“My word! What a mess you’re making,” said Nana to us children when we were busy cutting paper and strewing it around . I used to wonder what “My word” really meant, until I read Isaiah 55:11: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven , and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

One day the disciples watched Jesus as he prayed and asked him to teach them how to pray as he did. Jesus promptly gave them his words, what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, beginning with the words, “Our Father”.

In that prayer Jesus embraced the disciples as family, and admitted them into his own relationship with God, It was as if a prince’s companions had asked the prince to show them how to address the King, his Father. He gives them the very words his Father wants to hear, and with the words, the shape of the relationship they would have with the King. As the words went out from the mouth of Jesus they began to bear all the fruit that Isaiah promised, as Christianity spread throughout the world, and they continue to bear fruit as we bow our heads together and speak His words again.

The Lord’s prayer leads us into the presence of God our Father, and places a way in our spirits to come close to God. It’s a generous gift to us from Jesus, and Jesus gave it spontaneously in response to the disciples’ request. It’s as if he was just waiting to be asked to give them his “Words”.

I believe that Jesus knew, even before his resurrection, that God was adopting the disciples and that his relationship as the Son of God would expand and he would have many brothers and sisters to call God “Father”. Jesus knew, too, that the Holy Spirit of God would be with the disciples as He was with the Father and the Sun, making their prayers a lasting bond that would never return “empty”.

More than two thousand years later the words of the Lord’s prayer rest in the hearts of believers as a doorway to God’s Spirit, and a way of life for the adopted children of God. Nana, my grandmother, was one of those. She frequently reminded us of the Word of God, and spent part of every day reading her Bible. In her life, Jesus’ words bore much fruit, helping to make His Word, My word.

Love in Him,

Prue

My father used to work in an office not too far from the school I attended in seventh grade. I usually walked home for lunch, but sometimes Dad would say, “Stop by the office and I’ll give you a lift. I’ll meet you there.” It was a treat to go home for lunch with him.

After a huge crowd of former slaves had exited Egypt, the task fell to Moses to form the crowd into a united people who would know themselves to have a unique identity. That identity included the heritage of their ancestors as well as the more recent and dramatic call of God that had brought about their Exodus.

As Moses often mentioned, it was a task too large for him to achieve alone, and God revealed to him that He valued this project enough to be personally engaged in every aspect of the rescue of these people.

“There, above the cherubim that are over the ark . . . I’ll meet you there, and give you all my commands for the Israelites. ( Exodus 25:22) Of all the instructions God gave to Moses concerning the Exodus and the tabernacle to be built, the focus in everything centers on the Holy of Holies, where God will meet with the representative of His people. It is the place where He says “I’ll meet you there,” the very purpose of the exodus itself, for God is claiming a people, a group who will become a nation which will

display what life on earth is like for those who have been “there” to meet with the Lord. “I’ll meet you there” are the loving words of God that express His own desire and intention as well as the people’s hope and opportunity.

Some of the first words that Jesus spoke after his resurrection were, “Don’t be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; I will meet them there.” (Matthew 28:10)

When I walked over to Dad’s office, I knew I’d get a cheerful greeting, a ride home, and lunch with my family. I looked forward to a truly good time. I believe that God looks forward to time we spend with Him. He spent centuries telling His people “I’ll meet you there”, at a place of His own design and later with the person of His own son. Meeting Him “there” is a joy and a pleasure, but it”s also meeting with One who shares our unique identity and who loves us without measure.

Love In Him,

Prue

Unblemished

The Exodus from Egypt ids the very first time that God told the Hebrew people that the sacrifices ff Lambs or goats on the night of the Passover must be unblemished animals. Afterward this the requirement became standard for all sacrifices made to God.

Before the Exodus, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all made sacrifices with no mention from God of blemishes, but on the day of Passover God told Moses,”The animals you choose must be year-old males without blemish, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.” (Exodus 12:5) “Without blemish” is a criteria simply inserted between the age and the type of the animals. To be used. Why did God insert this, and in subsequent generations insist upon it?

“I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. . . If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?” (Psalm 50:9&13) At the same time that these words are true, God required unblemished animals to be used in sacrifice to Him.

