Category: Meditations

Suggested Scripture: Mark 5: 1-20. It may be necessary to read the Suggested Scripture in its entirety to fully understand the meditation that follows.

Mark 5:18 – 19  (text)

“As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.” (1)

Where in this world of technical and scientific success does this strange incredulous episode from the Gospels fit? Believers coyly reserve the right to dismiss some of the story’s details as the product of an unenlightened age. Skeptics feel free to use it to condemn the whole Gospel narrative. 

We quickly discard as fabrication all that we cannot bring under the mastery of our reason. We suppose that we alone create order in the world, through the application of our innovative advancements. 

The present incident reveals both the mystery of our creation and the majesty of God, our Creator. The essence of our being is the primary fact that we are born with dual citizenship, of earth and heaven. But it is in our derivation from God, and not in the light of our achievements that we must understand our being.

Consider the most evidential facts demonstrating this man’s earthly citizenship.

• There are the tombs of the dead. Indeed a strange habitat for one meant to live in a family and interact with the living!
• There are the remanents of chains on hands and feet. They tell of the tragic failures for control through the mastery of reason. 
• There is an indication of self-mutilation, perhaps the evidence of lost hope, to live up to the promptings from heaven, to remember from whence he came.
• Then there is the final prognosis, which is still too freely offered when diagnoses are uncertain,” it’s all in the head,” when the problem is often within the realm of the spirit.According to Teilhard de Chardin, paleontologist and theologian, in The Hymn Of The Universe, “there is an inwardness to a man that is as real as if observed through a rent in the body”. (3) 

Our inquiry now is into the evidence of spiritual inwardness relative to this man’s heavenly citizenship.

• Something beyond the scope of his physical environment is evident from this man’s initial responses. The fugitive’s quick identification of Jesus, and his awareness of accepted theological propositions, indicate some knowledge of the spiritual realm. ( Mark 5: 7)
• There is abundant evidence of an acutely disturbed ” inwardness.” This pitifully divided mind manifests itself in response to Jesus’ question, “What is your name?” ” My name is Legion; he replied, ” for we are many.”
•  Other creditable evidence is that a “guilt complex”  is possibly the name of one of the torturing demons. Had an earlier encounter with Jesus resulted in discipleship in name only, which ended in desertion? Is that perhaps embedded in his expressed fear of being tormented by Jesus? The feeling of guilt is possible only if something once considered satisfying is again revealed. ‘The return to man’s origin is never a new beginning out of nothing, but it is a restoration.”
  It is at this juncture that Jesus enters the inner chamber of this man’s suffering. From boyhood, I have struggled with the phrase in The Apostle’s Creed, 9 ( concerning Jesus it is written) ” He descended into Hell.” Experiencing this episode, in this way, enables me now to understand that phrase more clearly. (2)

Theologians refer to ‘ the dark night of the soul’ experience. For Jesus, entering this man’s inner being was like entering strange, eerie confinement filled with palpable darkness! It reminds one of Dante’s Divine Comedy, with the over-door inscription: “Abandon every hope – who enters here!” (4). The poor fellow’s inwardness must have been just as dark and musty as the tomb where he sought shelter for his body.

Yet in the sea of darkness amidst the internal chaos and confusion, a tiny spark of light refuses to surrender. It grows the brighter as “the Light Of The World” moves invincibly towards it. As happened one day previously in the throes of a vicious storm on the sea of Galilee, the roaring waves once more surrender in meekness. A fresh glow fills the inner sanctuary as the pathetic divided self gains control at the powerful command of Jesus. Jesus rekindles the lamp of memory and permits this epitome of helplessness to remember family ties that yet remain for him. 

Other people soon appear on the scene. Observing such a radiant light emanating from the same source of such previous darkness, they grew mute in disbelief.

The story concerning the lost pigs that drowned in the sea would have to wait for another day for broadcasting in that near-by town. Today the miracle told everywhere was about the new missionary whose presence was aglow with a new light shining from his soul.

Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Father, of all comfort, hear our prayers for those among us who are desperately lonely.
Especially we pray for the homeless who tonight will be comforted by heaven’s night-lights alone.  Some, knowing well the companionship of hunger, will snack now on the scraps from the rich man’s table. The sounds amplifying their inhuman plight are of feet rushing to escape the burdensome evidence of human helplessness and need, and those sounds of the shared miseries of a shapeless existence.
Father, come near to comfort those who have no familial ties anymore. Sometimes, in the haunting darkness, they wander among the tombs of people that used to be. Would You please acquaint them anew with the story of THE PRODIGAL SON and the account of a father whose love remained stronger than all misadventures?
Father, Your Son, relayed to His first disciples how He was homeless here. He had no place to lay His head. Save us all from becoming overly concerned with creaturely comforts here, where so many endure such a fragile existence. Equip us with a more vigorous and sincere faith to believe that You will provide, for any sacrifice we make.

“If on our daily course our mind
Be set, to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
As more of heaven in each we see;
Some softening gleam of love and prayer
Shall dawn on every cross and care”. ( 5)
For the sake of Your love, we pray, Amen.

HYMN: Son Of My Soul   (Click on links below)

hhttps://www.bing.com/videos/search?v

 

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. The translation used is the NIV.
2.  www.learnreligions.com/the-apostles-creed-p2-700364
3.Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/994259.Hymn_of_the_Universe
4.Dante’s Divine Comedy
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/abandon-hope-all-ye-who-
enter-here.html
The Divine Comedy is a long narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work in Italian literature and is one of the greatest works of world literature.”
5.  From  Hymn: New Every Morning Is          God’s  Love
http://www.pateys.nf.ca/cgi-bin/lyrics.pl?  hymnnumber=815

 

 

Psalm 5: 7 – 8
“But I, by your great love,
   can come into your house;
in reverence, I bow down
    toward your holy temple.
Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies—
make your way straight before me.” (1)

Psalm 5 comes fresh from the front lines of life’s conflicts. Here, there are festering wounds, and here there are silent prayers whispered to the Commander-In-Chief! 

The intensity of the conflict brings night prematurely to the soul. The sky is bereft of all signs of hope. There is a depth of loneliness for the petitioner waiting for God’s comforting presence, like a child waiting expectantly for his mother’s overdue return. “Each morning, I bring my requests to You and wait expectantly.” The most treasured word in every human’s vocabulary, ‘friend,’ is sadly missing here. That deficiency is felt all the more in the theater of personal conflict. When abandonment, based on innuendo and insufficient facts, happens, the brain seeks retaliation.
Battles in this life are well known, to this present moment surveillance reveals many weary and exhausted warriors. 

