The Lord's Baseball Game

Freddy and the Lord stood by to observe a baseball game. The Lord's team was playing Satan's team.

The Lord's team was at bat, the score was tied zero to zero, and it was the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs. They continued to watch as a batter stepped up to the plate named 'Love.'

Love swung at the first pitch and hit a single, because "Love never fails."

The next batter was named Faith, who also got a single because Faith works with Love.

The next batter up was named Godly Wisdom. Satan wound up and threw the first pitch. Godly Wisdom looked it over and let it pass: Ball one. Three more pitches and Godly Wisdom walked because he never swings at what Satan throws.

The bases were now loaded. The Lord then turned to Freddy and told him He was now going to bring in His star player. Up to the plate stepped Grace. Freddy said, "He sure doesn't look like much!"

Satan's whole team relaxed when they saw Grace. Thinking he had won the game, Satan wound up and fired his first pitch. To the shock of everyone, Grace hit the ball harder than anyone had ever seen! But Satan was not worried; his center fielder let very few get by.

He went up for the ball, but it went right through his glove, hit him on the head and sent him crashin on the ground; the roaring crowds went wild as the ball continued over the fence . . . for a home run!

The Lord's team won!

The Lord then asked Freddy if he knew why Love, Faith and Godly Wisdom could get on base but couldn't win the game. Freddy answered that he didn't know why.

The Lord explained, "If your love, faith and wisdom had won the game, you would think you had done it by yourself. Love, Faith and Wisdom will get you on base but only My Grace can get you Home: 'For by Grace you are saved, it is a gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast."

Psalm 84:11, "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly."

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Phil 4:13

Advent Ending

I've not posted for a few days! Monte got home from Norway at 2am Monday. We went to Travis and Sarah's Tuesday, bearing gifts: Christmas presents and tons of food. We spent the night there and had a wonderful fun family time together - new memories: Las Posadas food. The hit? Yes tamales were good, as was the green mole pork stew, churros ... ha ... we have to perfect ... But the stuffed jalepenos wrapped in bacon and baked, were our first bite, and everyone was lifted into another place. "Oh, man", said Travis. "They are luscious!!!!!!!!!!!" said me. We ate the leftovers, looking forward to them, for lunch the next day (after playing the game "SET".

This is going to post as AM, but I'm finishing writing now in the PM. Dawson woke earlier than I thought, and I put our "Pankaka" (Swedish oven pancake) in the oven, and we spent some time together before he left to carry on celebrating with his girlfriend, Splarah (Sarah's), extended family. So it's just Monte and me, and he's feeling the effects of his long trip without sleep for 24 hrs, so napping. Dawson and me set him up on Facebook, and I'm downloading some pictures for him. So I'm going back and forth.

My emotions have gotten stirred up as the day progresses ... Heather & Bill called this morning to talk Christmas, but also that his date for redeployment could be before their baby is born. Their first baby, and married a year ... I'm bummed ...

So, I was going to give the remainders of my Advent Basket. Maybe as I start typing and sitting with scripture ... I'll feel a little better.

Advent day 22's miniature was a dove. And the paper insert reads, "We learned what a cross stands for; what does a dove stand for? Read Matthew 3:13-17." Jesus insisted that John baptize Him. This is a setting where the fullness of God is there: God Incarnate coming out of the water, God's Spirit - looking like a dove, and God's voice. And John the Baptist saying, "Here is the Lamb of God, come to take away the sins of the world".

Day 23 has a little skein of wool. "Where does wool come from? In John 10:1-18 Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Who are His sheep?" When I rededicated my life to God I wore a necklace, till I lost it, of Jesus carrying a sheep in his arms - that was me!

Day 24 has a marble. "This is the world. Read John 3:16. What did God do for the world?" God, so loves the world, He incarnates Himself, taking on human flesh, from the beginnings in a womb, birthed and laid in a wooden feed trough for a bed ... to a death for us, the world; hanging to death on a wooden cross. God asks us to believe IN this, IN Him, so that we might not have to die our deserved deaths, but live incarnately with Him, on into eternity!

