Beauty

 

Some winter mornings, the sunshine reflects brilliantly off the ice clad branches of the bare trees across the river.  It is an absolutely beautiful sight.  The combination of sunlight, ice and bare branches is a wonderful sight in a sometimes rather hostile season.  Indeed, the beauty of it is a gift, a joy to behold.  Unless there is no God then it is simply the material phenomenon of light, water in a frozen state and the DNA driven operation of the human eye.  The beauty of the scene does not exist if there is not a creator who designed it. 

My reaction to the sight is, at its most basic, the operation of DNA controlled functions in my flesh.  Chemicals interacting with cells, the retina in my eye taking in the light, the photons,  and my brain interpreting the sight to make some sort of sense of it.  Beauty is not in the chemical equation.  Chemistry has no part in beauty.

But, you say, it is beautiful to me;  there is no need to get religious and bring up God.  My response is to ask which part of your cells or DNA defines beauty?  How did you discover what beauty is, how do you determine it?  Why is beauty even important if all we are is a mass of chemicals and electrical impulses?  And if by some chemical reaction, you do determine what beauty is, who should I listen to your opinion?  What makes your DNA more qualified to decide on the defination of beauty than my DNA?

Without an objective standard, a definition from beyond our brains, we are left to make all kinds of determinations that are purely subjective, that are of no transcendent value.  We like what we like and nobody can tell us different.   These determinations come and go with a regularity that is marked.  They change with the years, with the culture, with the people who are in charge.  Beauty, justice, goodness and kindness are all undefined concepts that simply float around in our conversations without meaning.  Beauty is whatever we want it to be, justice is what we want, when we want it, without consequences to us.  Goodness and kindness are traits or actions that serve to further my wants and my life.

All these ideas are empty of meaning if it is simply each person deciding what is meant by the words and concepts.  We can gather a group of like minded people who will all agree on a definition, but that does not make it so.  If you doubt that, look at some of the current displays of modern art.  Many modern people consider the piece of sculpture titled "Comedian" to be a fine example of modern art, a thing of import.  In reality, it is a ripe banana duct taped to a wall.  It sold for $120,00.00.  Was it beautiful, was it important?  Apparently, some people thought so.

The complication we face is that our hearts yearn for beauty.  Whether it is a brilliant winter morning or a painting by Da Vinci, we are moved by beauty, we search for it, and we find pleasure in it.  Our hearts also yearn for justice, we abhor injustice when we see it and are moved to action.  Goodness and kindness are sweet to our souls, and without them life is dry and barren.  But these exist only in a world that comes with and through a Creator, with God.   These ideas require a Mind to create them, to define them and to give to us the ability to experience them.  Without a creator everything is merely an accident, a chance happening.  Even a lovely morning in winter.  Beauty is the evidence of something beyond the material world.  It is evidence of a deep realizations that there is meaning and truth that exist outside of us.  It is evidence that life is more than a random collision of atoms.  Because there is a Creator who paints the trees with ice and shines his burning sunlight on it, we see the world in a new and exquisite way.  Because there is a Creator displaying His work for all to see, we know that
beauty is the fingerprint of God in this world.

A Tale of Two Gardens

                              

Recently, I have been thinking about symmetry.  Symmetry in design, symmetry in nature and symmetry in art.  I realize this is not an exciting subject, talked about on TV or on social media, but it is interesting to me. When I see symmetry in a floor tile design, or in the rings of a tree, the petals of a flower I am reminded that the symmetry is not there by accident.  It is not a random occurrence.  Symmetry is a design choice made by a designer.  It is purposeful, it is intended to evoke some reaction.  For those who have dealt with a furniture arrangement or hanging pictures on a wall, you know well enough how a design that is just off kilter from symmetrical can drive you batty.  Symmetry is an intended characteristic when it is used by a designer. 

The symmetry of the bible always astounds me.  The way God has written into the story of Himself so many episodes and characters that serve to punctuate His work and His character. How He bookends episodes in His word as a way of punctuating the subject matter.  In that vein,I I want to look at a Tale of Two Gardens.   See if you find it remarkable too.

