In the year 2000, Joy Perfume was declared the “Scent of the Century” by the Fragrance Foundation Fifi Award event in Paris. Joy Perfume had been introduced in 1926, and for some time was known as the world’s costliest perfume. By many, it is still regarded as the best perfume in the world.

One day I was showing a friend some of the plants in our garden, and I said proudly, “This is the “Joy” flower whose fragrance is that of the perfume.”

“And why would you want that? What difference does that make?” asked my friend. I couldn’t think of an answer. “Of course, I said, “It doesn’t matter at all.” I didn’t dare to admit that a small bottle of Joy Perfume resides on my dresser.

Truly , the most famous perfume in the world was introduced more than two thousand years ago. It was made of pure “nard”, a root that had been used by the ancient Egyptians before it was ever poured over the feet of Jesus of Nazareth: “Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured is on Jesus ‘ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But Judas Iscariot objected, ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and given to the poor? It is worth a year’s wages.’. . .

“Leave her alone”, Jesus replied. . “It was intended that she should save this perfume for my burial.” (John 12:3-8).

Lent is a time for deep thinking, and the Bible presents lots of food for such thinking. When Mary’s love for Jesus overflowed in her extravagant gesture, Jesus saw in her more than a dutiful young woman, but a loving spirit with an unutterable appreciation for all that Jesus had meant to her and her family. Jesus recognized his own Father’s Spirit at work in Mary, and it outstripped every other consideration, even the ongoing care for the poor.

Nard is a powerful, lasting perfume. It is possible that its fragrance could have been been still detected one week later when Jesus endured the Cross. My friend’s words made me think more deeply about the “perfume flower”, and about my real source of Joy.

Love in Him,

Prue

Rock Language

The word “bergmal” in the Icelandic language can be translated as “rock language” in English, but it means what we call an “echo.” This piece of information came from the website “Mental Floss” which I was browsing for the fun of it. The phrase “rock language” triggered images from the Bible of trees and mountains rejoicing: “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” (Isaiah 50:12) and “Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord, (psalm 98:8)

The jubilation is so great that only the voices of nature can capture the joy of a people who belong to God. In the “Chronicles of Narnia”, C.S. Lewis’ seven novel collection of stories of the mystical land of Narnia, trees and rivers and animals and imaginary characters raise their voices and speak of the wonders of Aslan, their Savior: “Have you ever stood at the edge of a great wood on a high ridge when a wild southwester broke over it in full fury on an autumn evening? Imagine that sound. And then imagine that wood. . . was rushing at you; and was no longer trees but huge people; yet still like trees…” (Prince Caspian, Chapter 14).

For Christians the goodness of nature, its beauty , variety, renewal and fullness of life, are forever reminders of Christ’s resurrection: “See, the winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.” (Song of Songs2:11-12). The splendors of nature, coupled with the imagination of human beings, produces awe and praise for the Creator of life itself.

The Icelanders’ language gave a voice to rocks, as God gave a voice to The rock at the tomb. It was sealed and marked by Rome before it was rolled away to expose an empty tomb. Its language echoes still in the world as we probe the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection during Lent, in preparation for Easter, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–His power and Divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”(Romans 1:20)

The secret of knowing the rock’s language is knowing nature’s creator, a knowledge He loves to impart, and His Son loves to share, It echoes today, and it’s ours for the asking.

Love in Him,

Prue

On the “Antiques Roadshow” a woman brought a small piece of old paper with a faded note written on it , and Abraham Lincoln’s signature. She assumed that the note was written by a secretary, but that the signature might be worth something. She was

right about the signature, but the appraiser told her that the message itself was in Lincoln’s handwriting, and was certainly written by him.

The message was a “pass” to allow a widow to cross Union lines during the Civil War in order to visit relatives in the North. The owner was astonished that the whole piece was hand written by Lincoln, and the appraiser said that the signature was worth a few thousand dollars, but having the whole note gave a window into the character of Lincoln, and placed us at the time and place. It was worth many thousands more than just the signature alone.

