Isaiah – Hope Walking

Red and Yellow, Black and Blue

“Red and yellow, black and blue….”

My three year old granddaughter was holding her newborn brother for the first time. We were taking cute shot after cuter shot, when she stopped “saying cheese” for us and looked into her tiny brother’s face.

Giving him a sweet little-mom smile she started softly singing, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children in the world, Red and yellow, black and blue, they are…” Her little voice stopped, looking for words to finish. “I don’t know what the words are,” she said.

My son, her dad, did a quick rewrite and sang with her, “Red and yellow, black and blue, they are precious to Him, too. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

“Red and yellow, black and blue” makes me recall how many bruises my boys had as they grew. They both gave themselves black eyes as they learned to walk. And one of them had so many black and blue marks on his legs from learning to ride a bike, I was sure his pediatrician would look suspiciously at me. When I told him that, he assured me the bruises did not fit patterns of abuse.

We don’t want to think about how many children wear those patterns of abuse. My office in a medical center was across the hall from the emergency room, One afternoon a badly bruised four year old was brought in. Our hearts broke when he died. Red and yellow, black and blue, they are precious to him, too.

I know an EMT who was called to revive a 3 month old who had been thrown against a wall. I know a teacher whose middle school student was hit and pushed by his mother until he suffered a brain injury and died And I’ve seen the photos of late-term babies after abortions ended their short lives, their baby skins darkly bruised.

Black and blue, they are precious to him, too.

We can be tempted to ask God why, if he loves them, he lets these abuses happen.

I think God however asks us, why, since he values them so much, we let these abuses happen.

Every child I just mentioned was in a situation that was known to be dangerous to the child. Someone could have intervened and chose not to, for fear of their own safety or livelihood.

Black and blue in many ways, we are all broken.

My granddaughter’s sweet pose with her baby reminded me of a famous statue that moved my heart when I saw it many years ago, Michelangelo’s “Pieta.” If any mother ever held an abused and bruised child, it was Mary holding the lifeless body of Jesus.

God took on flesh and suffered with every beaten kid, thrown toddler and aborted baby. Black and blue, they are precious to him, too.

The prophet Isaiah says,”He lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain;… He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds,
crushed because of our sins;
he endured punishment that made us well;
because of his wounds we have been healed.”

Because Jesus rose from death I know that, in the end, there will be justice for every abused child. But there is also forgiveness offered for every abuser and every bystander who watched in silence. Everyone who wants to be healed, will be.

“Jesus died for all the children, all the children of the world. Red, brown, yellow, black and blue, they are precious to him, too. Jesus died for all the children of the world.”

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Scriptures: Isaiah 53:4-5 (NET )

What Do You Want for Christmas?

What do you really want for Christmas?

We are coming to the end of a very weary year. I am sure peace, rest, and perhaps simply quiet are at the top of many lists. What’s at the top of yours?

If we traveled back in time to the year Jesus was born and asked Mary’s neighbors what they wanted most, their answers would’ve been very similar. They lived under brutal Roman rule, and the news stories of the year were as horrendous as ours. The Jewish people longed for peace, quiet and rest. And they had different ideas of how to get them.

The Zealots were a party of revolutionaries intent on throwing the Romans out of Palestine. This group attracted patriots and bandits, but the means to their goal was the same – force. Physical force would bring the rest they longed for.

Another party we all know was the Pharisees. They often argued with Jesus, but the group had begun with good intentions. When they read the prophets, they had concluded God would send the Messiah to help them when all the people were fastidiously obeying God’s Laws. Their good intentions turned into a holier-than-thou attitude that brought anything but rest to the weary.

Getting away from it all were the Essenes. They took very seriously the prophet Isaiah’s instructions to prepare a highway in the desert, making a road for the Messiah to come (Isaiah 40:3.) Moving into the desert they did get away from the noise and stress of city life in Jerusalem. But their lives were hard and bare, with not much rest.

As Joseph and his pregnant wife Mary walked from Nazareth to Bethlehem, they undoubtably passed members of all these parties. Unknown to them, the Messiah, the mighty king they all longed for, rocked gently in Mary’s womb as she passed by.

When it came time to announce Jesus’ birth the angel was not sent to the hideout caves of the Zealots, the desert homes of the Essenes or the scroll rooms of the Pharisees. The angel was sent to a field filled with sheep and shepherds.

Why God picked these shepherds to first hear the great news is beyond me. But I can guess why he did not pick the parties I listed. I think they would have been quite prone to argue with the angel. “No way!” I imagine them saying. “A baby in a manger in Bethlehem is not strong enough, not pure enough, not mystical enough. He can’t be what we are looking for.”