The first garden was named Eden and it was literally the very first of gardens in the world.  We learn of it in Genesis 2:8;  “The Lord God planted a garden toward the East, in Eden; and there He placed the man He had formed.”   Soon thereafter, God gave the man a companion - Eve.  They lived in the God designed garden, worked it, ate of it fruit and visited with God when he walked in the garden.  They knew God, they were present with Him.  It must have been a beautiful place.  Can you imagine the trees, their leaves a truer green than we know,  The flowers more perfect and delightful than any we have seen.  And so many types of fruits and vegetables. An overwhelming abundance all available to the man and the woman.  All for the taking.  Save one.

One thing, one tree, one fruit was forbidden.

In this garden, teeming with life and beauty; with love and the nearness of God, only one thing was off limits.

One thing. 

And yet the woman, Eve, listened to the snake, listened and believed.

And Eve

-doubted the goodness of the creator

-believed she was missing out  -  FOMO

-believed God was maliciously keeping the best from her

-she did not trust the gardener

-she did not believe His voice.

So she stood by the tree that was forbidden, she reached out her hand and pulled the fruit from the tree 

and took a bite. 

At that moment, the garden of life became a garden of death.

The second garden we see is vastly different.  It is designed by humans. It is located in a harsher climate than Eden where dust, scrub trees and shrubs compete with rocks, well trodden paths and caves.  

This is what we read in the Gospel of John in Chapter 20.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, ( well He was, wasn’t He?)  she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.”

Here we learn that once again God is working in a garden, but a very different type of gardening than we do.  

This desolate garden of death,  filled with tombs packed with dead mens’ bones had changed; Because Jesus was buried here, planted if you will, as the seed of the first fruits of salvation.

 When He rose that first Easter morning, everything was different.  The first one to see Him was Mary Magdalen, a woman with a history.

Thinking Jesus to be the gardener in the graveyard, she asks His help to locate Jesus. And then He calls her by name, and she turns and clearly sees who He is.  Seeing Him she bows down in worship before Him.

Where Eve took the place of God in Eden, Mary worshiped God in the graveyard.  The graveyard Adam and Eve created by their sin.  

Where Eve chose to reject the voice of God , Mary recognized God in the hearing of His voice.  Recall the words of Jesus in John 10:3  “And the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name.”

The first garden was where the curse of death descended on all.  That verdant, beautiful garden where God was present in His creation became the abandoned home, the place from which we are all exiled, from which we are all ejected, tossed out; and to which  we can never return because the way is blocked. 

But it is also the place of the first promise of God, a promise of restoration.

And, so the second garden is where we see that the curse has been broken,

It is  where distance from God is exiled

It is where death is ejected 

Where Evil is tossed out

And the Way is opened to us

Two women, two gardens, two choices

The graveyard of Jesus has become the garden of Life. The place of hope and joy where promises are kept, where creation is restored.

So we have one final choice.  We can stand in opposition to God, doubting His goodness or  we can bow at His feet, in His presence, hearing His voice and worship.  

The symmetry of the word of God, the beauty of His work in Jesus, and His calling us by name are the joys of living in the garden of life.

Baggage claim

 

What kind of baggage do you have?  Is your baggage heavy and difficult to manage like those  carry-on bags people shove into the airplane’s overhead bins? You know the scene.  A passenger drags this unwieldy bag down the aisle of the plane, bumping the elbows of seated passengers.   Once at the correct seat, the bag gets wrestled upward, awkwardly, nearly decapitating the passenger in the seat below, and then,  with much grunting and pushing the bag is finally shoved into the bin and the door to the bin is smashed repeatedly until it finally clicks shut. Voila! It should be an Olympic event!

I sometimes wonder what is in that overstuffed bag.  What is so important that the person can't check it through but chooses  to drag it along and heft it into the bin so it can remain close by. 