The person under our consideration here is conflicted in distinguishing friend from foe. Because of his enemies, a lifetime of happy memories grinds to a halt.                  

However, here is the story of a man who feels the winds of God. Amid the torment and anguish of his soul, he lifts his sail to catch the winds of God that transport him to his more profound inner being, where he discovers God already in waiting for him.
“But I, by your great love,
    can come into your house;
in reverence, I bow down
    toward your holy temple.
Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness
    because of my enemies—
    make your way straight before me.”

Compare and contrast the two diametrical opposite ventures experienced here. The first venture delivers our protagonist to the swamp of despair. The second brings him to a destination of magnanimous promise and everlasting hope. Be it noted that these two experiences are the only ones possible to every human. The first possible choice is firmly rooted in the physical enticements to satisfy a materialistic existence. The second choice is clarified to consciousness by an insatiable longing that burns like a fire inside an individual, to discover something more than that which the first choice offers.

As an architect plans, designs and oversees the construction of a building, that building already exists in the architect’s mind even before he draws a plan to lay one stone upon another. The building already has an existence in the spirit of the architect. 

God is the architect of each person’s life. There is a blueprint of each life ‘in God’s house.’

    “But I, by your great love,
    can come into your house;
in reverence, I bow down
    toward your holy temple.
 Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness
    because of my enemies—
    make your way straight before me.”

Deliberately, he chooses his Father’s house, ‘the house not made with hands.’  Here the Eternal Architect shows the seeker, himself as the finished product of the Creator’s loving hands: “And God saw that it was good. The suppliant sees what is and what God meant him to be.

Such is the transforming effect upon everyone who chooses to dwell ‘in God’s righteousness. Alfred, Lord Tennyson has it right in his invitation:
“Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet- Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.”(2)

+Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Bring Your peace to my Soul, O loving God.
The thunderous roar of the senseless world is overwhelming me.
Please let me feel the touch of Your gentleness, in the breeze that whispers from Heaven. From the gloomy blackness creeping into every corner that I inhabit here, I lift my eyes to see the lights shining through Heaven’s windows.
Fill my spirit with images of a Father, waiting nightly for my return to receive my assurance of safe-keeping in love.
Open my lips with songs of praise to greet the morning. Through the long night, You have been keeping faithful watch. I offer back the life I owe so that it will be fuller and more vibrant for Your Glory in the depth of Your love. In the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, I pray. Amen

HYMN: Lead Me, Lord

 

 

NOTES

1. Scripture quotes are from the NIV translation
2. Alfred, Lord Tennyson in The Higher Pantheism
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45323/the-higher-pantheism

1. Photo – Stock images and as indicated on photo

 

Suggested Scripture Reading: John 4: 1 – 42  (It is strongly recommended that the story be read in its entirety.)

Scripture Emphasis:

John 4:5-7 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. ⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

I invite you to use your imagination to consider another episode in the life of Jesus. The purpose of doing so is to examine some critical ingredients in the formation of a human personality. The story that follows represents thousands of like souls that we encounter as followers of Jesus Christ. Perhaps you will be led to show a measure of compassion because of your association with Him. You may awaken renewed Hope that self-forgiveness may yet be the guiding light, that one day leads another into the Father’s Kingdom. 

This meditation retells the story commonly referred to as “The Woman At The Well.”  Essentially, it is the account of the unmasking of a soul in grave danger of being lost in the tangled underbrush of an uncaring, and even cruel world.

The hills surrounding Sychar, the town which the Samaritan woman called home, vaulted the many merciless rumors concerning her. Uncontrolled tongues, bound by over-generous self-evaluation, wagged to expand upon the already rampant rumors. As Mariam, for that is the chosen pseudonym for her, made her way, in the blistering heat of the noon-day sun, echoes from the prison walls that entombed her, mercilessly rehearsed the details of a wasted life, her life! “There is no escaping this ‘ body of death,’ ” thought Mariam as she tiredly makes her way towards Jacobs Well. Which is worse, to be ridiculed in public, by neighbors who care not to distinguish fact from fiction, or the relentless torture of self-examination of her moral failures, with its predetermined conclusion that mercy has fled in horror?

Mariam scanned the scene to confirm that no potential tormentors were present at the well. She made a contract with herself to endure the pain of the noon-day sun rather than the insults levied against her troubled soul.
Disbelief stabbed her weakened embattled soul! Someone was sitting on the very rock where she placed her water jars for filling! Must she return home empty-handed or, must she prepare for one more desperate attempt at survival? Her inside voice argues for her immediate retreat ” You are not fit to come in contact with another! Like a leper, you must cry out,” Unclean, Unclean?”

The agony of the human soul, not unknown even among the refined and respectful, contrasting the difference between what is and what one hoped to be, now grips Mariam’s imagination.

The familiar themes of childhood-play had at one time engaged her. Her signature of endorsement was on all the dreams of graceful and respectful womanhood. But all was lost in the tangled undergrowth of false promises and moral deception. Yet from the direction of Jacob’s Well, it seemed to Mariam that she was entering a safe harbor’s calm waters. If the world with an iron grip fashioned who she is, would God forget what purpose He intended for her at the time of her creation? Is it not a most critical consideration for all, it is not one’s feeble hold on God, but God’s mighty grasp on us, that matters most?

It’s too late now to retreat, Jesus has seen her!
Gently He knocks upon the door of her personality with a request that reveals the common need they both share, the need for water! Mariam’s basic human decency awaits with bated breath, the answer to Jesus’ question, “Will you please give me a drink”? Should she rely upon her voluntary deafness once again? A wave of rare, unexperienced pity so needed by Mariam, emanated from Him.

 Into which room, then, within her private space, should she admit this stranger? She must be careful to take Him nowhere near the common-room, made ugly by rumors and innuendoes. She must avoid at all cost the truth about who and what she IS. 

Miriam concludes that nothing too personal will result from a conversation about religion. The ensuing conversation is deliberately scant in personal revelation. Miriam’s heart sinks like a stone into the waves of pity she just now had felt. Helplessly she follows Jesus into the darkest and most dingy room of her inner self, the place of Mariam’s greatest need.

