The Bible, A Miniseries

Easter night was the final episode of The Bible miniseries.  I’ll resist the temptation to ask if you liked it.  I actually think the creators of the series did a great job in accomplishing their intended objectives.

1)    Give a good summary of the story the Bible tells

2)    Provide their audience an emotional connection with the Bible

Their goals reminded me of hearing a Bible publisher several years ago say  “Behind the numerous study Bibles, the rainbow colors of leather, the eye-catching illustrations and the thematic Bibles for teens, for new mothers, for bikers and so on is to get more people reading the Bible.  And to get those who already read the Bible to read it more.”

For that reason I applauded every commercial during the showing that offered a Bible app, a contest to win a “Bible something”, Billy and Franklin Graham’s focus on America in November and Christian Mingle. It was a great night for Bible commercialization.  And I don’t say that sarcastically.  The iron was hot with interest and curiosity, so let it strike.  I’m so grateful for those who anticipated the opportunity the miniseries created and unabashedly offered their scripture-focused products.

Maybe you experience during the miniseries things similar to these:

• My friend had her Bible hand the night of the second episode that covered Jericho, Samson, King Saul and King David.  “I just want to check to see if this is the way it really happened,” she informed me. Way to go, girl!
• Did you find yourself on Mondays reading the scripture accounts portrayed the night before to see just how The Bible production aligned with the words of holy script?
• Did you discover, like I did, that some of the images I had of these Bible stories weren’t any more accurate than the versions I viewed on the screen?.

Did you find yourself saying:

·       “That’s not quite how it happened,” or “I hope they include…”

·       “Did John the Baptist really have dreadlocks?”

·       “I didn’t know Samson was black.”

·       “How will they part the Red Sea?”

·       “My, the people in Bible times had very straight teeth!”

·       “Was it raining the night Jesus was born?”

·       “Do you think Daniel was afraid when he was thrown into the lions’ den?”

·       “There sure is a lot of blood and guts!”

·       “Wow, I never pictured angels to look like that.” (Actually my favorite part early in the series was the angels in Sodom and Gomorrah, emerging from their hooded cloaks and whipping their swords around like Ninjas.  A very cool image for spiritual warfare, don’t you think?) 

·       “I haven’t read those stories since I was a kid.  I’d forgotten them.”  (Ta Dah!  An allurement to read the Bible more.) 

I admit that with all the sword fights, throat cutting and beheading, I watched much of the episodes with my hands over my eyes.  That was especially true during the graphic trial and crucifixion of Christ.  I could not watch even the simulated beating or nailing of Christ to the tree.  As gruesome as it was on TV, it was still play acting and the way it really happened was far more horrific than any of us could take. 

Apart from the Ninja-type angels, my major take-aways from The Bible miniseries are these:

·       An incredible redemptive plan is in place

·       An unbelievable price has been paid to carry out that plan

·       I have the opportunity to discover my role in that plan by reading the Bible

On the day after the last episode, I was mulling over a parable told by Jesus.  It is recorded in Luke 14 but we didn’t see it in the miniseries.  However the visuals over the last few weeks do help me better imagine how the hearers of this parable envisioned it.

… there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the invited guests, saying, 'Come on in; the food's on the table.'  "Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, 'I bought a piece of property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.'  "Another said, 'I just bought five teams of oxen, and I really need to check them out. Send my regrets.'  "And yet another said, 'I just got married and need to get home to my wife.'  "The servant went back and told the master what had happened.

Here is an emotional connection for me with the Bible.  I’ve hosted enough events to identify with the Host of this story.  Once all the effort, anticipation and expense have been put into the event there is nothing more disappointing than people calling and saying they can’t come.

When the cost of “dinner in God’s kingdom” has been covered by the priceless blood, violent suffering, and inconceivable separation of the Son of God from his Father, there is no way that the Master Host will let the preparations and provisions go to waste. Hear Him calling out:

'Quickly, get out into the city streets and alleys. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and wretched you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.'  "The servant reported back, 'Master, I did what you commanded - and there's still room.'  "The master said, 'Then go to the country roads. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full! Luke 14:15-23 The Message

Yes, give them the invitation, anyone who has lost all hope, or those who have been utterly rejected, she who has been trafficked, the person who has given up, the one no one believes in anymore, the guy at the end of his rope, and the one who seems too far gone and impossible to reach. Come into the feast.  Jesus has paid an incomparable price for your admission.

