The Heart of God

God spoke to Abraham. He spoke to Jacob, to Moses, among others, and to a young boy named Samuel, who had to be introduced before he could know that it was God

who was calling him: Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if He calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there calling as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’” (1 Samuel 3:9-10)

This brief moment, facilitated by Eli, is a seminal moment in the very history of salvation, as vital as Moses’ burning bush. For here the child Samuel unknowingly becomes God’s spokesperson and leader of Israel. He will move a nation in which: The Word of the Lord was rare. There were not many visions. ( 1 Samuel 3:1) This obscure child in Israel, Hannah’s son, would grow to anoint two of Israel’s greatest kings, Saul and David, to keep the nation faithful to the God who was remaining faithful to them.

God entered Samuel’s life in the gentlest possible way. God waited until nightfall and enlisted Eli’s knowledge of Him, to call the boy. God made no demands upon Samuel, as He had of Moses, but His call let the boy know that God exists, is real, and seeking to share His life and character with Samuel. The lonely boy had been found by the One who would befriend him for life. The message God gave to Samuel concerning Eli’s sons must have been frightening until in the morning when Eli accepted it.

From then on, Israel remembered that they were not alone, that their God had given them a voice and a mouthpiece: The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there He revealed Himself to Samuel through His word, and when Samuel spoke, all Israel listened. (1 Samuel3:21) The dry time of few visions and rare words was finally over, and Samuel’s ministry renewed the nation’s devotion to their God at the time in their history when the monarchy was born. It was Samuel who spoke the message of a future king after Saul : The Lord has sought out a man after His own heart and appointed him ruler of His people. ( 1Samuel 13:14)

God’s heart was touched by the heart of Hannah, and she gave her child Samuel to God to be His prophet. Better than anyone else of his time, Samuel knew the heart of God when he anointed David.

Love in Him,

Prue

The story of Esther in the Bible is a story of perplexities unscrambled as an unexpected savior emerged. Nothing about the orphan girl Esther suggested that she would save her people from annihilation in a pagan country to which they had been exiled. While it’s true that she was exceptionally pretty, there were many beautiful girls rounded up to please King Xerxes and to replace his disobedient queen.

At first neither Esther nor Mordecai, her uncle, perceived any advantage for Esther in having been chosen to be queen. Esther hid from the king her relationship to Mordecai . Everything in their new environment was strange, so strange that, though they were faithful to their God, they never spoke of Him to each other, even in a life and death crisis.

Esther never thought of herself as a savior. In fact, she remained ignorant of the cataclysmic plan of Haman, the prime minister, to exterminate the entire Jewish population living in Babylon, until Mordecai made it known to her. When she finally understood the crisis, Esther drew on her faith in God and what she knew of the rituals of her people: Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king. . . and if I perish, I perish. (Esther 4:6)

Esther risked her life in appearing before the king unannounced and uninvited, but her action won Xerxes’ full support. With the help of her uncle, Esther made a plan to reverse Haman’s actions against the Jews, and the relief was felt throughout the kingdom. Where chaos had reigned in the city of Susa, a peace settled into God’s people.

From one perplexity to another, Esther moved to stay loyal to her family and her people: For how can I bear to see the destruction of my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family? (Esther 8:6) Though His name is never mentioned in Esther’s story, the Spirit of God lives in Esther such that His will and His providence is richly displayed, as one perplexity after another falls to the soul who offers herself for the survival of her people. Esther is a foreshadow of another Savior whose sacrifice for his people will reach and rescue Jew and Gentile alike beyond the limits of time or place.

Love in Him,

Prue

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here. Luke 11:32)

More than once in the Bible Jesus calls upon the story of Jonah to explain his own relationship to God’s people. In come ways Jesus is very different from Jonah, but in the most vital sense, Jesus finds in Jonah a picture of himself in his most important work of preaching, dying, and being raised.

First, Jonah tried to avoid God’s call to him by running away on a ship to Tarshish, (Jonah 1:3), but Jonah was enough of a true prophet to understand both the storm at sea, and the necessary solution of his being thrown into the raging water. Jonah had resisted God’s call because he was convinced that the Ninevites would harm him and certainly not listen to him. When they finally heard Jonah and in fact did repent , Jonah was angry with God for putting him through the ordeal and not destroying the city, as he had warned would happen. Jonah failed to understand what God knew about the Ninevites:

that the collective consciences of the city were still alive, that the people, though not among the chosen people of Israel, were still capable of recognizing their own sin, and even of repenting at the word of a ragged prophet from Israel. This is the key to Jesus’ identifying with Jonah. Jesus saw that the people who should be able to recognize him, didn’t, but that his ministry was greater even than Jonah’s, and would bring to repentance countless more souls over the millennia ahead.

