Branches and Trees

Musings on Marriage

The Gift of Simple

November 5, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I have been reading the fascinating biography of Moses lately and it is quite amazing.  At the end of his life, as he is handing the mantle to Joshua, Moses gives some simple, concise commands.  Joshua has been Moses’ right-hand man for decades, so Joshua wasn’t completely unaware of the challenges before him, but let’s face it – it’s a huge job to take over the leadership of more than a million people in the middle of a desert.

What I found amazing was the simplicity of the instructions Moses gave to Joshua as he was getting ready to become the leader of the Israeli people.

            Be strong and courageous

            God goes with you

            God will never leave or forsake you

There were many unknowns for Joshua, just like there are many unknowns in our futures, yet these are the only instructions Moses gave him.  Later, after Moses died, God Himself gave Joshua some commands

Be strong and very courageous

I will never leave you nor forsake you

Be careful to obey me

Do not be afraid or discouraged

They look quite similar to the instructions from Moses to Joshua, don’t they? After reading and comparing the lists I got wondering if these would be good instructions for us as we live thousands of years later in a world full of uncertainty.

They are simple and concise, easy to remember when the day is light and all is well, but it may be a bit more difficult when darkness and distractions come into focus.  One of my friends has the simplest of all instructions when crushing anxiety shows up:

Trust God and breathe.

There is much in our world to become stressed about, but one thing is sure – worrying about it won’t change a thing.  We certainly can complain, grumble and be troubled about many details of life, but what will change? Absolutely nothing.

Have you ever heard the acronym ROI?  Yeah, me neither, but I recently learned it means: Return on your investments.  If you invest minutes, hours and days worrying about everything in your life, you will certainly receive a return on that – mainly anxiety, panic attacks and perhaps ulcers.  

But if you invest minutes, hours and days meditating on the goodness of God and His direction to….

Be strong and courageous

Not be afraid

Meditate on His love for you

Remember that God is for you and will take care of you,

Give thanks in all things, for this is God’s will for you

…then the (ROI) return on your investment will be peace, love and joy, all which come from Holy Spirit. 

I’d much rather have peace than anxiety, how about you?

You may want to start with this simple statement:

Jesus, I give everyone and everything to You

No matter what news I hear, no matter how disturbing the election results are,

I will not be afraid

Hummingbirds and Vultures

October 15, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A few years ago my husband and I watched a mama cow in our front pasture who had recently given birth.  The little calf was laying in the green grass nearby the placenta which had recently released its occupant.  A few minutes after the birth, Larry saw these six vultures hovering around the pasture just waiting to gobble up their next meal, the mouth-watering placenta.

Larry Baar
Larry Baar

A little later we also saw a hummingbird fliting around some wildflowers, joyfully drinking some of the sweet juice it had found. 

These two memories recently resurfaced as I finished reading a chapter from the book Winning the War for your Mind by Craig Groeschel. He made an interesting comparison between vultures and hummingbirds.  When a vulture flies around what is it typically looking for?  It almost always looks for dead things.  Apparently, vultures can smell roadkill from over a mile away.  Vultures primarily focus on dead things, smashed, squished or rotting things – that is their specialty.

Hummingbirds, on the other hand, are attracted to sweet, life-giving nectar.  As they fly, their wings flapping 20 times per second, they are continually on the search for beautiful flowers and fragrant blossoms.  Hummingbirds focus on life and beauty.

What a difference in the goal of their hunts – one seeking death and the other looking for life.  Every day each bird finds what it’s looking for.

Craig uses these two feathered friends to illustrate the way each of us tend to preframe our perspectives during the day.  At the beginning of each day we typically have a mindset of what we expect during the day.  We can choose how to view something before it happens. 

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of pre-framing our day with the thoughts:

Today will be the same old same old stuff I face every day.  Same stuff, different day.  I’ll never be able to get done all I need to.  I’m overwhelmed.