The doors of Heaven open wide in the sacred moments that follow. The Saviour of the world restores an imprisoned daughter with the purpose God intended from her birth. Tears stain her cheeks, as Miriam sees everything that she is but only alongside everything that God has kept safe from all loss, the beautiful person she is capable of yet becoming! “Come and SEE, Go and Tell” is to, this day, the impetus behind the never-ending proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ironically, Mariam’s next mission is to return to her most virulent critics, thereby revealing her unmasked soul, and at the same time covertly revealing the like mercy which they so badly needed to experience.

God knows our world’s most urgent need is to have Heaven’s Door open wide to disperse our darkness and instill a Living Hope for all of God’s children! Be gentle and be kind towards each other! 

   A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Father, the world’s greatest need is to catch a fresh glimpse of Your Presence here and now. Our longing can not be satisfied with the images of You captured in stained-glass. Instead, we would see Jesus clothed in the bodies of those who are part of the New Creation as promised! 

Let me be Your listening ears to hear the cries of the lonely ones imprisoned within themselves. 

Give me a heart as deep as Jacob’s well to hold enough love to share with a broken and hurting world.

Please give me a mind ever conscious of Your empathy that I may see in others, hopes as yet unborn, and own a readiness to share possibilities waiting to be made real. 

Father, forgive me if I am partially to blame for the lack of trust that others have in You. It’s time for the New Creation to be more evident in this community and throughout the world! Here am I, Lord, let it start anew in me. Through Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen.

Hymn: In The Bulb There Is A Flower

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. Scripture quotations throughout are from the NIV translation unless otherwise noted in the text.
2. The illustration as acknowledged above.

 

Psalm 42: 3-4; 
“Day and night, I have only tears for food,
while my enemies continually taunt me, saying,
“Where is this God of yours?”
My heart is breaking
as I remember how it used to be:
I walked among the crowds of worshipers,
leading a grand procession to the house of God,
singing for joy and giving thanks
amid the sound of a grand celebration!”

2 Timothy 2: 8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead,

A ‘FORTRESS’ is a place of security, of survival. A fortress exists to protect against harm and loss. But in the case of protecting an individual’s Memory from such, is FORTRESS a misnomer? A defence, to safeguard Memory against loss? Really?

 Of all the things in which we mortals rejoice, none is more treasured than one’s Memory! O! How different life would be for all of us if tonight we could lie down to sleep in the certainty that this invaluable treasure is safe and will remain so, as long as life shall last and may somehow reach beyond into the life that is yet to be. This distinguishing feature of our humanity inhabits the frail casket of a human body, subject to the ravages of time.

Without the content of Memory’s storehouse, a person’s life is little more than a meaningless conglomeration of unrelated episodes. It is like a handful of beads that can never be formed into one string to create a thing of beauty that reveals a distinctive whole. 

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s s elegy: “Break, Break Break,” immortalizes the importance of memories to define the human experience.

“Break, break, break,
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
And I would say that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

O well for the fisherman’s boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead,
Will never come back to me.” (2)

 In the never-ending ebb and flow of the Sea, Tennyson’s crashing waves eulogizes the power of life to create memories. In every human experience, there is the influence of life’s ebb and flow. The Sea of life crashes upon us with life-changing results. This poem captures the undeniable fact that in this life, nothing remains the same. The restless pounding of the Sea upon the headlands is forever changing the seascape. so too, the swift passage of the years changes radically an individual’s life.
Tennyson realizes that beyond Memory’s recall are likely many details of the games that the fisherman’s boy and his sister played, and the reason for the sailor’s song from his boat on the bay. It seemed impossible at the time that the joys of that day’s activity would one day fade from Memory. To immortalize a young friend’s Memory, Tennyson writes this powerful elegy. But is that the ultimate stronghold of Memory? Does that meet the standards for our envisioned fortress? 

How poignant are the expressions recorded in Psalm 42!
“My heart is breaking
as I remember how it used to be:
I walked among the crowds of worshippers, leading
a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration!”
Memory itself is not beyond the ravages of time. Would not his faith appear futile if the Psalmist’s experience of fellowship with God, drifts into the realm of a lost memory? What is our comfort if Memory refuses to open its doors to persistent knocking, begging for recall, when the only response is a heart-wrenching silence about the things that used to be? It may well be that the occurrence of just such a fleeting thought prompts the author’s admission of discouragement. ” Why am I so discouraged? Why am I so sad?”
God, however, refuses to permit him to wallow in this swamp of despair! Put your hope in God, For I will yet praise Him, my Savior and, my God “.
The ultimate conclusion reached by the author of Psalm 42 is that God, Himself, is the fortress that remains unaffected in the surging flood of nature’s declinations. “I will put my hope in God! I will remember You. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me- a prayer to the God of my life. ( Ps.42: 5 – 8)  His even more important inference is that  God will remember him! What matters most, in the end for us all, is not our feeble hold on God, but God’s mighty grasp on us!
But the two essential truths  GOD and MEMORY when placed in juxtaposition seem untenable and misplaced. God is eternal, Memory is temporal. Yet it remains a truth to be fixed to our souls “with hoops of steel”, that no experience ever had is ever lost to God. Memory here on earth made fade but the eternal fortress remains. One day God will unlock, the casket containing life’s experiences. Here is the soul that never dies, and upon it’s opening its entire contents will be revealed. 

The poet, Robert Browning, in his marvelous poem, Rabbi Ben Ezra, testifies :
 “All that is, at all,
Lasts ever, past recall;
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure:
What entered into thee,
That was, is, and shall be:
Time’s wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure.” (3)
 Saint Paul  advises the young man, Timothy “My    Son remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.”
There is no better advice! It is time for all of us to enter inside ourselves and in the presence of Christ to examine the contents of our soul’s Memory. Remember that the only thing God ever forgets is sins which are forgiven through Jesus Christ. You are bound to be awestruck to have revealed to you the number of occasions when God was closer to you than breathing, nearer than hands or feet.
“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.”

Rise now, and let us all go forward and,  continue to build memories of undertakings in His Name. Neither life nor death nor anything else in all creation can destroy such memories or alter the Heavenly acclamation, ” Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter  thou into the joy of thy Lord.” ( Matt.25: 23, KJV)

Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Father, whose days are without end, we marvel that You remember each person who ever addressed You as ‘ Father.’ We grow old, and often with that, comes the dimming of Memory. Father, if that is the destiny that awaits us, grant us to know with certainty that You, will never, ever forget us.

