Life Done with Us

"And I don't keep cards."

"Whew! Me either! What is that all about, anyway? I mean, I rarely even spend money on cards."

"Right! Tell me what you feel all year long. Don't use someone else's words to say it just because it's my birthday." 

That was twenty years ago. A conversation --or something very similar --my then boyfriend (now husband) and I had. There were no secret sentimentalities stashed away in a drawer somewhere. We were both equally as hard. For sure, God was working on us both, and I had surrendered some territory, but we had have a long way to go.

Today, I spend money on cards --beautiful cards handmade by a friend. I try to send them out as often as I can to encourage others and brighten other's day. I also maintain a small cache of some I've received. I keep them where I keep my devotionals. There's nothing like receiving blessing and peace from our Heavenly Father in His Word, and then taking a moment occasionally, to read it in the words of those who surround you this side of eternity. We were made to be community! The cards remind me I am loved and appreciated by some pretty wonderful people, and that God has blessed me with a solid and marvelous support system. One card includes a beautifully embellished acrostic, artwork crafted around my name. A creative and selfless person took the time to do that for another broken, sometimes abrasive human being. Another was addressed to "Dear sweet Judi" How? On so many levels it seems like such a mistake. The Judi I know has always been far from sweet, and the person who wrote those words is the incarnation of Sweet Polly Purebred! Having her call me "sweet" was like having Jesus tell me I am holy. But she condescended to do that for me. Another card contains a "thank you," and the honesty of a person who appreciates our relationship; but the greatest impact lies in the tears that she shed as she handed me the card.

Now, I'm in no way saying if you don't buy, make, keep, or send greeting cards you are a bad Christian and an even worse human being. But what I once considered to be vain sentimentality, that which I once disdained is a part of relationship --whether it's a part of how I do relationship or not. And the Holy Spirit has clearly shown me the joy of it! Think of this, we are in a season where we celebrate Jesus condescending to put on a pair of legs and fend off sweat pimples just to be with us. To be in relationship with us! Could you imagine Him saying, "Well, that's fine for them to do life that way, but frankly, I think it's kind of stupid. Let Me just come down there and tell them how overrated toes really are"? Or perhaps He could have arrived and chastised us all for our tears or candles on our cakes or emojis. "Do something practical!" He could have argued. Instead, He wept and attended weddings and sat in the shade of trees and grilled fish. He did life with other human beings as human beings tend to do life.

There are human expressions of love that are important to us. Hugs increase hormone levels and can boost cardiovascular health. Eye contact strengthens the bond between parents and their babies. And cards can be saved for those moments when a bit of encouragement is needed, or we have to be reminded of all the gracious people God has placed in our life. We were placed here to enjoy the goodness of God, and to do it with others beside us. Jesus, who cast out demons and fed multitudes with a small boy's rations didn't need the help of the Twelve to do any of those things. Yet, He called them to do ministry with Him. He came and dwelt among us, pulling us into His world as He lived in ours. God With Us.  

 

Midweek: The Nativity

Some time around 1405, Andrei Rublev painted his work The Nativity in the Flesh of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a lengthy title often shortened to The Nativity. Mary Elizabeth Podles has collected some of her essays in a book entitled A Thousand Words, including her essay on Rublev's work. In this meditation, Podles pulls out elements of the painting and guides her readers in uncovering their symbolism. If you loved pouring over hidden picture puzzles as a child, you will enjoy this taste of discovering details and meaning with Podles' direction in The Nativity today:

[The Savior] is placed at the center of the image, within a womb-like grotto like the one in Bethlehem traditionally associated with his birth. Sharp, angular rocks rise above it to symbolize the harshness of the world into which he is born. He is wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a tomb-like manger as if to foreshadow his grave clothes and future tomb. His very littleness seems to speak of the human frailty he was born to embrace. The lowly workaday animals, the ox and the ass, which symbolize the Jewish and the pagan peoples, regard this newcomer with appropriate surprise...