 We expect and look for those things that bring us down, despairing and hopeless… the way of the vulture.

Larry Baar

Thankfully there’s another way to pre-frame our day even before we start.  With God’s help we can choose our frame for the day – looking for life-giving beauty, and offering thanks for His care.  If you know you’re in for a challenging day you could say to yourself:

Today I will experience God’s strength through my weakness.  He gives me everything I need for what I’m called to do.  Instead of a bad, busy day, I’m going to enjoy a good productive day.

There is not a moment in your life when God has forgotten or forsaken you.  He assures us, In the world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.  We cannot control what happens to us, but we can choose how we will frame it.  We can see our circumstances through the lens of His mercy and grace, knowing our strength comes from Him. This is the way of the hummingbird.

It’s a beautiful thing to know we are loved and cared for by our Heavenly Father who has promised to carry our burdens.

It’s also empowering to know we have a choice:

To follow the way of the vulture or the way of the hummingbird.

Gender Madness

September 24, 2024 / / 4 Comments

If you were given one chance in life to be reborn, to reinvent and make yourself into the image of your own choosing – would you do it?  What if you were given promises that by changing your identity and the essence of who you are – you would achieve lasting happiness, and everyone would love you?  It sounds tempting, easy and so alluring, doesn’t it?

Oli London was given all those promises – the promises that his fantasy life could become real and he could be cloned into a K-pop artist.  His dream was to become a Korean female pop star, and because of this his visions of happiness would finally come true.  So, going through nine different surgeries, including 32 procedures, he finally arrived at his destination façade totally intending to have reached perfection.

 Oli had been battling with self-identity for a decade, yet, even as he did become semi- famous in K-pop music, he still didn’t like who he was.  All the insecurities he had suffered as a child never went away.  The voices of “not good enough, you’re such a loser, you’ll never get anything right…” were still there.  The outside of his body had changed, but it hadn’t become the magic formula for ridding himself of those nagging thoughts which were constantly on loop in his brain.

During one of his surgeries in Korea (the plastic surgery capitol of the world) he wrote the following:

It was a factory, and I was just a product that needed to be pumped out of the production line quickly, so that he could move on to the next patient, then the next one.  There was simply no duty of care or code of ethics governing this clinic; it was simply about quick profit and then throwing the patient out the door.

Long story short, Oli did detransition – becoming the man he always was.  He learned that God had loved him throughout his journey, he just didn’t realize this fact.  Oli’s fear now was what would happen on social media when he did come out with his detransition story.  Because he had hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok, IG and FB, he was concerned about how he would be treated.  His worries were valid:

The irony was that these were the same people who preach about acceptance and about respecting people’s identities however unusual they may be, yet I was suddenly cast out and they were turning on me.

As one woman who detransitioned said after it was all over,

It (the transition process) was the closest thing I could come to killing myself without actually doing it.

Millions of adolescents are uncomfortable in their own bodies – I don’t know of a teenager who isn’t.  It certainly wasn’t my favorite time of life.  Being a teen is difficult but trying to totally remake yourself is not the answer. 

God made a DNA code for every person in the world, and it is there at the conception of each human being.  No number of hormones, puberty blockers or gender reassignment surgeries will ever change that fact.  Promises are given from many doctors and therapists, but all them are piecrust promises – easily broken, because it is impossible to change from the sex which God so graciously granted you.

Daisy, a teenage girl who wanted to become a boy, looks back now on the journey she walked -taking testosterone and having top surgery (a double mastectomy) and says that basically everyone is lying – the media is lying, the doctors are lying, the therapists are lying, and “I was lying to myself.”   It’s all a game of pretending, except for the fact that it is ruining the lives of so many.

Oli London is now a dedicated activist, splitting his time between Washington D.C. and London, fighting to put an end to the “Gender-affirming” care system that is impacting so many young lives across the world.  His understanding of the confusion and lies that consume the minds of so many young people is invaluable. 

