About five weeks ago I walked across the street to our neighbor’s house and asked her if she would be willing to teach me to play the violin, enough so that I could play Christmas carols by next December. I had once taken lessons and been able to play, but in the many years since, I had forgotten even the fingering of the instrument.

My neighbor is a viola and voice musician and very accomplished. She was surprised by my visit, and probably even more surprised by my request, but she agreed to take me as a pupil. I began with “Lesson one, Book one.” The practicing started as short spurts, as I’m not used to it; but it became longer and longer as I saw some tiny, but to me enormously important improvement. I had wondered if I could possibly fit these lessons and this practicing into my already somewhat full life, but found that the discipline was inspiring me to do more, rather than less.

St. Paul wrote about the life in Christ as a learning and growing experience: Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship, or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger, or sword?. . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. ( Romans 8:34-37).

When I told a friend that I am taking violin lessons, she asked, “Really? How’s that working out for you?” I just smiled and said, “I think I’m making progress.” “Well, good luck!” she responded. I thought that I probably shouldn’t share the news with too many people; but if I’m asked the same thing again, I’ll say, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13) My “trials” cannot be compared with Paul’s, but his call for us to place our confidence in the intercession of Christ to become conquerors through the love that he has for us; convinces me that I’m not alone in any of my endeavors. The Apostle John wrote, We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:6) That love is all embracing, as is the character of God Himself. Both Paul and John express the height and depth of the love of Christ as being inexhaustible as well as supportive and even instructive. The more we lean upon Him, the more he supplies.

During Holy week may we reflect on His wonderful, enabling love.

Love in Him,

Prue

“The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for the want of wonder.”

GK Chesterton, 1920

Palm Sunday was a wonder that is celebrated more than two thousand years after it took place. Little did the people at the first Palm Sunday imagine that their efforts to honor the man on the donkey would resound throughout history; much less did they know that Palm Sunday would some day usher in Holy Week for millions of Christians who would not cease to wonder a week later at the resurrection of Jesus.

As long as Palm Sunday is observed, wonder will still exist in the world, for it was a moment of the fulfillment of prophesy, and the recognition of the identity of Jesus as the long expected “son of David:” “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey, .. . His rule will extend. . . to the ends of the earth.” (Jechariah 9:-10)

King David rode a mule, and when he wanted to assure the succession of his son Solomon, he ordered Solomon to ride David’s own mule to Gihon, to be anointed King of Israel. (1Kings 1:33) The convincing evidence that Solomon was to be king was the fact of his riding David’s mule. He didn’t ride a great war horse, but simply his father’s mule.

On Palm Sunday the people of Jerusalem recognized the man on a humble donkey as the Son of David, the king: Children were shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (Matthew 21:14) Jesus, when his disciples cried out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord,” responded to the criticism of the Pharisees, “If they keep quiet the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40)

“Wonder” abounded on Palm Sunday, as scripture and experience came together and people celebrated the Spirit of their God in Jesus. For centuries the Church has embraced the memory of this extraordinary moment in Jesus’ time with us on earth. The wonder of this celebration is a small preview of the wonder that occurs a week later at the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. For children and disciples, the evidence of Jesus’ identity was clear and conveyed great joy. Wherever the Gospel is told, God has provided that there will never be starvation for wonder. Today we begin Holy Week, a gift of wonder from Him.

Love in Him,

Prue

Whenever I read the story of the child Samuel in the first book of his name, I experience the phenomenon of tears running down my cheeks at the scene at night of the young boy running to Eli to say, “Here I am. You called me.” (1Samuel 3: 1-10) It took three trips to Eli before he recognized the Spirit of God in the boy Samuel and said, “Go and lie down, and if He calls you, say ‘ Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” (1Samuel 3:9) Earlier we are told that “Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.” ( 1Samuel 3:7) We also learn that The word of the Lord was rare; there had not been many visions. ( 1Samuel 3:1)

The pipeline to God that had accompanied the Israelites through Moses and Joshua, and subsequently through a number of “judges”, had seemed to dry up. The promises had been fulfilled, but there was now a silence in the nation. The calling of Samuel comes as a breath of renewing air into Israel.