My question now is how will I fill my role, like Noah, Daniel, Samson, Samuel, John, Joseph and Paul filled theirs? I think it is to “get out into the city streets and alleys. Collect all who look like they need a square meal…” I will do it.  I will do it more!

So now I’ll ask, “What was YOUR greatest take-away from The Bible?”

  

The British Are Coming...and They Won!

They learned from the colonists and masterfully use our own strategies against us.  They hide in the forests and thicket; they lure us to the clearing and then ambush us.  We are shocked, scream against the injustice, but they were victors over us.  They are no longer battling with muskets, bayonets and cannons, but with costumes, venues, the mystique of the British aristocracy and screenplays.  We are enticed episode after episode, follow season after season and then Carnival films, the leading UK television drama producers, drops a bomb on us unexpectedly. 

My daughter and I watched the last episode of this season of Downton Abbey, reconciling the dangling subplots, suspense mingling with hope leading right up to the last few joyous moments of the otherwise crisis-plagued aristocratic family of Lord Grantham.  Finally all seems to be ending well. Even the hints of potential conflict properly whet our appetite for yet another peek into an elegance of a by-gone era.  Rather than giving us a feel-good ending and nudging us toward the next season, reputed Masterpiece Theater turned, with one-tragedy-too-many, a quality series into a soap opera.  We watched the last scene screaming “No! No! You can’t do that!”  But they did.  I gave up soap operas a very long time ago and now I have given up Downton Abbey.  Their catastrophic, irreversible ending was not creative, but what you would expect from a “dime-store-novel.”  It did not leave me wanting more.  I was more than disappointed, I was appalled!

This makes me wonder, “Am I so needy of happy-ever-after endings?”  Certainly in my leisure moments I don’t want to deal with harsh realities, pain and abuse that of course we do deal with in real life.  If such crises appear in my “fantasy life”, I want it reconciled or corrected before the end of the movie or book.  I’m with my favorite author, Lynn Austin, who said, “I loved to read, but I was tired of reading books that didn’t offer hope at the end of them.  So I started writing books with hope in them.”  Even Jane Austen’s novels held conflict, tragedy and unseemly behavior, but she managed to bring about realistic and believable endings to her novels.  And she was British!

“Do I think life doesn’t have drama and tragedy?”  Absolutely not!  I am currently living some drama of my own.  I have friends who have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, another who will for the rest of her life be at stage-four cancer.  I know real people forced into financial austerity because they have been swindled or caught in the perfect storm of economic downturns.  Downton Abbey’s financial woes were not so incredible. I know a matriarch who this week is burying another of her children who have preceded her in death.  Definitely tragedy is a part of life.  Actually, true life may be more dramatic than fiction.  But there is an element of hope in real life that I lost sight of in Downton Abbey. 

The series allowed us to vicariously view change and the struggle with it in this long-established family.  They faced change on many fronts; we laughed at their struggles, cringed at their insensitivities and identified with the difficulty they faced.  We could say with them, “We like our old ways better.”  Gradually episode to episode we saw new rules and protocol becoming increasingly comfortable and even the staunchest characters survived the process. We don’t have to reach far to recognize similar change processes in our own lives and the resulting revelry and wonderful discovery of “How did we ever get along with doing it all the old way!”  That would have been a sufficient message from Masterpiece Theater instead of the clandestine bayonet through our hearts.

When I turned off the TV, I determined I was not going to give the show or the ending anymore thought.  I had other issues more worthy of my concern.  I repeated that determination every time I woke up during the night.  By the time the alarm went off I had a headache from all the alternative plots I had concocted in my half-sleeping state. 

