Month: December 2015

Road Trip

December 19, 2015

Happiness is found on the road, moving in sync with time; chasing the horizon and then leaving it behind, in pursuit of the next visible goal. It is the purest expression of life, constant motion and never knowing what will happen next. All preparations for the final destination, in road maps, travel times, weather forecasts, the well-thought out plans, are swept away by the uncertainty of the road. When anything can happen, there is no alternative but to move forward by faith; and enjoy the experience of chasing the future while resting in the now. Although this is the factual truth of everyday life, nothing makes life’s reality as tangible as a road-trip.

Marriage is a road-trip. For many, it’s a short, rough journey, with an abrupt end. Others are blessed by companionship that transcends all road conditions and journey together for a lifetime. I have been blessed with such a husband and there is nothing I enjoy more than a long drive together in contemplation of all we’ve survived, accomplished, and overcome, as we continue to move toward the future. We are a miracle and each of knows that if it were not for that Third Cord, which binds us together, we would have unraveled years ago. Our interests are varied and made most evident as we travel; while he listens to Rush Limblah-blah-blah and I think about colors. I lose myself in the landscape, as I compare the natural revelation to the scripture stored in my heart. I wrestle with ideas as he reviews football stats. I think about redecorating (again) and he thinks about paying the bills. He has not a glimmer as to why poetry is important and can’t tell the difference between Picasso and Monet. A mind set on the practical can’t quite comprehend the deep meaning expressed in art and he’s too busy completing tasks to invest the time to learn. I am the thinker who dreams and he is the doer that accomplishes them. Our faith in God and the love we have for each other joins our opposing personalities in a strengthened twine that makes us a successful team.

Though I am amazed that Rush has been blah-blah-blahing for at least, twenty years now, he can only be heard for three hours each day. When the Hillary expose’ is over, I pop in the Who, then switch over to Johnny Cash and throw in the Beach Boys to keep him happy as we sing along about the cars he loves. ( I sing these Beach Boys tunes of my husband’s youth with joy, knowing that I am the New Mexico girl, the desert fox, who made all his dreams of California girls vanish, without a trace.) The road ahead of us is long; still hours and hours to go but we are lost in celebration of our lives and the remembering of everything we’ve built and done together. We talk about the kids; laugh over sweet memories of when they were little and then fawn over the grandchildren, wondering why we didn’t have them first. We shed a few tears over the failures, disappointments, and calamities that left painful scars. I switch from Johnny to Belinda Gail and singing along, we give praise to the One who blesses us and keeps us through the good times and the bad. We rejoice in the Love sent on the wings of a dove. I am so thankful for my husband, one so the opposite of me, who is able to complete my dreams. I’m thankful I am married to the man God chose for me and not to some of the ones I wanted to choose for myself.

The road stretches on before us, with all of its uncertainty. Neither of us knows what lies ahead, or how the road conditions might change but my prayer is that we continue traveling together and ride into eternity, hand-in-hand.

 

Indigo Holiday

December 18, 2015

I am blue; thoughts downward swirl; deep purple;

The rainbows I like to spin now fade, growing dim;

Joy, only a yellow glow in sad mood’s onyx night;

Glimmering that haunts; by fault revealing scruple,

Things I don’t want to see, as I avoid a reality grim;

Gritty-brown, naked, splattered! Red just for spite!

Taste my memory so bitter! Causes blood to curdle!

Wear this outer mantle so carefully! Proper; Prim…

Too cool… raging fire burning within; hidden plight,

Simmers on Indigo Holiday; pain forced in a girdle;

Ornaments all golden hung on Tanenbaum’s limb…

I need peace not golden tinsel! Truth’s white light!

Guide my heart! End frenetic expectations’ garble!

Dispel purple gloom! Sad memories up to the brim!

Over-flow! Blue mood shadow darkening my sight…

Jesus! My Centerpiece! Softens hurt hard as marble!

Evaporate mists of Indigo Holiday’s traditional trim,

My triggered ghosts, turning all happiness to blight…

With yearnings for what should be; not this struggle;

Mourn! Please, Time make old pain-memories slim;

May every day be a blank slate reflecting Holy light!

Transform Indigo Holiday; Heal grief vexing in purple.

 

No matter what we believe about Christmas, there is no way to avoid being affected by this huge cultural event. Many people don’t feel happy and bright when the holidays roll around, as they are going through a difficult time or remembering a loss. Others have convictions about customs that put them in conflict with family members and friends. When Christmas hurts there is recourse for believers in stepping away from the tinsel and the high expectations and focusing instead on the Center Piece of God’s plan for mankind, Jesus Christ. In Him there is support for every grieving heart and comfort for all who struggle in this world. He is there for us every day even, on holidays and He has a plan to help each of us fulfill the plan God has for our lives. Jesus is reason when your world is turned upside down. In Him, every day is a Holy Day filled with His purpose and promise. There is healing joy in Jesus when you are unable to feel happy and bright.

