Why We Can Rejoice

There have been many beautiful paintings of the Madonna and Child, and this one by Giovanni Bellini (circa 1459) is particularly meaningful.  I wish the brilliant colors that Giovanni used showed up better in this print, but they don't.  What does show clearly, however, is the raven perched upon the hand of the Christ Child to signify that the child came to die.  

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."  Matthew 1:21

"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners..."  1 Timothy 1:15 

Because of this we have hope though yet we grieve.  Christmas came that there might be Easter that there might be new life eternal.

"To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever."  Amen."  1 Timothy 1:17

Can It Be Christmas?

Christmas carols, twinkling lights, television specials, advertising that promises magical joys.  Crowded stores, Christmas tree lots, baking, and planning surprises.  All these things and more abound.  Can it really be Christmas?  It doesn't feel like it.  None of the usual delight and excitement is anywhere on the horizon at our home.  Life and death came in the same lovely bundle for us.  A precious baby suffered and died.  Can it possibly be Christmas?

"Joy to the world, the Lord is come!  Let earth receive her king."

Life and death also arrived in a lovely bundle 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem.  Jesus was born to suffer and die.  He would be pierced for our sins. The old prophet Simeon told Mary that her soul would be pierced by a sword.  Love has it's cost.

"Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!  Let men their songs employ."

Christianity is the Great Paradox.  Christ came to die and rise again in order that we might live eternally.  Death for life.  Suffering for healing.  Because He triumphed over death, we can say, "O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?"  (I.Cor.15:55)

"No more let sins or sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground.  He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found."

"And He who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'  Also He said, 'Write this down, for these sayings are trustworthy and true." (Rev.21:5)  We can look with confidence for the day when there will be no more sorrows nor thorns of life, for He will wipe away our tears and erase the curse.  

"He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of His love."

"The wonders of His love."  He gives comfort to the mourning, peace to the troubled, healing to the wounded.  Today He gives those things to His children, and not at some later pie-in-the-sky day.  Today the Gospel is true.  

Yes, it can be Christmas, because the Gospel is true.

In The Valley

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for though art with me: thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."  Psalm 23:4

Formerly, I never got past the first part of that passage in Psalms - the Valley of the Shadow of Death - and wondered what it must be like.  The ideas that took root in my mind were images of darkness, terror, fear, abandonment.  But, now I have seen the rest of the passage.

A shepherd's rod and staff keep the fearful sheep on the right path so that they don't stray into danger.  I have found this to be true, and it is indeed a comfort.  And what was so remarkable in that awful Valley, was the fact that it was not at all dark.  Instead it was light and precious and holy, for the light of the Lord Himself illumined that darkness, and we were not afraid.  We were comforted."... grief is not a force and has no power to hold.  You only bear it.  Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery."

"I was yet grateful.  Sometimes I was grateful because I knew I ought to be, sometimes because I wanted to be, and sometimes a sweet thankfulness came to me on it's own, like a singing from somewhere out in the dark.  I was grateful because I knew, even in my fear and grief, that my life had been filled with gifts."  ~ Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry.                       

Mourning Glory

"Mourning Glory"

   by Linda Scherrer

Rare and precious flower,

    Early budded in our lives,

          Most favored and desired

By the Father, gently plucked

     to bloom and grow

          in Paradise glory.

Through Another Year

All-sufficient King,

When I come into thy presence I see

   the glory of thy perfections,

   the throne of eternal and universal empire

   the ten thousand times ten thousand

      who minister to thee.

Impress my mind with the consciousness 

   of thy greatness,

   not to drive me from thee

   but to inspire me to approach thee;

   not to diminish my confidence in thee,

   but to lead me to admire thy great

      condescension.

   

Thou hast been mindful of me and visited me,

   taken charge of me from birth,

   cared in all conditions for me,

   fed me at thy table,

   drawn the curtains of love around me,

   given me new mercies every morning.

Suffer me not to forget that I look for yet

   greater blessings -

   a hope beyond the grave,

   the earnest and foretastes of immortality,

   holiness, wisdom, strength, peace, joy;

   all these thou hast provided for me in Christ.

I grieve to think how insensible I have been

   of the claims of thy authority,

   and the endearments of thy love;

   how little I have credited thy truth,

      trusted thy promises,

      feared thy threats,

      obeyed thy commands,

      improved my advantages,

      welcomed thy warnings,

      responded to thy grace;

   but notwithstanding my desert I yet live.

May thy goodness always lead me to repentance,

   and thy longsuffering prove my salvation.

~ Valley of Vision, Caring Love

The Ancient Doors

In earlier days, the triumphal procession of a king returning from war would be cause for great joy and celebration at the city gates.  The great gates would be flung open to admit their lord amidst unfettered rejoicing of the people, thankful for the return of their victorious king.

In Psalm 24:7-10, David writes of the ancient doors being lifted up to receive the King of Glory.  What are those gates, those ancient doors of which the Psalmist writes?  That question has been my meditation this day, and the understanding of this passage is a thing to search out.  There were the doors of the stable that welcomed the tiny King and the doors of the temple that welcomed Him for the first time when he was 8 days old.  The great gates of the temple welcomed Him many more times during His lifetime; at the age of 12 when He first went up for Passover, the many times He taught in the Temple, and His triumphal entry upon the back of a donkey's colt as he heard "Hosannas" ringing out.  Ancient doors.  Large, heavy, ancient doors.  Like the doors of my heart.  

Like the old doors of my heart, there were great gates and ancient doors that the Redeeming King and Mighty God broke through in order to redeem His people from the curse of sin and death.  And He did!  He broke through the gates of hell and defeated sin and death.  He defeated that old enemy, the devil, who had held mankind captive.  And then He led those captives free!  

There is coming yet another day when the final set of ancient doors will be flung open.  The sky will roll back like a scroll and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will return in triumph to the great joy and praise of all His Kingdom.  Till that day, may the doors of my heart, O Lord, never be closed to you.  May the King of Glory come!

"Lift up your heads, O gates!

And be lifted up, O ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The Lord, strong and mighty,

the Lord, mighty in battle!

Lift up your heads, O gates!

And lift them up, O ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The Lord of hosts,

He is the King of glory!"

Virtue and Liberty

"A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy...  While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader...  If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved.  This will be their great security."   ~ Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

"Nations crumble from within when the citizenry asks of government those things which the citizenry might better provide for itself...  I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited.  There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics:  As government expands, liberty contracts."  ~ Ronald Wilson Reagan   (1911-2004)

"Suspicious of welfare addiction, feeble justice and high taxes, totally committed to preserving it's own national sovereignty, unabashedly Christian in a world part secular and part muslim, suspicious of the Great Global Warming panic, it was unique.  These strengths have been fading for some time ... weakened by the failure of American's conservative party - the Republicans - to fight on the cultural and moral fronts.  They preferred to posture on the world stage.  And now the US, like Britain before it, has begun the long slow descent into the Third World .... Where now is our last best hope on earth?  ~ Peter Hitchens, Mail Online, UK