I can’t pass up any learning moment.  I pull lessons from the most obscure experiences.  So I have one from my disappointment in the Downton Abbey ending.  Unlike movie scriptwriters, directors and producers, God is not out for mere drama in my life, but out for my good.  Whatever adventure, reversals, disappointments, ecstasies, they are all for his best in me and for me.  His “action calls” are purposeful for my life, my abundant life. Do I often balk at the process? Indeed!  But even when all seems doom and gloom, one-tragedy-too-many, and choices are difficult because uncertainties rule the day, I can write the following agricultural metaphor into my life’s screenplay.  It was proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah to a nation who’s obstinacy and bad choices rival Downton Abbey’s and mine.  This passage reassures me that God’s processes in my life are not frivolous nor are they intended to diminish, destroy or crush me. 

Listen and hear my voice;

pay attention and hear what I say. 

When a farmer plows for planting,

does he plow continually?

Does he keep on breaking up and

harrowing the soil?

 When he has leveled the surface,

does he not sow caraway and

scatter cumin?

Does he not plant wheat in its place,

barley in its plot,

and spelt in its field? 

His God instructs him

 and teaches him the right way. 

Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,

nor is a cartwheel rolled over cumin;

caraway is beaten out with a rod,

and cumin with a stick. 

Grain is ground to make bread;

so one does not go on threshing it forever. 

Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it,

his horses do not grind it. 

All this also comes from the LORD Almighty,

wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom. 

Isaiah 28:27-29

Let Bing Declare the Glory of God!

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent displays of God’s creation each morning through my connectivity with www.bing.com.  I love that the click-of-the-mouse gives me one more reason to stand-in-awe and worship. Let me share a few delightful Bing images with you.  

A few days ago I viewed Iguazu Falls. The picture of these breath-taking falls between Argentina and Brazil was so real I could almost hear the massive water rushing over the cliffs.  Good job, Bing. 

He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. Psalm 104:10

Recently the face of an irresistibly soft-looking Cheetah greeted me and my morning cup of tea.  That description should also include deadly and fast.  This member of the African clan of felines can run 60-65 mph, faster than any other animal.  It can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 5 seconds.  That is impressive!  Bing kindly accommodated me with those additional facts.

You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl.  The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.  The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and lie down in their dens.  Then man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening.  How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Psalm 104:20-24

One day Bing displayed the colorful and appropriately named Puffer fish with this link to a fascinating video of how the fish protects itself from predators.  A must see!  http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Puffer+fish+puffs+up&view=detail&mid=61FB44730FE9DBBA779D61FB44730FE9DBBA779D&first=0&form=hphot2

Thank you, Bing.

There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number-- living things both large and small. Psalm 104:25-26

I was first struck with the fabulous window Bing opens to us on God’s creation when I saw “among hay-scented ferns” the Luna Moth. It’s “4.5 inch wing span makes it one of the largest nocturnal fliers.” The moth’s extra eyes placed on its wings confuse its potential predators.  I found them confusing as well.  These moths are nocturnal fliers and live for only two weeks.  Bing provided a time-lapse video of the Luna Moth emerging from its larvae.  Watch and marvel.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Luna+Moth&view=detail&mid=30376358E7D99985AECA30376358E7D99985AECA&first=0&form=hphot2

These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time.  When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to .the dust. Psalm 104:27-29

On January 19, 2013 I was gripped by the intricate design and coloring of the trunk of a Traveler’s tree.  To check it out visit http://www.istartedsomething.com/bingimages/

…the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD's renown, for an everlasting sign…. Isaiah 55:12-13

Thank you, Bing, for your display of God’s glorious creation and for another opportunity to stand in awe of it. 

Meet me at Bing and we can be captivated together!

May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works. Psalm 104:31

Adventure

“You owe us big time!”  I heard it from the lips of my children and I read it in their glares.  They were donning raingear with sleeves much longer than their arms and necklines so big they allowed falling raindrops to splatter onto their t-shirts.  Footwear wasn’t needed, because getting into the rafts would soak their feet anyway.  We were standing alongside a river that all the tourist brochures promised would give us an unforgettable adventure.  “Your raft guide will give you instruction as you navigate the perilous white waters.  His expertise will get you through the treacherous whirlpools that could suck you and your raft into the dark depths.”