Oli has experienced the compassionate love of God, and is eager to share that beautiful message, which is something we all need to hear and believe.   

The Bait of Satan

August 29, 2024 / / 2 Comments

I’ve never trapped animals, but I do know there are two important aspects of a good trap: first of all it must be hidden, and second, it must be baited to lure an animal into the trap’s deadly jaws.

Satan – the enemy of our souls – uses both strategies as he lays out his deceptive and deadly traps.  They are both hidden and baited. One of his most deceptive and insidious kinds of bait is something we face every day of our lives – the bait of offense. 

Offense is not deadly on its own.  Every day we have opportunities to be offended – it may be an annoying comment from our spouse, the driver who cut us off in traffic, being falsely accused of something we didn’t do – and the list goes on.  If we recognize the bait of offense and leave it in the trap, there is no problem.  But if we pick it up out of the trap, chew on it, dwell on it in our heart, turn it over and over in our minds, we become offended. 

Someone may have abused you when you were young, maybe a friend betrayed you decades ago, spoke lies about you.  Holding an offense for years takes a toll on the body and soul – I know this by experience.

You may feel totally righteous in holding on to grudges and offenses – someone hurt you and want them to pay. How can they pay? I’m not sure, but the energy it takes to hold on to an offense always has a negative impact on you. It rents valuable space in your mind, and dwelling on offenses leaves less energy to do more productive things.

Offense is truly a trap of the devil. If he can get us to become offended by someone – anyone – we are trapped and the offense becomes like a poison in our system. We will become bitter, spewing out words of anger, division and strife.

There is an old saying – you’ve probably seen it on social media:

Unforgiveness is only toxic to you,

it’s like taking poison and expecting the other person to die. – T.D. Jakes

Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy 2:24-26

…God’s servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth, enabling them to escape the Devil’s trap, where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands.

If you want to stay out of the devil’s trap, keep free from offense. I know it’s much easier said than done, but forgiving others is what will keep you healthy and free to love others instead of casting a critical eye toward everyone around you.

Ephesians 4:26 reminds us,

But don’t let the passion of your emotions lead you to sin! Don’t let anger control you or be fuel for revenge, not for even a day. Don’t give the slanderous accuser, the devil, an opportunity to manipulate you!

If we hold anger and bitterness in our hearts – even anger against politicians we don’t know personally – we will be manipulated by the devil. Offense becomes a toxin in our bodies and a tool by which the devil can and will cause us to do his will. It will put us in prison – a prison of depression, freeze-dried anger and joylessness.

I have a candy jar and I am often tempted to lift the lid and take a piece. Sometimes taking offense tastes as good as a piece of candy. When we cast a slur on someone or take offense by someone’s remark, it seems delicious to spread gossip about them, because they were wrong, and we are right.

But what were those words Jesus used to teach us how to deal with our enemies?

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

There will always be an opportunity to be offended – maybe up to 50 times in a day. But a person who will not forgive is a person who has forgotten how much Christ has forgiven them.

Holes in Buckets

June 29, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Has anyone ever disappointed you?

 Ever had anyone betray you, talk behind your back?

Has anybody ever broken a promise they made to you?

Most likely you have, because to be human means having issues with people.  I have done it to others; others have done it to me…and it hurts.

We humans are kind of like buckets with holes in them.  We fail, we say things we shouldn’t, we withhold words which should be said, we envy, get jealous – you know all the stuff. No matter how many compliments we may get, there will never be enough to fill our bucket, because they slip out the holes. We know our weakness, our guilt, our shame, and no other person can give us enough love and attention to keep our bucket full.

It’s normal for us to try and find another human who can keep our bucket full, but no one on this planet is capable of doing so. Many of us work hard to make ourselves look like we are full buckets, but inside we know how we constantly need the affirmation of others to keep believing that we are worthwhile.