The echo of Jonah shows up in Mark 4:37: A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind died down and it became calm. They asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey him!” The wind and waves obeyed Jonah, too, but now there was someone far greater than Jonah in the boat. He, like Jonah, would offer his own life, and the repentance that would be possible after his resurrection would reach around the world to countless generations. Jonah’s life was a prefigure of Christ, and Jesus is our living Savior.

Love in Him,

Prue

Nancy, my older sister, had bright red hair. She taught second grade for several years and loved being in the classroom. One October day her principal brought a red headed boy to her class and handed Nancy his folder. He had been transferred from another class in the same school. In fact, he had been transferred twice based on “personality conflict” with the teacher. Nancy had to accept him, and placed his desk adjacent to her own.

By November it was time for parent/teacher conferences, and this boy’s mother arrived for hers. Nancy showed the mother all of her son’s work, and after a moment, the mom looked at Nancy and said, “Yes, but how is he really doing in class?” Nancy said later that she thought she could be “real,” so she said, “How do you think a red-haired boy would do in my class??” There were tears in this mother’s eyes when she left the interview. The boy had a good year that year, and stopped back to see Nancy after he went on to third grade.

Nancy was unapologetic about her preference for this boy. She thought that probably some of the other children believed that he was her son, but no one complained about his being favored. It must have been such a surprise to him, that he just accepted his new status and enjoyed it.

To get real,” is to find Grace.

Conversion:

He was a born loser,

accident prone, too;

never won a lottery,

married a girl who

couldn’t cook, broke

his leg the day before

the wedding

and forgot the ring.

He was the kind

who ended up behind a post

in almost any

auditorium. Planes

he was booked to fly on

were delayed

by engine trouble

with sickening regularity.

His holidays at the beach

were almost always ruined by rain. All

his apples turned out wormy. His letters

came back marked

Moved, left no

address. And it was

his car that was cited

for speeding

from among a flock of others

going 60 in a

55 mile zone.

So it was a real shocker

when he found himself

elected, chosen by Grace

for salvation, felt

the exhilaration of

an undeserved and wholly

unexpected joy

and tasted, for the

first time, the Glory

of being on

the winning side.

By Luci Shaw

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free. . . (Romans 8:1-2)

Love in Him,

Prue

We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also. (2 Corinthians 6:11-13) These are the words of St. Paul , who founded a church in Corinth, but they could have been the words of Jesus himself to his own people and to us. In our hearts are many chambers, and only a few do we open at a time. Wonderfully, our God actually knows the contents of every single chamber, even the ones we hide from ourselves : Even the hairs on your head have been counted. ( Luke 12:7)

When Paul wrote “Open wide your hearts,” he prefaced it with his own openness to the people of Corinth. When God sought His people to free them from Egypt, Moses first asked, “What can I tell them is your name?” “Say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of our fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—appeared to me and said, ‘I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.‘” (Exodus 2”16)

Before engaging with His people God has let them know who He is. He has spoken freely to them, and this begins His journey to make them a nation capable of opening themselves to Him. It was a long hard journey.

By now God has opened many more windows into His own character, and has found many beside Paul who have opened wide their hearts to Him. Even before Paul, David wrote, The Lord is My shepherd. . .surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23)

David opened wide his heart to God, as have many others. Jesus opened wide his heart to both God and mankind, in order that we might be reunited with God.

The things that keep some hearts tightly closed are mostly fear in the world, and a feeling of futility in opening our hearts to God. Paul demonstrated that it can be done; God demonstrated that it must be done, and we remain afraid. Jesus said, Fear not, little flock; it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. (Luke 12:32) It is a blessed journey to open our hearts to Him through scripture reading and prayer. His character is love. He shares His character with us even when we don’t love Him. The apostle John wrote, We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Paul was looking for that love in the Corinthians, and God is looking for that love in us.

Love in Him,

Prue

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