At this point the three kids and my husband were ready to abandon the adventure, but we’d already paid, so that put my husband on my side.  Actually, I had looked hard for a white water adventure that accommodated a seven-year-old, the age of our youngest.  This one did, so I figured it couldn’t be all that dangerous and that much of the rhetoric was merely hype.  Of course by the time a person signs all the release papers, they begin to wonder if the arthritis in their big toe is reason enough to back out.

A friend of mine called the “Discover the Grand Canyon Adventure” group four times looking for an excuse to back out of the vacation trip her husband planned for them. When the proprietors assured her on all counts-- out-of-shape, overweight, even over sixty-five (though she was in her forties) -- that she could certainly make the trip, she finally capitulated. 

When I planned this white water excursion for my family I was confident they would love it. But before we boarded our rafts, the family gave me serious doubts. 

We did maneuver the hazardous whirlpool and like all good tourist-oriented attractions there was a photographer there to snap a shot of our moment of greatest fright and intensity.  We made the picture into our Christmas card that year.  Friends of mine said, “Cindy, we saw the look on your face.  You looked scared to death!  You must have been wondering what your kids dragged you into.”

“What!?  Are you kidding!?  I was the adventurous one.  They were a bunch of wimps.”  But no woman says that about her children or her husband, even if its true.  I loved that rafting adventure and by the end of the trip, my family did, too. They chattered enthusiastically and boastfully as we worked to dry our drenched bodies and clothes.  So much for the raingear.

I consider my life to have been adventurous.  I’ve had some unusual experiences with varying levels of excitement.  I remember my churning stomach as I left my hotel room in Tehran, Iran and hailed a cab to go to work in a city I didn’t know and surrounded by a language I couldn’t understand.  Sometimes the adventures have appeared out of nowhere and other times I chose to step into a stretching, uncomfortable venture.  With the risk has been reward of some sort.  I could tell you about the time I went I 125 feet up n the two-man bucket of a Genie lift.  That is 13.5 stories in the air! My knees still go weak at the thought of it. However I can say, “I’ve done it!” 

As I stood on the brink of 2013, I was confused. I felt like I was looking toward a ball of tangled string and I had no idea where to begin unraveling it. It looked knotty and tedious.  But then I asked, or was asked this question. “What if you approach this uncertainty and trial as an adventure?”  Adventure!  Somehow I saw that I could truly anticipate the next few months in spite of the twists, turns, surprises, discomfort, growth pains, dangerous whirlpools, treacherous rapids, getting dunked, a beaten ego, and even people taking snapshots at my most vulnerable moments under the title “Adventure.”  It certainly is a better word for the year 2013 than “confusion” or “despair” or the like. 

Just a couple of days after I settled on “adventure” for my word-of-the-year, I read Romans 8:14-18:

God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" The Message

There it was, encouraging and promising. However from my vantage point, this current adventure doesn’t look like the exhilarating white water rafting, but more like spelunking. Unfamiliar with caving, I found this description that was undoubtedly written by a spelunking enthusiast.

Exploration of caves takes us into a world much different from that above ground, a world of darkness surrounded by rock and mud. Exotic formations, streams and waterfalls, tight crawlways, deep canyons and pits, huge rooms with large blocks of breakdown, crickets, bats and cave rats await the cave explorer. [1]

Well…every true adventure expands one’s comfort zone, develops new skills and strengthens formerly unused muscles.   

Once on a whitewater adventure I was relegated to the “sit and ride” group. I was miffed.  It was no fun not to be in the action. In the action are the rewards.

We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.  In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary - we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! Roman 5:2-5 The Message

That Christmas card picture taken at the pinnacle of our family rafting experience was returned to us by our good friend Pat Girgenti at Wayne’s 50^th birthday. It was beautifully framed, she replaced the image of our river guide with a cross and attached this quote from Martin Luther.

If I did not see that the Lord kept watch over the ship, I should long since have abandoned the helm.  But I see Him! Through the storm, strengthening the tackling, handling the yards, spreading the sails—aye more, commanding the very winds!  Should I now be a coward if I abandoned my post?  Let Him govern, let Him carry us forward, let Him hasten or delay, we will fear nothing!

Happy and Adventurous New Year!