Do you ever do that with your  personal “baggage?”  We keep it close, always nearby.  Barely glancing in the bag, but very aware of what it holds.  We  know it is hard to look at, heavy to carry and with us always. It is our bag of issues.

Recently , the Lord showed me that I had some stuff in my “carry-on bag” that was weighing me down.  It is interesting when God directs us to examine just what it is that we are carrying around.  My heavy load was packed way down in the bag, had  been there for years, and was way past its Sell by date!  It was thoroughly rotten.It was anger.

You might say it was a simmering coal of anger, but what a heavy weight to my soul.

Have you some old weight that has been burning and slowly weighing you down?  Perhaps you understand then.

My anger is years, even decades old.  It  was directed at people I haven't seen for ages. People I probably couldn’t pick out of a Police LineUp. 

I was angered by something they said or did, but they didn’t know about it. They had no clue anymore, I was angry and since they were not mind readers, they knew nothing about it. Heck, I had no clue by this time, either,  just the simmering anger.    So I was just angry and carrying that anger along, having imagined conversations with these people.  Conversations in which I always was logical, calm and made perfect sense so they had to admit their wrongdoing!  A rich fantasy life!

But carrying anger is dangerous and  it is destructive.  Carrying that  anger leads to it  becoming resentment, it is like a slow poison.

I tried to fix it and get rid of it, claiming to myself that I forgave them, praying for them and that really was helpful, but still that burning coal of anger smoked and was a fatiguing burden..  I really wanted to be free of the burden of the anger and resentment, much as we all do. It is a very heavy and awkward load to carry.

But how can I , how can you, finally set down your overstuffed bag?  All of us carry memories, good and bad.  All of us carry experiences, relationships, words that have affected  us. Often, our baggage is full.  

Did you know that God offers a burden buy back program?  It is in the Book of Matthew 11:25-30.

We read this:

5 [a]At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to infants. 26 Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in Your sight. 27 All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son determines to reveal Him.

28 “Come to Me, all [b]who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find [c]rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”

What is offered here?  An exchange- or more like an abandoning of our baggage.  We come as those to whom God has revealed His wisdom, and we are as infants, babies, helpless.

We come to Jesus, the Son, Who reveals to us the wisdom of The Father.

But notice our situation as we respond to Jesus’ invitation to come.

We are Weary-  which is to say, tired, worn out, exhausted, fatigued by work.  Are you tired of toting that anger or resentment or jealousy or unforgiveness or whatever it is that you are carrying? Have you had enough of the struggle?

I know I am tired of it.  What has it benefited me to remain angry? Why would I want that anger any more? Am I any more at peace? Do those forgotten incidents mean anything any more?  Am I a stronger person for remaining angry?  Am I wiser, holier?  Not at all!

Notice, too, that we are characterized as heavy laden.  That is describing  overloaded pack animal, weighed down with too large and heavy a load.A load we cannot possible manage alone.   ( Describe Nica horses pulling carts)

What a picture!  Here Jesus invites us to come to Him  and we show up overworked, overloaded and exhausted people, barely able to put one foot in front of the other!  

And the offer of Jesus to us is: these three things:

Rest,            an easy  yoke,               a light burden.

A yoke is that crossbeam that joins 2 oxen together so that they walk the fields in unison and plow in an orderly manner. .  We are offered the yoke of Jesus-to be joined to Him,  in His field.  And He is a gentle and humble master. He is not overloading us.  He is not overworking us. Why?   Because Jesus makes his yoke an easy yoke. It is  not difficult and heavy.  It is easy, kind and gracious.  It is a yoke to draw us close to Him, to walk His field in His way.  

 Furthermore,  the idea expressed here by the word burden  is of  a useful, grace filled work or service.  A service that is meaningful and purposeful.  It is not carrying the burden of  old pain, ancient anger or forgotten slights. It is not the continual striving to prove ourselves, to justify ourselves, to defend ourselves. 

