On Wednesday Jack and I had breakfast at a grocery store, sitting by a wall of windows in the eating area. Just outside the window were two young women also having breakfast, and the one facing me held in her arms a very young infant while she fed him with a bottle. The tenderness and sweetness on her face as she held him and virtually forgot her own food, caught my attention. The baby was hungry and finished the bottle before he fell asleep in her arms. I thought I was witnessing one of he greatest engines in the survival of humanity on planet Earth.

When God Himself wished to express the depth of His love for His people in the Old Testament He found no more potent comparison than the love of a mother for her baby: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though even she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15) Even earlier God in Moses expresses His love: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deuteronomy 33:27)

From the earliest times God has repeated the connection between His love and eternal life. When He established His covenant with Abraham, He said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars if indeed you can count them.. . . so shall your offspring be.” (Genesis15:5) Later the prophet Jeremiah reports from God, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

The love I saw on the young mother’s face at breakfast was a reflection of the ancient and eternal love of God for all His children. Some times that love is almost captured in paintings of Mary holding her infant Jesus; and it’s no accident that this love is the love that God taps to help us understand His Character and even His motives in relating to us.

Mary’s love for her infant coincided with her love for God, as Mark Lowry’s lyrics attest: “Mary did you know that when you kissed your little baby, you kissed the face of God?”

We can’t measure the love of God, as we can’t measure God Himself, but He is generous in displaying for us images of His love and of His Person in the very world we inhabit, the world that hardly acknowledges Him, but cannot help but display His creation in every setting. Most of all ,God gives us His Book to read all the many manifestations of His Spirit on earth, and to find Him in its pages.

Love in Him,

Prue

Born Again

In the C.S. Lewis story Voyage of the Dawn Treader a young boy experiences the conversion of his character from a disagreeable self absorbed child to a caring and even courageous child, Eustace was unwillingly swept into Narnia, Lewis’ imaginary world that parallels the Christian world of England. Eustace was accompanied by his cousins, Edmond and Lucy.

In an effort to separate himself and avoid the other two children Eustace took a walk into a valley where he witnessed the death of an old dragon, and himself turned into a dragon after taking some of the treasure from the old ones’ lair. After several adventures as a dragon, Eustace encountered Aslan, a mystical lion, who is the savior figure in all the Narnia books:

“Then the lion said ‘You will have to let me undress you’ (from the dragon’s skin). “ I was afraid of his claws, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I lay flat down on my back and let him do it. The very first tare he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. . . Then he caught hold of me. . . and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing all the pain had gone.” (Dawn Treader, chapter7)

Lewis’ description of Eustace’s experience makes delightful reading because of the underlying truth in his fantasy: “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”(John 3:3) Jesus’ words are as strange to Nicodemus, the man he’s addressing, as the encounter that Eustace had in the novel. Nicodemus said, “How can someone be born when they are old?” (John 3:4)

Lewis captures all the surprise and wonder and change that comes to a human soul at first recognizing the presence and saving power of God in his or her life. He includes the healing of pain, the joy of finding ones’ “true” self, the pleasure of feeling “clean”, the recognition of Someone Else to whom we matter beyond describing, the loving One who saves us.

In the end, Eustace thinks that he may have had a dream until his cousin Edmond tells him that everything that happened to him was entirely real. Eustace can’t help but believe, as he finds himself to be literally “born again” from his encounter with Aslan.

When we allow Christ to take away the crud in our lives we receive yet again “new birth”, sometimes a pain, always a joy.

Love in Him,

Prue

Small Beginnings

At four years old I was in the hospital with a tonsillectomy when an older cousin sent me a card in the shape of a toy locomotive. The first day she sent the engine, and for three more days she sent a different car, to make up a whole train. For some reason I clung to the cards and they went home with me. Even as a four year old I experienced a caring heart from an unexpected source.

Paul wrote ,”You show that you are a letter from Christ. . . written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (II Corinthians 3:3) My cousin never knew how much comfort I took from receiving that series of little cards. When I told her years later she laughed and said that she had forgotten sending them. Nevertheless her gift conveyed joy to me when I needed it, and it had a lasting effect.

Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”(Matthew 5:16) I didn’t learn to praise God for gifts such as the cards for several years, but I did receive a loving spirit from my cousin’s gesture enough to remember it these many years.

Zechariah wrote, “Do not despise the day of small beginnings. . .” (Zechariah 4:10) when a feeble remnant of Israel had returned to rebuild their temple. The Spirit of God does achieve huge changes like the Exodus, and even Creation itself; but He also moves in the weak and small to produce great things for His people. Isaac came as an infant into Sarah and Abraham’s lives and established a dynasty that is recognized thousands of years later. A single woman’s conversation with Jesus at a well resulted in the conversion of a Samaritan village. (John 4:39).

“You are the light of the world” said Jesus to his followers (Matthew 5:14). However small we may feel, however dim our “light”, it has been given to us to shine and to be life-changing in a world of darkness. Often we look elsewhere to find light, but Jesus says “You are the light”, if you are his. Jesus shares with us his actual relationship with God as light in the world. Even if it’s only a flicker in your mind, “Do not despise the day of small beginnings.!”

Love in Him,

Prue

Recently as I walked slowly down an aisle of the grocery store, a woman stopped to complement may hair style, which was a braid wrapped around my head. I thanked her and then she said, “The Bible says that a women’s hair is her glory!” I was surprised, and quickly answered, “It also says that we shouldn’t wear braided hair.” (1 Timothy 2:9) I was again surprised that she became agitated and threw up her arms and said, “If we were perfect we wouldn’t need a Savior, but we have one!”

This conversation was so strange that it has stayed in my memory and comes back from time to time. The Bible has much to say about being overly concerned with “externals”: “Do not love the world… the world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”(1 John 2:17) The writers of scripture are conscious that everything on earth can be a “snare” for our faith, including braided hair, but Paul especially asserts that “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are constructive.” (I Corinthians 10:23)

The balance of freedom and obedience is in the very fiber of Christian life. Just as freedom increases for a child as he or she grows up, our earthly journey is a growing up toward God, always accompanied by His Spirit, as children are accompanied by their parents in growing up.

That day in the grocery store neither of us spoke a really true or edifying word. We both tacked a Bible verse onto a point of view producing nothing but irritation, the very thing Paul warns against: “No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.” (I Corinthians 10:24) That is because Someone Else is the real “Way, and truth, and life.”(John 14:6) , and the only One whose opinion really matters on every issue in our lives.

Love in Him,

Prue

In 2020 the State of Texas acknowledged in its Handbook of Texas, that the Karankawa Indians, the tribe that had inhabited the coast from Galveston to Corpus Christie and several miles inland more than six hundred years ago, is not in fact extinct, but has been assimilated into the State of Texas while retaining their cultural history and even some of their language. In order to escape the massacres of the tribal Indians, the Karankawa assimilated the culture of the rapidly increasing numbers of European settlers in what is now Texas and Mexico. The women and children survived and kept the memories alive as they assimilated into Texas and Mexican communities. Today there are many individuals who can trace direct Karankawa ancestry living and working in both Mexico and Texas.

In the Bible a similar fate happened to the Israelites who were sent into exile in Babylon. In effect the exiled people were hidden in plain sight as part of the larger community: “Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai (her uncle) had forbidden her to do so.” (Esther 2:10).

Throughout the story of Esther the fact that her identity was hidden even from her husband, King Xerxes, is the vehicle that drives the story and enables Esther herself to survive and makes possible Esther’s rescue of her people from the machinations of Haman who has schemed to eliminate all the Jews in Xerxes’ kingdom.

The Book of Esther is a story of a people living in exile away from the land of the Covenant with God; and of a young woman who risked her life for the rescue of her people from massacre. Esther is the very figure of a savior. She was a Jewess who hid in plain sight in a pagan country, and when her people were threatened, Mordecai said, , “Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4: 14).

The Karankawa in Texas survived by simply assimilating. They retained their culture and attained another. Esther retained the rock of her culture, the God of Israel, while she assimilated when she was chosen to be Xerxes’ queen. In praying and fasting for herself and her people, Esther learned that her identity did not belong just to her culture, but to her God. Have we learned this?