---

[1]http://cavingintro.net/

Just a Glimpse

There is a song we sang in church when I was growing up, maybe you know it. ♫ It will be worth it all♪ When we see Jesus♪ Life’s trial will seem so small♪ When we see Christ.♪ One glimpse of his dear face♪  All sorrows will erase♪ So gladly run the race♪ ‘Til we see Christ♫

What a day that will be!

Is there any way I can imagine now what that moment will be like?  Is my imagination wild enough? Large enough?  Do I have any experiences here on earth that give me a foretaste of that moment that washes away all the sorrowful memories of life and any trial, trouble-filled hours, days, months or even years?  What might I encounter here that helps me anticipate that more fully?

I’m always looking for parallels to jump start my understanding into spiritual concepts.  I imagine a literary person would call them metaphors.

Jesus used one when he warned his disciples, hours before his own crucifixion that mournful weeping was just around the corner, but their grief would turn into joy just like a woman’s anguish in childbirth is forgotten when she holds her newborn. (John 16:20-21).  That’s a parallel that I have experienced.  And it is true.  In the joy of holding the baby the travail vanishes.  That is until women get together and compare their “labor tales”.  And there are some doozies! 

In that parallel I can begin to understand how “one glimpse of Christ’s face” could really erase all my previous sorrows.

Another parallel came from a friend today.  She told me a dear person to her had given her a piece of precious information.  But my friend had no instruction of what to do with it or about it.  So she pondered it.  She wasn’t sure she had ever pondered anything like that before and certainly not for such a lengthy time.  Just within the last few days more information has been delightfully added to that morsel.  As she shared that with me I thought of Mary the mother of Jesus. Luke 2:19 tells us that Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  She had messages from the shepherds, from the magi, from Simeon, Anna, the teachers in the temple and who knows who else.  Perhaps some of those treasures perplexed her, frightened or overwhelmed her.  But she pondered them and one day, they came to light and she understood.  My friend understands better today what to do or expect from that tidbit she pondered for so long. 

In the last 48 hours I’ve had an experience that is an appetizer-sized taste of a parallel in scripture.  I realize it is not the full-blown experience, but it is enough to nudge me toward the transcendent.

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them.  His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.  And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.  Mark 9:1-4

My joyful experience has come to me after nine years of waiting. The waiting actually isn’t finished yet, but for a moment the thorough and exacting work that is being done in the waiting was shown to me.  The veil was lifted just enough to reveal the coming glory. It took my breath away.

And then I identified with Peter. 

Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."  Mark 9:5

I wanted to live there.  I didn’t want to return to the ambiguities, the self-doubt, second-guessing, perplexities, fluctuations of faith, highs, lows and more waiting.  But I’ve read the account enough times to know, Peter, James and John couldn’t live in that moment forever.  They had to come down from the mountain.  I knew I would have to come down, too.  But while I was there I was filling my lungs with the mountain air.

It says, “Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.”  Poof!  It was over.  But there was a memory.  A transcendent experience stored among other treasures.  But they would have to ponder it, because on the way down the mountain Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen. 

What!  Not tell!  How frustrating. I think they may have asked him a lot of questions about that.  Maybe Peter said, “I should have built that shelter while I had the chance.”

They were to keep this experience to themselves until a better time.  What would have happened if when they returned to the other disciples, they told of their experience?  Would there have been jealousy?  Would the others have believed without seeing for themselves?  Would it have been detrimental to Peter, James and John?  Would it have had the reverence that such a revelation deserves?  We don’t know.

Jesus must have known there was a better time to share their glorious experience with the others.  Maybe it was right after the crucifixion in their grief-stricken state, sequestered behind locked doors. Maybe the unparalleled joy of Christ’s resurrection triggered their memories of Christ’s transfiguration and in exuberance they told the others. It could have been during those hours together in Jerusalem waiting for the Holy Spirit. Or maybe it was all of the above. 

I’m glad Peter, James and John didn’t stay on the mountain.  I needed them to come down to testify to me of what they saw and what they continued to see.  I am coming down from the mountain, too.  But I have this treasure that I can ponder any time I want and I plan to do so.