Sometimes we marry someone who seems to be a bucket without holes and hope they can fill our always emptying bucket.  But inevitably their holes show up and they will not be able to fill our bucket which keeps being emptied.

There are some people I have known in the past who were so beautiful, put together – it seemed as if they had no holes in their bucket.  But then I got to know them – and they are fallible, full of holes just like everyone else.  They never tried to cover their holes, I just didn’t know them well enough to see them. 

Some people’s holes are obvious to the world, others are hidden to most but are certainly revealed some time or other.

For years I have tried to find someone without holes in their bucket, someone whom I could emulate, but there is no human on earth fitting that description.  There are no exceptions. 

I have always loved to hear positive comments about myself, and if I heard a criticism I would be hurt, wondering how they could have misinterpreted my actions or words.  But just like everyone else, my bucket is full of holes. 

I have found there is only one person whose bucket is always full and overflowing – and that is my friend, Jesus. He is trustworthy and true, loving me when I have failed, loving me when I have done well.  Yes, Jesus does convict me when I have acted in pride, when I have been selfish with my time, but I know there is no condemnation.  I simply need to confess what I have done, accept His always available forgiveness, and move on.

There is no greater comfort on earth than that of being always in conversation with my Savior. As CS Lewis said decades ago,

God made us, invented us as a man invents an engine.  A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else.  Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself.

Because He has no holes in His bucket, He is the only Person we can turn to for strength, wisdom, forgiveness and never-ending love.  He will never force Himself on us, He is far too great of a gentleman for that.  But He is always waiting, watching and ready to come into our lives – simply for the asking.

So we have a choice: we can either try to continue living in our own strength, or surrender to Jesus and let Him become our strength, wisdom and continual source of a never-ending bucket of love who will never leave nor forsake you.

Disciples of the Internet

April 23, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever heard of such a peculiar phrase – Disciples of the Internet?  I recently listened to a John Eldredge podcast by that name and was a bit offended by the phrase.  I thought to myself,

I’m not a disciple of the Internet, I’m a disciple of Jesus.

 But after listening to John’s podcast, I agree with his observation of our culture.  Because most of us use the internet every day, perhaps hours every day, our mindset has become different than it was decades ago. Back in the 1900’s, we didn’t expect anything to move too quickly.  Sure, we could drive a car, fly around the world in a jet, watch a spaceship go to the moon, but beyond that our lives were lived relatively slowly. 

We would linger with people, work and play outside, stroll down the street as we look around, observing the beauty.  Today, it is quite rare to see someone walk with nothing in their hands, simply enjoying their surroundings.  A far higher percentage of walkers hold their phones in their hand, quite oblivious to anything happening around them, immersed in their virtual world.

As John says,

You are a disciple of the system that tutors you.

When we type or speak a question into Google, we can get over 2 million answers in .03 seconds.  No waiting, no wondering, just immediate information.  And because our souls have become programmed for immediate answers, we tend to expect the same from God.

We have the world’s combined knowledge from over the millennia at our fingertips.  What more can we need?  The internet is amazing if you want to fix your washing machine, build a retaining wall, or learn how to prune a tree.  I am a big fan of YouTube; I love to watch music videos and podcasts.  But if I am looking for direction and wisdom from God I need to slow down, listen and wait.  Wait, you say?  Now that is tough for us in the 21st century.

Our faith is powerful, yet fragile – kind of like coral reefs.  It needs protection from distractions if we want to hear from our Heavenly Father.  Even though our technology has been continually speeding up, now travelling two thirds the speed of light, Jesus does not see that as a threat – something He needs to keep up with when communicating with us.

As He said himself,

I am the same yesterday, today and forever.