Whenever I read of this young boy, I hear the voice of Jesus say, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 18:10), and even stronger: Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ( Matthew 18:3)In no other age group does Jesus place so much emphasis, and such unequivocal assertion of God’s care and attention as to children.

On Sunday we will celebrate “Palm Sunday”: The children were shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!,” “ Do you hear what the children are saying?” the priests and teachers asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus, “Have you never read, ‘from the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise?” (Matthew 21:15)

The history of salvation becomes focused with the improbable birth of Isaac, and includes the birth of Moses, whose sister ensured his survival by offering the Egyptian princess a wet nurse who was in fact his mother.

The birth of Samuel eventually gave Israel two kings. When Samuel answered the call of God, the history of salvation was carried in the hands of a child. On Sunday, we will hear songs of praise from the lips of children as they wave their palms.

Love in Him,

Prue

One winter day my sister Nancy, a kindergarten teacher in central New York State, needed to walk to a storage building behind the school. When she entered, she was surprised to find some 20 or more snow sleds stacked in the shed. That afternoon she asked her principal why they were there. She was told that the parents of a student had once given them to the school, and that they had been used while that student was still attending, but since then they had never been used. The school was at the foot of a gently sloping hill.

Nancy was excited and made plans for her class to have a “snow day”, with permission from the principal. Some of the children had not ever sledded down a hill; years later, when Nancy met one of her early students, he told her that he would never forget the day they went sledding at school. Some of the parents had told her that many times.

Nancy told me of her surprise at finding the sleds, and at having permission to use them. She delights in the memory of discovering the hidden gift.

The greatest secret ever kept was the secret of Jesus’ identity, a gift so priceless that it is still being given and received with joy: “What about you?” Jesus asked,”Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered “You are the Messiah, the son of the Living God.” Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.( Mark 8:29-30, Matthew16:16) From the time of his birth Jesus’ identity was hidden from everyone except his parents and a very few others. During his ministry people disputed who he was. It was important to Jesus not to tell the world, so that after his resurrection, the previously hidden gift of the Holy Spirit could reveal him to those who would believe.

As Lent draws close to Holy Week, after which the world could know the true identity of the one they had crucified, we can ponder Jesus’ ministry, and his hidden identity while on earth, culminating in the freedom and joy in the appearance of the resurrected Christ: When the set time had fully come, God sent His son, born of a woman. . . to redeem those under the law; that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of His son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out .”Abba, Father” ( Galations 4:&6)

Nancy was joyfully surprised to discover a resource for the pleasure of her students. We are all surprised to find God even in Scripture. Jesus was the hidden gift to us from “Abba”, our Father.

Love in Him,

Prue

Probably the most vivid and inexplicable example of faith in the Bible, next to the example of Noah, is that of Abraham, who believed beyond reason that Sarah, his elderly wife, would bear Abraham a son in his own old age. Even though he believed God, Abraham and Sarah contrived to provide a proxy son for themselves. The unfolding of this story is the unfolding of the faith that God ascribed to Abraham: Abraham believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6) The birth of Isaac and Abraham’s offering him as a sacrifice all worked to deepen and focus Abraham’s faith in God. Many years, and many prophets, messengers, and leaders would reacquaint the Hebrew people with the God of Abraham until God sent His son, who would display a living faith so full, that it survived a brutal death on the cross. Jesus spoke often of a living faith: He got up and rebuked the raging waters; the storm subsided and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. (Luke 8:24)

St. Paul wrote of faith and the nature of faith: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) If faith is a gift, then it is an interaction between the giver and the receiver. Abraham believed God as he would believe a close friend or family member. He didn’t even question God’s promise, but Sarah laughed at it while still believing. Faith is alive between two or more who care for each other. It enlarges the bond between God and a person. Faith in invisible , intangible, and motivating. The author of the Book of Hebrews wrote, Now faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see,” ( Hebrews 11:1) Confidence and assurance are hallmarks of a living faith.