So my momentary look under the veil inspires me to testify that God is working regardless of whether we can see it or not. And waiting for just a glimpse or for the full glory of Christ’s face is worth the wait.  

Cool Tissues

In this blog posting I’ve included footnotes that give either relevant scriptures or background information that fill in the details. The footnotes are at the end of the blog if you’re interested. 

I pulled the tissue from the blue metallic colored square box and used it to blow my nose.  “Oooh, this is nice.  What is it?”  The process brought coolness to my nose as though the box was a tiny refrigerator keeping the tissues at a refreshing temperature.   Had the box been sitting near the air-conditioning vent?  No.  Every tissue emanated the same coolness.  Right down to the very last one.  Every time I used a tissue the same cooling sensation soothed my nose.  I’d never experienced this before and I was intrigued.  When I inspected the box, I read all about Cool Touch™, cooling, soothing and soft!  My word, I didn’t know this existed.  I usually buy the generic brand, which is nothing like this!  “After all,” I reasoned, “tissues are disposables and I do use them in great quantity.  Don’t spend a lot of money on them.” I was quite satisfied with my choice, until I used these.  I have now discovered something far superior to any tissue I’ve ever used or knew existed.

My life experiences have often been like that as well.  When I’m at an impasse, a tight spot[1] or a dilemma, I have one, maybe two solutions. But what I’ve experienced is that God has a myriad of options for every situation. At least 99.9% more that I could begin to imagine. Here are just a few examples from my own life. 

In August after my freshman year in college I was dating literally the “man of my dreams.”  He was everything I had wanted in a husband and more.  I believed I had delighted myself in the Lord and Wayne was my reward[2]. By October the guy ditched me.  I was hurt initially but maintained a thread of hope.  That hope mocked me and then I got mad at God!  I ranted at God, threw tantrums in front of my roommates and tried numerous times to fall in love with, well anybody.  Nightmares of dream guy with a fiancée or worse, a wife, haunted my sleep.

My life went differently[3] than I’d hoped. About the time I resolved the hurt, twenty-two agonizing months and four days later to be exact, I received a letter from him.  It was an out-of- the-blue option.  The romantic whirl-wind relationship that followed had not been among my options. I could not have imagined[4] that in the waiting God was preparing both of us for a timelier, healthier, richer relationship than either of us could have created.

You might think I learned that lesson, but not quite. 

We married and unsuccessfully sought jobs in Beirut, Lebanon[5].  We were at the end of our money and our “only option” was to return to the U.S.  On a whim we thought, “We may never be in this neighborhood again so let’s visit the family’s homeland, Iran.”  We did and within 48 hours of arriving we both landed jobs.  However, we would have struggled with cross-cultural living if we hadn’t had the time in Beirut under the tutelage of our aunt and uncle.  God’s option[6] gave us more than we knew to request.

We returned to the U.S. two years later.  After another four years and two sons, we started a business.  In that process we accumulated significant debt.  It got to the point where we had to close-up shop.  Wayne took a minimum-wage job in order to put food on the table, which was quite humbling for a Tau Beta Pi engineer.  I could not figure out how such low wages would meet our normal bills, let alone pay back outstanding loans.  I had very few options, none of them adequate. Our situation was impossible.

In a very creative way[7], God totally resurrected our business.  A hefty commission put us back in the game, the debt was retired quickly and we’ve enjoyed 32 more years of business.  Since then there have been many similar challenges and just as many God-designed options and solutions.

A few years later I felt directed to look for a new house, moving us out of the city and into the suburbs.  In the time it took me to find the house we wanted, our pending business opportunities had dried up and we were more focused on survival than acquiring more square footage. I don’t remember throwing any tantrums this time, but I was disillusioned.  I thought I understood God’s direction, but the “evidence” proved differently.  Six months later our financial situation was totally reversed and we bought a house after only a ten-minute walk-thru.  The house was directly behind the previous one we liked. If we’d had two nickels to rub together earlier, we’d have bought the first house and lamented not having the kidney-shaped pool that came with our “dream home”.  God had more options for me than I could imagine in my disappointed state.  And he preserved us by tying our hands through our finances so we would be available for his choice.

