Deep Calls

BLESSED IS SHE WHO HAS BELIEVED       Zechariah came out of the Holy of Holies mute! Perhaps he tried to use sign language to communicate what had happened, but ... everyone knew  something  supernatural had happened, but ? ? ?       Zechariah went home, and in the 'natural course of events' Elizabeth, his wife, became pregnant. It says she stayed in seclusion for 5 months. However, it never says  WHY.  I checked a few commentaries ... nothing! OK, some clearly biased guesses. (Sometimes I wish commentators would just say "Wow! don't have a clue!")      Elizabeth wasn't ashamed. She said, " The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and  taken away my disgrace  among the people ." (Luke 1:25)       So why 5 months of seclusion ~ my answer:  We don't know ... don't have a clue!!    What we do know is that in the 6th month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, Gabriel ~ the angel who came to se

BEYOND BELIEF There was a couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth. He was a high priest ... one of the very select few who could enter the Holy of Holies. The Bible tells us that Zechariah and Elizabeth were "well advanced" in years. One translation, in fact, says they were "well stricken with age".  What a way to say "old"!! Also, Elizabeth, we are told, was barren.                       NO hope for a child. This was beyond sad.      It was tragic, tragic for any couple but especially one in the family of the High Priest.  There would be no son to follow in his line.  Then, one fate-full day, Zachariah is serving in the Holy of Holies and an angel shows up. The angel tells him,  " Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of

Joseph's birth announcement      Joseph kind of fascinates me. We know so little about him ... but in that little bit I can see so much. What do we know ?      Well, we know that he was from Nazareth. (Luke 1:26-27)      We know that Joseph was in the family line of David the king. (Luke 1:6-16)      We know that he was a carpenter, because Jesus was called a carpenter and sons learned their trades from their fathers. (Mark 6:1-3) and ...             really ...                             not much more.  OH ~ wait!      We also know he was betrothed to Mary, the mother of Jesus, when she became pregnant with Jesus, and that, at the time, Mary was a virgin ~ hence, Joseph was NOT the biological father of Jesus.      We know that when Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, he was going to divorce her quietly. Betrothal was serious business! If you were publicly betrothed, you did not just decide, "Well, let's not get married." It was legally b

This is another re-run ~ I wrote it thinking of Zechariah and Elizabeth after the Magi left ~ - - - - - - - - The old man stood in the shadows, leaning on the doorway, letting it bear his weight. He gazed at his wife as she sat in a corner of a now dark room. She held a small boy in her lap; she hummed and stroked his hair. "Is she going to be alright? "Oh Anna! You have come again. Thank you. I do not know...I do not know...will any of us be alright? She sits and rocks him -- will not put him down. The first nights she slept by his bed ~ when she slept. This is a nightmare -- thank you, my friend, for coming. I could not leave her without knowing you were with her and John." "Such a child. See, he sits so still in her lap. It is like he ... knows. As long as you need me, I will come. But I have thought, in this grief we can rejoice...they did not come to your door." "Simeon thinks he would not dare to touch the son of a High Priest ~

So when we decorate at Christmas we use stars, we put them a top our trees, and we gild the rest of our decorations with stars, stars, stars. Why? OK, they ARE pretty! But lots of things are pretty. The stars of Christmas ... and the story of why we use the stars ... may be my favorite side story in this wonderful Advent adventure. I LOVE IT! It's multi-layered. It is awe-full...in the take your breath away wonderful way, and - sadly - in the chill you to the bone way as well. Now... The post below is a re-run...I actually wrote it last year. I was reviewing with an eye to doing a Magi story for our Advent Adventure. and. . .I re-read this and . . . (she says blushing a bit) I liked it all over again. So: I am putting it here AGAIN! Hope you enjoy it!! - - - - - - - Sometime after Jesus was born, while he was still living in Jerusalem ~ as we will see from the story ~ when he was somewhere between birth and two years old, Magi came from the East with extravagant gifts

OK, we do something kind of crazy in December...some people as soon as the day after Thanksgiving... We put a tree -- very very often -- an evergreen tree that was alive days ago, still green, still still smelling (wonderfully) of pine forests -- into our house. I know that since we all do it, it seems so normal and traditional and all that we really don't question it. We just do it! Then we decorate it with pretty, Christmas themed things: ornaments, garland, maybe popcorn and cranberries on a string, lights...a star or an angel on top. We leave it there and we let it shed its needles all over our living room floor. Why do we do this? Is "because it is a Christmas tree" a good enough answer? Do your kids even ask why? Have you ever asked why? There is an answer. Ok, don't freak out on me. It began as a pagan tradition. (I can hear it now, "OK Mertle. Get that thing out of our house...its pagan! " Calm down. don't do anything rash!) It began  