Love in Him,

Prue

A Good Story

Almost buried in the Old Testament is the story of the young boy Samuel who hears the voice of God and mistakes it for the voice of his guardian Eli. It’s a story included in children’s Bibles, but seldom mentioned in sermons or in adult lesson books. It’s one of my favorite stories. Three times Samuel hears God’s voice call his name, and thinking that it is the voice of Eli, goes to Eli’s room in answer. “Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.” (1 Samuel 3:8)

Eli gave Samuel words to say to God in response, and the child obediently replied to the voice of God when He called again. Then the Lord answered and and shared with this young boy His plans for Eli and the near future for Israel.

Throughout this interview God never said to Samuel, “Don’t be afraid”, words that had been said to both Abraham and Joshua, as well as others when first encountering God or one of His messengers. Samuel apparently did not respond to God’s news, but when the Lord left, the boy went back to sleep until morning when he was afraid to tell Eli the message.

The voice of God seemed so familiar to Samuel, who had never heard it before, that he thought it was Eli. God had no need to reassure him; it’s as if two friends are talking. The mind of Samuel does not experience dread or fear from hearing God ‘s voice, even though the news for Eli is not good. Eli himself knows from Israel’s history that God has spoken to individuals, and Eli is able to discern that Samuel is experiencing this, though he himself is not.

Samuel listens as God tells him that Eli’s sin of ignoring his son’s transgressions in ministering to the people will not be forgiven, for Eli has not intervened with his sons to prevent them.

In that one encounter Samuel is transformed into a prophet of God. Like all the other prophets, Samuel centers his life on his unique relationship with the holy God of Israel: “The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and He let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. And all Israel …recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. (1 Samuel 3: 19-21).

In this amazing account we see our holy God acquiring a son for Himself and a young boy acquiring a Father for his life. Long before God’s own son appears, God seeks a son in Samuel, and finds one who will love Him as his Father. It’s a good story leading to another that will be even better.

Love in Him,

Prue

After St. Paul was shipwrecked off the island of Malta (Acts 27:42, 28:1-10) he left for Rome on a ship displaying the figurehead of the twin Greek gods Castor and Pollux. In one version of the story of these twins, they are identical, with the same mother but with different fathers. Pollux was said to be the son of Zeus, while Castor was the son of Tyndareus, a human king and the husband of their mother Leda. One boy was half god; the other all human, but identical in appearance and manner. When Castor was killed in battle Pollux begged Zeus to restore him or allow Pollux to die also. Zeus agreed to place both in the constellation Gemini so that they could be together.

There are several versions of the story but the idea of identical twins each representing either deity or humanity was interesting to me.

In Christianity, our God brings both together in one person, Jesus. When the risen Jesus speaks to Mary Magdalene, “Tell them I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 20:17), he placed his closest friends firmly in the very family of God as his own brothers and sisters. He knew that God had made him the single authentic link between holy God and all of humanity.

In the Bible there are twins whose stories have shaped the history of Israel. Jacob and Esau, twin sons of Jacob, through their story of the birthright reflect the character and intentions of God by contrast to each other. Given the same parents, Esau fails to see beyond his own appetites while Jacob grabs hold of an invisible God and hangs on. Both twins are entirely human, but one becomes the patriarch through whom God will send His very real son.

The myths of the pagan gods can show us much about human nature, but Zeus’ idea of immortality was to place his son and his son’s brother in a constellation . God’s idea of immortality is to offer His son so that humanity could share His immortality , becoming his own family.

Today we give names to a constellation to represent Castor and Pollux. Today we find actual eternal life in the name of Jesus, our brother, the living son of the living God, because He loves us.

Love in Him,

Prue

“How does a whole book get inside my Kindle while I’m just sitting here?” my mother asked me. I wanted to to tell her exactly what she wanted to know, but I was as puzzled as she was, so I laughed, and said, “It’s a miracle of modern technology, Mom.”

When I think of how fast the “ miracles of technology” have changed all of our lives, I’m reminded of Paul’s words: “No eye has seen, no ear heard ,nor human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

( I Corinthians 2:9) And long before Paul, Isaiah saw this truth about God: “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

Our world is full of things the eye sees and the ear hears that are briefly amazing to us, like the GPS, the back-up cameras in our cars, self parking, not to mention self driving cars, robots and phones that are companions, and even a Kindle than allows us to carry an entire library with us. All these and countless more feed the illusion of utter self sufficiency in us.