This Burden from Jesus is a burden but it  is not  a heavy burden: it is light.  In this verse we hear Jesus offer us the opportunity to serve with Him and to serve Him.  The language is poetic and repeats the idea of work and service for a gentle master.  A master who is kind and caring. 

The end goal being yoked with Jesus is to find rest and  learn from  Him. The easy yoke and light burden results in us knowing Him better.  It results in our being able  to see his grace and his humility and to experience the joy of being with Him.  We can finally  drop our load and take up His yoke  because He has already taken our heavy baggage on Himself. In that gracious action, when He laid down His life for mine, for yours, we find there the rest for our souls.  We don’t have to carry our personal baggage of anger or bitterness,or whatever you are carrying,  because we are able to give it to Him to dispose of. 

Jesus offers us His presence and He gives us purpose.  The Father gives us His wisdom and The Spirit calls us to put down our heavy bags and step up to the easy yoke of Jesus.  And in this new yoke, this easy yoke, that  is where we finally  find rest, rest for our souls. 

Anhedonia And Joy

 

  I wonder where the joy went.  Do you notice it’s absence as well?  In the grocery store, in the local Walmart, walking along the sidewalks, people don’t  look at one another; no one looks up at the passerby.  When shopping, everyone I see seems intent on studying the floor in front of them.  Angry scowls or depressed visages are on the majority of the facesI see when I am  out and about.I can go through a large store and count on one hand the number of people who look as though they are happy to be alive.  It is exceedingly sad.

  The world at this moment in time is, admittedly, not exactly a  picture of an Eden, but followers of Jesus have more than the current moment on which to rest their disposition.  We know a few things.  We know that this is not our home, but we are called to be here as ambassadors.  We know that we represent our King, and we know that His Spirit gives us power and gifts so that we can faithfully represent our Home and our King.  

 It is a battle, though, isn’t it?  Fighting the urge to give into the sadness and depressive state that seems endemic to our lives.  Who hasn’t had a rough time, a time of loss, a major setback? Are you tired?  Are you angry at the world and the way people treat each other?  Are you fed up with your own life? There are so many reasons to be sad and depressed. 

  Even still,  as those who follow Jesus, we are called to take the long view, to believe Him when He says that we are never without Him.  We are called to believe that He knows what is happening and we can trust Him with our future. And we called to believe that His power works in us through His Spirit.  And we are told that He is praying for us.  The Savior is right now in the heavens, praying for you and for me.  That is amazing  !  It is more than amazing, it is phenomenal!  

 There is a word I recently learned that describes the way life seems now. The word is anhedonia. It means the inability to feel pleasure.  Is it not sad to think that a person can view a beautiful sunset or a gorgeous mountain view and feel nothing about it. To feel numb when seeing the wedding of a friend, or when you see a new baby,or witness a graduation is a dreadful situation. Certainly this numbness is not good at all. It indicates how very low we are, how we live in sadness and anger. I wonder if we have gotten so low that there is nothing in which we find pleasure, nothing that can give that spark of joy? 

 For us who are in Christ,anhedonia is impossible, because we have the Spirit within Who gives us JOY.  That gift is one that, in these days of anhedonia, should be decidedly visible.  Joy, that calm delight,that feeling of great happiness and pleasure,
is what is needed in our gloomy days. The  joy that comes as a gift of the Spirit is one gift we must cherish, encourage and display. Welcome this gift of the Spirit and cultivate it.  Find In the world around you those things of beauty that the Creator has scattered boundlessly and enjoy them.  Smile at the grumpy people around you in Walmart.  You might be the one to make their day.  If you truly believe that God is ruling, then act like it.  He is God, He has rescued us, He is returning to take us home.  Live the truth. 

Three Suppers

 I love a good novel.  I especially enjoy a story that is well thought out and well written.  A story that shows the author has thought through the plot from beginning to end.  The chronicles of Narnia are like this, as are the stories by JRR Tolkien.