The answer must lie in the very purpose of the sacrifice. Clearly God does not feel a need for our sacrifices, yet He requires them. The requirement of an unblemished sacrifice has nothing to do with God’s “needs”, but with ours. In His infinite wisdom God knew and knows that the gulf between us is wider than we can bridge, and that He alone can supply that bridge. In requiring unblemished sacrifices, God extends a means by which very blemished human beings can approach and even please a perfect God. He extends a way of accepting a relationship with Him.

Centuries after that first Passover, God’s people had fallen away, and He spoke to them about their sacrifices: “When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you?” (Malachi 1:8).

At the same time that God gave the Hebrew people a lifeline to Himself in their unblemished sacrifices, He gave them (and us) a foreshadow of the sacrifice that He Himself would supply for us to arrive at real reunion with Him, the unblemished lamb of Christ. Even before the first Passover God was drawing His people closer to Himself. The last time Jesus was celebrating that Passover with his disciples, He said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20) God had always known that our need for Him is greater than any “need” He may have for us, and yet He has made provision for us through His own unblemished sacrifice.

Love in Him,

Prue

When Thomas Lincoln, Abraham’s father, sought to remarry after the death of his first wife, he traveled to Elizabethtown Kentucky from Illinois to ask Sarah Bush Johnston to be his wife and mother to his two children, ten year old Abraham and his twelve year old sister Sarah. Thomas left the children alone in an unfinished cabin for months in one of the worst winters Illinois had ever experienced.

When Thomas and his new wife arrived , the cabin and the children were dirty and cold and hungry. Sarah’s first act was to unload a tub and give baths and delousing to both children. They stayed wrapped in her quilts until she had washed and dried their clothes. The children had survived on rabbits and squirrels that Abraham caught, and occasional gifts from neighbors. They had carefully made sure their fire never went out.

Sarah brought a wagon load of furniture and foods to the cabin. Over night the lives of two shivering children began to change. Sarah, who could not read or write, insisted that Abraham and Sarah be educated, She prevailed on their father to install a wooden floor, a loft, and to finish the cabin so that snow and rain could be kept out. She had braided a rug for the floor, and brought a small stack of books to the home. She hoped that Abraham would learn to read the Bible to her in the evenings.

Those who knew Sarah said that she had a steady sense of humor that delighted Abraham, who always called her “Mama”.

When I read about Sarah Bush Lincoln, I thought that she epitomized the Bible’s description of a good woman: “Many women do good things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30)

Sarah provided warmth and order and stability in the lives of her children. The woman who could not read or write instilled in her stepson a love of learning, and inspired a gift of humor and expression that bore fruit in producing probably the most articulate president in United States history . More than a hundred years after his death, school children were still memorizing his Gettysburg Address.

Sarah’s qualities came from a heart rooted in hearing scripture and responding simply in love. I believe that God delights in such simplicity in His own children.

Love in Him,

Prue

“He (Moses) persevered because he saw Him who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:27)

If this sentence showed up in an English composition the teacher would discount it for being hopelessly contradictory, yet much understanding of Moses and our own relationship to an invisible God is wrapped in this simple statement by the author of the book of Hebrews. The words were written thousands of years ago, but a newer saint, St. Therese of Lisieux, wrote in the nineteenth century , “Jesus is a hidden treasure, an inestimable good which few souls can find, for it is hidden, and the world loves what sparkles.”

Moses’ life was full of “sparkles”; Therese’s virtually devoid of them, yet both had eyes that “saw the invisible” and both persevered because of what they saw.

Probably the greatest visionary among the apostles was St. Paul, who never saw Jesus before his resurrection, but who experienced Jesus’ Spirit on the road to Damascus, and then for the rest of Paul’s life on earth. Paul wrote, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation, for in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth,visible and invisible.

In Jesus the visible and invisible are combined, as he was a visible man while at the same time he is our invisible God. Contradictory as it may seem, and even be, the gateway to our hearts is both visible and invisible, and God has planned it to be so.

Moses’ vision deepened and widened as he held his staff over the Red Sea and watched the waters part, and his people finally escape from Egypt. His vision of God continued to deepen and grow until his death at 120 years old.

Therese’s vision grew as she wrote the story of her soul in pencil while she was struggling with tuberculosis. Her brief life on earth ended at age 24, and today there are cathedrals and churches built in her name on every continent except Antarctica. Mother Therese of Calcutta was her spiritual sister.