If He is the same yesterday, today and forever, then I believe he requires us to slow down, wait and listen – without distraction.  I just Googled “how many times is the word ‘wait’ found in the Bible?”  And the answer is, depending on the translation you use, over 120 times.  Here’s one place:

Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:14

Sitting still and waiting is not part of our culture’s mantra, but if we ask the Holy Spirit to teach us that valuable discipline, I believe we’ll hear from God.  He is patiently waiting for us to talk to Him, so tell Him your troubles and frustrations, share your joys and pleasures.  Ask Him a question and He will answer you, probably not as quickly as you would like but He will answer. He is a good, good Father and His love for you endures forever.   

We live in a culture addicted to quick, but Jesus is waiting for you to come away from distractions, slow down and listen to Him and His Word.

Cabrini

March 29, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I have never been a movie lover, and never have I gone back to see the same movie twice…  but then came Cabrini – a movie released on March 8, marking the celebration of International Women’s Day.  Typically, when I hear about the celebration of women it has to do with women’s reproductive freedom, superficial beauty, independence, or how they don’t need men anymore.  But Cabrini, an Italian Catholic nun born in 1850, gave her life to helping the poor, especially orphans.  She was tenacious, persevering, bold and relentless in helping many Italian immigrants in New York City.

As a child she suffered from a lung disease and was told she would be bedridden for life, not living past 40.  But her philosophy was,

We can serve our weakness, or we can serve our purpose.

MotherCabrini chose to serve her purpose, traveling from Italy to NYC in 1889 with five other sisters, against the advice of her superiors.  She was met with chaos and poverty, finding many Italian immigrants living in squalor.  Nothing, absolutely nothing would stop her from going to the streets of New York to find children living in the sewers, then taking them to a place of safety.  She and the other sisters rehabbed an abandoned building, filling it with light, love, education, music and laughter.

Cabrini faced opposition on all sides, those who thought Italian immigrants were less than human, idiots, only to be used for common labor.  The rich didn’t’ want to hear the truth when a front-page article appeared on the front page of the NY Times that, Even the rats in NYC lived better than the children.  Of course, Mother Cabrini is the one who walked uninvited into the office of the editor of the NY Times, challenging him to visit the sewer homes of the children and write the article.

 Though many tried to shut her down, she was relentless in her love for the unlovable.  The pimps were against her because she gave dignity and worth to young girls they hoped to use for their business.  Yet Cabrini would not be stopped, assuring the other sisters that God would give them strength to continue their work.

Amazingly, Cabrini lived until she was 67 – defying all the predictions of the medical professionals in her life.  Since her death, the influence of her work in NYC has reached six continents and 15 other countries in the world – always with the goal of serving the most vulnerable in every city and giving them the dignity they deserve.

Never Give Up

February 28, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I received three potted amaryllis bulbs at the end of November from my sister Rhonda.  Over the years I have grown several with great success and I was eagerly expecting the same.  I followed all the directions, put them near a window and watered faithfully for weeks expecting to see some lush green growth topped with beautiful flowers by Christmas. 

Day after day, week after week they looked the same, like dead bulbs in the dirt.  After 7 weeks I was just about ready to throw the whole pot in the trash and be done with it.  Then one day I saw a slight green shoot peeking out the top and celebrated that perhaps all my watering and waiting was not in vain.

Now, finally in late-February there are some gorgeous magenta-tipped white blooms – just as I had hoped.

Because I was impatient, I just about tossed out some lovely flowers-to-be. But because of that slightly ambiguous word – hope – I faithfully continued to water and keep them in the light so maybe, just maybe they would grow like I had expected. 

And then I got thinking about situations for which I have been praying for years – even decades.  The healing of a relationship, the growth of a marriage, the softening of hearts, and the healing of a broken body.  I know Jesus hears my prayers and is working things out for my good but sometimes I get frustrated and think,

Why should I care anymore?

 What good is it doing?

 Will anything ever change?