 

 

 

Sunshine on a Winter Day

December 17, 2015

I am so grateful that the sun still shines in winter.

Thankful for these warming rays brightly streaming,

Through my window, mercifully sent by my dear Father!

Warmth to comfort my body, lift my spirit; to liven my soul;

Lifting all thoughts to joy, allowing them to float on the waters,

Of sickness and sorrow; thereby abating my sadness and suffering;

Snugly wrapping me in loving security; and embrace me in His presence;

It is brutal! Outside it’s cold! A threat to my existence but here in my window

I sit, enjoying the heat of summer; kept safe from vile enemies that long to take

Me down to smother me in agony; in hopes of crushing my spirit, destroying my body!

But my soul, my enemy can’t touch, it belongs to the One who limits my enemy’s strength;

Daddy! He cherishes, protects His child; Surrounding me with bright sunshine on a winter day!

A Time to Cry

December 16, 2015

Tears, bursting in a gush of misery! Streams over stinging red cheeks…

Tamp grief down? Later pay usury! I ignored the sounds heart speaks!

 

Finality has come! So long waiting! I didn’t cry! Tried contemplating,

Cover agony, by denial shimmery; Play pretend; Ignoring truth leaks!

Endurance breaks? Forget chivalry! Love is rearranged in time tweaks;

Hope against hope in time grating; Hearts crushed in longing; waiting…

Out in the cold, loneliness shivery! At last accept an ugly truth; Reeks!

 

Tear drops release in light silvery; washing dark pain away, as joy seeks

Happy days so long in the awaiting; Mourning allows sorrow’s abating…

From Mourning to Joy

December 16, 2015

When loss and sorrow knock on the door, there is no denying grief or the process of mourning. However, it is natural to recoil from the pain and very human to attempt to flee. Grief is as hot and dry as June in the desert, during a long drought. The body, heart, and soul shrivel with thirst when it ravages. When the tongue cleaves to the roof of the mouth and lips crack due to thirst, the high country calls through remembrances of alpine relief, at an altitude high above the suffering of the dry valley below. It seems logical then to dissociate from sad reality and avoid mourning by escaping to the high country. How easy it is to lose one’s self in meadows carpeted by colorful flowers, watered by the still-melting snow. In a mountain June when summer is just beginning, it can seem as if such a heavenly paradise could last forever. The land itself provides food and water enough to sustain the fanciful runaway seeking avoidance of a painful reality…at least, for a short season. Such cooling relief is found here, high above the scorching desert, enveloped in peaceful, majestic beauty! High granite cliffs, where the precious Columbine bloom, produce a special sense of insular safety, as large dark caves promise shelter from summer mountain rains. The grim reality and sorrowful drought of the desert grow more distant with each passing day and it’s so easy to imagine forever, remaining aloof in this comforting solitude.

Summers are brief in the mountains. Days soon pass into weeks and months, as the dry heat travels upward from the desert valley, making its way to the high peaks. The flowers fade and the green grasses mature, in browns and purple hued grays. Grief and mourning won’t be denied their due process and the sorrow of loss stalks its victims. None are wily enough to successfully hide from mourning or forever escape. The void of loss must be faced or it grows to become a starving black hole that no method of coping can assuage. Its ravaging is sure to devour everything valuable, leaving only the fantasy that keeps it growing. Only, truthful reckoning can satisfy it. The reality avoided is sure to reappear. Like a sudden reflection in a mountain stream that reveals the true state of self; of someone on the run, hiding in the mountains, with tangled hair, worn out clothes, and new wrinkles around glassy, delusional eyes. Cold nights with chilly winds, late summer hail-storms, and the leaves changing color, make it clear that the dark season is coming down fast and hard. Truth is present. Mourning can’t be avoided and facing it here, on the mountain in winter would likely, prove fatal. Hungry, sleepy bears and mountain lions (the rightful residents) will soon be claiming all caves. The desert run-away could easily, end up as prey. It’s time to head back down the mountain, to the valleys and the rivers where human beings live and face the reality that can’t be denied.

Acceptance is the beginning. Grief is the accounting. Mourning brings the tears that cleans and heal. An awful truth can bring overwhelming sadness but mourning releases joy, imprisoned in sorrow. Joy even grows stronger in those who embrace divine truth and endure. The joy of Jesus is buoyancy, when grief with sorrow floods our lives and threatens with drowning pain. In Christ we can face all things, do all things, and endure all things. Through faith, we’re given courage to stand and have no need for escape to the safety of some imagined mountain top. Faith is not a dissociative state but strength to endure life in the valleys and the power to overcome.

 

The Joy of the Redeemed

December 16, 2015

Isaiah 35New King James Version (NKJV)

The Future Glory of Zion

35 The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them,
And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice,
Even with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
The excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
The excellency of our God.