Seeing the invisible is a path to perseverance. It’s a path full of life enriching encounters with our Savior God. When we let the sparkling intrusions of the world distract us, it’s like hearing only words and never the music to songs: “In prayer, focusing on the words is like trying to drive while looking at the windshield instead of through it. (Paul Miller)

Love in Him,

Prue

Before I was married, my mother told me that the day would come when I would hear myself use an expression I had never used before, but that my husband used, “Don’t worry,” she said, “You haven’t lost your identity. You’ve just appropriated some of his. You are still your own self.” I found that it worked both ways, and we shared expressions that I hope expand both of our vocabularies.

“The days are coming”declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors. This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33)

The covenant God speaks of to Jeremiah is like the covenant of a marriage, and the idea is very precious to God, as He mentions it many times in the Old Testament. It amounts to the free sharing between two individuals of their individual identities without either one losing, but both gaining in the “new covenant”

At the last Supper “Jesus said,’This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me’ In the same way, after the supper, he took the cup, saying, “this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’” (Luke 22:19-20)

Jesus knew that his disciples would recognize the thought of a “new covenant”, and that this one was intimate and personal for each of them. On the road to Emmaus the risen Jesus, as a stranger, explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24:27)

When we were first married, Jack was astonished one day when I said, “ I don’t know the answer. It’s beyond my ken.” Later he told me he could hardly believe that he had married someone who would use a word (“ken”) that he had never heard. It actually troubled him and he asked me not to use it . Some time later Jack used “ken” in a sentence, and seemed to forget that it wasn’t always part of his vocabulary.

God seeks ways to grow closer to us in the context of a “new covenant”, a bond that enables us to grow In trust and in affection toward the One who created the very idea of a covenant as a way to grow ever closer to His own children, and they to Him.

Love in Him,

Prue

On December 31 I read the last chapter of the Book of Revelation and found this:” I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who ha been showing them to me. But he said to me, ‘Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!’”

The angel calls himself a “fellow servant” with John. This strong, supernatural and sinless being declares fellowship with John, an apostle, yet a weak, even sinful human being. (“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8)

The Psalmist writes, “What is man, that you are mindful of him?. . Yet thou hast made him little less that God. Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands. (Psalm 8:4, RSV)

The angel saw in John a fellowship that few of us even imagine, a place in the universe of God that transcends everything that keeps us earthbound and separated from our God. The angel’s humility in fellow-shipping with John gives us a glimpse of eternal life that is full of grace and promise for believers, and for those who look to Jesus for their salvation.

There are many angelic appearances in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments. Angels appear as messengers , as Gabriel appears to Daniel, Zechariah, and to Mary; or as rescuers, as the angel who appears in the fiery furnace with Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego, (Daniel 3:24-28), and the angel who frees Peter from prison.(Acts 12:5-10

God grants all of humanity who will hear of it, a rich glimpse into His heaven at the birth of His son Jesus when the heavenly host of angels sings to the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth , peace and good will among men with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2:14)

In the mind of the angel speaking to John, those who love God are their “fellow servants”. It is a high and holy place to be, and if we let it humble us, we can in fact occupy that place. When he says, “Don’t do that!” he’s simply directing his fellow, John, not to worship any thing or angel but God, even supernatural persons or things. What an inheritance! What a fellowship! What goodness that God has in store for His whole family both now and in the future when He assembles His family.

Love in Him,

Prue

Driving home from a visit with our foster child’s mother, I was surprised when five-year-old Emily told me that her mother was going to “get another baby.” I was quite sure that if that were true, I would have been told, and so I said nothing. Emily seemed to think that it explained why she could no longer be with her mother, The reality was that her mother had an abusive boy friend who stayed with Emily while Mom was at work. It had been discovered when Emily entered kindergarten, and she had since been sent to two different shelters before she came to us.

“Another baby” was the only explanation the little girl could imagine for why she was separated from the one secure and loving person in her life. The loneliness and emptiness of her small life became evident in a moment, and the desolation of that thought struck me as I was driving.

All I could think to say was, “Emily, when a mother has another child, she loves that child very much, so much that her love for the first child doesn’t become smaller, but really becomes even bigger. She opens her heart to both her children an extra large amount.” Emily was quiet and I hoped then and even now, that it helped her.