When Christians say “It’s a God thing!” I think they have perceived the signature of God in an incident in the world around them. Many times it seems to be the closest that we can come to our Savior God, but His whole Book is actually available to find Him and find ourselves in His timelessness and perfect place. Daily reading His book opens vast windows into the life of our God, which He intends to share with us: “Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him,” (Proverbs 30:5),and “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds. . . teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 11:18)

In the New Testament Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31)

The faded piece of paper contained an undeniable truth, not only of a point in time, but of the character of the writer. For that, it was very, very valuable. The Bible contains glimpses of a distant time and place, but also it reveals the character of a timeless God who has not changed, but whose character has become clearer with the years of believers who have read His word, and held to His teachings. Indeed, in the midst of confusion His words have the power to set us free. What could possibly be more valuable?

Love in Him,

Prue

A young woman soprano performed in concert at the church I once attended. Her voice was fresh, very pretty and expressive; I thought she showed real promise to be a professional concert singer. Her program was varied and the audience was appreciative. On the back of the printed program she gave a brief autobiography that included her musical history, her family, and finally, her hobby.

I smiled when I saw her “hobby”. It was “Taking naps.” She was a young mother with two small children and I could easily guess that her life was very busy and that a nap must have been a luxury that rose to the level of a hobby.

“This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation; In quietness and trust is your strength.’” (Isaiah 30:15) The Old and New Testaments both emphasize the need for quiet and rest in our lives with God; “Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” (Psalm 37:7) and “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, and I will give you rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11;28)

In my experience the quiet and rest has to become habit, perhaps even a “hobby”in order to receive the real fulfillment of God’s promise regarding rest. Since God initiates the idea of coming to Him in peace, He also enables this. While we think of our schedules and distractions and obligations, He leads us sometimes to the early mornings, sometimes to another time of day or evening, to carve out a time and place to which we can frequently return for the rest that leads to Him.

The lovely soprano was not embarrassed to say that naps were her hobby. Is it so far fetched to say “Time alone with God is my favorite time”? The Psalmist returns to this theme in Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.” That God desires the time of rest with us should be enough to seek Him out in our everyday lives. I think that we can hardly imagine the goodness that would take shape in our lives if we made time alone with God our “Hobby.”

Love in Him,

Prue

The Road Less Traveled , by Scott Peck was a hugely popular best seller in the United States and around the world in the 1980’s and 1990’s. First published in 1978, the opening words of the book are, “Life is difficult.” All of Dr. Peck’s observations and suggestions about life on earth spring from this defining sentence. Its simplicity was admired and often quoted, as it is impossible to imagine a human life that has not encountered at least some difficulties.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy. ” ( 1 Peter 2:9&10)

The difficulties of life are certainly many and varied and real, but the Holy Spirit of God has poured out through Peter a definition that transcends all others: You are redeemed as a person of God. Human beings have received redemption by the death and resurrection of His son Jesus. Human life is redeemed, set right with God, in order to receive the Holy Spirit of God into our own lives. It is God’s desire. It was His plan from before the Fall, and it has worked in the lives of countless Christians for millennium.

The crippling effect of guilt consciousness, and even sub-conscious guilt has been lifted by the redemption that Christ has delivered to us. The power of such a shift in reality can’t even be measured. It conveys a freedom and a strength that is not accessible from any other source. It is celebrated today for forty days of Lent culminating in the great celebration of Easter.

It’s easy today to cast about in our ubiquitous technologies in order to access specialists and communicators to find hundreds of paths to happiness on earth. Most of them overlap one another, but they all claim that changes in our behavior can reap great rewards and “rescue” us from all the things that distress us. But God has done something without even consulting us, in sending His own Person literally to take our place in dying, and in being raised again, so that we, too, could share His supernatural life, and become genuine members of His family. “All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6-7). Life, created by God, is redeemed by God. We are His.

Love in Him,

Prue

“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “You are worried about many things, but few are needed—or indeed, only one. Mary has chosen better part, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:40-42)

This exchange unfolded in the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus , who were entertaining Jesus and all twelve of his disciples for dinner. As they waited, Jesus was talking to his friends about God, while Mary sat at his feet listening.

