Excited

I am going to pick up my granddaughter at the airport this morning, and I just commented to God that I was excited to see her.  His immediate response was, "I'm excited that you told Me."  (I never want to imply that I hear the audible voice of God.  Basically, I get little impressions rising in my soul that are not what my own normal thought processes would be.)

My response back to Him was, "What???!!!?  The mighty, magnificent God of majesty and power, of purity and perfection, is excited because I took half a second to make an off-the-cuff little comment to Him?  Little old me?  Insignificant, not really fascinating me?"

"Whoa!  Stop," He says.   "Insignificant?  I gave My Son for you.  He gave His blood, His life for you.  I see you in Him, as having been crucified, dead, buried, and then raised up...in Him.  I see you washed in that perfect cleansing blood that He shed.  You know that you are urged to come boldly and with confidence into My presence, to My throne of grace.  Because I have declared you righteous, I point My royal sceptre of acceptance and favour toward you to admit you freely into My presence any time you want to come, even if it's just to make a brief little comment.  I actually enjoy you.  I love it when you spend time with Me."

A scripture popped into my head.  A few days after my husband's funeral, Zephaniah 3:17 was given to me.  It says, "The Lord your God...the Mighty One...will rejoice over you with gladness; He will renew you (or quiet you) with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing."  (Oh, I know that was written to Israel, the "daughter of Zion" but I am now part of spiritual Israel, and I do a whole lot of claiming the promises that were spoken to her.)  Strong's concordance has the first "rejoice" as meaning "to be bright, cheerful", "gladness" as "blithesomeness, glee" and the second "rejoice" as "to spin around, rejoice..."  Isn't that quite a picture, that the Holy Lord of all is bright  and cheerful because of me, glad, blithesome, gleeful, singing, spinning around and rejoicing?  Oh, wow!  How entirely awesome!

I sometimes feel that I don't pray nearly enough, but I do make little comments to God throughout the day.  When I nearly trip or nearly cut myself, I do a quick little "thank You for my angels", referring to Psalm 91:11:  "for He shall give His angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways."  When I get a little ping of pleasure just because I look at the clock and it says 12:34, or a goldfinch comes to my bird feeder (not in December, I know), or a little bubble of exultation rises in me for no apparent reason, or a fabulous song starts to play itself in my head, I do a quick little moment of praise.

My wonderful, well-loved brother-in-law passed suddenly, unexpectedly, tragically early Sunday morning.  There have been many tears, much concern for his shattered, grieving wife, much heaviness of heart, such a sense of loss.  But even in the midst of that, the soul rises up and says, "Lord, You are good and You are faithful.  I know that You will see her through and give her strength and comfort.  I praise You."  He accepts praise that comes to Him with tears too.

So let's remember to keep on turning with our occasional, unplanned comments to our attentive, approving Heavenly Father who loves us so completely, and who enjoys any conversation we choose to have with Him.

The Wonder of It All

 I thought today about a former business partner of my husband's, who was raised Catholic but seemingly could simply not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus.  He could believe in God, he could believe in creation, but this one thing was the sticking point with him.

Isn't it strange that he could believe in a God who created the entire universe by commanding it with His Word (Jesus is the Word according to John 1:1-4), and yet balk at the idea that this same God, who made the first man complete with sperm, and the first woman complete with ova, could combine a sperm cell with an egg cell and speak the implantation of this fertilized egg cell into Mary's womb?  Amazing how the devil can put up such a variety of roadblocks in people's minds!

Let's take another look at this old, old story...

In multiple accounts of people's encounters with angels in the Old and New Testaments, their first reaction was generally fear.  For just two examples, look at Zechariah in Luke 1:12 and the shepherds in Luke 2:9. But Mary's reaction to Gabriel was somewhat different; "When she saw him, she was troubled by his words, and considered in her mind what kind of greeting this might be."  There must have been some fear too, because Gabriel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary..." but it was what he said to her that had her troubled.

So what was Gabriel's greeting?  He said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored.  The Lord is with you.  Blessed are you among women" (Luke 2:28).  We've looked before at the system of the Law under which Mary was raised, where there were all the sacrifices that had to be made to cover for them, the trespass offerings and sin offerings, the scapegoat, etc.  These were a repeated "reminder of sin" (Hebrews 10:3, 4).  So it bewildered Mary that the angel would declare her to be highly favoured, blessed among women, and that the Lord was with her.

The angel went on to explain the plan:  "Listen, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a Son and shall call His name Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest.  And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever.  And of His kingdom there will be no end."  This must have been a lot to absorb.  Did she understand that he was talking about the Messiah that all of Israel had awaited so long?

Her response to this was very natural:  "How can this be, since I do not know a man?"  That word "know" from the Greek word "ginosko" is "used to convey the thought of connection  or union between man and woman" (Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words).   She is simply asking how, as a virgin, she can bear a child.  It's a perfectly reasonable question.  This had never, ever happened before.

Her question is different from Zechariah's question earlier in the chapter when Gabriel appears to him, promising a son after he and his wife are old.  Apparently, it was something that they had prayed for (Gabriel said "your prayer has been heard") and, unlike Mary's situation, there was precedent in the history of Israel, when old, old Abraham and old, old Sarah had a child which God had promised them.   Gabriel came to tell Zechariah, "Do not fear, Zechariah,...your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.  You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.  For he will be great in the sight of the Lord...and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.  He will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God.  And he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah...to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."  Again, it was a lot to absorb.  But this was the angel Gabriel talking to him!

So when skeptical Zechariah said, "How shall I know this?  For I am an old man and my wife is well advanced in year" (in other words, "why should I believe you?"), can't you just see Gabriel standing up very, very tall and glaring down at him?  Sort of a "don't you know who I am?" attitude?  His answer was, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God.  And I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news..."

Mary's question was not one of skepticism, or unbelief, but simply asking for clarification.  Gabriel's answer to her was, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you.  Therefore, the Holy One who will be born will be called the Son of God...For with God nothing will be impossible."

Mary believed him, and received his word.  "I am the servant of the Lord.  May it be unto me according to your word."  Thus came about the miracle of the virgin birth of our Jesus.

It all boils down to God's love for all of us, expressed in the very well-known John 3:16:  "For God so loved the the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  What a wonder that He loved us so, and devised that perfect plan of a virgin birth, to bring to us God in the form of a man, who was then able to bear our sins and free us from Satan's grasp!

The song that floated into my head this morning was an old hymn called "The Wonder of It All" and here are its lyrics:

There's the wonder of sunset at evening, the wonder of sunrise I see,

But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul is the wonder that God loves me.

There's the wonder of springtime and harvest, the sky, the stars, the sun,

But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul is the wonder that has just begun.

     Oh, the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all, just to think that God loves me.

     Oh, the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all, just to think that God loves me.