Have you ever had those thoughts, when the prayers you pray seem to be hitting the ceiling and dropping straight down again?  It’s hard to keep on loving, keep on showing up, keep on doing good in the face of evil.   In fact, there’s a proverb written over 3,000 years ago stating,

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Proverbs 13:12

Obviously waiting over 9 weeks for amaryllis bulbs to bloom is much different than waiting years for something you’re hoping for.  I think of women who have waited for years to have a baby, suffering through months of infertility and disappointment.  Or those who have suffered abuse and have waited for years to see that abuser convicted.  Sometimes it seems as if God is on mute as we pray for the people we love year after year, hoping justice will be served. 

I ponder the story of Abraham and Sarah who were promised a child from God and waited 25 years before it came to be.  David, who after he was anointed King, had to wait another 10 years running and hiding in caves in order to keep from King Saul’s vengeance.  Good things do happen, promises are kept but sometimes it’s hard to keep on going, every day putting one foot in front of another when we repeatedly hear the voices whispering in our heads,

Nothing is ever going to change, it will be this way forever...

Certainly it feels like it at times, but the truth is – life is changing every day.  Just as imperceptibly as plants grow – we cannot see it day by day – during months and years they do grow.  God is listening and working so at just the right time the beautiful bloom will appear.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap…Let us not lose heart in doing good,

for in due time, we will reap if we do not grow weary.

Galatians 6:7,9

Have good courage and confidence because God is doing a good work, and He will bring it to completion.

I love the following prayer from Tim Keller:

Lord, I confess I do not understand your timing. If I were in charge of history and my life I would have arranged things differently.

But I cannot see the whole picture, I cannot see from beginning to end, and so I wait for you in obedience and prayer.  Amen.

The Cliff Young Shuffle

January 31, 2024 / / 4 Comments

Have you ever run one mile?  I did back when I was in high school, a half century ago.  As for a 5K, a half-marathon, or a marathon?  Nope, I’ve never been interested.  Walking is my favorite way to get from here to there. 

Amazingly, there is something called an Ultra-Marathon which is a 544 mile race!  In Australia that means running from Sydney to Melbourne – and typically includes 18 hours of running, 6 hours of sleeping – on repeat for 7 days.  They don’t measure this race in yards or miles, but in zip codes.

On the day of this race back in 1983, many strapping people under 30 lined up in their fancy Nikes and Adidas, ready to show their amazing endurance.  Along with these youngsters at the starting line stood 61-year-old Cliff Young in his Osh Gosh overalls and work boots with some galoshes – just in case it rained.

Cliff was a potato farmer and raised 2,000 head of sheep on the side.  Year after year he would round up the sheep, running miles and miles, often throughout the night.  He had often run 3 days and nights at a time, so he figured it’s only a few more days.

All the younger folks in the race blazed away from the finish line while Cliff started shuffling.  He was left in the dust as he shuffled along.  But at night when all the others were laying down to sleep for 6 hours, when the news cameras were turned off and the reporters in bed, Cliff kept on shuffling,

All through the black nights, Cliff kept on shuffling.  He had never heard about the conventional wisdom of running hard for 18 hours and sleeping 6.  The dark never slowed him down because he didn’t know he was supposed to stop, he just kept on shuffling and gradually he overcame the below 30 crowd in their $400 Nikes.

At the end of the race, Cliff Young came in first – a full 9 hours before the second-place runner crossed the finish line.  He was handed the prize, $10,000, but said he didn’t know there was a prize.  So as each runner after him crossed the line, he handed out some money to them because “they worked hard too.”  Cliff walked away with no money at all because he ran for the pure joy of running.

It’s less about speed and more about endurance. 

I wonder if we could live the Cliff Young Shuffle – and I don’t mean stay up for 6 days without sleep.  But perhaps adapting some everyday shuffling, slow but steady, kind of like the tortoise (of the story of him and the hare).

The same sure and steady rhythms, day in and day out – the making of the bed, followed by the opening of the Word, followed by the journaling of the heart, followed by the moving of the body – just this enduring shuffle of doing the next hard and holy small thing – will win everything in the end.                                                  Ann Voskamp

We could also call for help from our Friend, the Holy Spirit, who is always willing to give us the strength to keep on going, through the light and through the dark, through the gray days and the sunny, to persevere instead of giving up.