Whenever I have asked a class which sister was most like themselves, the majority have always responded that they identify with Martha. They cannot see how Jesus couldn’t understand that there would be no dinner at all without the work of Martha, and what was Mary doing except enjoying herself?

They are right , I believe, to focus on the dinner, as this incident is all about feeding and being fed; but Jesus draws a different conclusion in responding to Martha’s request. He displays his love for Martha in addressing her as he does, and he’s not unmindful of her generous hospitality. Later in their relationship, at the death of her brother, it was to Martha that Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection and the life.”

Nevertheless, Jesus is unequivocal when he says “Mary has chosen the better part.” While Martha is feeding the literal body of Christ and his disciples, Mary is being fed spiritually at Jesus’ feet. Jesus draws a distinction between feeding and being fed, and tells us, along with Martha, that receiving supernatural food, the kind that he called “the bread of life” is more important even than satisfying our physical hunger.

Most of us are eager to see relief from hunger in the world, and we want to help those who are experiencing it. We all want to feed our families and provide delicious meals. We know how to feed others, but to be fed requires a willingness to come to Christ and sit at his feet. It’s a willingness that God looks for in His people, a quality Jesus seeks in his followers. It’s hard to be fed when we really want to feed others, but Jesus says clearly , being fed by Him is always the better part.

Love in Him,

Prue

Skaneateles Lake in New York State was the place for our final scuba diving test. Jack and I had finished the test and were sitting on the deck of a friend of our instructor. He told us about the lake in all seasons and then said, “One spring morning I was sitting out here having coffee. There was still some ice along the shore of the lake. I saw a buck and a doe walk up to the water, not far from where we’re sinning now. They didn’t even hesitate to step into the cold water, and just kept walking until it got deep enough to swim.

They both swam steadily until I saw the doe struggling to keep her head above water. It lasted several minutes until the doe disappeared beneath the surface. The buck kept swimming for a short while, then went under. He came back, then went down again. After what I thought was a long time, he rose up again and the doe was on his his back! I could hardly believe it, but I had my binoculars on by then and I saw it. He carried her almost half way across this lake in water that must have been in the 40’s. On the other side she slipped off his back and they both walked into the woods.”

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)

Nature is a wonderful resource for people. We cam all appreciate a breath-taking sunset or a walk in a quiet woods, and sometimes God gives us an even closer glimpse of His Spirit through the lives of animals and even plants. God taught Jonah a lesson in humility by raising up a plant and then allowing it to wither. (Jonah 4:6-11)

Our love of nature we share with nature’s Creator. It is a window into the creative and sustaining nature of God Himself, and an important bond with our God.

When our host witnessed the deer swimming across the lake he saw a bond that reflected God’s bond with us. There are countless examples of such bonding in the world, and if we allow ourselves to see our God as creator and sustainer, nature displays many manifestations of Him. St. Paul goes so far as to say that people have no excuse for rejecting the reality of a living God in the midst of all of life on planet Earth. Nature is a reminder in beauty and poignancy, power and strength of our God. Perceiving this is another path to His life.

Love in Him,

Prue

Jack emerged from the bottom of the St. Lawrence River and reached out to hand me a glass goblet he had just found. When I took the goblet I could see that it had a very large chip on one side. “It’s chipped,” I said. “Throw it back!” “Look at the date on it,” he answered, and I found that it was an 1876 commemorative goblet designed to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence a hundred years earlier.

I took the goblet home and cleaned and admired it, regardless of its useless condition. I think that I somehow identified with this broken glass goblet because of its association with the historic event, regardless of how remote, I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. I knew that it had no monetary value, but still I kept it for its “provenance, ”

the idea that regardless of intrinsic value or lack there of, objects can be measured and seen as valuable simply by their close association with a famous person, place, or time, or by their great age.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” (Psalm 118:22) I believe that no matter how broken our own lives, how many regrets we harbor, or how much time we believe we have wasted, when God sees in us the image of His son, our “value “ in His kingdom grows. Each tiny act of obedience, or growing in prayer or scripture reading increases our divine provenance, making us “keepers “ in God’s kingdom.