In the meantime, it is the essence of Your love for us, to understand our daily prayer that our memories stay green until the day You call us Home.

 Father, at this moment, while our memories remain keen and alert, we gratefully acknowledge that the memories most precious to us are those that reflect Your Presence. Every good and perfect gift comes from You, Gifts too numerous to recall here. One day, You will unlock the casket of our souls wherein is stored every experience. Lost in awesomeness for that gracious promise we are now, but then it will be the theme of our thanksgiving throughout eternity. In Jesus Name, we pray. Amen.

Hymn:  PRECIOUS MEMORIES

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. Scripture quotations in the meditation are from the New Living Translation of Scripture unless otherwise noted. It is further recommended that Psalm 43 be read in its entirety.
2.  Alfred Lord Tennyson, ” Break, Break, Break”
   https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45318/break-break-break  
   3.Robert Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezrahttps://www.gradesaver.com/…/study-guide/summary-rabbi-ben-ezraPhoto: Stock photo, Cabot Tower, St. John’s  NL.

 

    

 

Suggested Scripture: Mark 10:46 – 52.

Mark 10:46-47 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

The spiritual depth of a mind which suddenly bursts into blossom, and breathes the air of life-giving exuberance, finds masterful expression in the poem ‘The Everlasting Mercy’, by the long- time Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, John Masefield. He writes:

“O glory of the lighted mind.
 How dead I’d been, how dumb, how blind.
 The station brook, to my new eyes,
 Was babbling out of Paradise,
 The waters rushing from the rain
 Were singing Christ has risen again.
I thought all earthly creatures knelt
 From rapture of the joy, I felt”. (2)

Through the use of imaginations, yours, and mine, I endeavour here, to also capture the glory of the lighted mind. 

To this end, I invite you to accompany me along the Jericho Road, where blind Bartimaeus sits, carrying out his life’s assignment of begging. I will, for this purpose, assume the identity and the character of Bartimaeus himself. 

Bartimaeus has endured his blindness for almost thirty-three years. That fact soon relegates him to the bleak company of the poverty-stricken, and to the swamp of easy despair. However, Bartimaeus’ appearance, on this day, is an eloquent testimony that unconditional love and genuine respect are with his going-out and his coming-in every day. 

At this moment, someone of a compassionate heart sits alongside Bartimaeus playing, as it were, the role of a” GOOD SAMARITAN.”  He joins Bartimaeus on his mat and gives full attention to every word.

” It is a painful experience to live among people and never be able to see them. But that can never compare to choosing blindness when a traveller’s’ path intersects that of another who wears the garb of a poor beggar, or choosing blindness because one holds some position of honour and considers the beggar undeserving of human dignity.

 I thank God for people like you who use their eyes the way tha0t God intended. You and I often share the same eyes,” Bartimaeus offers with a grin of approval. “I feel that you would exchange eyes with me if my life depended upon it.” He concludes.

 “I have never seen your face. But now, I will describe the face I see, with the eyes of my soul! Your eyes shine with the gentle light of compassion. You saw me sitting here day after day, alone. Your longing heart begins to leave its signature upon your face. You notice that my mat might be big enough to share. And so, we are together again. I see a compassionate, caring, loving face, not with these eyes for they cannot see, but with the eyes of my soul, I know a brother who loves me!

I will show you how God brought me to experience ‘the glory of the lighted mind”. The details of my birth have always been a frequent topic of conversation with me. I came from God in answer to the faithful prayers of my loving parents. There was just a small mishap in my journey from Heaven to them. Somehow, someone overlooked turning on the switch that would bring light to these orbs of promise, so I am here – and I am blind! 

I have never seen the colour green, Yet God has been with me and has made me “to lie down in pastures green.” I have never seen the reflection of the trees in a quiet stream, Yet God used my parent’s eyes, and together, we rejoice beside the still waters”. I have never witnessed the glory of the temple, yet I know that God ” restores my soul.”(see Psalm 23)

I can recite the biography of many, just by reading the sound of their footfall! I know when they see me here, and then pass by on the other side of the street. The thing most difficult for me to understand is that many of them are on their way to worship God, but they do not see another’s longing soul, nor think that by sharing their God with another, they may receive a double blessing”.

The sound of approaching feet stirs within Bartimaeus the melody of ‘ The Hymn To Joy.’ ” Surely,” he thinks,” this must be the occasion of the arrival of God’s glorious kingdom.” 

” O Bartimaeus,” the co-occupant of his mat interjects with uncontrollable excitement, “Jesus, the Light of the world is coming this way.”

 Bartimaeus’ turns his blind eyes in the direction of the approaching sound, but sees only shadows. However, the passion behind the good news delivered by his friend, made it seem to Bartimaeus that this friend had lent him his eyes. Even with eyes untrained to see the visible, he, SAW Jesus!

 Not “all earthly creatures knelt from the rapture of the joy he felt. Some of those present in Jesus’ travelling company had no understanding whatsoever of the glory of the lighted mind, and the promise of being made fully alive. The harsh response from the crowd demanding Bartimaeus’s silence inferred that God had no time to deal with any critical matter which contributed to a person’s inability to be fully alive. However, the rich blessings he had already received were, for Bartimaeus, but the guarantee that more and even greater miracles are always a part of the glory of the lighted mind.

We arrive now to consider the reason for your participation in this imagined scene. There are millions of people whose need it is, to be made more fully alive; to discover a consuming purpose for even being here. 

Like the unknown person who told Bartimaeus, “Jesus is here, and He is calling for you,” all such people will be called great in the kingdom of God.  

 As we experience the glory of the lighted mind, we recognize that the people calling for help are our brothers and sisters, children of the same God. We must take care of each other for His Sake.

A Prayer To Follow This Meditation
Gracious Father,
whose glory forever remains, to see Your children on earth, become fully alive. We praise You for the perfect Love that enlightens human minds. To see with eyes of faith, the smiling Face Of God, through the sky window of the earth, is the fulfillment of every person’s need.
We praise the Love that sent Jesus to be this world’s light. We pray now that You will fix His Light firmly within us to be the sure beacon that will lead us each towards the fulfillment of Your Glory.

