Beauty is in the Eye...

 

An artist friend of mine recently started a Facebook discussion about the significance of the above photo.  Turns out it’s the world’s most expensive photograph, selling this past November at Christie’s for – now brace yourself – a whopping $4.3 million!  I know!  Some naysayers may scold, saying that amount of money could be put to such good use elsewhere in this world.  If you’re anything like me, your immediate response was to try to make some sense out of that exorbitant purchase price.  (Although, I have the unfortunate tendency to second guess myself after, for example, dropping 75 bucks on a print I appreciate at the Fountain Hills Festival of Arts & Crafts.)

I did a little research and found an article discussing the Rhein II on NPR’s website.  An arts editor queried, “Does it come with several Ferraris?”  Another blogger offered, "One can only assume the collector really likes stripes of green and gray," which caused me to chuckle, because that’s what struck me about the photo – the alternating parallel lines in two colors, gray and green.  I love how the sky, the water, and the sidewalk are virtually the same color.  Having said that, I’m not motivated to make the photograph part of my collection – yes, even if it were currently on the market in my price range.

Lest we continue scoffing at the seeming absurdity of this transaction, there are a few details you should know.  First, the size of the photo is a muralesque 6 X 11 feet, which has to be spectacular in person.  Not only that, the photographer himself lends a prestige to his work, thus driving up the value.  Andreas Gursky is no newb – and this is not his only photo to make the top ten list of the highest-priced photographed images – his 99 Cent II Diptychon sold at Sotheby's for $3.3 million in 2007.  His craft is museum worthy, with pieces hanging in Gotham’s MoMA and London’s Tate Modern.

The article further contemplates that perhaps the artist’s German heritage contributes to the price, the Rhine (which runs through Gursky's hometown of Dusseldorf) being "one of the most symbolic motifs in German art," according to Francis Outred, head of Europe in post-war and contemporary art at Christie's.

Finally, the photographer’s technique may factor in to the equation, as the article indicated Gursky is famous for his large-scale productions, for his exacting printing methods, and for pioneering a unique combination of film and digital processes.  Yawn.  Sorry, I get it; I’m boring even myself right now.  If you’re still reading, thanks for bearing with me – I feel like there’s a point coming on.

We humans tend to value objects, and even people, by whether they engage us aesthetically.  As we’ve seen in the above illustration, however, the evaluation does not always occur at the surface level.  Sometimes worth is attributed based on other intangibles.  Regardless, when it comes to what an individual will invest in, I think it’s safe – although cliché – to say it’s all relative.  Nonetheless, there are some things that are generally accepted en masse, and the reverse is also true.  Some things are generally rejected by the populace as a whole.

You know, I have to confess, I don’t have a great deal of patience when it comes to humankind (yes, I do realize that term applies to me also).  I get disgusted rather easily when scrolling through social media, watching television, driving, you get the picture.  (And if either of my sons is reading this, I know his head is bobbing fiercely in the affirmative with eyes in the rolled back position!)

Now before you get on my case too much, I’m obviously not referring to the warm and cutesy stuff, the generally informative stuff, the eclectically appealing stuff that comprises my 262 pages of Likes.  And won’t you admit with me that it’s quite easy for us to accept and approve of the things that make us feel good and the people who bring something to the party that promises to enhance our lives.

You know, it hit me after the recent passing of Kim Jong Il that not one of my FB friends posted the apparently obligatory “RIP” on his behalf.  Okay, you got me – yes, I was trolling the site that day – I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that none of my American friends would wish this guy a peaceful afterlife.  Don’t worry – I get it.  It makes perfectly logical sense.

I mean, after all, why would anyone in his right mind wish well on an arrogant, albeit dead, guy who was said to be self-centered in policy decisions, controlling, and volatile in his emotions?  I know, I know, it’s not so much about his playboy lifestyle with all its excesses, and certainly not the lifts in his shoes and pompadour hairstyle that he supposedly used to make himself appear taller – it’s the nukes, the nukes!

Thankfully, God is no respecter of persons.  The apostle Peter said in Acts 10:34, “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality.”  We humans want to compare ourselves to one another, and, by golly, you can bet your bottom dollar I’m most assuredly going to fare better than North Korea’s late Guiding Star of the 21st Century.  But, guess what – it doesn’t work that way.

