I HAVE NO SKILLS!” Sitting there in the car, I heard in my mind (not my ears), “You don’t need skills. You need Me.”

Even though I had no idea what I would be doing, I relaxed and felt quite sure that whatever I needed to do would be clear and possible. It didn’t keep me from repeating this prayer many times in the next months, but I always knew the answer.

Lydia was five years old when she came to stay with us. She had been left with her mother’s boyfriend while her mother worked since Lydia was two years old. The boyfriend abused her. She was strong willed, given to tantrums, , and she was passionately attached to her mother, the only person with whom she felt safe. When I first showed her the bedroom she would have, she asked, “Is this where the good people live?” “Yes, I answered, How did you know that?” “There aren’t any bars on the windows,” she answered. She had come from a homeless shelter, as the first two foster homes had returned her.

It was the beginning of a life-changing relationship, both for Lydia and for my family and for me. Every evening the three of us, my seventeen year old daughter, my husband and I sat at the kitchen table after Lydia was in bed, and each one voted whether or not to continue this foster placement. Every evening we agreed that we could live with Lydia for at least one more day, when we would vote again.

In the six months that Lydia stayed I learned the meaning of Paul’s words: “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) I never stopped praying, and God never stopped delivering. A dear neighbor, a psychologist, invited me to her home to “talk,” from whom I learned a great deal. A wonderful kindergarten teacher, and others were kind to Lydia and to me, and I knew that the skills I didn’t have were being supplied.

Eventually Lydia’s father arrived, having a new wife and her two children, to take custody of Lydia. They were caring parents, and it was a successful, if not easy, placement. I have never forgotten the words, “You Need Me.”

Love in Him,

Prue

The Stories

G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “I had always felt life as a story; and if there is a story, there is a story teller.” ( Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p.59). Often, Christians are taught Bible stories at a very young age, and as they grow older, they seem to outgrow them. Those who return to them, like Chesterton, may find more than they imagined, and the Bible can become an indescribable life companion.

I have heard a sermon in which the preacher proclaimed that the story of David and Goliath is meant for us to identify with the frightened, helpless Israelite soldiers in need of a savior. When I asked my then four year old grandson, he told me that the story is about “When God helps you, you can kill a giant.” He had received a lovely plastic sword , and quickly decided he would be like David, since David acquired Goliath’s sword.

There are, in fact, not just one, but many story tellers, who were anointed souls writing the stories of Israel and then of the early Christians, and the prophetic stories of the future. These stories offer endless exposure to a Holy Triune God, His Holy Spirit and His Holy son. They bring to life a relationship that fills our needs and enlivens us.

. . . From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed . . . so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2Timothy 3:15-16)

Charles Wesley, the author of over a thousand hymns, including Hark the Herald Angels Sing! and Christ the Lord is Risen Today! Was converted simply by “opening the Book” when some friends came to comfort him in an illness: “Wesley ‘opened the book’ for himself; first at the text, And now Lord, what is my hope? Truly my hope is in Thee (Psalm 39:7) ; and the next text was, He hath put a new song into my mouth, even praise unto our God. (Psalm 40:3) This moment of conversion he described as ,”I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ.” (History of Methodism, pg. 133)

Both Charles and John Wesley were converted at the reading or hearing of Scripture. They had both read and preached from the Bible many times, but at the moment chosen by God , they grasped the Book in a divine way that brought conversion to them and new life. In the Bible we meet stories that can change our own lives. God has given us His Stories.

Love in Him,

Prue

Jesus’ Words

“I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are white for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad forever.” (John 4:35-36)

Once when I was talking with some Christian friends I asked, “Do you think that the fields are still white for harvest? Has the Gospel spread throughout the world in the centuries since Jesus’ words, so that there are no more fields to acknowledge Christ and come into the fold of God? The discussion was animated, but there was no real consensus; and I wondered if this was a misunderstanding of Jesus’ words, or a reflection of cynicism on the part of Christians.

