Up the Sunbeam

-- I came very close to titling this post "Never Skip a Bible Verse," but I think I'll ask you to think of that as the subtitle instead. There are verses in the Bible that we are all tempted to skip entirely, or at the very least we skim over them, considering them to be the verses to move past to get to the good stuff. I think of certain long passages of Leviticus outlining laws that seem persnickety and far removed from our 21st Century life,  or long ago census records that list the names of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and the numbers of people in each one,  or genealogies filled with generations of names we can't pronounce (they used to be called "the begats"--anyone old enough to remember that?) What about this one? " James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,    To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:    Greetings." James 1:1 NIV At first glance, this verse may seem merely a polite introduction, a salutation...

-- I can hear the telltale clanking. The monkey wrench has been thrown into the machinery again. The gears are grinding to a halt, and the flow of words has stopped. I keep anxiously watching like a weary traveler waiting at an empty baggage claim for bags that do not come. I wish I could see down the chute and open everything up to fix the problem. I wish it was as easy to focus my thoughts as it is to focus my camera. I flit and flutter, scanning my mind for an idea, just one good idea, to perch upon.  Where, oh where are the words hiding? Why won't they show themselves? What have I done to chase them away, and what can I do to bring them back? Are they alive and green somewhere under the frosty cold? What if I've already written everything I know? What if there are no more good ideas? What if nothing I say is original or creative or special? What if the keys have gone silent for the last time? Wistful wishes, wretched what if's, mixed up image...

-- Three days after God called LIGHT out of nothing into the blank space of His new universe, He gathered a handful of it up and rolled it into a fiery, glowing orb and set earth whirling around it. From that day to this one, there has never failed to come a sunrise. We set our lives in whirling motion of our own every day, based consciously or unconsciously, on our confidence that another sunrise will come tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that . . . Our faith in the next sunrise is not something we have to muster up, or exert effort and break a sweat to produce, or even think about most of the time. We have a good long track record to base our faith upon, we've never known the sun to sleep in or call in sick or go on vacation, so we trust that it will continue to be its faithful sunny self for as many bright tomorrows as God allows. When it is so easy to have faith in something as finite and beyond our control as the sunrise, I wonder why we have such cha...

-- "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...

-- The energy in the room changed dramatically. The entire audience seemed to feel it and sit up a little straighter in their seats with anticipation. Intermission was over and the band my son assembled to perform some of his original songs in a concert at his college was about to play--the debut performance of Jordan Friday and the Beautiful Romance! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Being on a college campus, the concert up to this point had been an eclectic mix of musical styles, varied cultures and lyrical content. There had been . . . . . . profanity-laced rap and hip hop . . . . . . some nice acoustic guitar work punctuated with angst and anger, lyrics about men reverting back to apes and violent rituals and despair . . . . . . and finally, my first introduction to a live performance by a screamo death metal band--lots of rage, frenzy, desperation, writhing on the floor and sounds I didn't know human voices could make "singing" words I think I'm glad were unint...