I can’t say I’m better than Hitler and be satisfied.  God’s requirement is total perfection.  Total righteousness.  Total purity.  Yes, yes, I’ll stop typing.  Unless you’re totally deluded, you know you can’t meet that standard.  Which brings me to the Advent message at last (I pray I’m not verbose!).  “God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Do you see yet that “the Word (Christ – the Logos – the essence, the expression of God incarnate) became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) as a wildly generous demonstration of His love for you and me?!  And His life – the life of Almighty God – was the purchase price of our redemption.  Understand that there is no intrinsic value in the picture portrayed on the canvass of our lives.  We’re not worth $4.3MM – you probably don’t want to hear this, but we’re not worth $4.30 in and of ourselves.  Remember that sin thing?

Thankfully, God doesn’t look at us and evaluate us by what we’ve done or not done or how cute we are or aren’t or if we have peeps or no peeps, etc, etc.  We have value because of Christ.  Period.  We are spectacular in person because of the personhood of Christ.  Not only that, the Creator Himself lends a prestige to His work, thus driving up our value.  God’s craft is earthscape worthy, with pieces hanging all over the world, like the Aurora Borealis, the Grand Canyon, the Victoria Falls, Mount Everest…  The Artist’s heritage is in keeping with how worthy He thinks we are – Christ came as a man, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David (Revelation 5:5), to overcome sin and death on our behalf.  And the Master’s technique is exacting, as each of us was “skillfully wrought… in our mothers’ wombs” (Psalm 139:15, 13).

If you take one thing away from this post, let it be this: God thinks you are worthy enough for Him to have come to this earth as a man and die on your behalf.  But that’s not because of anything you earned in and of yourself.  It’s because God says so – because He loves you.  He says you, alone, are worth His life.  No matter if anyone else thinks His is a poor investment that could be better spent elsewhere.  Please, acknowledge His love today.

What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? ~ Matthew 18:12

The Lamb of God - Part Two

 

I realize about the only time most of us associate lambs with Christmas is when we think about the manger scene.  You know, I get the fact that those of us who celebrate Christmas year after year tend to focus naturally on the birth, and the joy brought by the baby, and life in and of itself.  And, truly, it is the event worth rejoicing over perennially; for without the arrival of this infant, Immanuel, God With Us, we would never fully know God.

                    

I had nothing written when I started this blog.  I have nothing written when I start each post – even when I indicate there will be a second part.  Granted, I have notes scribbled on bits of paper – random ideas that emerge as the season progresses – great blog fodder, as I like to call them.  But, I have no agenda other than asking the Lord to speak to us about the Advent of His coming.  And He’s taken us down this path that some might feel would be better suited to the spring season when our thoughts turn to what we call Easter.  (Although that, too, contains a message of life (after the crucifixion), ‘cause that’s what God’s all about!)

It’s important that we consider the real reason why God took on human flesh and willingly subjected Himself for a time to the limitations and even degradations of His own creation.  This I can tell you, it wasn’t because we were so welcoming, warm, honorable, humble, that He was just so compelled to step out of eternal splendor in His heavenly abode to come and chill with us for a bit.

There are some who would consider the inclusion of Santa Claus and similar stories in our Christmas celebrations to be idolatrous.  Let me tell you, if we choose to celebrate the birth of Christ to the exclusion of the life, death, and resurrection of the same, that is the real idolatry.  We simply cannot celebrate conventions of our own making and call that worship.  Don’t even bother taking the tree out of the box, because without understanding the reason Christ came and the ramifications of His coming, the ritual is pointless and empty.

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Cast aside all your thoughts of chestnuts roasting and sugar plums dancing.  Eternal God came to temporal earth for one reason alone – to save us from our sin.  Jesus, the Lord is Salvation.  Now, trust me on this one, this is a gift.  This demands rejoicing!  We can be saved!  This is really good news!  So, what’s the problem?  Light the Yule log, and ladle up the nog!  Not so fast – there is a problem.  The problem is that – especially in this day and age in America – we are not so willing to admit we are sinners.  I’m okay, you’re okay.  Uh-huh.

