Up the Sunbeam

-- Someday I will have read everything ever written by C. S. Lewis.  I am woefully behind on the way to achieving this goal, despite owning a whole shelf full of his books, but it's a work in progress.  However, maybe knowing this will help you understand why my interest was especially sparked by something our pastor shared yesterday. In a sermon about integrity , focused particularly on marriage, he referred to an idea taught by C. S. Lewis that if we could see now what glorious beings believers will become in heaven, we might be tempted to worship them. With this idea in view, the pastor encouraged us to appreciate the privilege we have of watching, up close, the becoming  of our spouses and children. He further encouraged us to be filled with grace toward them as we keep in mind that they are works in progress on the way to future glories unimagined. "However, as it is written:    'No eye has seen,    no ear has heard, no mind ha...

-- "The light still shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out. " John 1:5 PHI Caught and captivated by the spangled darkness of a starry and moonless night; the sky seems a limitless ink well, glossy and liquid and black and . . . somehow comforting in the quiet way of shadows. Just in case you wondered . . . just in case you thought so, the enemy does not own the dark! Sometimes, the  dark is just the best backdrop for light. Nowhere is beauty more stunning than in the vividness of contrast, and God is a Master of it! His Shekinah, His powerful, dwelling Presence, blazed glory-fire in a mighty pillar, lighting up the desert nights for His children.  It was not only to give help and comfort to them, but as a warning to anyone who might try to attack . . . My people are not alone in the dark! My people are protected! My people are MINE!! I. AM. HERE!!! God is not afraid of the dark!   "And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it...

-- Are we THERE yet? The universal refrain of children on their way somewhere far away. Mile after mile, the wheels turn and turn and turn, but to them the destination still seems so far off. Yes Lord. Some days it feels a little like that. For now anyway, we live in the uncharted territory between the excitement of getting on the road and the thrill of getting to our destination. There's no telling what lies between. In the ordinariness of daily days (even good days), there is a slow grind of feeling never quite on top of everything, and knowing there's still a long way to go, a person can get a little weary sometimes. Obstacles, real and perceived, from outside sources and from within, can make it feel like you're getting nowhere fast. You can start fussing and worrying over bumps in the road you didn't anticipate, the funky looks you get from other travelers, and a thousand little burrs under your saddle that chafe and rub your nerves to an exaggerated frazzl...

Word became flesh . INCARNATION The Flesh-wearing Word lived and breathed and moved among us, sharing our space-and-time existence, for a span of 33 years.  In that mere blink of history, He spanned the chasm between divine love and human desperation. Christmas . . . His coming.  We so easily envision His birth, the praising angels, the Joy to the World, the Peace on Earth, the Good Will to Men, shepherds, wise men, drummer boys--the Christmas card comes to life in our mind's eye.  But do we rewind a little further, go back to the moment where He took off His glory like a glistening robe and left it hanging on a hook in Heaven's hallway?  Do we envision the moment He handed His crown to His Father and said, "Don't worry--I've got this!  I'll go!"  Do we reckon with the sacrifice it was for Him to limit all that He had always been to the permanent wearing of humanity, just so He could rescue us from the dragon . . . and ourselves . . . and our ugly sin...

-- That's a funny title, I know. Good - Bad High - Low Light - Dark Up - Down Victory - Defeat Success - Failure Honor - Disgrace Glory - Shame I think it's safe to say that these pairs of words are polar opposites. There is kind of a "never the twain shall meet" quality about each combination. These are "one or the other" propositions--you can't have both, at least not simultaneously . . . or so we think. As a lover of words, I have always enjoyed oxymorons--those quirky little figures of speech that carry contradiction like cargo--"jumbo shrimp," "act natural," "same difference," or "alone together." The word oxymoron is an oxymoron itself, meaning "sharply dull." Well, I think Jesus was a living oxymoron. He was God incarnate who left His home in HEAVEN and came to EARTH for one purpose--He said that purpose was to be lifted up. "But I, when I am lifted up from the ear...