3 Strengthen the weak hands,
And make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
7 The parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In the habitation of jackals, where each lay,
There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

8 A highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
9 No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it;
It shall not be found there.
But the redeemed shall walk there,
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

New King James Version (NKJV)Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Reveal

December 15, 2015

The sun fades quietly on this early winter day, without even a hint of color. As if a painter’s rag, soaked in turpentine, wiped away the landscape, leaving only streaks of ghostly grey. The deepest dark of a moonless winter night settles over everything and seeps into the minds of the weary. The hours drag until midnight, when the cold silence of falling snow muffles every sound except the slow, deep breaths of the slumbering. Early morning wind rattles brittle window panes, curtaining them in frosted lace; a delicate touch in the preparations for the unveiling. The first light glitters and gleams to reveal a skiff of diamond chips scattered across the desert floor and then lightly, sprinkled like sweet sugar over the Sage-Brush and the gnarled Cedar. The beloved, La Plata’s towering above the mesas and hills, true to their name, glow as polished silver. Then turn neon rose, as they mirror the sunrise, in celebration of this wonderful new masterpiece. Created while the high desert peacefully, snored through the transformation of a dreary day, wiped away, and reworked; leaving a dazzling bright landscape in its place. A special gift meant to fill even ancient hearts with child-like awe and wonder. Yes! The desert can bloom in winter, as an unexpected rose sometimes, does in some sheltered corner of the garden; when the only One capable of creating something from nothing, retouches it and by His mighty Spirit breathes new life and beauty into that which appears dried grey. A cacophony of praise breaks out in admiration, grateful singing of the winter birds! Will those created in the Master’s image also, give Him praise? Or will they turn away from the miracle, this precious gift made out of Love; and with jaded hearts deny this living masterpiece that each of us is part of? If you doubt the reality of God, look closely in the mirror, then look beyond yourself, and all around you; can’t you see what God has done? The grandeur of nature and the magnificence of the universe is a powerful reveal of the Mighty Hand that brought them into being!

Complete

December 15, 2015

Oh Father, I tremble in the awareness

Of Your Presence! I know you hold me

In Jesus; all things held in togetherness,

Through whom all things created to be!

Forgive me! I lose sight in forgetfulness,

Of Your Presence, continually around me!

Faith submerge in world’s doubtfulness,

Stumbling, I forget that in You I am free!

Pain of sin leads me into regret-fullness;

I do hurt You, Jesus! Please, forgive me!

I come before You, kneeling humbleness;

Overcome by Presence surrounding me!

Your cleansing, I receive in gratefulness!

From Second Death, You keep me free!

Make me ever mindful of my neediness,

My dependence upon Jesus living in me;

I in Him and He in God; Completedness!

Held in God’s Presence surrounding me!

 

 

 

 

Warming Joy on a Cold December Day

December 14, 2015

Ice-laden wind howls on this colorless December day;

Thickening clouds, chasing warmth and light far away;

Clouds weighted with dread; dense, dark, lifeless gray;

This old woman’s dreams drift backward to yesterday,

When winter didn’t make her old bones ache ‘till May;

Snow-storms once a welcomed challenge, time to play!

In sparkling drifts; all bare branches, an icy lace display!

Silent, long walks without a thought of this elderly day…

As winter turns contentious now; threat to keep at bay!

I maintain joy despite winter contention, I kneel to pray.

I’m trusting my God to keep me warm, this blustery day.

There’s no threat over which my God doesn’t hold sway!

Though I’m old now, in Jesus, I still dream of a future day.

Of my transformation, my glorified youth forever to stay!

More than a dream, it’s an eternal promise, it won’t fray!

Warm hope is joy for old woman on a cold December day!

 

 

 

 

 

The Messiah’s Birth

December 12, 2015

These songs of joy I sing in a minor key will someday be rewritten in the major. In a future where all sorrow melts in the brightness of God’s glory. There all will be warmed by divine love, as the sun rests, no longer needing to shine. The moon will enjoy peaceful slumber, as there will be no night-time to light. The righteous will no longer fear the wicked, for wickedness will have passed away. God’s Law will be engraved on every heart and willingly obeyed through conscience surrendered to Christ, the Messiah. In such a happy land, no tears are needed. There’s nothing to mourn, no pain, no sickness. Death’s malicious shadow will no longer caste its pale over the living and having met its own end, will be remembered no more. The oppositional one and his minions will no longer taunt God nor tempt mankind but will be locked away eternally in a prison of tormenting flames. War will rage no more, as everyone will live in peace with God and one another. Good will shall replace all malice and no curses will proceed from any mouth but instead, only blessings. Every redeemed, living soul will be glorified in the likeness of Christ