I came to know the Lord around the age of eight-ish and before that life-changing moment was pretty much what you’d call a pleaser personality – which may sound noble but in truth is quite arrogant.  Yes, even in that persona, I understood at that elementary age that in order to be perceived in a positive light, life was a game requiring lots of gyrations.  Suffice it to say, I knew what I was really like, despite what others may have thought.  Bottom line, I knew I was a sinner.

You may be asking yourself what a barnyard animal has to do with the state of man’s condition. Moses sang in Deuteronomy 32:10 of how the LORD chose His people in order to form them into a nation:

He found him [Israel] in a desert land,

And in the howling waste of a wilderness;

He encircled him,
He cared for him,

He guarded him as the pupil of His eye.

The desert, the wilderness, symbolizes lack of abundance, a severity of isolation, harshness of state, and is analogous with a life in sin apart from the redemptive work of the Savior.  Notice the language Moses used to describe God’s love for a people who did not know Him – the watchful working of the Shepherd over His sheep.

Now you’d think a called people would respond in kind to a loving God who guarded them as He would His own eyeball, but that’s not what history would bear out. Indeed, Isaiah the prophet in one of the most profoundly prophetic passages concerning the coming Messiah (Isaiah 53) lamented in verse 6:

All of us like sheep have gone astray,

Each of us has turned to his own way;

But the LORD has caused

the iniquity of us all

To fall on Him.

Oh, the glory contained in those three tiny words, But the LORD!  The apostle Paul expressed the same sentiment in just two tiny words in his letter to the church at Rome (Romans 8:3): “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh…”  God did!

God had given the Israelites the Law through Moses (think Charlie Heston and The Ten Commandments if that helps you) and had instituted the sacrificial system whereby the Jewish people would have to offer over and over and over again young, blemish-free lambs to somehow act as a substitution for the sins of the people.  This would have gone on ad infinitum had it not been for the intervention of Christ, the Lamb of God.

So, to recap, what we had no power to do for ourselves (atone for our sins), and what we apparently had no desire to even worry about (relating to the God who created and loves us), our God did for us, because He cares that much about being with us and knowing us and enjoying us and vice versa.  Dunno ‘bout you, but I find that simply AMAZING.

This October my brother’s fam and Jared and I went camping up north of the Valley of the Sun a bit and soon realized elk hunting season had officially opened.  Around here they ensure the elk population is not annihilated via a lottery system.  Suffice it to say, you don’t always find the most experienced hunters when they’re only permitted to hone their skills about every fourth year or so.  So my nephew and his brother found themselves leaving the comfort of the campfire one evening after midnight to assist some yahoos (sorry) in carting back their elk carcass in pieces… on quads.  Now if you know my nephew, Daniel, he’s no sissy lala (his terminology).  He’s a buff, tatted out dude who ain’t skerred o’ nothin’ or nobody (but with a heart of gold, mind you).  But the blood spilt from this cervid was enough to cause him to turn away lest he regurgitate that night’s fire-roasted steak.  I got to see the animal’s decapitated head the next day with the blood still running out of its mouth, and I know what he meant.

And I know you’re thinking, Jill’s lost her mind blogging about bloody murder at Christmas time.  But, I think it’s appropriate that we face what our sin does, what it did, and not try to pretty it up, because it just cannot be done.

Our sin – yours and mine – caused innocent blood to be shed – and it was not pretty (read Isaiah 53 in its entirety, and you’ll see what I mean).  I pray you realize the cost to Christ and acknowledge Him as your Savior this season.

…knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. ~ 1 Peter 1:18-19

The Lamb of God - Part One

Have a teen beat box in your ear, drum your digits in a defined rhythm on your desk, do whatever you have to do, just rap this:

They came from the cities and towns all around
To see the long-haired preacher from the desert get down
Waist high in water, never short on words, he said
Repent, the kingdom of heaven can be yours
But he stopped in the middle of his words and dropped
Down to his knees and said, behold the Lamb of God
He's the One, the Slam, don't you people understand?
You're staring at the Son; God's reaching out his hand

~ From Toby Mac’s, The Slam ~

Admit it; you enjoyed that just a little bit.  And if you’re anything like me, you even got a little chill when you spoke the last line.  I heard T-Mac explain once in concert that after seeing The Passion of the Christ and having the full force of what his Savior endured for him slam into his cognizance, he wrote that song, of which the above is verse two.