One would think after the years of witnessing this phenomenon I would now spend very little time stewing over the mountainous impossibilities ahead of me. But I’m in another tight spot[8].  This time I feel like I’m choking. I can hardly breathe[9]. I have a choice, to work within the options I see, or look further down the shelf at what God might be creating or imagining.

John 6 records that Jesus saw a crowd of people approaching and he asked Philip “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”  Philip fell right into his own logic, “We don’t have enough money for that!”  Even Andrew looked at a lunch of five barley loaves and two fish and derided, “How far can this go to feed so many?”  But verse 6 tells us that Jesus asked this question only to test Philip because Jesus already had in mind what he was going to do.  And what did he do?  He blessed the small lunch and fed more than 5000 people with it.  This was an option outside of the disciples’ imagination and mine!

How often do I limit my solutions to what I know?  When the Creator of the gecko, monarch butterflies, redwood trees, prickly pear cacti, wild piglets, green turtles, sunsets, magnolias, Bonavila plants, sea salt, stove-pipe sponges and aloe for Cool Touch™ tissues can take my puny impossibility and speak the solution into existence[10]. Yes, options that before I needed them didn’t even exist.

Did you know there are other specialized tissues beyond the Cool Touch™?  You could have the Ultra Soft, the Lotion tissue or the Anti-Viral[11] tissue that kills 99.9% of the cold and flu viruses. (read the fine print). And have you seen those sophisticated oval tissue boxes that add a trendy pizzazz to your décor? The options are unending!

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[1] When I was desperate, I called out, and God got me out of a tight spot.  God's angel sets up a circle of protection around us while we pray.  Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see - how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him. Psalm 34:6-8 The Message

[2] Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:  He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,… Psalms 37:4-5 NIV

[3] For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV

[4] Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.  Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV

[5] When Wayne first hinted at marriage, he also informed me that he planned to join his aunt and uncle, missionaries in Beirut, to work with them and support himself with an engineering job.  He planned to be gone one to two years.  “Hold on,” I said.  “I’ve been waiting for you for two years, don’t expect me to wait around for another two.”  Thinking back on it, I was bluffing.  But it worked. Coincident with our engagement and wedding came our planning for Beirut. Two months after we were married, we boarded a freighter and headed for the Middle East. In reality, we were so naive and unaware, we had no idea the adventure that awaited us!

[6] …for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6:8

[7] We were close friends with Ellie in Michigan.  Ellie moved to California.  She worked in a secretarial pool.  One day she was typing for Jim, because his regular typist was out.  His letter meshed with our work and Ellie connected him to Wayne.  Jim, an international recruiter, had a job order. Wayne had a person qualified for that job.  The two split the commission.  We were back on our feet, a little wobbly, but standing.  The solution had been utterly out of our control or planning.  One might say it was completely coincidental, if you believe in that stuff.

[8] Disciples so often get into trouble; still God is there every time.  He’s your bodyguard, shielding every bone;…Psalm 34:19-20a The Message

[9] The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.  The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.  In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. Psalms 18:4-6 NIV 

[10]  By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:3 NIV

[11] http://kleenex.com/FacialTissues.aspx

The Power of Feathers

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.  Psalms 91:4

My friend Joann laid in the emergency room, a brace around her neck, her body covered with warm blankets and a blood-soaked bandage wrapped her left foot. The car accident had been severe, totaling her car and backing up traffic while three paramedic teams cared for the drivers and passengers. I had just seen her the night before and she’d told me that every night she read Psalm 91, claiming the protection from many methods of attacks.  And here she was.  When I arrived at her bedside, I pulled out my Bible to read those familiar words…”no harm will befall you.”  The words seemed to mock Joann’s situation.  I said to her, “It may not seem like it right now, but these words are true.” 

For a while Psalm 91 was written on a banner that wrapped the perimeter of the cozy prayer room at our church.  We were encouraged to meditate on and pray through that psalm, which I did more than once. There was a pair of large wings covered with white soft feathers that also hung on the wall.  They had probably been part of an angel’s pageant costume and they gave the impression of a mighty soaring bird.  That actually is the image I have when reading Psalm 91. 