Jesus spoke those words just before his two day visit to a Samaritan village where, likely to the disciples’ surprise, many people became believers in Jesus as the Christ. Jesus rarely stayed longer than he had intended in any community, but here he responded to the invitation of the people, not to heal or perform miracles, but to speak about the Kingdom of God, and to harvest souls for that kingdom.

Not long after my conversation, Jack and I traveled to Cap Rock Canyon where we would hike and see the buffalo herd there. As we drove to the canyon we commented on the drought that the area was experiencing, and we passed a field of cotton that was so dry that the plants were withered almost beyond recognition. I felt sorry for the farmer whose crop appeared totally lost. We had a great day in the canyon and the sun was setting when we left. As we drove past the cotton field we were startled by a bright white glare on the right side of the road, and to my astonishment I saw that the withered field had burst into full cotton bloom while we were in the canyon.

I recalled the scripture, and realized that it had been on my mind since that first conversation, and I felt a strong sense of relief that what I had thought might have withered away, was actually alive and very, very well. The scripture spoke to my need and my hope for that magnificent field, gleaming in the setting sunlight. I was reassured that the fields are indeed still “white unto harvest,” and that God still seeks sowers and reapers to attend to His fields .

It was said of the prophet Samuel that God “let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground” (1 Samuel:3:19) So far, Jesus’ words have carried us for over two thousand years. I believe they are headed for eternity.

Love in Him,

Prue

When they (the disciples) had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water, and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” (John 6:19& 20)

Jesus prefaced his admonition to the disciples not to be afraid, with the simple statement, “It is I”. This is the entire reason they should not fear. Throughout the Old Testament , God tells His people not to be afraid: to Joshua, Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)

Joseph said to his brothers, Don’t be afraid. . . You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good. (Genesis 50:19) His brothers couldn’t believe that Joseph could have forgiven them for selling him into slavery when they were young. He didn’t say, “It is I, your own brother, so you don’t have to be afraid; but, rather, “God intended it for good.”

It’s not until Jesus speaks to his “brothers” in the boat that we can glimpse the intention of God in sending us a brother who is also His son. The disciples don’t have to be afraid because their brother, who they know to be from God, is with them: “It is I.”

I believe that the risen Christ still speaks these words to us in times of anxiety and fear. He knows that the simple assurance of his presence in a situation or difficulty will give us courage to endure and persevere: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?. . .No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, or anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35)

Joseph knew the truth of these words a thousand years before Paul wrote them. More than two thousand years later than Paul, we can experience these truths ourselves when faced with the uncertainties of our world ,we find God’s voice in the scriptures and we hear our brother say, “It is I”. Don’t be afraid!

Love in Him,

Prue

Once when our family was fostering Jesse, a young boy of six years old, I was putting him to bed when he asked me about his older brother, who had been killed in a bicycle/auto accident.

“ Everyone says that Jason’s happy in heaven, but how can he be? Me and Justin, (his other, also older brother) aren’t there, and Mom’s not there! Jason doesn’t know anyone in heaven. He doesn’t know Jesus. He never met Jesus. He wouldn’t even recognize Jesus! And Mary, why he’s never seen her at all, and she doesn’t look like Mom. He wouldn’t even know her!” Jesse stopped and thought for a fleeting moment, and I saw a smile almost break through. “Do you think? … Do you think that God makes it so that when Jason looks at Mary, he sees Mom?”

“Yes,”I said. “That’s exactly what God can do.” His whole body relaxed and he turned over to go to sleep. I felt that I had witnessed a divine intervention in the spirit of Jesse.

After that conversation Jesse settled into his school work and into our home life with interest. I knew that I had not been able to reach him concerning Jason, but that Someone else had taken that burden off of me. I hadn’t really understood the depth or the nature of Jesse’s anxiety, but I knew that a healing had begun.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27) These are the words and promises of Jesus, and this message resonates throughout the Bible. It’s the gift of our covenant relationship with the living God. That peace, in whatever measure we receive it, makes life on planet Earth blessed.