You know, as much as I’ve raved about John the Baptizer in the last two posts, there’s something he himself would have wanted you to know:  “As for me, I baptize with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals…” (Matthew 3:11).  See, JB’s motive was not to draw attention to himself, nor was it just simply to live a quirky, unique life.  Remember, John devoted his earthly existence to serving the God whom He knew to be Almighty, and in doing so was rewarded with the privilege of being connected to this God-in-the-flesh in such a singular way that, I dare say, no other has experienced this certain caliber of a bond.

Indeed, the two are so perpetually intertwined you’d be hard pressed to tear their relationship asunder.  John so identified with his Savior, and when he opened his mouth was so evidently filled with the Spirit, that he had to confess to the crowds he was not the Christ of whom he bore witness.  And there’s an interesting interplay between the two that I think illustrates a pair of God’s most prominent characteristics: His righteousness and His love.

You may be thinking that all this association with the Master of the Universe got old JB a lotta props, some really good street cred, maybe a pimped out ride and an in with the ladies.  (Think about what it got the Master Himself, and you’ll know that didn’t happen.)  What did happen was he got himself tossed in the slammer for speaking truth to the self-serving king who occupied Israel’s throne at the time, Herod Antipas.  This darling was engaged in a little fling with his brother’s wife, and wasn’t having any of this nonsense JB was barking at him, so Herod incarcerated him.  Got to love corruption in politics that leads to abuse of one’s power.

So while JB’s pounding out license plates in the yard, word gets back to him about his cousin, Jesus, who apparently is running amuck on the outside curing people of all kinds of diseases, raising widows’ sons from the dead, casting out evil spirits, and generally showing epic compassion to any and everyone who seems to need it.  Wait just a minute – sounds like someone’s straying from the agenda just a teensy bit!  The message is this, Cuz:  “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?!  And also, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire!” (Luke 3: 7, 9).  Dude!  I ate bugs for you, Man!

See, JB had one facet of God down pat: His righteousness, His perpetual state of being right, His total and utter perfection that demands 100% purity.  And he was on the right track in delivering his message of repentance.  In fact, when Christ came to John in the Jordan and John cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29); Jesus, the Spotless Sacrifice, identified with John’s mantra by instructing John to baptize Him.  JB was like, nuh-uh!  “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?”  And Jesus answered him and said, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:14-15).

What John had yet to wrap his head around was the concept of God’s love: His relentless, unstoppable, immovable, never-sleeping, unshakeable, unconditional, irrational, never-ending love that is His supreme quality.  “God IS love” (1 John 4:8).  God can do nothing that is not permeated with His love, driven by His love, because love is not something you will find separate from Him, nor is love something he simply does or shows.  It is who He is.  It is His essence.  Now balance that with His righteousness, and you have perfect love that is never wrong.  But beyond that, you have God incarnate who came to live a sinless life in order to fulfill the requirements of His righteous deity because He loved us so much, and He knew we couldn’t do it ourselves.  If that doesn’t drive you to your knees, frankly; I don’t know what would.

I urge you to not be like the Pharisees – the religious eggheads of the day – who were so self-righteous they had need for no message from God other than what they thought they already knew.  You would think they could identify with either John or Jesus – I mean, pick either end of the spectrum – focus on judgment to the exclusion of mercy or vice versa.  But no, Jesus compared them to children who sat in the market place and called to one another.  He said John came eating no bread and drinking no wine and they accused him of having a demon.  And the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they labeled Him a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners (Luke 7: 33-34).  See, these guys were so busy having their religion all figured out and accusing everybody else, they missed God in their midst.

You know, my boy never made it out from behind those bars – dimwitted Herod got tricked by his girlfriend and her daughter into giving them John’s head on a platter.  No matter – JB got his reward in full as soon as he departed this world.  And trust me on this one; he ain’t eatin’ grasshoppers in Heaven.

