Looking Back to Go Forward

 

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.  How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!  For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.  For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me.  He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him.  His mighty arm has done tremendous things!  He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.  He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.  He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful.  For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”  Luke 1:46-55

There are constants in life which, if honestly viewed, can guide us into truth.  Calling on my somewhat limited grasp of mathematics, I recall a principle of equations that remains stable.  If A = 1, then A is always 1. 

Mary understood that. 

Mary looked back over the history of generation to generation and her soul leaped within her at the mercy, miracles and justice with which God has ruled this universe.  And Mary connected the dots.  If, in mercy, might, and justice, God saw fit to lead her into the world’s brightest spotlight from an obscure little village, she was going to count on the principle of looking back to go forward.  She would trust the Lord.

And here’s how she connected that set of dots:

For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”  Luke 1:55

The key word is “forever”.  Mary understood that circumstances, and the way humans evaluate circumstances, are as changeable as the wind.  God, on the other hand, is as constant as the A = 1 principle; He changes not!^{(Malachi 3:6)}

In the connecting the dots ambit, looking at signposts in your history gives you a sense of the course you’ve charted.  If you chart a course to, say, Omaha, Nebraska, and it was not done with a faulty compass and map, and, if you’ve faithfully followed  that course, today you’re closer than you were yesterday.  It’s the same in charting your course to follow God’s way.  To Israel in captivity, after they’d messed-up supremely, God said through the prophet:

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.  I will be found by you,” says the Lord.  Jeremiah 29:13-14a

For us, this means the “A” of our equation is always trust the Lord, and the “1” of the result is you will find Him. 

The picture on your screen has a little white dot, which are actually two large planets (Saturn and Jupiter) in conjunction.  I looked up in the dark sky at 6:27pm Monday night to see this phenomenon.  It was predicted based on science, mathematics, and because, history has proved it over and again.  And it was there.  And I snapped the picture with my little Android phone’s camera.  I did that, not because it IS the so-called Christmas Star of Bethlehem…it’s two planets, in real time, reflecting the light God created so long ago.  And, like the cross I wear when I preach God’s Word each Sunday, although it isn’t the blood-stained cross of Golgotha, it is a picture of remembering the course God charted for restoring relationship between Himself and myself.

In just that way, God says, look back at what I’ve done, and know I will be the same tomorrow as I was yesterday and today.^{(Hebrews 13:8)}

Mary knew that, and she sang from the depths of her being the song of praise for the deep trials she knew was ahead.  And she charted her course to walk right into it!

For You Today

Been through a tough one this year?  As tough as Mary’s year?  The whole of her world changed when the angel talked about God’s plan for her life.  Adulteress and Blasphemer, the neighbors would say.  Leaving home to run for Egyptian refuge to escape Jesus being slaughtered was in the near future.  Still, Mary pondered all these wonders, and bowed the knee in grateful remembrance of the God who taught her to look back so she could go forward.  Sound like a plan?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title image:  Russell Brownworth (own work) 12/21/2020 conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter   

W  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©