Day 9 -- Messenger on This Ninth Day of Advent

If you're wondering about the strange title, I am referring to the word for the day of #adventword2017. The words seem more challenging to me this year than last year. However, I find that each is leading me into great meditation time. After pondering various experiences and feelings associated with "messenger", the verse that came to me was Matthew 10:29 from the New Living Translation: "What is the price of two sparrows -- one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it."

Each bird is a messenger to me of God's love. This past week, a gorgeous hawk flew right in front of my kitchen window and landed on the branch of a nearby tree. I ran to find my phone to take a picture (of course, I could not find it before the hawk flew away), but the beauty of the hawk stayed with me even though I did not have a photo. (This also explains why I'm putting a picture of a bird that came to visit us outside our living room window.)

It turns out (oh, how I love these types of coincidences) that a friend gave me a book to read: An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor. The cover has a bird on it.

I have not finished the book, but I have found a passage that resonates with me as I think about messengers during this Advent season, or any season. It resonates with the type of messenger I want to be.

"Many years ago now, a wise old priest invited me to come speak at his church in Alabama. 'What do you want me to talk about?' I asked him.

"'Come tell us what is saving your life now, ' he answered...All I had to do was figure out what my life depended on. All I had to do was figure out how I stayed as close to that reality as I could, and then find some way to talk about it that helped my listeners figure out those same things for themselves" (xvii).

What is saving my life now? God, Divine Presence, Gentle Whisperer, Holy One, Healer, the One Who loves me and delights in me sees me, strengthens me, sustains me by continuing to show me love by way of the Word, by way of creation, by way of people and community among many other ways. Today I was loved by the team I work with. Scripture words and words in a new book encouraged me. The lights on a little tree brightened my evening. Thankfulness for a group of women who thought of me during a tough time and gave me little handcrafted Christmas tags enabled me to share that gratitude with another group of women. God who sees me opened my eyes to see all that I have to be thankful for. My hope is that in my every day life I can be a messenger of good news.  

On the Sixth Day of Christmas -- A Story of Geese

I was going to give you a funny picture of six geese "a-laying"; except, it used the word "laying" incorrectly, and I just could not bring myself to use it, even in the interest of humor. Instead I am giving you a picture of two geese who were involved in the story I am about to tell. This incident happened almost a year ago, this past January.

My friend and I were prayer walking around our local lake at noon. At the end of our walk, we saw a little boy who was shorter than all of the 30 geese he was chasing! I mean CHASING these geese into the lake, not a sign of fear in his bones. My friend and I immediately looked for a parent because geese are MEAN! Then, I heard the Lord: "That little boy, shorter and weaker than all those geese has them running" and I could see that the geese were moving out of his way. His father was indeed there, although quite a ways back, back far enough that we did not see him at first. It became clear to my friend and I that obviously we have been way too scared of these geese, AND that spiritually we could rout the enemy with our Abba Father supporting us every step of the way. The prayers at the end of our prayer walk were full of His power as we acknowledged this truth.

It does occur to me that just as our loving Father knows our frame, so too we need to know our children and grandchildren. As a allegory, we can take this story and see how often we cower before the enemy when God is there all the time. We can be like this little boy, brave and strong. As for TEACHING children not to fear, I imagine that the dad took into account how his child was made. Did he need to hold his son's hand at first and show him how to move those geese along? Does he have another son who still wants to hang back and his daddy is giving the son time to grow? I'm glad our Daddy knows our frame. If He has allowed something a human would be tempted to fear to come into our lives, then we can also know that He is more than able to lead us, in Him and through Him, to victory. Together we can walk in the Spirit of love, power, and sound mind, and not in a spirit of fear.

I want to remember this story -- not the one of geese a-laying from the Christmas song, but the one where one little person, loving parent behind him (or her), can joyfully run through a gaggle of geese. The little boy carried no stick; he was not mean back at the geese. He simply was not going to allow those geese to boss him around or pick on him. I am goring to practice not letting the "blues," sadness, depressions, boredom, pride, anger, etc., push me around or pick on me.

"Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou, O Lord, are a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head" (Psalm 3:2-3).

P.S. I love the beauty of geese. They can, however, be extremely assertive (and thus, scary)! 

Birds and Rings on the Fifth Day of Christmas

I could not find a picture of five of these ring-necked pheasant, but these birds were birds of royalty, typically served during a nice 12 Days of Christmas dinner. (Apologies to those who do not eat birds.) This bird is probably the gift of choice from one true love on the Fifth Day of Christmas. This should be good news for those who try to buy all the gifts from the twelve days of Christmas -- I am assuming five pheasants might cost less than five gold rings (also assuming the rings were truly gold).

A change from birds to jewelry is not the only change this song has made over the years. Some want to make it a song full of symbolism.  Snopes.com makes an excellent case that this was a French song (partridges not being introduced into Britain until after the origin of the song) that was probably part of a "memory and forfeits" game (we've played such games with the letters or with learning people's names). The first person says the first line, the second says the first and second line, the third person says the first, second, and third, and on down the line.

This makes a good deal of sense to me. I particularly like how the couple who run Snopes close their article:

Nonetheless, plenty of writers continue to expound upon "the beauty and truly biblical and spiritual meanings locked away in this wonderful song that puts Christ into Christmas where he doesn't appear to be." Perhaps those who consider this tale to be "beautiful" and "inspirational" (despite its obviously dubious truthfulness) should consider its underlying message: That one group of Jesus' followers had to hide their beliefs in order to avoid being tortured and killed by another group of Jesus' followers. Of all the aspects of Christianity to celebrate at Christmastime, that doesn't sound like a particularly good one to emphasize. 
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/music/12days.asp#4zhwlZlp1pgiOpYx.99

I really would rather think of this song as a game. I also like the idea that the five golden rings are birds. Although the Bible does sometimes mention jewels and gold is a positive light (think of Revelations 21), mankind tends to fight over it, use it as a way to entice, or to rank people.

Birds, on the other hand, do not fall to the ground without God seeing. He cares for them, and He says He cares for each of us even more than He cares for the birds (and He cares for them a lot).

Short post today. I think I'm going to go birdwatch where I feel the presence of God in a way that I don't when I sit staring at gold.