There was a man from the desert with naps in his head
The sand that he walked was also his bed
The words that he spoke make the people assume

There wasn't too much left in the upper room
With skins on his back and hair on his face,

They thought he was strange from the locusts he ate
All the Pharisees tripped when they heard him speak

Until the king took the head of this Jesus freak

~ From dc Talk’s, Jesus Freak ~

A Voice in the Desert - Part Two

So when we last parted I left myself with the impending task of blogging about John the Baptizer’s remarkable life.   [Note to self:  Thanks!]  Well, first off, we see his name was divinely appointed.  In Luke chapter one, the angel Gabriel tells Zacharias his name will be John (“God is gracious, generous”).

Additionally, we find out that JB’s mother, Elizabeth, was barren and advanced in years – not a very promising combination in the baby-making business.  In fact, the circumstances were so contrary to conception that Zacharias, although he was gripped with fear (as most all are when encountering a heavenly messenger straight from the presence of God), still had the chutzpah to disbelieve the angel’s words that his wife would bear a son (a doubt that caused him to be stricken mute until the birth of the boy, I might add).

We see Gabriel himself saying John would be great in the sight of the Lord, and John the apostle in the first chapter of his gospel says JB was sent from God.  Gabriel stated John would drink no wine or liquor, which alludes to the Nazirite Vow, indicating a life devoted to the service of God and in this case, the solemn nature of his role in preparing the world to meet their Messiah.  Born in the hill country of Judah, he lived his life in the deserts until publicly appearing to Israel, the austerity of which would align with the asceticism of the Nazirites.  (Living in the desert myself, I can attest to this – while the desert is strikingly beautiful, it can be just as brutal.)

This guy was not at all concerned with his public image.  In the Nazirite tradition, he probably sported a head full of dreads to rival Bob and Ziggy.  Wearing a wild-looking cloak of camel hair, he didn’t groom himself to suit a culture-defined persona.  In fact, his look hearkened back to the old school prophets, namely - you guessed it - someone named Elijah.  My boy, dressing ironically, goin’ retro, oh yeah.  Not only that, the dude ate locusts.  By choice.  I mean, NBC has to bring back Fear Factor to give us stuff this juicy (pun not intended).

It strikes me that unlike so many of us, John was a man who knew his mission in life.  Remember in Part One how I mentioned the extreme selfishness of the people?  Well, 400-something years later, things hadn’t changed much.  The fact that John ordered insects off the menu stood in solidarity with the poor and oppressed, and in stark contrast to the indulgently rich Jews of his day.  Yet identifying with the down-trodden was not his main purpose – just a component of it.

JB’s true calling was revealed by prophetic utterance through Isaiah, when he proclaimed, “A voice is calling, clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3).  While this verse may have had an initial fulfillment in Judah’s return from the Babylonian captivity, its ultimate implementation was effected by John.  So, how did he do this, you might ask.  How did this strangely reclusive desert rat possibly prepare the hearts of the people to meet the Anointed One of God?  Well, by tickling the people’s ears, of course!  By telling them what they wanted to hear.  By being capital P to the capital C, politically correct, man!

Nah, dawg.  Don’t you believe it for a minute.  John’s message in one word was this: REPENT.  Oh, no, he didn’t!  *snaps fingers in a Z formation*  I gotta tell ya, I do not envy him this – but admire him a whole lot, that I do.  You know, John was not an established political figure or religious leader in Israel, yet he delivered his message resolutely and with power.  In fact, you might say he was a bit zesty.  Luke 3:7 says on one day he actually called certain ones who came out to be baptized by him a brood of vipers.  But the Bible tells us that multitudes were going out to meet this unusual guy, John, in the muddy water of the Jordan for baptism.

Wow, that is so telling!  The 400 or so years I’ve mentioned a couple of times have been referred to as “the Silent Years,” “400 Years of Silence,” etc.  This is because from the time God told His people he would send them Elijah the prophet (JB, remember?) to restore the hearts of the fathers to their kids, yada, yada; He hadn’t spoken a word since.  Now, mind you, God was getting ready to blow the lid off the pot in a big way here in a bit by taking on flesh and coming for a little visit, but it’s been 400 years since anyone’s heard from Him.  (Side note: so, so glad I was not alive during that time, just sayin’!)