Give us, keen minds to learn early the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is generated by the world,
for the world; Wisdom is of God and comes from Heaven to make the world
God’s Kingdom. Wisdom is God’s gift to those whose minds are keen to trust in You with the faith of a child.
As well, equip us with loving minds, that we may understand that great achievements can follow love and kindness. Within each of us, O God, you have left a blank, meant to be filled with LOVE.  You have equipped each of us, from Your storehouse with just what Your Love requires to help another person become fully alive, for Your glory; “Thus the whole round earth is bound by golden chains about the feet of God”.(3)
Give us, always, minds for Praising Thee, our God, from the dawning of the day until the setting of the evening star, we pray in the Name of Christ, our Lord. Amen

Hymn: Amazing Grace – Andrea Bocelli (click on the link below)

https://youtu.be/TF9jQNxJfyU

 

 

EDITORIAL NOTES

1.  Scripture references are from the NIV translation
2.   John Masefield in The Everlasting Mercy. HTTPs://www.bartleby.com/236/337.html
3.   Alfred Tennyson in “The Passing Of Arthur” https://www.bartleby.com/246/392.htm
   
4. Photo from the public domain

Suggested Scripture Reading:  John 16: 17 – 33

Scripture Emphasis: Hosea 2:15

There I will give her back her vineyards,
    and will make the Valley of Achor ( Achor means trouble), a door of Hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
    as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

  From the Creator’s hand, we arrive home, destined to spend a lifetime in this valley; we call the world. It is in this place that each one must discover what it means to be the living soul as imagined by our Creator. How, in this valley can we reflect the unique distinction of bearing the ‘IMAGE of God,’ no matter how extreme or hostile the environment may prove to be?  From personal experience, each must seek to achieve God’s image of ‘a living soul’ as decreed by Him at creation. The Valley generates all of life’s experiences. We are born into it; we live out our years here, and from it, we eventually go, emerging as complete or atrophied. The poet, John Keats,  exercising an economy of words, rightly describes this world as “A Vale Of Soul-Making.” ( 2)

Endless corridors of solid granite surround us always. Our souls must acquire the skill to determine what is real and what may be mere echoes. Is it the voice of the world we hear, or is it the voice of God calling to us?  Here, the temptation is forever present, to take either the limited resources of the valley or to await the arrival of Heavenly resources as promised by God. Some here, readily accept the suggestion that everything, including ourselves, is of the same cold, hard, lifeless material that the valley itself is, But even though they renounce all responsibility of ‘soul-making’ in the valley, they can never cease being living souls, according to God’s decree.

The walls of this valley, this habitat for all humanity we call home, have words and symbols etched thereon, that testify to the experience of countless millions, that this valley is appropriately named a Valley Of Trouble (Achor). 

Hosea, the author of our chosen scripture emphasis, was an 8th – century Bc prophet of Israel. He is one whose experience in the valley qualifies him well to call this place “The Valley of Trouble. His wife, Gomar, mother of his children, is unfaithful to him, and leaves him and becomes a common prostitute. Hosea is heartbroken by this turn of events and refuses to abandon her. His unconditional love for Hagar inspires his forgiveness and his total re-acceptance of her. 

Not only did Hosea’s experience substantiate his naming this valley a place of trouble, but through his subsequent experiences, to discover a door of HOPE
in the granite walls of the valley. Hosea uses his heart-wrenching experience to symbolize the characteristic love of God for His children, Israel when they abandon their commitment to God and embrace the Canaanite religion.

It matters not how unprepared you might feel about dealing with your situation in this trying hour, or how terrifyingly dark the prospects ahead may seem; there is a door of Hope in this Valley of Trouble. Passing through this door of Hope, you come face to face with God as Hosea did, as David, the Psalmist did, ” Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, and as Jesus did, ” In this world, you will have trouble, but fear not for I have overcome the world, and I will be with you until the end”. 

 

Prayer To Follow This Meditation  

Eternal Father, Your compassion is immeasurable and calls from our hearts expressions of loving gratitude.
At those intervals, when the world steals the last jubilant strains of our positive response for life, You are there with a new key.

In the slow awakening of nature from winter’s icy grip, when the chilling wind rattles the dry and lifeless branches, mocking our Hope of spring’s return, You set a songbird on the topmost branch to make us hope again.

When ‘the midnight of the soul’ confers upon us the torment of sleeplessness, You direct us to see a moonbeam on the dancing wavelets of the sea, and we know once more that we are not alone.

When a virulent pandemic sweeps through The Valley, making us feel alone and helpless, You come through the door of Hope, and in Your company, there are the most courageous among us. They defy the threats to their personal safety, and in the presence of the One who died to serve, they inspire hope and confidence once more.

Receive our gratitude now, O God, that in the hour of our unprecedented experiences, we see anew the meaning of God’s “Living Souls. ‘For as much as you do it unto one of the least of these, you do it unto Me.” We pray in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

HYMN: O God Our Help In Ages Past

https://youtu.be/rsHIwXTjAOU

 

 

FOOTNOTES

1. The Scripture references are of the NIV translation.
2.  “The Vale Of Soul-Making” John Keats http://box5415.temp.domains/~sacreeh5/2012/04/15/the-vale-of-soul-making/
3. HOSEA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosea

PHOTO,  Taken in Monument Valley, Utah, USA.

                     

 

 

Scripture Reading: Mark 16: 1 – 8     (  Please click ( several times ?) on the link below.)

Scripture Emphasis: Mark 16:2-3
Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

Just after sunrise on the first day after the Sabbath, they were on their way to the tomb, when they suddenly remembered ” The Stone;” “The Stone ”  standing in the way of their Mission;  the stone,  preventing their final expression of tenderness and love. They asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

The following meditation requires imagination to place yourself amid the activities of the early morning, before the discovery of the empty tomb. This exercise will fathom the deeps of human experience, and provide the unspeakable joy of having victory triumph over tragedy.

The houses throughout the back lanes in Jerusalem were for, the most part, in darkness. The faithful, having completed their Sabbath duties, and having offered the evening Jewish prayer, “Father, into Thy hands do I commend my spirit,” have gone to rest. One house stands out as an exception. The house belonging to John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, is the chosen place of rendezvous for the mourners, following Jesus’ internment, in the Garden of Joseph of Arimathea.

Sleep refuses to take refuge where spirits feel abandoned and empty. It is easier to follow the mind and heart, down paths to millions of memories of things that have been, but can never be again. The first essential tonight, however, is for everyone to attempt putting into words, the excruciating feelings, that come like molten lead dripping on a naked brain, of their experience of “The Hill.”