The things that human beings have never heard or seen have to do with the Person of God Himself. Though God reveals Himself in His book, His prophet and Apostle both declare that there is much, much more that awaits those who “wait for Him “in love. The things of God are eternal and internal to the human spirit. They are accessed through joining our spirits to His in hope and faith and love. These are living attributes given us by our Creator, and when activated by a turning toward Him, open the door to His life.

The very moment that we ask ourselves, “I wonder if God could help me in this situation?” the Holy Spirit answers “Yes!” The door opens , and eyes and ears that have seen and heard only man-made miracles will glimpse something they have never seen or heard before.

Jesus said, “I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelations 3:20)

This is beyond what eye has seen or ear heard, yet it is a promise of the risen Christ, foretold by Isaiah and Paul.

Love n Him,

Prue

When my granddaughter was three years old we went for a walk that took us through a brick enclosure where our voices produced an echo that frightened her. We talked about the echo and she said that she didn’t want to walk that way again: “When we go to the zoo, and you can show me an echo, I’ll go,” she added. No amount otf explaining changed her idea of an echo.

Recently I couldn’t help thinking that the Scriptures are like echoes that reverberate a message that is sometimes scary and mysterious, and comes back to us in waves as we read and as we live. The Old Testament echoes with disasters that are almost unimaginable, of battles that result in unthinkable carnage and cruelty that comes from kings and pharaohs.

Such things resound with thunderous echoes, but there is another echo that also reverberates: the voice of God in the midst of the fear: “I will never leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous; don’t be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

This message was echoed by David many years later to his son Solomon concerning the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the message “Do not be afraid” is echoed by an angel to Daniel: “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come to respond to them.”(Daniel 10:19)

The echo of the words “Don’t be afraid” travels down the centuries until those words are heard by a young girl named Mary who will give birth to the Christ.: “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.”(Luke 1:29. Likewise the message came to Joseph: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as our wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20)

There is indeed much that is terrifying in our world, as there was in the biblical world, but the loudest, most persistent echoes from the Bible are the ones spoken by our God Himself, and the God of the ancient Hebrews: “Don’t be afraid.”

My granddaughter trusted me to show her an echo. Our God has supplied a real echo in His book, of His spirit in our lives. The more we read His book, the clearer the echo becomes, and the deeper the assurance that His words are true and truly resound with His love and assurance.

Love in Him, Prue

In the book of the First Thessalonians St. Paul writes of the end of the world and the second coming of Christ: “We who are still alive, who are left will be caught up together…in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” (I Thessalonians 4:17). Paul clearly believes that his relationship with the resurrected Christ will mean that he, Paul, as well as the Thessalonian believers, will not ever die. Paul wrote this letter early in his ministry; it may, in fact be the first of all his letters.

Some fifteen years later Paul wrote to the Philippians something else about himself: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful work for me. Yet what shall I choose:? I do not know! I am torn between the two.” (Philippians 1:21)

Even later, close to the time of his death, Paul wrote to his much loved disciple, Timothy, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:6).

The distance between these letters, from first to the last, is astronomical. For Paul to travel between being the apostle who will not have to die, to being “poured out like a drink offering” signals a profound change in Paul that can be instructive to us.

Paul’s relationship to his supernatural God in Christ never wavered. His own happy notion of his future when he finally knew both that he didn’t have the choice he thought he had, and that he would in fact be dying, was grounded in Paul’s undying love for the One who had spoken to him on the road to Damascus, who had accompanied him through his life and ministry and had shared His Spirit with him in all his travels. All that he once thought would be true for himself proved not to be. Nevertheless, Paul’s sense of purpose and even achievement wasn’t marred by any change in his expectations. He called his fight “good”, and his faith is entirely intact: “And now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed to see His appearing.”( 2 Timothy 4:8)

More even than the things Paul wrote, his love for Christ is a letter to each of us, and a well of God’s presence in our midst.

Love in Him,

Prue