But I get a very different impression of wings of refuge when I read Christ’s words in Matthew 23:37, “how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”  Although the images are quite different, they are not contradictory.  And when I need refuge, I don’t care what birds’ feathers are available.

Feathers as designed by the creator serve ubiquitous sparrows and majestic eagles.  They provide protective body covering, trap air for body warmth, provide insulation and increase buoyancy for water birds.  Some specialized feathers protect the eyes and nostrils during flight and others around the mouth actually snatch insects. All of those purposes fit nicely, reassuringly into the psalm.

Then very early this morning I experienced first hand

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 91:4

 It was four-eleven a.m. when I got out of bed to go to the bathroom.  I stumbled through the room with my eyes mostly shut so I wouldn’t disturb my sleep too much.  I felt I’d succeeded when I crawled back to bed very sleepy.  But the moment my head hit the pillow, my mind was barraged with fearful thoughts. “No, please not now,” I begged.  I had horrific tempests the day before with fear and worry and my daughter Alissa and husband Wayne held the life line taut for me and I made it to the other side of the troubling waters.  The attacks and turbulence in the middle of the night are horrendous.  “No, please spare me,” I prayed silently. 

But I wasn’t spared.  The gale, though intense, didn’t last long and I landed on these thoughts. 

            1) My second son, David, was jaundiced after birth and it took several precarious days until he was out of the woods. I was sent home without him, fearful, worried and even after a lifetime of Sunday School and Christian education I didn’t know where to go in scripture for comfort or encouragement.  That storm was a wake-up-call for me in how little of God’s Word I knew and how much more of it I needed.

            2) After starting our business we went through the worst financial situation we’d ever experienced.  Every bill produced fear in me, but also taught me that God was my literal provider.  I learned to cling to him like a life buoy.  I also learned how to pray about everything. 

In some mysterious way those memories settled my churning fearful mind. It was like Dramamine to sea-sickness.  It was, as I would find out, being covered with feathers.

As I was ready to sleep, Wayne asked if I was awake.  “Yeah?”  I said, sensing the gusting of my calm waters. I realized in the next few minutes that my rough sailing was not only for my benefit.  Unknowingly I secured a harbor for the imminent whirlwind that threatened to capsize Wayne.   I experienced as much of his storm as I had in my own squall.  This time I was on duty to hold the life line and I had been readied. I really didn’t have to say much; nearly nothing at all.  I just needed to listen.  I felt extremely calm, like I was protected behind a shield, a curtain of feathers with a powerful tempest just beyond them.

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

 Psalm 91:11-12

Immediately I recognized the intricacy of the last few minutes. I marveled at the delicate work of the Holy Spirit to make sure I wasn’t awaked out of a deep sleep, caught unsuspectingly in turbulent waters of fear and sheltered during the torrent that was outside of me.  My thoughts moved from “Thank you for this safe, peaceful place,” to “Thank you that you are bringing Wayne to a similar place through this.” 

I’d never considered the strength of feathers. Also it was most pleasurable to imagine angelic activity around me.  They awakened me through a natural body function, let me experience the raw tactics of my enemy, reassured me by highlighting pertinent spiritual landmarks of my life and then tucked feathers together making a shelter for my abiding.  I was cared for.

At one point I did consider stepping over to the feathers and separating them a bit to peek out at the storm.  But I didn’t want to disrupt the detailed work or the peace it afforded. So I thanked and I prayed from under the covering of his wings.

Joann is still in the hospital.  She now has a soft cast on her foot, but it didn’t require surgery. She has a fractured pelvis that is amazingly treated with ice.  She is under observation for a few days which is expected, unnerving, but at this point not threatening. Numerous contusions over her body could make one doubt the presence of feathers or make us realize there is nothing downy about protective coverings.

Whether I thought so or not, Psalm 91 was true in the emergency room, in my middle-of-the night terror and in whatever arrows fly by day.  I can, I will, rest in the shadow of the Almighty for He is willing to cover me with his feathers.

And Wayne?  He also made it to the dwelling place of the Most High, though he migrated an alternate route.  After all, he is a bird of a different feather.