On my own, I would have given up years ago.  Life is hard and it’s not going to get any easier, but with promises like:

I will never leave you or forsake you

Lo, I am with you always

I have loved you with an everlasting love

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

how can I give up when I know that God walks before me and behind, to my left side and my right? 

When I remember the people who were heroes in the Bible had problems, I am encouraged.  Moses thought his life was just about over, but God brought him out of retirement at age 80 and called him to lead over a million Israelis through the desert.  David (after he was anointed King) was chased around by King Saul for 10 years, hiding in caves and running for his life.  Hoseas’s wife was a prostitute.  Amos’ only job had been a fig-tree pruner before he was called to be a prophet. Jeremiah suffered from depression, Thomas doubted, and Jonah ran away from God.  Abraham was a horrible liar and so was his child and grandchild.

These were all real people with real problems and real failures, just like you and me.  Yet because they continued to press on – doing the Cliff Young shuffle – they ran their race slow and steady, winning the race.

 It’s not our strength God’s looking for, but our surrender and trust in Him to provide the strength for our struggles which will never end until we take our last breath.

Hold on, press on, surrender your will to His, and you will end your race well, hearing those precious words,

Well done, good and faithful servant

Kings and People

December 19, 2023 / / 2 Comments

When I was a little girl I went to Sunday School.  I loved learning about all the stories of the Bible, the heroes, and the amazing narratives – like Moses leading all those Israelis around in the wilderness, Abraham obeying God and moving far from home, David fighting the enemy Goliath, Jonah and the big fish, Peter, as he was always speaking good things – the people in the Bible always seemingly larger than life.

As I got older, I read the entire stories of these people, often surprised about how much they screwed up during their lives.  The versions I had been taught were sanitized, making the characters almost super-human.  Then I read the Bible for myself and found out a lot more about all these Bible characters, and they weren’t quite as squeaky clean as I had been taught.

 I learned that Moses had been a murderer and not wanting to do the job God gave him; Abraham lied, got his Egyptian servant pregnant at his wife Sarah’s request; David had way too many wives – and still had an affair with his friend’s wife, killing her husband as a coverup.  Jonah was racist and didn’t want to tell his enemies about God’s love so he took off in the opposite direction. 

Not one of those stories had stellar characters – they were all flawed and regular human beings.  But I found the real stories to be much more comforting than the sanitized versions, learning how incredibly patient God has been throughout thousands of years. 

This morning I was at the keyboard, playing for communion, when I heard the word Bittersweet in the song.  We’re singing about the goodness of God, along with the horrifying death our Savoir suffered. Why would He die for us weak and vile humans? 

The short answer is because He loves us, His creation.  It is absurd for anyone to die for the human race, considering all the atrocities we have committed, and yet He did.  Not only that, but he humbled Himself and came as a baby, living handicapped inside a human body for over three decades.

When I read about the life of Jesus in the Bible, He was perfect – so unlike every other character in the Book.  He was a King, yet He lived as a servant.  He has vast power above every king in history, yet He used his power only to cure the sick, heal the emotional scars of many, multiply food for thousands to eat, and calm some storms.  There is no other man in history who accomplished what He did during His short life. 

Glenn Packiam writes an insightful contrast between King Herod, (the reigning king at the time Jesus was born) and King Jesus:

“Herod clawed his way to power;

 Jesus emptied Himself of power.

Herod killed to protect his power;

Jesus died to save the powerless.

Herod’s reign results in weeping;

Jesus’ reign results in worship.”

Now, over 2,000 years later Herod is mostly forgotten but Jesus is still a household name.

My heart sings for joy at the marvelous story of Christmas, where the upside-down Kingdom reigns – where humble acts are mighty and compassion means strength.

Jesus came as a baby, but don’t let His size fool you.

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