"With"

"Haven't I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9, HCSB).


Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
   I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
   your rod and your staff,
   they comfort me (Psalm 23:4, ESV).


"Fear not, for I am with you;
   be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
   I will uphold you with my righteous right hand" (Isaiah 41:10, ESV).


"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
   and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
   and the flame shall not consume you" (Isaiah 43:2).

"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,and they shall call his name Immanuel"(which means, God with us) (Matthew 1:23, ESV).


"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit  of truth. The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn't see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you" (words of Christ, John 14:15-17, HCSB).


"And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (words of Christ, Matthew 28:20, ESV).



Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:
    Look! God's dwelling is with men,
    and He will live with them.
    They will be His people,
    and God Himself will be with them and be their God.
    He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
    Death will exist no longer;
    grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer,
    because the previous things have passed away (Revelation 21:3-4, HCSB).

Thanks be to God
~that God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--is with us!! No matter the circumstances, no matter how alone or lonely we might feel, the child of God is never alone, abandoned, or unloved.
~that His promises are sure
~for mothers and opportunities to honor them
~for a lovely Mother's Day tea/luncheon planned and implemented by my artsy sister
~for May beginning with sweatshirts and hoodies (a rarity in our part of Texas)

~Ebony snuggling with me until we both warmed up
~2.35" of sorely needed rain
~for 4 male and 3 female finches at the feeder this week
~Stanford (Cardinal) and Luigi (white-winged dove) posing for a photo shoot

~for new, supportive living room seating from kind husband
~the first two days at home without lower back pain (from the old sofa) since mid-January
~for all the tears, fears, needs, and difficulties that keep me depending on the Lord and discontent with earthly things
~Ebony making me laugh with his "case of the Mondays"

Yes, Ebony is in there!

~new things blooming and growing in the garden

~privilege and opportunity to vote (early) in local elections
~opportunity to practice humility by not defending myself against criticism
(gratitude list #196-211)

Book Review: The Hawk and the Dove, by Penelope Wilcock

  Great-uncle Edward had many tales to tell of Father Peregrine, after the terrible thing that happened to him.  Uncle Edward said it crippled his body, but it set his spirit free.  He said that most men would have become bitter and closed in, but Peregrine did not.  He used his own weakness as a bridge to cross over to his brothers, when they too were weak.  Having lost everything, he gave his weakness to God and it became his strength.

  In a way, all the tales are one tale, the tale of how God's power is found in weakness.  But that is the story of the whole of life, if you know how to read it right (p. 40).

Now and again, the right book comes along at the exact right moment in life, and the timing makes the difference between a good read and a beloved read.  Penelope Wilcock's The Hawk and the Dove Trilogy, which I read this Lent, is one of those right books for me.  The themes that linger with me are God's grace shining brightest through (not "despite") weakness and the refrain, "God forgives you, and so do I."

The books tell the stories of the monks in a pre-Reformation English Benedictine monastery.  The abbot, Father Peregrine, embodies both eponymous birds.  He is the human hub connecting his brothers' tales; however, in a sense the true hub of the trilogy is Jesus Christ, who is exalted throughout.  It is a rare piece of fiction that moves me to worship as this did.  The rhythms of the Benedictine days with their measures of prayer, work, worship, and community sets the mood of the writing, as well, making it a peaceful sort of read.  It also gave me hope for my own weaknesses and limitations and the way they impact my community.

Ms. Wilcock does a masterful job of characterization.  There's a line from Marianne Moore's poem "Poetry" which asserts that the job of the poet is to "present/for inspection, 'imaginary gardens with real toads in them,'" and The Hawk and the Dove is full of "real toads."  The monks are as different and distinct as any real group of people, but without descending to caricature.

In the first two books, a contemporary story about an English teen receiving the tales from her mother as part of her family heritage serves as narrative scaffolding for the monks' stories.  Wilcock dispenses with that device in the third book, perhaps because the shifting focus of the first two books comes to rest on a pair of characters and stays there throughout the third.  While I missed the contemporary family, I acknowledge that they were no longer essential to the unity of the third book, though their exclusion may weaken the unity of the trilogy as a whole.  I am curious to see whether the modern family is present in the fourth volume, set to release in July of this year.

In the third book of the trilogy, the tone also changes, becoming more melancholy than the first two books.  The characters are grappling with a newer level of severe, long-term physical illness and a particularly emotional question of medical ethics.  I felt these were handled well, but the turn caught me off guard and would have upset me at certain points in life.  At this juncture, I found the narrative thought-provoking and hopeful even through the hard things it tells.

All in all, I found this trilogy inspiring, perhaps the most redemptive, grace-filled Christian fiction I've read since the Mark of the Lion trilogy by Francine Rivers.  We will see how well my affection for The Hawk and the Dove endures, but it is the right book for my present, and I expect it will be one to reread more than once.