The point I’m trying to get to is this:  We think we don’t need God.  We think we’re better off without Him – we’ve got this covered.  We even doubt His existence.  Well, I would think that would’ve been true for the Jews, too, no?  In all practicality God did not exist for them for 400 years.  And that may sound to you like they had a good thing going.  Yet when a caustic unknown from the wilds showed up to make the way for the Lord, and the price of admission was repentance - a turning away from a life of sin - multitudes came.  And not just the poor and oppressed who may have been seeking a temporal deliverance.  The Word tells us tax-gatherers came, soldiers came, religious leaders came, and they were all questioning John about what they needed to do.

If deep down inside you feel like there is an emptiness 400-years wide in your heart that nothing in your life has yet to fill, JB has a message for you:  Repent, make way in your heart for the coming of the Lord.  Trust me, you won’t know what hit you, and you’ll never be sorry you did.

More on that later…

A Voice in the Desert - Part One

Blogging about Advent without referencing John the Baptizer may be like trying to separate turkey and cranberry sauce from the Thanksgiving table; so I’ll make the attempt lest I be remiss.  Though he’s one of my all-time favorite historical figures, I find it a somewhat daunting challenge to undertake from a layman’s perspective, especially in one post.

I mean here’s a guy of whom the Christ Himself spoke, “Truly, truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).  Whoa!  And as we’ll see, that was not nepotism (Jesus and John were cousins).

Not only that, JB (not The Biebs, girls) actually fulfilled prophecy.  Raise your hand if you can include that on your résumé.  In reference to Malachi 4:5 (the last Old Testament book), Jesus said about John, “he himself is Elijah (another “whoa!”), who was to come.”  The prophet Malachi had foretold at least 400 years prior to the Incarnation that the LORD of hosts would “send you [the Israelites] Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.”

One hundred years into their return to the Holy Land from exile, God’s chosen people had devolved into such a delicious bunch of arrogant, unfaithful, greedy cheaters, slack in their worship and despicable in their disobedience to the Law.  Gotta say, my first impulse is to point a self-righteous finger at them; but the unfortunate truth is, I can relate (oh, the humanity!)  Malachi said that this second Elijah would restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and vice versa (vs.6).  Luke expands upon that in his gospel (Luke 1:17) to say he would also turn “the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”  Quite a tall order, if you ask me.

If you know anything about Elijah, you know why I indicated that being compared to him is another “whoa!”  You can read about Eli in the first book of Kings in the Old Testament, and there you’ll find that he had the stress-free and easy job of calling the stiff-necked Jewish people (I see a pattern here) and their wickedly idolatrous King Ahab to get off the worship fence.  “Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.‘  But the people did not answer him a word" (I Kings 18:21).  Add noncommittal to their list of character traits.  Later in this chapter you can read about the Celebrity Deathmatch of the century, in which Elijah single-handedly takes on the prophets of Baal, until God shows up and really lights the party on fire.  Suffice it to say being a prophet of Jehovah in those days did not make you paparazzi popular.

But back to John.  You know, I liked this guy from the moment I read that an angel of the Lord told Zacharias, his dad, that John would “be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15).  Oookay.  And then when Mary, pregnant with the Son of God, went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, pregnant with JB, the baby leaped in Elizabeth’s womb for joy (vs. 44).  Do you realize that God the Holy Spirit (one person of the Trinity), present in the baby in one woman’s womb, resonated with and reacted to God the Son (another person of the Trinity), the baby in another woman’s womb?  I mean, homina, homina, this is good stuff!

Now you just know that if a baby responds this way to his Creator before he even enters the planet, he just has to lead a kind of exemplary, extraordinary life, really.  True to his calling, he was one of the most distinctive New Testament characters.  And I’m going to have to break this into two posts, as I have a Christmas party to attend (I knew I couldn’t do it in one!).  To be continued…

If You Just Believe

Like a backlit crystal ornament hung from an evergreen limb or a shaken snow globe, there’s something wondrous and even magical about the word “believe.”  Included in the soundtrack of the terrifically surreal though soothingly traditional CG film version of Van Allsburg’s classic, The Polar Express, is “Believe,” in which Josh Groban opines in support of Christmas:

               

Believe in what your heart is saying

Hear the melody that's playing

There's no time to waste

There's so much to celebrate

If you just believe

I was privileged over the Thanksgiving weekend to spend some time with my great-step-niece, Destiny (nicknamed “BG”), who declared at the wizened age of 10 that she no longer believes in Santa Claus.  While driving around town I subjected her sweet ears to the Christmas station as I am wont to do in this season to both unsuspecting and prepared passengers alike (yes, of course with my bold vocal accompaniment).  In doing so I was careful to tweak the lyrics to suit the need of the moment.  For example, The Boss’ (okay, that’s Springsteen for those of you west of Joisey) “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” now sounded a bit like this:

Santa Claus is coming to town

Ho! Ho! Ho!