The hours creep well past midnight before John can persuade them to move from” The Hill.” After all, it was three crosses, standing stark on that Hill, that shackled their hearts to it. John begins their reverie.

” Remember the time that the horrible pandemic called, ‘leprosy’ threatened us all. How terrifying it was. Everyone was so afraid and helpless! Remember how some of those who contracted its horror, came to live in tombs.

 I can see it now, that look of inexpressible joy on the faces of ten of them when Jesus set them free from their imprisoning tomb! Nine of them, so overcome with absolute delight, danced their way into a renewed hope. But there was one who danced in the opposite direction until he found Jesus, and kneeling before Him, said: “Thank You.”
Thomas interjected,” that was then; it won’t ever happen again; Because …because …now He is in the tomb.”

Quickly, John seeks to resuscitate the conversation.

” I have felt, over time, a profound sorrow for Nicodemus. You all recall how he came to Jesus by night. It was at a time when faith seemed to be on the wane. There was little that seemed to be real; something that made one feel anchored.
I was with Jesus the night that Nicodemus just appeared from the shadows. He looked like one pushing a huge stone up a mountain. Jesus then explains to Nicodemus, the power of God’s Spirit to let a man begin again, as though he was born again. I tell you, that night I saw Nicodemus’ stone roll back down the Hill and disappear in an open tomb.”

“But it can never happen again.” came the words, punctuated with heart-wrenching sobs. It was Mary Magdalene who now spoke.   ( Luke 8:2) 

“He took away from me the curse of ” seven demons,” as some chose to call my misadventures. The heart inside me seemed like a stone, weighing me down to my grave. People’s leering eyes burnt their way through every hope I held for a new beginning. Jesus rolled the stony heart away and replaced it with a heart of flesh. 

But, alas! it can never happen today or ever again; because they crucified Him and placed Him in a tomb! ” 

A moment, pregnant with questioning silence follows. The silence is interrupted by a knock upon a door. John rushes towards the sound.  Opening the door, he comes face to face with Mary, the mother of Jesus. ” My son, I know that for the mission you and your friends are about to undertake, this will be needed,” Mary says, as she thrust a package into John’s hands, before continuing; “It is the myrrh given to Jesus by a Wiseman, at His birth. They will need it now for the anointing of His body in death”.

The rising sun was already beginning to roll away the cold gray stone of darkness lingering in the eastern sky.
 It was Mary Magdalene who orchestrates the complete immobility, that freezes the entire group motionlessly in place.”What about the Stone, at the entrance of the tomb? Who will roll it away for us?” Mary asks. And then! HALLELUJAH! The Greatest Discovery in the entire history of the world beams forth with majestic strains, “He Is Not Here, For He Is Risen”!

 You go and tell all those, like the helpless lepers, the Nicodemuses and the Mary Magdalenes of this world, and all who feel themselves to be broken and lost, that the stones separating them from Him have been removed forever. He Is RISEN!

                     A PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION

Eternal Father,
 I ask that You create the music for this spectacular Easter morning, using only the sound of human voices, from all over the world exuberantly expressing this renewed burst of Hope:  He Is Risen! Jesus Christ is risen indeed!

 Keep reminding us Father, what ‘Risen’  means. It is not from the annals of antiquity that Jesus emerges for a day, only to return promptly thereto when Easter Hosannahs fade. Show us, Father, It is not like some Homeric legend about feats clouded in impenetrable fog, that the shout of Victory comes,” Jesus Christ is Risen From the dead”.

Father, please quicken our understanding to realize, “He Is Risen” which means, that this very day we see Him on the front lines with all those, risking their lives to battle the COVID 19 pandemic, the world over.

• He is beside the beds of pain, sharing His ineffable Peace; His hands placed on fevered brows, along with those of doctors and nurses.
• He is there beside every loved one, who because of isolation, fears that their beloved one in hospital, may pass through ‘the valley of shadows’ alone; His reassuring voice echoes with compassion: ” I will never leave you comfortless”.
  We will find Him with the hospital staff who seek to bring the reassurance of love and pity that never die.
• With arms of comfort, He encircles the ones who mourn the departure of their beloved; and He pulls back the curtain of death, that all may have a glimpse of the Beyond,” In My Father’s House, there are mansions.”
• He is where a young woman’s anticipation of the birth of her baby, is now overshadowed by this crisis. The Powerful Word,” Now is Christ Risen From the dead,” is our certainty that He always prays for each one of us, ” Father, Into Your hands, I commit you and your family.”

Thank You, Father, for bringing New Life from the womb of the earth in The Risen Christ. May that New Life find nurturing and support in each of Your children. May the gray clouds that overshadow the world because of us, be dispursed by the glorious sunrise of a new day dawning now. In Jesus Name, we pray, Amen.

HYMN: Jesus Christ Is Risen Today  ( Please click on the link below)

https://youtu.be/qBNamFYN_6E

 

 

EDITORIAL NOTES

The Scripture references throughout are from the NIV translation.
The photo is taken in Arches Nationa Park, Utah, U.S.A.

 

Scripture Emphasis:

Romans 8:38,39:  (1)

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Now is the exact time to consider the greatest expose’ ever written on “Separation.” St Paul is here addressing the church in Rome. The communication is on the eve of his last voyage to Jerusalem and this, his final writing as a free man. His list of hardships is comprehensive enough: suffering, calamity, poverty, danger are very common experiences. Sometimes under calamity, the whole universe seems to be against us. Then, for many, that often marks the beginning of faith’s abandonment and decisive measures to separate from God. In our present situation, we bear a particular affinity to Paul’s Christian experiences. 

As disciples of Christ, our present mission is to express God’s love to the world. We must assure everyone that none of the current happenings can ever overthrow us.

This world often seems to be a vale of separation. We see it globally among nations that build walls and deploy armies to separate and to promote isolation. Children suffer when parents become separated from each other. Loved ones separate when one or the other deploys in the service of the country. Presently there is a soulless pandemic slithering its way through the world, causing thousands of deaths. In a determined response to curb its cruel progression, separations are essential. Most of us know the separation that feels as wide as life, as deep as love while following the casket of a beloved one to their final resting place in “God’s Little Acre.” Separation is ubiquitous with deep emotions of loneliness and depression. This makes it critical at this time, to consider St. Paul’s exposition on “separation.”