But he was exactly what they were looking for. And he is exactly what we are looking for when we wish for peace, quiet and rest.

Stop and listen again to what the angel told the shepherds. Listen with all your heart and let the truth sink in:

“Do not be afraid! Listen carefully, for I proclaim to you good news that brings great joy to all the people: Today your Savior is born in the city of David. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a vast, heavenly army appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom he is pleased!”

The prophet Isaiah said, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”

May Jesus be first on your list this Christmas.

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Scripture references:

Isaiah 26:3 (NLT)

Luke 2:10-14 (NET))

Light in the Darkness

silhouette photography of mountain — Photo by Tomáš Malčo Malík on Pexels.com

Yesterday afternoon, Saturday, my festive small town shopping district was jarred into darkness by gun fire. A local merchant died publicly from self-inflicted wounds. The street that a week ago welcomed Santa on the fire engine now was filled with police vehicles and the crime scene truck. This tragedy followed closely behind two others nearby: a church that burned to the ground from arson, and the Jersey City shootout that took the lives of a police detective and three others.

We know now that owners of a Kosher deli and the attached Jewish school were targets in the plot which led to the urban shootout. As the peaceful little town of Bethlehem was driven into agony by King Herod, so these terrorists were anxious to kill Jewish boys.

Matthew is the only Gospel writer who notes Herod’s atrocity. Perhaps Matthew’s little brother was among the toddlers slain so cruelly. We don’t know, but the memory of that day was Matthew’s to share.

We want so badly to expunge these dark stories from our Christmas. Yet, that is exactly where they belong.

The prophet Isaiah : The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

The prophet Micah : Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;…when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

Jesus’ friend John: In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

THE DARKNESS CANNOT OVERCOME THAT LIGHT.

That is the Christmas story. Not even the darkness of killing God’s beloved son on a Roman cross can overpower his Light.

When Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” he was talking to you. He was telling you that all the darkness around you, and all the darkness within you, cannot overpower the life he brings to you.

I hate being in the dark, which is why I carry flashlights everywhere. I want to be the one with the light when the electricity goes off. I want to have light when the sun sets and we are still in the woods. I want to have light in my heart when the world goes dark.

Do you want to carry such light everywhere? You need to ask Jesus to enter your heart. He made you a promise:
“I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

Scriptures: Isaiah 9:2 (ESV) Micah 7:8 (ESV) John 1:4-5 (CSB) John 8:12

My Refuge

Recently, as hurricane Dorian traveled up the east coast, seeking refuge was very much in the news and on our minds. We all want to get out of harm’s way when threatening storms approach. But sometimes we can’t.

My grandmother left me a little cottage on a birch-lined road that leads to a sparkling lake in the Adirondack Mountains. It is so peaceful there. But not always…..

One July dawn we awoke to howling winds and havoc.

I was there with my 87 year old dad and two young sons. The day before had been still and hot with an eerie, yellow evening sky. At early dawn heavy rain pelted the windows and woke us. I hurried out on the porch to close windows as the rain came in sideways, driven by 60+ mph winds. Our flag was ripped from its holder and flew down the street. We heard branches in the surrounding woods snapping and falling, along with trees hitting the ground.

My dad, a WWII Navy veteran, got up and remarked, “This is like the typhoon I was in on the Pacific.”

We were in the path of a derecho, a fast-moving, massive wind storm. At any moment a large pine could crash through our metal roof. My sons looked to me for protection, but I was totally helpless.

Helpless on my own, but we were not on my own.

We had often read in God’s word:

The Lord has said, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “ The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid.” (Hebrews 13:5-6)

So we prayed, “God, this is your wind and these are your trees, and we ask You to keep us safe.”

We took refuge in the hand of our Helper and watched the storm pass through. As the wind died down we went back to sleep.

Later the sound of my neighbor’s chainsaw woke us to a clear, bright day. Downed trees blocked the road and leaned on houses, but nothing had landed on our roof.

I often remember the peace that covered me after I prayed in that storm. Storms of life come unexpectedly, but the hand of the Lord my Helper is always with me, and He is my refuge.

Would you like safe refuge from the storm you are in right now? It doesn’t matter if the storm is a hurricane wind at your door or a churning sea of grief and fear in your heart. God is there with you. He knows why the wind is blowing; He made the wind. He knows why your heart is breaking; He made your heart and He loves you.

The prophet Isaiah tells it like this: You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. (Isaiah 26:3,4)