But he won’t stop at BG’s ‘cause she doesn’t believe

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Hey… the kid thought it was funny.

Many of you who know me realize I’m not a proponent of the “believing makes it so” mentality.  Absolute truth is such regardless of who would believe or disbelieve (just ask any longsuffering Cubs fan and think Bartman 2003).  But whether I believe a thing determines my course of action.  And there is a component of belief that definitively impacts one’s capacity to appreciate, experience, and enjoy the object of belief.

Ultimately, belief is crucial when we consider our relationship with the God who came down to make Himself known among us.  John, the writer of the apologetic gospel whose distinctive message contends greatly that Jesus is God who came in the flesh, states in 1:18 that “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (emphasis mine).

Wow.  Did you catch that?  Please don’t miss the precious jewel wrapped in golden foil and boxed in these two words, the right.  Under the tinsel-less tree called Calvary is the eternal gift of sonship, the right to inherit all the fullness of all that God the Father possesses, free to you, free to me, but costing Christ everything.  Go ahead, open it now!  It’s yours for the taking, if you just believe…

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13.

The Path of Life

Today I did something that no self-respecting, detail-oriented, neurotic, Type A auditor with tendencies toward OCD would ever do.  It’s taken three years and four months, but I finally left for a job only to arrive at the bank and realize my audit bag (containing my laptop) did not accompany me on the journey.  Ugh.

So the person who despises driving had to re-enter the vehicle and head straight back from whence she had just cometh.  With illumination of the gas pump idiot icon imminent, according to the gauge’s needle.  And this on the heels of my contemplation about when I would squish the oil change that had just come due into my schedule.  Add to the day’s agenda an hour of sheer nothingness but seeming waste and exasperation.

There’s just one word for this.  Life.

There’s not a person living who can deny that life can be riddled with the mundane and sometimes inane.  This is a universal human experience.  Holla! if you can relate.  Yep.

You know, then there’s the stuff that kinda kicks life up a notch.  Take, for example, something that happened to me on this very day exactly 25 years ago.  You see, on that day… Well, on that day, I had the in explicable privilege of giving birth to my firstborn son.  Now that’s an event that almost transcends reality.  It doesn’t happen every day.  Well, at least not to me, anyway.  An event like that makes you feel stuff you never had the capacity to feel before and makes you think things previously un-pondered.  Suddenly, there is a bigger picture.  And somehow, meaning.

And that makes me think of the birth of another baby.  It’s that time of year when, amidst strife and the hustle and bustle, we start to prepare for celebration.  King David, a forerunner of Messiah, sings in Psalm 16:11, “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”  Wowzers.  And, yes, please!

Do you realize that on one day in history, Almighty God split the cosmos and entered our world in the most vulnerable of forms?  He came as we came, birthed of a female, and quickly grew acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).  And why?  Because of an unfathomable love beyond all human comprehension that looked upon us in our lowly state and could do nothing in His perfection but come down and rescue us.

It’s personal to our God.  His desire for you and me is to walk with Him moment by moment on the path of life so extraordinary that it is “exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).  In His presence we have full joy.  The tank’s overflowing, spilling over the side, when we truly know Him.  Understand that the Maker of the universe’s desire is for you to have pleasure forever; and He paid the ultimate price for you to have it.

As we begin the Advent Season, if you do not know the God of the Bible personally, I challenge you to do so.  He wants you to know Him.  Open the book and ask Him to make His presence known to you.  C.S Lewis once wrote in defense of amateurs reading ancient books in lieu of modern commentaries that “the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator.”  (Think Plato.)  His endeavor was to “to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.”  I agree and urge you to apply that philosophy to your search for Truth.  Remember, God took the first step in reaching out to us, and His modus operandi suggests nothing short of wanting to fully relate to His creation.  Today, thoughtfully consider taking Him up on His offer.