The heartening conclusion that St. Paul pronounces regarding “Separation” is simply this: the word “separation” and its derivatives, isolation, distancing, etc., are never in God’s Nexis.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (2)

God is never separated from any of us. When we try to live without Him and confess that we scarcely ever give Him a conscious thought, God still thinks of us. This truth lies at the heart of that soul-searching story Jesus tells of the Prodigal Son. God is there with him, and for him, all the while. This is so for us also. You may well be astonished one day in the future when you discover just how often His unseen hand has guided your life.

A brilliant young man, with a bright and promising future before him, left Cambridge University to join the military during WW1. He was a prolific and much-admired poet. It was during a fierce engagement with the enemy that Rupert Brooke wrote the poem “Safety.” Following is a brief excerpt from that poem:

                        “We have built a house that is not for
                            Time’s throwing.
      We have gained a peace unshaken by pain for ever.
War knows no power. Safe shall be my going,
      Secretly armed against all death’s endeavour;
Safe though all safety’s lost; safe where men fall;
And if these poor limbs die, safest of all.” (3)

It was a few days following the writing of these words that Rupert Brooks was mortally wounded. He died on his 28th birthday.

 Although our present situation demands that we must separate, and be careful not to invade each other’s private space, know that God shares with us His secret of sweet communion with each other’s spirit. Around Our Father’s throne, we must think about each other and offer a prayer for them; “and the Father who sees in secret will reward you openly”.

Go now and live, believing with all your heart what St Paul himself has come to believe:
“I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

                        A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Compassionate and merciful Father, here I am, right here! Like Samuel, in the days of old, I thought I heard You calling me! Prepare me now, so that I may hear
You speak to me. And then, please enable me to listen and obey.

Lord, I am conscious of my unworthiness to be here. But I am unable to resist my heart’s stirring to draw closer to You. You heard my timid, reluctant tapping on Heaven’s door, and You bade me enter in. So here I am. I am not sure how to say what is on my heart but, more importantly, I am having the most beautiful feeling of being “Home,” now, here with You.

Lord, I consider the anguish, the chaos and, the death caused by this soulless pandemic that is so out of control,  and I confess I am afraid! Please, open my eyes to see You. Is it not my mistake that by concentrating on this storm’s wrath, I forget “the Master of heaven, and earth and skies”?
Show me again Your Son as He puts underfoot the wrath of a storm that was terrifying His friends on the sea of Galilee. 

One thing more, Father, Please show all people throughout the world, how to manage the unfamiliar situations they are now thrust into. Too much leisure time can be dangerous for those who must always be at work. Some people can not stand their own company, and hardly know how to behave in vastly restrictive spaces. Teach us how to use the hours to draw closer to You, in thought and prayer. Show us how to develop our Spirits so that living for, with, and among others when this crisis is over, will be beautiful beyond measure. Into Your hands, do I commend our Spirits. Amen

Hymn: Sun Of My Soul ( please click on the link below)

https://youtu.be/hxeYGSJuZto

                                    

BENEDICTION (click on the link below)

Editorial Notes
1&2  Scripture quotations are from KJV.
3.      A poem”, SAFETY” by Rupert Brooke

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47293/safety

4. Some consideration of  C.H. Dodd ‘s THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS  may also be helpful. https://www.amazon.ca/EPISTLE-PAUL-ROMANS-C-H-Dodd/dp/B004ZEEMV0

 

 

 

Scripture Reading: Psalm 125; Mark 7:24 – 30

Scripture Emphasis: Psalm 125: 2

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore.

Let me take you inside a home in the ancient city of Tyre, Lebanon. In following Mark’s narrative of the unfolding ministry of Jesus, we are surprised to encounter Jesus in this non-Jewish home. Perhaps His being there is to seek respite from the neverending demands of inconsiderate fellow countrymen and to get in touch with His own deep Peace. Jesus may be seeking a stay in the endless arguments with the Jewish religious aristocracy. However, His being in the company of possibly irreligious, and most certainly hostile constituents results in His request for anonymity. The brevity of details about these matters could speak volumes. Was Jesus seeking more confirmation and endorsement from these ” Gentiles” than He felt possible from some of His Jewish countrymen?

From this thought-provoking incident, it soon becomes abundantly clear that there are significant human experiences that have no regard whatsoever, for international boundaries, or long-held religious beliefs, or the absence thereof.

One of these recurring experiences is sickness. It makes no difference who you are, or of what ethnicity you are, or what set of beliefs may govern your actions, disease comes everywhere. It respects no boundaries! Its evidence comes inside this home where Jesus, the healer, is hoping that no situation will emerge to violate his request for anonymity.

 But if sickness knows no boundaries, neither do the feelings of helplessness that accompany it. Many people are well acquainted with a feeling of helplessness in the onslaught of this present global pandemic. 

A desperate mother joins our company at the home in Tyre which Jesus is visiting. The evidence, which slowly confirms that time is not bringing the health she kept hoping for her child, causes hopelessness to rush in! Yet, this mother is certain that her child’s sickness is not bound by geographical boundaries. She has knowledge of cases of “demon possession” in neighboring Palestine. Illness and the accompanying fears know no limits, and neither does a mother’s love. Let foolish arguments over dogma and creed rear their ugly heads. Real LOVE conquers all.

There is one thing more, the profound wisdom demonstrated in this story, by this mother, can transform our present experience. She knows that it is not necessary to be in Palestine to discover the incredible truth concerning God. She believes that the everlasting arms of God embrace the world around, even though her understanding of the Divine, differs from Jewish belief. Consequently, she seeks Jesus to help her further discover the encircling Arms of God.

Now, this is what it means to be a loving child of God, to know that you can realize the embrace of God’s everlasting arms when sickness, disaster or, even death itself overshadows us and ours.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore. Psalm 125:2

A widow living in London during the height of WW 11, became lovingly known to the troops as ‘our angel of comfort.’ Her home became a respite for young men and women, who, while facing the stress of new engagements, felt acutely unprepared. It was within these walls, where expressions of certainty and demonstrations of unconditional faith were found, that courage conquered fear.