Mary is the dominant figure of the icon. Stretched at the diagonal on a mandorla-shaped cushion, she who has just borne God leans her hand on her cheek... Her gaze rests on a little gnarled tree at the right: this is the Tree of Jesse, and only she recognizes her little son's royal heritage. Or, it may at the same time be the Tree of Life, which the liturgical apolytikion proclaims "has blossomed from the Virgin in the cave."...

In the corners below her are two additional scenes with a melancholy tinge. ...Yet there is the hope of faith... [A] midwife, identified as Salome, the mother of James, pours out her faith in a kind of Magnificat even as she here pours out water for the baby's bath... The bath, incidentally, both points up the very humanity of Christ's birth, and looks forward to his Baptism in the Jordan and its revelation of his divinity; another tree, perhaps another reference to the Tree of Life, seems to spring from the upper edge of the fount.

...In the upper half of the icon are further signs of hope. ...[S]hepherds approach the Virgin. Their sheep...foreshadowings of the Christian flock, nibble at the Tree of Life. The shepherds have heard the glad news announced by the angels at the upper right. There are four angels: ...they are the Trinity, manifesting their workings in the Incarnation to the humble shepherds. The fourth angel is mostly hidden, representing the hidden face of God, the unknowable who is beyond our comprehension.

Finally, the Trinity...puts in another appearance at the opening of the cave. In fact the babe is not alone: through the merciful working of the trinity, the Godhead has broken through into our inhospitable world in the miracle of the Incarnation, and the world is made new.

~ Mary Elizabeth Podles

"The Nativity"

A Thousand Words

Upon Them a Light Has Shined

There's a special irony in what I'm about to write in that it's about seeing and being made to see, and I am squinting and blinking through tears that have accumulated over the past several minutes. Isaiah 9:2 declares:

The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined. 

God promised hope for His people during a dark time --a dark time, I might add, of their own doing. The people of Israel had a history (as do the people of history in general) of crying out to God when they found themselves in a jam and abandoning Him once things began to run smoothly. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Nevertheless, God promised a greater deliverance through a greater Deliverer. Their lives in this valley of the shadow of death would be ransomed by a Messiah so they might live in a new way, an eternal way, and their hearts would be turned toward Him by His Holy Spirit. This is where Advent comes in: celebrating the arrival of the promised Savior. 

In reading about ways to commemorate this season meaningfully, the central theme seems to be "Imitate Christ." Imagine that! Something we are supposed to be doing all year long, all life long, we do at Christmas to mark His Incarnation. This is where the tears come in: How well do I do that?

The crux of the Gospel of Jesus is, in Jesus' words: 'And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ... ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mark 12:30-31) Loving God is bound to loving others. The two cannot be separated. How deeply, actively, compassionately, selflessly do I love? How deeply, do I love people whose stories seem to have no bearing on mine at all? How actively do I love people who disagree with me? How compassionately do I love people I see as freeloaders or scammers? How selflessly do I love those who in all likelihood will not or cannot love me in return? Do I weep and pray for those who have been victimized --or believe they have been victimized (There's a tough one!) --by the government or their employer or a landlord or the church? Do I seek justice by laboriously, publicly, legally advocating for those treated unfairly? Do I come alongside the poor, the desperate, the ill, the lost and encourage them, help them find resources? Do I try to understand the stories and opinions of those who think differently than I? The alternative is to stand on the truth of God's Law and tell others they can climb on with me or they can struggle, but "I'll just be over here living my best life regardless." That's not how Scripture says Jesus loved others and I know that's not how He loves me. Man! The times He's taken me around the block! That is His grace. He has loved me in such a way as to do exactly what He promised His people: cleanse me, change my heart, give me His Spirit so that I might keep His Law (Ezekiel 36:25-27). That is the Gospel the world needs to hear and see!

Isaiah 60:1-7 says God's glory will be seen in His people, that the world will be drawn to Him through the way His people live, the glory with which He makes them glorious! But in the valley of the shadow of death, the world cannot see unless the light our Light has sent dwells there. This Advent, He has sent us to dwell in this valley and shine. Deeply, actively, compassionately, and selflessly (Matthew 25:31-46).