“God has said, ‘Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged’” (Hebrews 13:5) The bedrock of the Christian faith is the certainty of God’s faithfulness to us, even when we have been unfaithful: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13)

When we’re immersed in faithlessness, injustice, scandals and distortions of many kinds, it is hard to hear the voice of One who promises faithfulness rooted in love. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “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.” (2 Corinthians 6:12).

Emily’s mother was not, in fact, pregnant, but it became increasingly clear that she would not be given custody of her daughter. Emily’s biological father visited and wanted custody, which he and his new wife were granted. Emily’s new stepmother opened wide her heart to this little girl, and one day when Emily returned from a visit with them, she said to me, “I had a good time! Now I have THREE mamas!” I was glad to hear it, and felt sure that she was ready to l leave us.

The Lord is faithful to His promises and this one He repeats in both the Old and the New Testaments, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you”

Love in Him, Prue

The Exchange

In the 1966 movie, “The Trouble With Angels” Mary a rebellious young girl at a Catholic school run by Mother Superior (Rosalind Russel),found the head of school finishing a project begun by another student who had fallen asleep. For the first time Mary had a real conversation with Mother Superior, who told her about her life in Paris working in a Couture shop as a seamstress. Mother Superior warmed to her subject and said, “I was in great demand, and I believe I could have made it as a designer.” Mary asked, “What happened?” “I found something better,” responded the nun with a smile. To Mary nothing could have been better than designing and wearing beautiful clothes, and here was a woman exchanging those for a uniform of black and white saying she had found something “better.”

“But he (Jesus) 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.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

St. Paul makes clear a very great contradiction at the center of his relationship with his God. Paul had made an exchange by surrendering his self-sufficiency when Jesus called him to a deeper partnership with Him. In return Paul received the strength that would renew him when he felt weak.

Dealing with things that hold us bound and separate us from Christ in exchange for Christ’s Holy Spirit is the work of Christians constantly. It amounts to growth that enlarges our lives with others as well as with our God.

When asked by people who knew Him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus replied, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”(John 6:29)

I’m convinced that one reason so many of us resist drawing closer to God through His Book and through prayer, is the fear that He will make demands we are unwilling to accept, and that the exchange made in the fictional story of the Mother Superior and in the true life of Paul will be too difficult or too unpleasant; but if we think of the One who is offering the exchange, of His Creativity, His Goodness, His Strength, Power, and strong Promises, we would have to acknowledge that He will be receiving the poorer exchange and we the richer. To be closer to our Creator, to experience eternity and perceive our own place there, to believe the promises until they live in us, is better than the best that we can construct by ourselves. Then the exchange will be simple.

Love in Him,

Prue

It was getting late when I went for the second time into my four year old granddaughter’s room to remind her to settle down and go to sleep. I looked at her wide open eyes and said, “I’ll just sit here in your chair until you go to sleep.” “You’re going to stay with me?” she asked, and turned over and was asleep almost immediately. I waited in the dark until I was sure she wouldn’t wake up and tiptoed out her door. I worried that she might expect me to wait with her every time I babysat, but this scene was never repeated. That one night she needed someone to “stay” with her.

That one day two disciples were steeped in grief walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus when they were joined by a stranger who talked to them kindly about the scriptures and the events that had caused them their grief. When they reached Emmaus the stranger walked on, but the disciples said, “Stay with us; it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” (Luke 24:28) the stranger stayed and broke bread with the disciples and they knew Him to be their friend and teacher Jesus. They knew, too, that they wanted to return to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples that they had seen the crucified Jesus.

In the new year I can hardly think of a more powerful prayer than the simple one of “Stay with us.” Perhaps our world has never been in greater need of the reassuring presence of our Savior God than now. When the multiplicity of needs and alarms that confront us every day leave us wondering where to turn, “Stay with us”, is a prayer that receives a prompt and powerful response. When we say “Stay with us” to our God, we effectively reverse the fall, for Adam’s sin made Adam hide from God, but “Stay with us” invites God into our lives, the very place He desires to be .

Jesus’ revealing Himself in the bread brought instant joy and consolation to the disciples, and even his disguised presence on the road brought “burning hearts” with a sense of His truth. “Stay with us (or me)” is a powerful prayer. I’m making it my New Year’s prayer.

Love in Him,

Prue