A New Page, A New Beginning

"I said to the Man who stood at the gate of the year;

'Give me light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'

He replied:

'Go out into the darkness

and put your hand into the hand of God,

That shall be better than light

and safer than a known way.'"

~ King George VI, 1939

Wishing you, Dear Reader, untold blessings in the coming days.

This Day

The Creator of time and space has fixed our mileage

to just one day at a time.

Surely we can be entrusted with duty and honor

for just one day.

`Virginia Cary Hudson

Be of Good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16.33

"The faith that overcomes is the living faith in a living Conqueror.

I place my hand in His.

I cry,

"and repeat on the battlefield of my heart Thine ancient and glorious triumphs!

By Thy Almighty power -

the Power by which the worlds were made;

the Power of Thy Resurrection -

secure in me the victory over every thing that impedes my spiritual pilgrimage,

over everything that obscures my vision of Life's real issues

and of life's true goal!"

And He does it!

He conquers the world all over again!

For this is the victory that overcomes the world,

even our faith.

~F.W.Boreham

We Journey On

" I have seen Jacob's Ladder,

and found the way of my feet ordered

by the Sovereignty of Him that sits on the Throne

and the Angels of the Throne still minister.

Age sees farther back than youth,

and has many proofs of the Lord's leading.

The end and the beginning belong to the same road."

~Samuel Chadwick

The untrodden road of the New Year runs through unpossessed and holding yet unknown treasures. Go in and possess them. Like the Israelites of old, we must go in and 'take the land'.

Wherever the untrodden road may lead,

two things to the pilgrim are sure:

the Presence of our Lord

and the sufficiency of His grace.

Whether it be through the plain of the wilderness,

the deeps of the valley,

or over the mountain top,

He will lead, sustain, and cheer.

So onward Pilgrims! May we be heard only by our singing!

The Best News

While shepherds adored Him

and stars shone above,

Creator Incarnate touched earth with His love.

Revealed in that Baby a glow in His face

Was Heaven's own glory,

God's truth and God's Grace.

Hosanna, hosanna to God up on high;

Sing praise to the Lord and His name magnify,

For He has come near us and dwelt on this sod,

To give us the right to be Children of God.

~Jeffrey B. Davis

"O the Magnitude of Meekness."

"Spinks and ouzles sing sublimely,

'We too have a Saviour born,'

Whiter blossoms burst untimely

On the blest Mosaic thorn.

God all-bounteous, all-creative,

Whom no ills from good dissuade,

Is incarnate, and a native

Of the very world He made.

~Christopher Smart

1722-1771

The Glorious Unspeakable

"And Mary was keeping within herself all these things

and pondering them in her heart."

Miracles, mysteries and faith: the fabric with which the gospel account is woven.

Re-reading the familiar this year, I have been struck by an illuminated fact. All who were called to participate in the glorious event, the incarnation and birth of our Lord, had a remarkable, unwavering, cast iron faith.

This faith resulted in an absolute obedience, a Now sort of obedience, a complete abandonment to the messages given to them. This, in light of the fact that all that was spoken to each was nothing but the Unbelievable, the Miraculous, carefully wrapped up in Mystery. (Other than Zachariah, of course,who paused and questioned. He was dealt with. He of all people - a priest - should have known better.)

For Elizabeth and Mary, they received not only words to act upon, these marvels, these mysteries took place in their bodies. With the motion of the Spirit of God within their hearts came a clarity, a knowing that seemed to escape the men. The evidence, of course, is in their 'songs' as Luke records. They understood and where they didn't understand, they trusted. Courageously. Completely.

For all, two couples, the shepherds and the Magi,

they heard the Word of the Lord because of their faith.

Because that faith was securely founded on the God of that Word,

they obeyed.

After the events came Mary's ponderings. Pondering (and this is the only place in the King James text it occurs,) means to "converse with oneself, to consult, dispute and consider to aid personally". This implies it is for the purpose of gaining a mental balance. She had to sort through all these wondrous happenings which surrounded her!

In the Hebrew scriptures, Proverbs 5.21, declares that the Lord 'ponders' and weighs the hearts of man in order to 'make them straight, smooth and even. Its for evaluation and correction.

In addition to being of God, this is a mom thing, this pondering. So many are the times when words, actions, events are so filled with meaning that they must be tucked securely and deeply in the heart. They are sorted and sifted through, rehearsed and edited until all can safely be stored.

Must not then a mother's ponderings be a form of prayer? If these treasured thoughts are sorted before the eyes of our God who makes all straight and orderly, it must be.

Faith and obedience, pondering the unspeakable before the Lord, these are just some of the riches gleaned from The Story we are celebrating this season.

Ode to Joy

Across our street stands a humble bramble hedge. It rims the embankment that drops to the valley below.

From the valley floor, rising far above the brambles, is an ancient holly and a stand of venerable oaks. At this season of the year the holly is crimson with berries, the oaks, barren of summer leaf trace the sky with patterns resembling Nottingham lace.

Recently, the air was filled with bird song. It was such that gave new meaning to the term fortissimo. The power lines above, the holly and the oaks were bare. Where was this great choir hiding? The knots and snarls of the hedge were a wave of motion. The singers themselves were humble dappled-brown house wrens, not considered the greatest songsters of the bird world. Yet all together their song filled the air and lifted the spirits on a Northwest-gray winter's day.

Is it a stretch to call this a "figure of the True"? An echo of the past?

This season reminds us of the angel's sky-song to lowly shepherds in the field. I know the gospel account reads that the angels "said" rather than "sang". But really, wouldn't such amazing praise sayings from such a multitude have formed song?

It pleases me to think so.