In 1980 Pope St. John Paul II wrote in his Spiritual Diary concerning preachers and teachers, “He who does not have faith can communicate concepts, but only a person of faith can communicate faith.” (page 161) Jesus mentioned his surprise when he encountered faith in the spirit of a Roman Centurion: “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” (Mathew 8:10) It is one of only two times in the New Testament that Jesus was surprised. He found faith in an unexpected place. I have hope that we can still surprise Jesus with faith alive in some unexpected places of our hearts.

Love in Him,

Prue

Manoah, the father of Samson, was terrified when he realized that the “holy man” who had spoken to him was, in fact an angel of God: ”we are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God,!” But his wife answered, “If the Lord meant to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering . . . from our hands, nor told us this.” (Judges 13:22-23) They had been told by the angel that the wife would give birth to a son, and that the boy would be dedicated to God. Both husband and wife were terrified at the appearance of the angel ascending in the smoke of the altar fire, but the wife knew that God is a God of His word, and Manoah, only that God is a God of power.

How do we know when God acts in our lives? The prophet Malachi reported this conversation with between God and His People: God said, “I have loved you, but you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’” (Malachi 2)

God always knew that His people needed proof and evidence. His many plagues in Egypt before Pharaoh let the people go were more important to the Israelites than to Pharaoh, by displaying God’s presence and power to a people who had lived in a pagan land for four hundred years. Instead of an angel, God sent Moses to convey His huge message of freedom to the people

How do we know? God always knew that, separated from Him since the fall of Adam, human beings would need help to reconnect. The Old Testament tells of many of those “helps” supplied by God to His people; but the fullness of God’s plan to draw truly near to all people who would, arrived in the person of the one who would rise from death itself. During Lent we are reminded to look closely at that one and trace the evidence of something new and lasting in the person of Jesus and in his Resurrection.

Jesus also told his disciples, . . . I have told you these thing so that in me you may have peace. . . take heart! I have overcome the world.

Jesus spoke to his disciples the night before he was arrested: I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of Truth. ( John 14:16-17) Few if any have kept a promise for over two thousand years, yet Christians on every continent attest to this promise being kept in their own lives.

How do we know? It’s in His Book.

Love in Him,

Prue

Nancy, my oldest sister was a competitive swimmer and diver in high school. For one or two summers she taught swimming to children in the community pool. Her first summer she struggled to keep their attention until one day Nancy came home all smiles. She announced at dinner that she had discovered that praising the children worked a whole lot easier than telling them that they weren’t doing the right moves. “When I praise them, they try even harder, ” she said. “It’s like magic! From now on, that’s all I’m going to do.” Her words stayed with me. Years later when I taught school, I made the same discovery with my students. Honest praise was like food to their spirits. It was really motivating.

I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praises of your name, O Most High. I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart. I will tell of your wonderful deeds.(Psalm 9:1-2) the Psalmist overflows with praise for God, for in praise we acknowledge and share the qualities and achievements of the one we praise. It’s a form of union with that one, that recognizes the object of our praise. Praise is a thread throughout the Bible. In Genesis God views His creation and declares it “Good”. Praise incorporates the accomplishment of one into the experience of another. It is bonding and encouraging, and an integral part of the relationship between God and His people. Praise encourages both the one who praises and the one who is praised.

In a time of Lenten reflection, it’s good to remember the splendor of God, to meditate not only upon our shortcomings, but also upon the wonderful sufficiency of God: For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. (Psalm 95:4)

We live in a fallen world. Evidences of evil are close at hand and even in our own minds and hearts. In Lent we call this to mind and could easily become discouraged, but the very week before his death, Jesus spoke of the praise of his believers: “I tell you,” Jesus replied to the Pharisees, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

(Luke 19: 40)

The praise of God’s people reminds us of Him, and Him of us, and opens a way forward for us to live in His amazing,even though broken world.

