When our children were growing up, there was an event that each of them looked forward to. The day they finally were taller than “little” grandma. My wife’s mother stood all of 4’ 10” tall and was very good natured about this rite of passage that each of her grandchildren anticipated. It was a joyous day in their life when they could finally lay claim to this milestone. Today, our own grandchildren are eager to see how much they have grown as they stand back-to-back with their Nana to see if they have surpassed her height of 5’ 2” on their own quest to being all grown up.

My father wasn’t given to melodrama, but he thought deeply about great truths and didn’t hesitate to share with me after he’d ruminated on them for a while. We talked about a lot of things one might not think to discuss with a child. One night he remarked, “Some day, if the world goes on, I’ll no longer be here, and if the world goes on even longer, there’ll come a time when no one remembers that I ever was.”  That particular moment is frozen in my memory—perhaps because, to a child, any thought of a parent’s death is startling, and perhaps because Dad said it so matter-of-factly. He was examining the inevitability of his own end and his relative place in the larger arc of history in a way that could send a certain sort of person headlong into existential despair.

Ray’s aunt lived on the other side of the bay in Mobile. She was elderly, not in the greatest of health, and he hadn’t heard from her in a few days (and neither had her friends). Looking back on it, I suppose he must have had a fairly strong hunch that something was wrong because he asked another person (who in turn asked me) to come along. You don’t do that if you expect to find your aunt sitting in her rocking chair with the television up so loud she can’t hear her phone.

In​ ​Genesis​ ​1:27,​ ​we​ ​read​ ​that​ ​God​ ​created​ ​humans​ ​male​ ​and​ ​female. n​ ​the​ ​next​ ​chapter,​ ​in​Genesis​ ​2:24,​ ​we​ ​read​ ​that​ ​men​ ​and​ ​women​ ​are​ ​to​ ​be​ ​united​ ​and​ ​become​ ​one​ ​flesh.​ ​​ ​These​ ​two​ ​passages​ ​are​ ​from​ ​different​ ​episodes​ ​of​ ​the​ ​creation​ ​account​ ​in​ ​early​ ​Genesis,​ ​but​ ​Jesus​ ​connects​ ​them​ ​in​ ​Matthew​ ​19:4-6.​ ​​ ​He​ ​is​ ​saying​ ​that​ ​they​ ​were​ ​made​ ​male​ ​and​ ​female,​ ​because​ ​it​ ​was​ ​as​ ​male​ ​and​ ​female​ ​they​ ​were​ ​to​ ​become​ ​one​ ​flesh.​ ​​ ​As​ ​male​ ​and​ ​female,​ ​they​ ​were​ ​to​ ​become​ ​united​ ​and​ ​become​ ​one.​ ​​ ​Jesus​ ​even​ ​says​ ​that​ ​it​ ​is​ ​God​ ​who​ ​is joining​ ​them​ ​together.​ ​​ ​Now​ ​-​ ​hold​ ​that​ ​idea​ ​in​ ​the​ ​back​ ​of​ ​your​ ​head​ ​a​ ​moment​ ​while​ ​we​ ​change​ ​lanes.

It is easy to live the extraordinary. Christmas Day with its joy and cheer. New Year’s Eve with its Aud Lang Syne.

But then there’s the ordinary. How do we find the magic when your mountain peaks give way to valleys, when your “Ho Ho Ho” bleeds into a “Ho-hum” kind of life?

The answer just may be in this: finding what is extraordinary in the ordinary.

Centuries ago, a group of God’s people gathered together to talk. The story I’m referring to is recorded in Malachi 3:16. “Then the people who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard what they said.”

When Gabriel told Mary that she would be with child and then explained how it would happen, from Mary’s perspective, this put her at great risk. We discussed this in last week’s article.

But even though her betrothal, her social status, and even her life were at risk, she has an amazing response which is all summed up in the first word she says: “Behold.” (The full statement is “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38). But that first word, ‘Behold’ was a powerful statement. We may not think much of it. We may see it as a way of saying ‘Ok’ or ‘Look.’ But it is so much more when we look at the original language and context of this word.

This time of year we often recall the story of the angel Gabriel telling Mary about how she would be with child and that baby would be the Son of God and how what a wonderous event that probably had angels singing and lights from heaven and birds and animals are dancing like in an old Disney cartoon. This is the moment where God has chosen Mary to be the mother to the Savior. And Mary’s response is just a question about how can this be and then the humble response of ‘Let it be’. But I don’t think that this was the Christmas song moment that we usually think about. What God was asking Mary to do was not something that she would have posted all over social media. Having children was and is a huge blessing, but that was probably not the calling that she wanted. Because God’s calling for her actually put her at risk.

It was a gloriously transcendent spring morning. I know that sounds like I’m overstating the matter but trust me I’m not. For some time it had been overcast, cool, and dreary, but the sudden appearance of blue sky and warm sun seemed to have instantly turned everything into a shade of green that would have been the envy of Eden. We’ve all witnessed this before, one day the landscape is full of dark, dull earth tones and the next day it is not only green—but it appears so bright you could swear there was something luminescent in the new grass and baby leaves. That’s the kind of morning it was, and it was full of wonder.