Day 25, today, has a miniature baby. "What do we celebrate this day? Read Luke 2:1-20." Remember Linus, his voice was refreshed in my memory, not only from church last night but a radio program we listened to - Linus tells Charlie Brown what the true meaning of Christmas is - reciting this Luke passage from memory. We lit the center Christ child candle in the Advent wreath.

The John 10 passage I so love and have often meditated and journaled on. My favorite phrases? "He calls his own sheep by name ... he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice ... I know my sheep and my own sheep know me ... I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary ... I need to gather and bring them all in ..."

Which reminds me of a story I read -
"One cold night years ago in North Carolina I went outside to check on some animals then housed in my father's small barn. There was a full moon shining down in bright, brittle light above the pines. It was so cold that the water in the horses' trough had frozen over, unusual for the coastal counties. As I went to get an axe to chop through the ice, I noticed a yard chicken, a hen, perched near the trough, with several biddies tucked under her wings. I was impressed with how she had turned her face and frail body of fluff into the icy wind, her wings outstretched and, it seemed to me, surely tired, for the sake of her children. And I was uplifted by what I took to be a gift and encouragement to my faith, this visual depiction of Jesus' care for me.

"But it struck me that those chicks had come to the hen. I don't know if she chased them around the yard first, if some came more willingly than others, or if some were still out there half-frozen. (There were a few late arrivals perched on top of her wings.) I only know the chicks I could see had allowed themselves to be gathered up and protected. They had quit fighting what they had no control over in the first place and said, 'You do it, Mom.'"

Jesus did stand, looking over Jerusalem and wept saying, "how often I have longed to gather you children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings".

Advent Basket Day 6

Once upon a time ... Who doesn't love a great story?! Some tell us about familiar things and some are from long ago and far away. Some stories are told as truth, some are believed only by children. Stories appeal to our imagination. They lift us out of the day-to-day and take us to a different, more fantastic place.

I just posted about the value of story, like the St Nicholas story. Jesus' birth sounds like many popular stories. We read of singing mice, fairy godmothers, talking animals; and we read about singing angels, wise men guided by stars, a birth in a stable ... God becoming human. We read of charming princes, pumpkins becoming carriages; and of a virgin birth, fulfilled prophecy, a humble child who grew up and healed the blind and sick.

Bag 6 of my Advent Basket has a bell in it. The paper says, "This makes noise. Read Mark 7:31-37. This man could not hear this until he met Jesus."

This is one of those fantastical and miraculous stories: Jesus put his fingers in a deaf man's ears and some spit on his tongue. He looked up in the sky and said, "Ephphatha!" And it happened. The man's hearing was clear and his speech plain - just like that.

Jesus' story is different. His story offers unmerited grace, not what we deserve. Because of His love, we get way more than we deserve. Jesus is real and it matters what we do with Jesus. There's very little at stake if we don't believe in Santa or Cinderella. What if we don't believe in Jesus' claims and accept the whole story of Jesus - His birth, death, and resurrection. Jesus said, "I am come that you might have life and have it in abundance."

Once upon a time ... Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Those who believe in Him ... will live happily ever after. Everyone loves a good story. But this is a story like no other.

Santa lives at the North Pole - Jesus is everywhere.
Santa comes but once a year - Jesus is an ever present help.
Jesus is as close as the mention of His name.
Santa lets you sit on his lap - Jesus lets you rest in His arms.
Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly -
Jesus has a heart full of love.
All Santa can offer is goodies and "Ho, ho, ho" -
Jesus meets our needs, offering healing, help, and hope.
Santa says, "You better not cry" -
Jesus says, "Cast all your cares on Me for I care for you."
Santa's little helpers make toys -
Jesus makes new life, mends wounded hearts ...
Santa may make you chuckle - Jesus gives joy.
While Santa puts gifts under your tree -
Jesus became our gift and died on a tree.

Classic?

What makes a book a classic? When was the term first used?

On this day in 1904 a Joseph Malaby Dent began to flesh out an ambitious vision of reprinting classic books in what would be called the Everyman's Library.

Are books of old dry, uninspiring, and hardly suited for the fast-paced world the Industrial Revolution brought to the twentieth century - and what do we call today?