Adolphe Monod on the Cross and Resurrection

If you are like me, right now you are asking, "Adolphe who?"  Adolphe Monod (1802-1856) was a French evangelical Protestant pastor and theology professor.  While only in his fifties, he developed terminal liver cancer.

When too ill to continue pulpit ministry any longer, so ill in fact that he was confined to his bed, he gathered a widely varied interdenominational group of pastors who celebrated the Lord's Supper together weekly and listened to Monod's thoughts on whatever filled his meditations at the time.  After his death, his hearers compiled their notes and published them as Adolphe Monod's Farewell to His Friends and the Church.*

Constance Walker, the translator of the most recent English version, says of these gatherings, ". . .the ministry that he had from his sick-bed during the last six months of his illness, the ministry of Les Adieux, has perhaps had a greater effect on the evangelical church than all of his earlier labors.  It was not the ministry he would have chosen, yet because it came to him directly from the hand of God, he accepted it as the more important ministry that it turned out to be."

One passage from the Farewell strikes me as particularly appropriate to this Easter season as we consider how to live the Resurrection every day:

It is sweet to contemplate to-day, in the sufferings of our Saviour, the view they exhibit of the great, the incomprehensible depths of the mercy of God.  Oh, my friends, let us always have this love present to our mind; it will explain everything, even the most cruel sufferings, since they are only the consequence of what He suffered for us.  At the same time, it will make everything smooth and easy [and this, remember, spoken by a man enduring late-stage liver cancer]. Faith renders everything possible; love makes everything easy: 'His commandments are not grievous.'  Full of this image of the Saviour's love, and of the love of God revealed in the Saviour, reading in His paternal heart the love of God for us, we shall give ourselves up entirely to the Lord, to do and to suffer all He shall see fit to send us.  Pray that we may be deeply impressed with this sentiment, 'God is love;' and to this end let us abide patiently at the foot of the Saviour's cross, and never lose sight of it, till--after we have suffered a little, seeing that it is needful--He will take us by the hand, and leading us over the interval that separates Friday from Sunday morning, will raise us with Himself, and establish us with Himself, in the abode of glory where He is waiting for us, and where we shall praise Him the more that we shall have suffered more, and especially if we have suffered for His name. Amen (64-65).

Friends, if this finds you living in that Saturday interval, may the Lord Himself give you comfort and strength to hope for that great Day of which Monod spoke.  He already has you by the hand; the time is short.  Let us not lose sight of His cross while we wait.  The Messiah who died for love of us has given us His word that it will be worth it all.

So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory (Colossians 3:1-4, HCSB).

*English translation of the original French title

If you would like to read Monod's Farewell along with me, here are a few links:
~the free Google eBook of the older translation (this is the one I'm reading on my Kindle)
~the free Android version of the older translation
~Living in the Hope of Glory: A New Translation of a Spiritual Classic
~more of Monod's books, including the French edition of the Farewell

Many thanks to my sister Deanna for recommending this book!

Ebony Helping with My Memory Work

The eyes of all look to You,
         And You give them their food in due time. 

You open Your hand
         And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
~Psalm 145:15-16, NASB

Almighty and everlasting God,
who art always more ready to hear than we are to pray,
and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve:
Pour down upon us the abundance of Thy mercy;
forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid,
and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask,
but through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord.
Amen.
~Collect for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, Book of Common Prayer (1662)

Spring Prayer

God of the wildflowers,

I worship You.

Profligate sower of beauty

In unexpected fields of pink and white,

In a cluster of purple iris peeking

Royal heads out from the underbrush,

Photo credit: Big Al

In flashes of perfume

Lavished on wild honeysuckle vines

Scampering up tree, over bridge,

Like a schoolboy at recess—

Photo credit: Big Al

I give You praise.

Forgive my false belief

That You,

God of the wildflowers,

Would be any less generous

With me.

Let Your bright gaze

Open my heart

And affections

Like morning glories.

**********************
Since it's Monday, I give thanks in community to the God of heaven and earth and wildflowers for
~Beautiful colors and forms in His creation
~Sermons in the flowers
~His patience with this little-faith
~New book-friends
~Specific prayers specifically answered
~How He amazes me with His grace in this online place
~The first in-season strawberries after a two-week dental delay.  Yum!
~Very informative rheumatology appointment which clarified some expectations about the costochondritis recovery and encouraged me about my bone health
~Mom's fellowship in the car to and from said appointment
~Chocolate-chip scones made by my sister.  More yum!
~Graduation announcement from a healthy, beautiful, talented niece
~Allen plants, Allen waters, but God causes the growth. . . .

The central clump is before; the rest of the fine, green "hair" is after. Part of the yard, at least, is showing progress.

~more new neighbors at the bird buffet

One of these red-headed finches is Atticus; Bachelor #2 will receive a name if he sticks around long enough.

~The last Pioneer Spirit rose from the first bloom

(from my gratitude list, #139-152)
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