In my alarm I said “I am cut off from your sight!” Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. . . .Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord. (Psalm 31:22&24)

Don’t be anxious about anything, but in every situation , by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God, that passes understanding , will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

Jesse had heard the Christian message, and tried to apply what he heard to his life and the tragic accident that took his brother’s life. The comfort he received came through his belief that God is both loving and powerful. It was enough .

Love in Him,

Prue

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3) This is the first of all the“blesseds” in Jesus’ beatitudes . It catches attention because of the question of what Jesus means by “poor in spirit.” For a long time I thought that the phrase meant sad people, ones without a robust spirit; and I couldn’t connect that with Jesus as we know him in the New Testament.

I have heard many explanations and finally one very simple one made sense to me: “poor in spirit” is the person who knows his need for God. It is the one who recognizes the chord that attaches him or her to God Himself and knows that it is a lifeline chord. Jesus, in addition to all his great power to heal and to transform water to wine, and to walk on water, was poor in spirit , for he separated himself daily to reunite with his Father. His prayer in Gethsemane, “Not my will, but yours,” (Matthew 26:39) was an acknowledgment of his need of God’s will in the unfolding events toward his own death.

“Poor in spirit” means there is room in a person’s spirit for the Living God to move and bond. John the Baptist famously said “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) For Christians to grow, this must be the case. For Christ to increase in us there has to be room in our own spirits for the bond with Him. The only way to make room is to throw out the trash that clogs our lives, the trash of jealousy, envy, anger, selfishness and a litany of other impediments to the Holy Spirit of God. One of the largest is fear. Throughout both Old and New Testaments we are reminded , “Don’t be afraid.”

To be poor in spirit is to be receptive to the Spirit of God in Christ, to believe that if we surrender our “impediments”, there will be a filling that surpasses anything we hoped to receive.

When Jesus gave the world the beatitudes, he was giving his own attributes and those of his Father. He was inviting believers into his family and revealing the ways of God to His people, that they might become like Him. He was opening the door to his and his Father’s own dwelling, as he did in all his teaching. He simply shows us how to make room for Him in our lives. John the Baptist came to make room for the Christ. Jesus came for all people, to make room for the Kingdom of God for all time.

Love in Him,

Prue

The king (Solomon) said, “This one says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead,’ while this one says,’No! Your son is dead and mine is alive’. . . Bring me a sword! Cut the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other.” The first woman said, “Please, my lord, give her the baby! Don’t kill him!”

Then the king gave this ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.” (1 Kings 3:16-27) When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice. (1 Kings 3:28)

Dramatic as this story is, strong in three vivid characters: Solomon and two prostitutes, it is not really about any of these, but rather about God Himself. It’s not the wisdom of common sense, or even of psychology that is displayed here, but rather the gift that was promised to Solomon by God: “ I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.” (1Kings 3:12)

I have heard the question more than once, “What if the first woman had never said, ‘Give her the baby?’ Solomon was taking a big risk!” I laugh, because Solomon was never taking the smallest risk. His words were not his own, They were the fulfillment of God’s promise of the gift of God’s wisdom previously unknown on earth. They were the very words, measured and calculated by God, who knew both women better than they knew themselves. “Bring me a sword” were infallible words because they were God’s words given to Solomon.

This incident happened in one place at one time for many reasons, all of them God’s reasons. Solomon was far from being the next in succession to inherit his father David’s throne. He had four living brothers older than himself, all closer to the throne than he; nevertheless, God had told David that Solomon would be his heir. David had ensured the succession before he died, but the nation was still unsure, as there had been strife with two of the older brothers.

To the people of Israel Solomon’s judgment of the two women assured them of his gift, a gift from the only God they trusted at that time. God could have chosen any way to establish Solomon as king. He chose two prostitutes and a baby to reveal Himself in Solomon. I find that very hopeful for myself.

Love in Him,

Prue