I've read, read aloud to my kids, and listened to audio classics for years. I have to put myself into the shoes of the characters and author, desiring to see from their perspective what was going on in their culture. What of their culture drove the events, the inventions - what were the era's questions?

What if all we read are current era/popular books?

CS Lewis said, "A good rule, after reading a new book, is never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between ... A new book is still on trial and has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down through the ages."

How many of today's books will transcend beyond our culture?

This is what defines Classics: an ability to adapt themselves to various times and places and thus provide a sense of the shared life of humanity over the course of space and time. They stretch, shape, and confront us - and are ever new.

Could books help us rise to another level? Do we sometimes habituate ourselves to companions of small statures? I like to visualize it as standing on the shoulders of others, a great cloud of witnesses, for a better view. Reading can take us away from ourselves to where we can step back and see the whole, instead of just 'me, myself, and I', and self-success thinking.

Maybe the more books we can live in, we could be more rehearsed in life: knowing the stage, recognizing the plots and props - having tried out many characters and scenarios. With my kids I thought of the unencumbered time they had to invent their own images, explore thier own fantasies, to create their own possibilities - with both books and movies. They seemed able to get on with meaningful living when they left the nest of home.

Someone said, "In a very real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read ... It is not true that we can have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish."

"A good book is not problem-centered; it is people-centered. It reveals how to be a human being and what the possibilities of life are; it offers hope," wrote Gladys Hunt in her Honey for a Child's Heart, speaking about how many books are agenda driven, with many children's books being moralizing and sermonette style stories. These do not touch the heart.

"The importance of poetry and novels is that the Christian life involves the use of the imagination - after all, we are dealing with the invisible [like God]. And imagination is our training in dealing with the invisible - making connections, looking for plot and character."

- Eugene Peterson

Saint Christopher

Yesterday was St Christopher's day. I thought of his story all day and could have written from my memory, but I wanted to reread his story from an old 1914 book of children's stories we have, but the day got away from me. So this morning I read the story, enjoying the cool of the morning while watering the grass, and drinking my English breakfast tea.

Christopher, like Veronica, are possibly not real historic people. But stories have been told around campfires and hearths for centuries. Both of their stories seem to come from the root meaning of their names (or is it the other way around? like which came first, the chicken or the egg? belly-buttons or birth? did created trees have tree rings?). I posted about Veronica several weeks ago. So here's the legend of Christopher -

Christopher was a big man (and I think he grows as do fish stories) and said to be a Canaanite. He lived seeking and serving whom he thought the greatest in the world. Initially he served a king, said to be the greatest. But when he saw the king cross himself, or as my old english story is worded: "when he heard the name of the devil, made anon the sign of the cross". "Fearest thou the devil? Then is the devil more mighty and greater than thou art?"

So Christopher left the king's court and sought out the devil. He fell in with a group of marauders, whose leader declared himself to be the devil. But when the devil cowered and fled from a crucifix, learning of a man called Christ who hung on a cross, Christopher left seeking where he should find this Christ.

A hermit told him about fasting and prayer, which Christopher didn't feel he could do. Because of his stature, the hermit suggested he live by the river and bear people who needed to cross the river. "This will be pleasing to our Lord Jesu Christ, whom thou desirest to serve, and I hope he shall show himself to thee." "That I can do."

Christopher, with a great pole to support himself in the water, carried many people across the water. A small child asked Christopher to carry him across on his shoulders. It was stormy and the water was swelling and the child seemed to get heavier and heavier - "waxed heavy and Christopher suffered great anguish and was afeared to be drowned".

On the other side, putting down the child, he said, "You put me in great peril. Thou weighest almost as I had all the world upon me. I might bear no greater burden." And the child answered: "Christopher, marvel thee nothing, for thou hast not only borne all the world upon thee, but thou hast borne Him that created and made all the world, upon thy shoulders. I am Christ whom thou servest by this work."

Christophoror is Greek for "Christ-bearer". I'm sure you've seen medallions hanging from the rearview mirror of vehicles and people wear it as a necklace - this image of a man with a staff in hand and carrying a child on his shoulders. He's the patron saint of travelers.