OK, so take a deep breath. Are you feeling a bit nervous? Wondering why I titled the blog "So WHY is Christmas in December"? Are you thinking, "Well, duh! It is in December cuz that is when Jesus was born." If so, sit down ~ ummm ~ NO. He wasn't born in December.  No, no...I am sure. Really. No, don't storm off...you CAN know for sure. Go to the gospel of Luke. Luke 1:5-10 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah ;  Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood,   So, Luke gives us a time marker: when Zechariah, who was in the division of Abijah, was on duty serving in the temple. Then if you go to I Chronicles: 1 Chron 24:2-5 With the help of Zadok a descendant of Eleazar and Ahimelech a descendant of Ithamar, David separated them into divisions for thei

I have been "gone" from the blog world for a WHILE . . . SORRY! Life had a way of yanking me off the path and zipping all creativity from my brain. But I have some 'off' time and I thought I would meander through some of my Christmas-y blogs and do some re-runs. Perhaps that will nudge me to write again ~ we'll see. So RE-RUN # 1 : Advent . . . are question marks forming on your brow? I find that not too many people "do" Advent these days. Are you from one of those families that got the Advent calendars and did the readings and had the candle wreath? I didn't grow up doing that. I wanted to do it when my kids were small...never managed to do it. (Yeah, that is one of the [many] black marks against me.) Somehow, raising 3 small children, . . . then when the first 3 were older, one small child and three bigger kids ~ well, somehow I just never got the wreath on time, or made the calendar, or bought a calendar...then ~ zip--blink your eyes ~ and it

I do this thing every November; everyday I post something that I am thankful for...on facebook I think that they call it "30 days of Thanksgiving". I don't do it to be part of the facebook crowd. I believe in being thankful. I think that thankfulness is powerful and profound and amazing. I think, in fact, it is crucial! My kids will tell you that. Long after I am gone, sipping tea with C. S. Lewis and Tolkien at the wedding supper of the Lamb, I hope that my kids will sit around laughing saying, "Remember when Mom used to make us make 'I am thankful for ... ' lists?"  I do.  All the time.  When they are struggling with anything: when they are sad, angry, depressed, overwhelmed  ...  it is like my cure-all ...  I will say, "You owe me a list of 10 things you are genuinely thankful for."  Many, many years ago my pastor, my first pastor, George Caywood taught on being thankful. It ~ clearly ~ made an impression. This is what he taught:

It has been a while...a long while...way too long. Somehow "Writer's Block" came in, unpacked it's suitcase and stayed WAY too long. So, I thought I'd put something down  ~ Something just in the way of tossing things it WB's suitcase...a hint like, "time to hit the road" Hmmmmm Wellllllll Can't really go back to Jonah, sorry Just can't I was going to write about how God shows Himself as the real HERO How God had this book written to show us That He had shown Jonah what He was really like, and What Jonah was really like. God is like that sometimes ~ OK, God is ALWAYS like Himself. That isn't what I mean I mean Sometimes God puts us in situations where we see that what matters to Him is not NOT following the rules and then feeling all "I'm all that and a bag of chips" cuz we are such good rule followers. God isn't about rules. REALLY! God wanted Jonah to see that LOVE you enemies IS the fabric of

 OK...see the map?   1 <-------------- Hamath: way up here <---------- between Dan and Mt. Hermon : northern-most border of Israel...most of the time <--------- Samaria : capital of Israel, the Northern Kingdom <--------- Sea of Arabah way down here "Yeah...", I hear you saying. "WHY do I care?" Well this blog, as you obviously know, from the title, is about Jeroboam II and Jonah...Jonah, the "I got swallowed by a whale" Jonah. That help? No? OK. Well I included this map because I have been reading and thinking about the Jonah story. Just about everyone ... even if they are not a Christian ... likely has at least a sketchy idea about the Jonah and the whale story. (If for some reason you do not have working knowledge of the book, or even if the last time you read it was...well, maybe Sunday School ... go now and read it. It isn't long.) It is taught in every Sunday school class; it is used as a c

This is how Gad starts the end of the story of David: 2 Sam 23:1-8 These are the last words of David: "The oracle of David son of Jesse, the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, Israel's singer of songs:  "The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; his word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: 'When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.' "Is not my house right with God? Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire? But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand. Whoever touches thorns uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear; they are burne