This is the promised Kingdom established thousands of years ago, when a baby was born in Bethlem. This baby born in destitute poverty on earth, Who is the Son of the Most High God and Creator of the universe, was given by the Father as a sacrifice, as a ransom for many. He was sent to make God known through His obedient actions, even to obediently dying as a sacrificial lamb for the sins of mankind. No one knows the exact day He was born but most everyone knows the story of the Son of God who visited earth as the Son of Man and was incarnate in a tiny baby, born to poor parents, in a stable used to house animals, swaddled in rags, and laid to sleep in a manger filled with hay for the animals that witnessed His birth. Even though this child was born as a ‘nobody’, there were those who knew His true identity, knew He was coming, and wanted to destroy Him in order to protect their power. King Herod was among them and he called upon the Magi, those knowledgeable, scientific thinkers of that time who predicted His birth. These wise men, observers of the night sky, followed an unusual star that led them to the home of Jesus. These important men in uncounted number, bowed before the young boy and gifted Him with Frankincense and Myrrh, perfumes used for burial. Though the Wise Men, by use of their knowledge discerned the identity and purpose of this poor child, bearing the common Hebrew name, Jesus, they were not among those to whom Christ Jesus was first revealed. It was poor shepherds, uneducated and lowly, who were present soon after Jesus’ birth, which was announced to them by the angels! Eight days later, when the baby was presented for circumcision, the true identity and purpose of Jesus was also, revealed to the faithful, devout man Simeon. Just as today, not many sophisticates acknowledge Jesus Christ, while many who are poor and downtrodden, with the devoted, cling to His Holy Name. Yet, Jesus was sent to die for everyone, not only the poor and uneducated and just as the Magi bowed before Jesus someday, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord of all. Even though most are too prideful to accept the gift of God’s Son, there will come a day when everyone will acknowledge Jesus Christ as Messiah, as King.

The world and those who held power because of its systems hated Jesus and wanted to kill Him. King Herod was the first and upon feeling betrayed by the Wise Men, whom God warned in a dream not to return to Herod after finding the Christ child, took it upon himself to slaughter every two-year old, first- born son in a desperate, murderous attempt to kill Jesus. However every evil sent to destroy Jesus, the Father worked to the good and in everything, Jesus fulfilled the scriptures that prophesied of Him. Jesus was protected from death until the day upon which He was appointed to die. It was the Pharisees, religious leaders who felt most threatened by Him and the betrayal of a disciple who loved money more than God, who accomplished what Herod attempted when Jesus was only, a child. These wicked men, no matter how subversive their actions, couldn’t subvert the purpose of God, in freeing many from sin and death through the death of His Son on the Cross. Even though these wicked persons were able to crucify the Messiah, they couldn’t keep Him in the grave. After three days, Jesus rose to live again. The disciples and many other persons witnessed and testified to this event. Then Jesus ascended into the Heavens, to sit at the right hand of His Father, and promised to return in the same way. On that day, He will be known as the Lion of Judah and His Kingdom will be visibly established on the earth. Everyone will be forced to recognize JESUS as King.

This is the purpose of the incarnation of Christ Jesus. He didn’t come to establish a new religion. Jesus was born to die and by His blood sacrifice in payment for the sins of mankind, set many captives free. The religion He practiced was the Jewish religion, as given in the Bible. He lived such an obedient, sinless life that He fulfilled the Law, the Feasts, the Festivals, and all the Words of the Prophets. He requires no special remembrance on any special day. He created no Mass or ritual that must be kept. The only, ordinances He asks us to observe are Baptism, as an outward sign of our new birth through faith in Him; and The Lord’s Supper, in remembrance of Him and the sacrifice He made to purchase our souls and give us eternal life. He asks us to keep His Commandments by loving God first and each other, in the same way that He loves us. We are to practice a pure religion of visiting widows and orphans in affliction and live a moral life. This is the Way He leads us in and this is the narrow path of faith His beloved are to walk, as we watch and wait for His return and the appearing of His Kingdom.

I am mindful of all these things as December 25th approaches and on that day, as on every other day, I want to honor Jesus. I pray that I not be caught up in the things that move the worldly. May my heart not be set on the material world at all. Let me not be distracted by traditions and religious ritual, from performing the good works that God assigns for me to accomplish on that day. Let me not be caught up in the controversy over Pagan origins and the trappings of those who worship the creature rather than the Creator. I hope to keep my focus on my Lord Jesus and His simple Truth. By the power of the Holy Spirit, I will keep Jesus at the center of the day, December 25, 2015 and every day, as I should. He is the reason for every season of my life. I faithfully and patiently wait for Christ’s return, completing the work begun over two thousand years ago; when the Son of God set aside His power to be born in the form of a helpless baby, of low status, on an unknown day.

Ref: Matthew 1-2, Luke 2:1-40, Isaiah, The Revelation of Jesus Christ