The picture, by Titian, is out of a library book. Of all the pictures I've seen, it's my favorite. Off and on I've checked out lots of children's books looking for great stories for calendar celebrations, stories that grab your heart. Jesus taught primarily from stories for a reason.

There's so much in his story that touches me. So many scripture passages come to my mind. I'm not going to mention them, letting you sit with the story, and letting it touch you. What I will say, in having rereading the old golden legend, I so trust and believe that any who are truly seeking Truth, God will show Himself to them.

Who Am I?

I read two things this morning that got me thinking ...

A Nietzsche quote (he is so quotable, and tho he didn't understand what Jesus and his disciples was really about, he was so right-on in many of his comments on Christians and humanity) -

"We are unknown, we knowers, to ourselves ... Of necessity we remain strangers to ourselves, we understand ourselves not, in our selves we are bound to be mistaken for each of us holds good to all eternity the motto, 'Each is the farthest away from himself'--as far as ourselves are concerned we are not knowers."

This was in context with the subject of a book Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book - that we can learn more in ten minutes about the Crab Nebula in Taurus, which is 6,000 light-years away, than we presently know about ourself, even though we've been stuck with ourself all our life.

And I read James 1, and paraphrasing here, verses 22-24 -
"You listen, but you do not act upon what you read and hear ... Hearing and not doing is like looking at yourself in a mirror, and after walking away you immediately forget what kind of person you are ..."

I've lately been reading in both Numbers and Deuteronomy and see how ridiculous the Israelites were! So many times in frustration, God wanted to wipe them out! They 'saw' so much, and yet in the next instant would forget and grumble and live wrongly. If they, like children, had so much of God's personal attention and guidance, and saw so many miraculous things on a daily basis, can't 'grow up' into a mature faith - how can we?

They wandered the desert for 40 years, killing off a generation and growing up a new generation. Before they were to enter the new land, God did not want them to melt into the surrounding cultures. He wanted them to know who they were and not forget. How did he do that? He gave them rhythmical calendar celebrations and lots of visuals and imagery and ritual/tradition to instill into their lives so they would remember and not forget who they were/are in God.

We too can get so caught up in our current culture and learnings and not know who we are. How best to remember who we are? First: know and believe that God loves me first as I am, and that He desires a relationship with me. Then act on that!

The very nature of love means choice. Choice means I need to know something (or someone), so I can make good choices. But there's so much to know! I boil it all down to simply going about my days in love with God. The same tools God gave the Israelites, I have for my use too. I use the calendar days and all the connected stories of so many who have lived in love with God. If God was there for them in their midst, then He's going to be here for me today and tomorrow. I can know who I am, and live better ... live fully alive! live more whole.

Cracked Pot

A friend, Beth, sent me this story. I love it. After the story I'll tell you about the 'cracked pot' I made, pictured here.
_____________

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots,
each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.   

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily,
with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.  
But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection,
and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. 

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure,
it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.
'I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side
causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.' 

The old woman smiled,
'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path,
but not on the other pot's side?'
'That's because I have always known about your flaw,
so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path,
and every day while we walk back, you water them.' 

'For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers
to decorate the table.  Without you being just the way you are, 
there would not be this beauty to grace the house.'

Each of us has our own unique flaw.
But it's the cracks and flaws we each have
that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.  

You've just got to take each person for what they are
and look for the good in them.   
SO, to all of my crackpot friends,
have a great day and remember to smell the flowers
on your side of the path!
________________
I was in a small group of gals - we've grown spiritually together. One evening we had some clay, and just did a quicky project of forming a pot that we imagined representing ourselves. So I did mine with very bright colors. I wasn't thinking of me as bright and colorful, but that I'm not a black and white person, nor gray, and prefer color (and that's not in dress, but my outlook on life)! And I intentionally did create holes and cracks, because I had just come to understand...

In striving to live so 'right', striving for perfection ... it seemed futile and I realized Pharisaical. The Pharisees were the main people Jesus railed upon. They didn't recognize their need. I started recognizing the beauty of my imperfections, realizing the more cracks, the more places for the light of Jesus to shine through.

But now, I'm going to be thinking beyond light, to dripping water that helps give life ...