Having the broken goblet made me feel connected to a time of intense patriotism and a formative time for my country. Having us turn to Him gives our God a gratifying reminder of His original creation and His ultimate sacrifice for us. Our turning to Him reunites us with our roots and puts in order and even repairs the cracks and chips and brokenness in our lives.

“Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5). Restoring the fullness and joy of life is a great joy of our Savior’s . In spite of the sea changes in our world, His hand of restoration reaches to large and small and never fails. When I find myself feeling like a cracked goblet, I know where to turn for the wholeness I need.

Love in Him,

Prue

Very firmly my father would say to his three quite young daughters, “Your mother is the most beautiful woman in the world.” At four years old I knew that he was right, and none of us ever questioned him at all.

One day my oldest sister,hanging from the banister in the front hallway, said,”There’s going to be a contest in Atlantic City for the most beautiful girls in America, and one of them will be crowned “Miss America!”

This was really disturbing news to me, as I was sure that America was not as large as the world, and so my mother would certainly have to travel to Atlantic City, and then who knew where else she would have to go?

On a rare occasion when I found Mom alone in the kitchen I looked up at her and said, “When do you have to go to be Miss America?” After a pause she said, “What?” I repeated the question. Again she paused, then said, “I’m not going to be Miss America. Even if I Wanted to be Miss America, I couldn’t, because I’m a married woman, I’m married to your father and you kids. I’m not going away to be Miss America.” “Oh”, I said, and turned around, out the back door, across the porch, and across the back yard. I experienced a great euphoria at the thought that the most beautiful woman in the world lived in my home, and she wouldn’t leave because she is married.

Strange as it may seem, I believe that every Christian has this experience. Christians believe that their God is omnipotent, omniscient, beautiful beyond description, all loving, and all creative. But every Christian sometimes fears that, with a world full of strife and disasters, God could not possibly concern Himself with the minutia of an individual’s life. I believe that God answers us as my mother did: I cannot leave you or forsake you, because I am married to you.”

The ladder that Jacob saw in the wilderness with angels ascending and descending was really a wedding ring. The tablets that Moses brought down from the mountain were really a wedding ring, and the rock that was rolled in front to the tomb that briefly held Jesus’ body, was really a wedding ring that was engraved with his blood. I did nothing to deserve my mother’s constancy in our home. It was a gift.

On this Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, we have the chance to experience the euphoria of kinship with Him.

Love in Him,

Prue P.S. My mother never said “I’m not the most beautiful woman in the world.”

At a time when my brother-in-law was having serious health problems , his wife, my sister Jane, was called for jury duty. She protested, and asked to be excused, but was refused, and so she showed up at the appointed time and date. At the questioning of the potential jurors, she gave her name and the judge responded, “You aren’t Randall Christie’s mother, are you?” Jane answered, “Yes, I am.” Randall Christie is her son , who was the defense attorney in the case before the court. Needless to say, Jane was excused. There are few human bonds closer than the bonds among family members. The likelihood of a family member remaining entirely impartial in a trial is just about non-existent.

This partiality is the very quality God seeks in His own children. At the Last Supper Jesus said: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. . . I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:9-15) Jesus is including the disciples in the family of God Himself. After the resurrection, Jesus called them “brothers” to Mary Magdalene: “Go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 21;17&18)

Jesus ushers us all into a new relationship with God—the relationship of family, the intimacy of a family, and the partiality of a family. Jesus is the delight of his Father God when he brings “home” another brother or sister to our Father. He does this through the Holy Spirit of God working in the lives of ordinary people, enabling them to believe and accept our brother Jesus.

Jane told Randall about her experience and he quickly arranged for her not to receive any more jury summonses. She had thought that her need alone would excuse her, but it took a family member connected to the court to achieve her goal for her.

Jesus is our family member connected to the Father’s life, who works for us to forgive us and help us re-unite with our Father. Daily reading His book can open the way to draw close to God and take our places at his side.

We, like Jane, need the intersession of Christ to join the family of God, and receive

the blessings that are revealed in the Bible. I believe that his hand is reaching out to everyone who has ever wondered, “Is He real?” “Seek,” he said, “and you will find.” Open the book and read the Bible at home.

Love in Him,

Prue