It arrived at our door as the sun was setting the night before the surgery, presented from the hands of a quiet woman who, along with others, had participated in its creation. Pieced from contrasting, yet harmonious fabrics, it is quilted to be warm and sturdy. Spaced over the body of the throw are short lengths of embroidery thread, tied with knots. It's bound at the edges, and on the sage-colored center piece, embroidered in a pleasing script:

For I am the Lord your God

who takes hold of your right hand and says to you,

“Do not fear. I will help you.”

Isaiah 41:13

I was listening to some music from my teenage years, and the following line from a song came up – “the good book says it’s better to give than to receive.”  I was thinking I’d quickly find this in the Sermon on the Mount.  It’s not there!  The saying is actually found in Acts 20:35, and is attributed to Jesus.  The following are some musings I had as I thought about this saying.

This article is for parents of young children. One of my children, who will remain unnamed, was what we often refer to as a strong-willed child. When this child learned to crawl he developed an attraction to electrical receptacles, which were on his eye-level as he crawled around our home. Knowing the danger of these shiny beige devices, we wanted to instill a fear of them in this little man. The danger of electrical receptacles was engrained in my wife’s mind due to the fact that her childhood best friend had deforming scars around her mouth due to biting into an electrical cord. Therefore, as the head of the house, I took it on myself to instill the proper respect, even fear, of electric receptacles in this strong-willed child.

Our three grandsons were watching a water polo match on television during last summer’s Olympic Games. The players were jostling for position, splashing up a storm, all while trying to either throw a ball into the net or prevent the other team from doing so. The boys thought it looked like a great time.

This past July, my wife and I had the privilege of traveling to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to encourage the missionary work of Julie Broyles. It was an amazing trip. We hope we gave encouragement as much as we were encouraged. We saw some amazing sights. Angkor Wat, in Siem Reap, Cambodia, is truly a wonder of the medieval world. Eating in a restaurant where everyone sits on top of the tables has its charm. And you’ve not fully lived until you’ve ridden on the back of a motorbike, in the rain, and crossed five lanes of oncoming traffic.   

There is a series of books by Douglas Adams called “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”  As they are offbeat and quirky and humorous, they appeal to me.  In one of those books is something called the Total Perspective Vortex.  It is used as an execution device.  The following are some descriptions of it.  It is the most savage psychotic torture a sentient being can undergo.  You can kill a man, destroy his body, break his spirit, but only the Total Perspective Vortex can annihilate a man’s soul!  The treatment lasts seconds, but the effects last the rest of your life!  As a sentenced man walks to his execution by means of the Vortex, they play recordings of the screams of the last victim, as a way to get the next victim ready.  The scream is described as someone having their soul burned from their body.

How often do we exclude God from our working environment? We hear constantly about the separation of church and state; that prayer should not be in schools; diversity in the workplace. Society is trying to keep God in the church building, and too many times we buy in to it.

While in graduate school at a rather large state university, in the mid 1980’s, I faced a lot of spiritual challenges. Largely, I was a believer because I was raised by parents who were believers. This, and the fact that I respected and loved both of my parents made becoming a faithful Christian a rather simple thing to pursue. However, being challenged with the Secular Humanism that was taught by one of my professors, I was forced to think about what I believed, and why. I came to a rather simple, but I think profound, series of presuppositions and conclusions for which Secular Humanism was not giving me answers.

When Janice and I lived in Alabama, our then six-year-old grandson (Bryant) lived a few states away, but I talked with him and his two brothers every Sunday night. Our conversations revolved around their sports activities, bad jokes (“Why couldn’t the pirate recite the alphabet? He kept getting lost at sea”), food, and what they learned in Bible class that morning. We went other places according to the moment, but these were the well-worn trails in our talks.

Recently in my daily Bible reading I was reading in chapter 3 of the book of Daniel.  This is the story of the three Hebrew captives, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their demonstration of faith in God before the great King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  The story is familiar to most people who have attended Sunday school, and it describes where King Nebuchadnezzar erects an imposing golden image in the plain of Dura.  He then decrees to everyone in the land that when they hear the music, they are all to bow down and worship the image made by the king.  Furthermore, it is noted that anyone who refuses to worship the image will be punished by being thrown into a blazing furnace.

Romans 6:16 says “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”  I want to focus on the part of the verse where Paul says sin leads to death.  We tend to think that the idea presented here is some variation of the following:  when we sin, God will accordingly punish us with the death we deserve.  But N.T. Wright, in his book “The Day the Revolution Began” has a view on this passage that differs from this view.  He uses an example to illustrate his view, but for now I’ll discuss an example that came to me as I was going through my normal daily routines.  But this is still primarily N.T. Wright’s idea.  I’m just adding my twist to it.

Throughout the Old Testament we see God using water to perform the greatest miracles. At the creation of the world, God gathered the waters together and made dry ground (Gen 1). God used water to flood the entire earth at the time of Noah (Gen 6-9). God's first plague on Egypt at the time of Moses was changing the Nile's water into blood (Exo 7). When Moses lead the Israelites out of captivity, God parted the Red Sea (Exo 14). When Joshua lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, God parted the Jordan River (Jos 3). God ended a drought at the time of Ahab (1Ki 17-18). God rescued Jonah from the big fish (Jon 2).