Remember "Show and Tell" on the first day of school? I had one classmate who told tales of Disney World vacations every year. I was so jealous.
Somewhat less exciting to me is the Jersey Shore.
The upsides: breezes that fluff and cool sweaty heads and steamy air. We enjoy breakfasts with a view, family face to faces and digging holes in the sand, wide and deep. The tide always washes them away. I take walks and watch baby clams gobble down and down. Every day, my husband paddles out and catches rides back in...out, back, out, back - for hours.
The downsides:
Seagulls hungrily snatch sandwiches and cheese curls from your clasp and pretty beach snacks, gone in a blink. This particular year, our small entourage attended the worst play possibly ever written, escaped before it ended and then tried to forget!
Another week on the Jersey Coast has ended.
Vacations have highs and lows; they come and go. Things come and go, come and go. People come and go. That's life.
Luke 2: 25-35 Simeon was an old man who knew that before it was time for him to go, He would see the Christ come. On the day Jesus was dedicated by Mary and Joseph, there sat Simeon, waiting and longing, tired and hopeful. He recognized Jesus as "The Consolation of Israel" who would console him and his people for all that they had lost and suffered...Jesus was the greatest high in Simeon's life.
"Now I can go in peace" he said. (v.29)
"Now I see what I have believed without seeing...trusted without experience;
You God are a God who is making everything right after all for all.
This Jesus marks the going of what has been and coming of what was meant to be."
Simeon had to shout about it!
There was a woman at the temple who also noticed Jesus and saw what Simeon saw. She had been there night and day since the loss of her husband...surely over 50 years of devotion. Anna, a prophetess (spokeswoman for God) joined Simeon in the affirmation of Jesus as Israel's redeemer, making sure the people who were waiting for Him would know that He had come to set them free.
Her people had let go of all God offered them as His children but the day they laid their eyes on Jesus was the day God was giving it all back...to Israel and to ALL His children.
Anna had to talk about it!
In Jesus, God accomplishes what no one can do for themselves,
forgiveness and restoration.
He not only saves us from our corruption, He makes it possible for us to live out the mission we were made for:
To know Him and make Him known.
Isaiah 52:9-10
Break forth together into singing, (shouting, talking, blogging)
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.
However...
all of the coming and going, losing and gaining, highs and lows in life cause us to view God skeptically,
the illusive rhyme and reason for non-sensical pain, the outrage of heartbreaking injustice...why would we want to know such a God? And IF we could know such a God, why would we want to compel others to know Him?
I believe God, well aware of His reputation, sent Jesus to shine a light on who He really is.
The Old Testament itself, the whole history of Israel and the church provides more than enough excuse for us to say :"No thank you. You say "come" Lord...but I think I'd better be going!"
Jesus, the perfect representation of who God is, the perfect reflection of this baffling God's heart, speaks comfort:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God- trust also in me." John 14:1
With all this coming and going, losing and gaining in life
I am so thankful for Jesus, our Comforter, our Redeemer.
That's why I have to blog about it!
"With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation;
it’s now out in the open for everyone to see:
A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,
and of glory for your people Israel." Luke 2:30-32 The MSG
If we long to be comforted in our losses, if we hope for better understanding of what we're made for-
Like Simeon and Anna we must come, "Taste and see that He IS good" Ps. 34:8
then- "Go and tell this great news". Mark 16:15
Somewhat less exciting to me is the Jersey Shore.
The upsides: breezes that fluff and cool sweaty heads and steamy air. We enjoy breakfasts with a view, family face to faces and digging holes in the sand, wide and deep. The tide always washes them away. I take walks and watch baby clams gobble down and down. Every day, my husband paddles out and catches rides back in...out, back, out, back - for hours.
The downsides:
Seagulls hungrily snatch sandwiches and cheese curls from your clasp and pretty beach snacks, gone in a blink. This particular year, our small entourage attended the worst play possibly ever written, escaped before it ended and then tried to forget!
Another week on the Jersey Coast has ended.
Vacations have highs and lows; they come and go. Things come and go, come and go. People come and go. That's life.
Luke 2: 25-35 Simeon was an old man who knew that before it was time for him to go, He would see the Christ come. On the day Jesus was dedicated by Mary and Joseph, there sat Simeon, waiting and longing, tired and hopeful. He recognized Jesus as "The Consolation of Israel" who would console him and his people for all that they had lost and suffered...Jesus was the greatest high in Simeon's life.
"Now I can go in peace" he said. (v.29)
"Now I see what I have believed without seeing...trusted without experience;
You God are a God who is making everything right after all for all.
This Jesus marks the going of what has been and coming of what was meant to be."
Simeon had to shout about it!
There was a woman at the temple who also noticed Jesus and saw what Simeon saw. She had been there night and day since the loss of her husband...surely over 50 years of devotion. Anna, a prophetess (spokeswoman for God) joined Simeon in the affirmation of Jesus as Israel's redeemer, making sure the people who were waiting for Him would know that He had come to set them free.
Her people had let go of all God offered them as His children but the day they laid their eyes on Jesus was the day God was giving it all back...to Israel and to ALL His children.
Anna had to talk about it!
In Jesus, God accomplishes what no one can do for themselves,
forgiveness and restoration.
He not only saves us from our corruption, He makes it possible for us to live out the mission we were made for:
To know Him and make Him known.
Isaiah 52:9-10
Break forth together into singing, (shouting, talking, blogging)
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.
However...
all of the coming and going, losing and gaining, highs and lows in life cause us to view God skeptically,
the illusive rhyme and reason for non-sensical pain, the outrage of heartbreaking injustice...why would we want to know such a God? And IF we could know such a God, why would we want to compel others to know Him?
I believe God, well aware of His reputation, sent Jesus to shine a light on who He really is.
The Old Testament itself, the whole history of Israel and the church provides more than enough excuse for us to say :"No thank you. You say "come" Lord...but I think I'd better be going!"
Jesus, the perfect representation of who God is, the perfect reflection of this baffling God's heart, speaks comfort:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God- trust also in me." John 14:1
With all this coming and going, losing and gaining in life
I am so thankful for Jesus, our Comforter, our Redeemer.
That's why I have to blog about it!
"With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation;
it’s now out in the open for everyone to see:
A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,
and of glory for your people Israel." Luke 2:30-32 The MSG
If we long to be comforted in our losses, if we hope for better understanding of what we're made for-
Like Simeon and Anna we must come, "Taste and see that He IS good" Ps. 34:8
then- "Go and tell this great news". Mark 16:15
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