One evening a young bombardier, commissioned for a dangerous sortie, questioned “ his angel of comfort” about an image of a pair of ‘ outstretched hands that hung over her living room mantel. On closer scrutiny of the picture, the young man observed names of people carefully printed on both of the hands. He fell silent as his matron explained. You see, son, these are the Hands of God. The names you observe are names of service-people, who like you, were going into battle and had many reservations and fears, so they placed themselves in God’s hands for comfort and strength.” The Angel Of Comfort” witnessed a nostalgic look of longing creep into the young bombardier’s face, and silently stole away from his side. Minutes of intense silence followed. At last, visibly moved, the young man produces a pen, and stretching his hand towards the picture; he carefully prints, on the only remaining space, his own name, MARK GARDNER.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore. Psalm 125:2

                        A PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION (see Revelation 4: 1)

Eternal Father, Thank You for leaving Heaven’s door ajar, so that reassuring light from within, may shine upon the world, where the darkness of sickness and death is casting deep shadows. You see, not only the soulless pandemic that slithers its way through the world with, as yet, uncontrolled speed. You see each one of us with our fears, our worries, our concerns, and our brokenness. This is not what You intend for creatures made in the Image of God. Heaven’s open door is the sign that a far greater force than any pandemic is already at work around us. Through the open door, Love Incarnate comes to reign.
May that Love be so interpreted by each of us, that there will be:

Courage for the fearful ones,
Hope for the despairing ones,
Companionship for the lonely ones,
Bread for the hungry ones,
Fulfillment for the laboring ones,
Creativity among the isolated ones,
Wisdom and guidance for the searching ones,
Gratitude for the sacrificing ones,
Strength for the suffering ones,
And Rest Eternal for those who have fallen asleep.
For keeping the door to Your House open to us Father, we remain eternally grateful. In gratitude may we acknowledge as the Psalm writer did, ‘this one thing I shall seek after, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, I pray. Amen.

Hymn: Unto The Hills

https://youtu.be/h-OPPkenXvY

 

Editorial Notes
It is highly recommended that you read the suggested Scriptures at the beginning of the post to lend clarity to the meditation following.
2. All Scripture references are from NIV.
3. The photo is from stock images on the internet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

Suggested Scripture Reading: John 3:1 – 21 ( The story of Nicodemus)

Scripture Emphasis:

Romans 8: 10 -16 -The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

Psalm 138:18 When I awake, I am still with You. 

When you lie awake, and sleep won’t come, and from dark places, all unknown, troubling thoughts creep into your consciousness, is there consolation anywhere to be found? Is there someone out there that can be trusted to bring the soul some relief?

The mind has a strange way of re-examining decisions already made. New scenarios, and compelling suggestions, peppered with the ‘what ifs,’ seem much more logical now. Twilight too soon hastens towards the night, then darkness, all too soon, welcomes the dawn, and the morning safely stores the unresolved dilemma, to be dealt with on yet another night. But the following night fastens to the soul, with hoops of steel, the derelict promise of sleep. A belief in cruel fate moulds the plasticity of the soul into an object of hopelessness. Is there someone out there who can be trusted to bring relief to such a soul? Is it possible to have a light in the window of your soul, that announces that someone is at home, waiting lovingly to provide you with shelter from the storm?

On occasion, the unsettled soul has at its root, troubling dreams that may or may not have rubbed shoulders with some far-off reality, now lost beyond recall. The playwright, William Shakespeare, has one of his characters define us, humans, as ” such stuff as dreams are made of.” But there has to be, for creatures made in their Maker’s Image, something more substantial and abiding than ‘the stuff that dreams are made off.
There is a reality where troubled souls can experience the warming embrace of this“Home.” Troubled Souls are real, so are sleeplessness nights. Therapeutic and calming is the vision of a place of refuge, with a light of welcome burning brightly for very you.

The New Testament relates a story of one restless and troubled soul. Nicodemus had many sleepless nights. He struggled with past decisions, reviewed now in the light of present circumstances and unfolding truths. Nicodemus’ philosophy of life had never before come under strict scrutiny. His beliefs grounded him in those values accepted by his parents and elders in strict obedience to the Jewish faith.

 Unexpectedly, everything now begins to change! A new wave of compassion is emerging and beginning to wash over the least, and the lost among them. It is as if a refreshing breeze from Heaven was replacing the stagnant air of earth.

 Unlike before, Nicodemus begins to think more and more about Heaven; and to wonder what meaning the pronouncements of the faith has for him. At last, one night, of an unrelenting storm, Nicodemus decides to search for the reason behind the light of Peace and Love he sees in the face of the Nazarene, named Jesus. Nicodemus is feeling a stirring in his soul, a kind of indefinable longing, to own for himself, whatever it is that emanates from Jesus. Jesus gave the appearance of one Who is at HOME within Himself. He exudes absolute surrender to a Presence within himself, Who remains always in complete control.

” Enough of this sleepless torment,” Nicodemus concludes. Hurriedly he dresses and, without a moment’s delay, hurries out into the darkness toward the’ Light,’ away from the far country of confusion and sleeplessness towards ‘ Home.’  Away from self and towards Jesus.  

That night Nicodemus makes the most crucial discovery of his life. Sleepless nights are God’s Calling Time.”  Our own crowded schedules, vexing problems, self-reliance, and a muddle of misinformation leaves, little or no time, for God to communicate with us. It may well be that sleepness is the touch of God’s hand outstretched caressingly, urging you to accept the light of His Presence. The gift, which no darkness can ever extinguish, will enable you to be at ‘Home’ with yourself because you are now at ‘Home’ with God.  

          A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

O God, our Father, the touch of whose hand bestows perfect rest and peace at each days ending, grant that I may fall asleep in the full assurance of Your abiding Presence. May no unresolved troubles, unfinished tasks nor sins, real or imagined, cast me on the troubled waters of despair.

 Prepare me now, through Your righteousness, to receive grace sufficient for tomorrow’s needs.  Grant unto me whatever You see that I need to discharge my responsibility to the world confidently and with mercy, pity, peace, and love.

Keep light, from Your Presence within me, aglow in the window of my soul. Help me to yield to its influence ever that I may be a help to any who are missing the way ‘Home.’ 

Through Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Amen.

Hymn:  Now The Day Is Over

https://youtu.be/jLu0H_5qmkQ

 

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. The Scripture references are from the NIV translation. A reading of those
2.  Scriptures, at the beginning of this meditation, will help your understanding of the meditation, which follows.
3.  PHOTO is of BRIGUS, NEWFOUNDLAND,  taken by Vicki Curtis- Meltzer of Dover, New Hampshire, USA.