The author fits together all the parts to create the effects desired.  Reading it you can tell that the creator of the story intertwined all the aspects and characters to fit the storyline.  So then, it should not surprise us that the Author of the scriptures knows the story through and through.

I want to look at three suppers highlighted in the bible, The Last Supper, the Lord’s Supper and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Since I am writing this in the  season of Lent, many are probably  more aware of the intensity of Jesus’ life at this time, the meaning of what He was doing and what He had to say.

To begin, look at what is known as the Last Supper.  It was the Passover meal, celebrated yearly to remember how God had rescued His people, Israel, out of Egypt.  The Last supper followed the pattern of the meal as laid out in Exodus; lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, wine.  Jesus and his disciples gathered in an upper room in the city and ate the meal, prepared by the disciples.  It was a meal of remembrance , of recalling the great work of deliverance by God in taking a people and making them His own possession.  God made an agreement, a covenant, with the Jews to be their God and they His people and He rescued them from their oppressors. .  

Jesus interrupted this traditional meal when the hour had come, as Luke says, to let His disciples know that was His last Passover meal.  He says, in Luke 22 that  He will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.   Strange words.  Then Jesus took bread, unleavened bread, and broke it into pieces and passed it around.  He said to His disciples : "This is my body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of Me.”  Strange words.

Once the meal was done, Jesus then took the cup, a cup of wine, and said, “ this Cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Strange words.   

This second supper, this new ritual, a new covenant had what the Last Supper, the last Passover had: blood and bread, a covenant, a remembrance.  But it was new, and Jesus was putting His blood and His body in the place of the Passover Lamb. He soon went out and showed His followers what He meant when He said His body would be broken and His Blood poured out.  Strange words taking a horrible shape on Calvary.

Paul in the book of 1 Corinthians 11 reminds us that this new covenant meal is to be done in remembrance of Jesus.  The Lord’s Supper,  to  Remember.

The third supper is called the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.  There is very little written about it, but the book of Revelation tells us that it is a marriage of the Lamb and His bride.   As we saw in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is the Lamb.  We know  marriage is a joyful occasion.  We are also told that it is a blessing to be invited to this supper.  In addition,  know that a marriage supper, a wedding reception, takes place after the wedding, it is also a celebration and a time of anticipating what is to come. 

The bride and groom have left their past,their single lives and embarked on a new lift together. The marriage is also a covenant, an agreement to love and honor each other.  The wedding supper celebrates this accomplished fact. 

So we have 3 meals, 2 covenants, what to make of it?  How do these honor God and encourage us?

I would suggest 3 things.

First the Last Passover supper and the Lord’s supper both are looking back to an event and remembering it and calling to mind the purposes of God in the lives of His people.THese two suppers are milestones along the way, the destination is as yet unreached.   By contrast, the marriage supper of the Lamb takes place after everything has been accomplished and the work is done,the destination has been reached.  The time to celebrate has arrived. Rejoicing is the mood, good cheer is the order of the day.  For us  this means we  need to believe God, to trust that His plan will come to a joyous crescendo.  

Second, the intricate weaving of the Exodus, the passover, the incarnation and the sacrifice of Jesus, the rescue of sinners by the spilled blood of Jesus are  all leading to the restoration of God's world, God’s creation.  Certainly, this  complex story has an author that not only knows the end from the beginning but indeed makes certain that it comes out the way He intends.  This all  speaks to the fact that God is ruler, and is sovereign over all.   

Third and finally, all the remembering of God’s work in the past  would have no purpose unless there was a future, a goal, a New way of being human.  A way where sin and evil have no power, where death is no more.  A place where truth and beauty are really truthful and beautiful.  And is this not the hope of each one of us?  Do we not long for the time when time will not steal our lives away, when death is not even a bad memory?  Have we even considered how grand it will be to not fight within ourselves against the evil that is in our hearts, the sin in our minds, the foolishness of our desires?  But we do have that Hope, we have been invited to the MarriageFeast of the Lamb if we are united to Christ. . This is a  feast that celebrates the eternal present, the glorious life bought by the blood of the Savior, and  the presence of the bridegroom in the midst of New Heaven and the New Earth.  