Love in Him,

Prue

Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado is fascinating to visit. It is a fairly large community of buildings made from six to ten hundred years ago by a people who did not have so much as a wheel of any kind. They built their structures of local stone carved by the use of another stone into the shape of bricks. The buildings are a beautiful warm, pale gold/rose color. They look very inviting, as if their owners might have just left, instead of having left hundreds of years ago. The buildings are intriguing , but even more so are the people who once lived here without metal or any form of beast of burden. No one knows for sure why this large community was abandoned, but it is speculated that hunger drove the inhabitants to leave.

While I was on the mesa, eight thousand feet high, I tried more than once to pray, until I was reminded of a scripture in the book of Luke: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5) I knew that I had come there to discover something deep in human nature and the human spirit. I wasn’t really conscious at first that I was looking for anything; but at Luke’s words I knew that I had been looking for evidence of a God—consciousness in the remains that were left of a whole community. I was mistaken. As God told Moses, and as Jesus quoted Him, “’ I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Mark 12:27)

During Lent we are moving closer every day to Resurrection day, with time to remember and even experience the risen Christ. It’s a time of reflection in preparation for a great renewal, when the veil has been shifted, and even torn away for us to receive the message of a new life. Lent is forty days designated by the churches to prepare our minds and spirits first for Holy Week, and then for Easter itself, when everything that was incongruous and wrong and even evil in the crucifixion has a new light that shines from the tomb into our lives at the words, “He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. (Matthew 28:6)

Lent is a time of reflection, but underneath is an irresistible joy, for we can only pretend that we are sad, for the truth of the resurrection of Christ is undeniable and rests at the foundation of our faith. We cannot deny the evil that exists today in our world, and in our own spirits, but even greater is the depth to which Jesus reached in dying as he did, and the height to which he reached and took us with him in his resurrection. I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die. (John 11:25) Mesa Verde is a fascinating place to visit, but the Word of God delivers life.

Love in Him,

Prue

When we bought our house over eleven years ago, it had a beautiful ornamental pear tree in the front yard. For most of those years we enjoyed the tree mightily, until about four years ago in a storm it cracked and had to be cut the rest of the way down. I grieved for the tree, and so last summer we had two “Autumn Blaze” maple saplings planted, one on each side of the front walk. We’ve been monitoring their health, and hoping for bright red leaves in the fall. John, the man who sold us the trees, insisted that everything depended on the roots taking hold, and so we faithfully watered both trees until they almost drowned. Their leaves turned brown and fell off. John told us that the roots could manage and support healthy trees on less than half of the water we were giving them. I was disappointed, but we examined the branches and the bark and found both trees alive. Now we are waiting for new leaves to appear. It’s impossible to see the roots, but they are the decisive factor in the health and even survival of the trees.

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” (Colossians 2:6-7) To be “rooted in Christ” is one of the strongest themes in the letters of St. Paul. In all his travels and all his trials he urges his converts to remain rooted. It’s through the roots that the trees receive their nourishment and strength. Good soil makes It possiblefor small saplings to reach great heights. Paul encourages his readers to hold fast and dig deeply to keep a foundation for their faith that will withstand and weather the turmoils of everyone’s life.

“Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him: if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” (2 Timothy 11-13)

During Lent we can strengthen our roots in Christ by reading the Bible more frequently than ever,and making a habit of finding a quiet time to be alone with him in prayer. This is where real rest and inspiration occur , where our roots are nourished and our lives strengthened. Jesus himself, when pressed hard in the wilderness, drew upon his time spent with scripture to repel his enemy. Being rooted in Scripture brought him victory over evil. Rootedness in him can bring us victory, too.

Love in Him,

Prue