Trust in the Sovereign God and hope, believing in the promise that our King is indeed coming for us.

Forget Not

 

What was the name of your third grade teacher?  What street did you live on when you were 15?  Do

you recall the face of  your childhood best friend?  The memories I have of Mrs. Fenn, or my friend

Donna are  firmly set in my brain and while I don’t think of these things everyday, if I want to recall

them, I have only to remember.  

Psalm 103 begins  “Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name.

                                Bless the Lord, oh my soul and forget not all His benefits.”

Why does the psalmist tell us to ‘forget not’?  Why not just say Remember all His benefits?

There can’t be much difference between an injunction to remember and one to  “forget not.”

I would contend that in order to not forget something, it has to be available to remember. In other words, we have to have something in our minds in order to not forget it.  It is similar to a call to remember something, but in a more forceful, pointed way.  

We are told to not forget all the benefits of the Lord, but do we even know the benefits?  Have we stored them in our memories so that we can recall them and not forget?  And where can we learn all the benefits of the Lord?  If the psalmist tells us there are benefits for us from God, we can be certain that God will show us what those benefits are. 

 Since God has chosen to reveal Himself in the scriptures, that is the place to find the accounting of all He has given us.  Think of it as His letter to the creatures He has made and read it as such.  Avoid the trap of imagining what He has done for us and read His own account.  There is no substitute for hearing about Someone from their own lips. 

Do you find it amazing that God has given us benefits?  In fact this psalm goes on to list at least five things which are to our benefit from the hand of God.  The amazing undertaking of God to aid  His creation, to work for the good of it is astonishing especially in light of the great gap that is between us and our maker. 

Yet that is just what God has done.  We can  know and appreciate these benefits, but it will  take both our  time and our  effort. 

 If you take the opportunity to get to know God and all that He has done for us, a second step is to put those benefits from God into your memory, to commit to memory all the benefits. Memorize the scriptures, read them over and over, repeat them out loud. Don’t place yourself in a position where you might forget.  To work on remembering what God has said and the benefits He has given you is to fill your heart and mind with all that is good and beautiful.  It will only build you up in the faith and give you the peace of knowing that you can “forget not all His benefits.”

Friendship Comfort Zone

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever had a friend for ages and then you just drift apart?  Or circumstances in life change and suddenly, you don’t see a friend regularly?  The loss leaves a hole, and sorrow.  The loss leaves you with time you did not have before.  The loss leaves you with the opportunity to allow God to bring new people into your orbit.  New people, whose life has also been upset and who have also experienced the same type of loss of friends as you have.

 

For many of us the restrictions placed on us by the governing authorities in an attempt to protect us from the Covid virus have had the effect of separating us from old friends and old patterns.  These actions have lead to new patterns in life, which do not always allow the same depth of interaction with some old friends.  Like a door closing, we have been forced to move on, leaving a bit of our hearts behind. 

 

That leads to the question of whether you believe if God is, indeed, in control of all things, even friendship.  Does the sovereignty of God include the realm of friends?

As much as we may claim that God rules over all aspects of life, we balk at the idea that

He could oversee something so personal and necessary as whom our friends are.  Don’t we get to choose our friends?  Does God not have bigger things to do than select the people we pal around with? 

 

Of course you and I both know that He is ruler of all things, large and small, important and unessential.  If the circumstances of life have caused some friendships to draw back, look for the new people God is bringing into your sphere.  While we may not understand what the reasons, we can still welcome the new friends.  The challenges new friends bring can lead to our growth.  The experiences of new friends can open our hearts to become more sympathetic and more joyful. 

The world is filled with people who are made in God’s image, for His purposes.  As we are forced out of our “friendship comfort zone,” receive the gift of new friends.  Friendship is an adventure, given us by God.  Let Him direct you.  And realize that you, too, are a new friend to someone.