First Cut

 

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration.  The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.”  “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”  But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing.  Each could hold twenty to thirty  gallons.   Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.”  When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.”   So the servants followed his instructions.  When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over.  “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said.  “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine.  But you have kept the best until now!”  This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.  John 2:1-11

Jesus clearly told Mary his time hadn’t yet come.  But Mary pushed on with the expedient, asking Jesus to save the wedding party from embarrassment over not having sufficient wine for the festivities.  Imagine balancing the weight of a little glitch in the wine supply for a wedding reception against God’s plans for eternal redemption; there’s hardly a comparison.  But, cutting Mary a little slack, she’d seen her son do some pretty miraculous stuff; it was not odd she’d count on her son to save the day…again.

This was Jesus’ first public miracle, and, like the first cut a stone mason or sculptor makes on his selected rock, it set in motion what would come.  To say that first cuts are important is to understate it by many miles.  A mistake of one degree of lattitude or longitude in a trip across the USA can mean you wind up in Alaska instead of Seattle.  If that one degree is on a trip to the sun, the margin of error increases to light years.  The bigger the undertaking, the more precision in choosing the path is required. 

The timing of Jesus’ public display of his divinity is history for us; it happened at a wedding.  Whose wedding, and why this wedding, is beside the point; Jesus chose to enter the first cut of stone in this building of our redemption at Cana with water turned to wine.  And, in the matter of the water of human souls, Jesus is still doing just that…taking the common, everyday, impure, undrinkable water of our lives and making that first (and every) cut that turns them into a celebration.

We tend to wonder if we’re on the right course – if we’re somehow missing the best navigation of life – if we’re going to wind up in unchartered territory, far from what we…or even God intended.  But the master mason is never uncertain about the first cut. 

For You Today

Have you got any unusual-looking marks in this stone of your life?  Have you wondered what your artist is working on in that job, family crisis, or doctor’s report?  Maybe it’s time to remember Cana.  Be like the servants that day following Mary’s directions…do whatever HE tells you. 

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

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

 

A Christian Marriage

 

1 Corinthians 7:39

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives.  If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but only if he loves the Lord.

This year will mark the 40^th anniversary of my ordination to the Gospel ministry.  In that time I have been asked to officiate many weddings.  I only bowed-out once, and the reason was of Biblical conscience, not expediency.  It was a matter of faith; more accurately, a lack of faith.  The bride-to-be was a professing member of the church, and the groom-to-be was not.  It came out in the first counselling time that the groom was a practicing agnostic.  He was a nice guy, the kind you’d like to hang-out with, and not particularly antagonistic towards faith, he just had no interest.  He said he’d never stand in the way of her faith, but just didn’t choose to be involved.

Enter the advice of St. Paul.  The whole idea of marriage is knitting two souls together, not just sharing a name, or obtaining a common address.  

One of the symbols for marriage[1] is a heart with two intertwined rings, with a cross at the center.  This image pictures what Scripture describes as two people loving the Lord together.  Of course, living in a land where freedom of choice is held in much higher esteem than any words written in an ancient book, the couple had a hard time accepting what I tried to share with them, that they were asking God to bless something which God does not accept…the joining of light and darkness. 

Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers.  How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?  2 Corinthians 6:14

It has been long held by many theologians that Paul’s first letter to the believers at Corinth raised so many questions, his second letter was in answer to their letter asking for explanation.  As a church full of new converts, this is anticipated; they had asked Paul for guidance in marriage and family life. 

As with the couple I counseled sometimes the truth is more than you want to hear.  And, from this side of the counseling room, it is also not an easy truth to speak.  There were many tears shed, and that turned into anger.  It was not pretty.  The bride-to-be expected a perfunctory session of a few platitudes, and then let’s get to the real business of planning the flowers and reception.  Having the preacher tell her she was making a mistake was more than a surprise, it turned everything upside down.  What she couldn’t see is that God was showing her the right-side-up.  She had this perfect Hallmark snapshot in her head of a wedding day, with her being the center of attention, and all the adoring looks and comments that would come her way.  She was thinking of a festive, happy wedding day; she hadn’t considered all the other days of marriage that would follow.  But God wanted her to focus on what a life and soul shared with an unbeliever would be like.  She could not stand for that and eventually left the church. 

I heard later that the couple did marry (and divorced shortly after).  I write this not to gloat or be proved right.  God’s Word is always true and right; the likes of me is hardly needed to validate what Jehovah has already pronounced.  I merely hoped to head off the misery the couple was courting.  As a minister who is charged to love the sheep and tell the flock God’s truth, I could do no less.  In retrospect I can truthfully report that I felt no joy in any of it.  But one can scarcely feel guilty for telling the truth.

For You Today

If you are planning a wedding…or it’s much later and you’re planning on exiting a marriage…it might be the best investment of your time to stop and consider if you’ve being looking for the best-looking, best-providing, or best-whatever kind of mate, rather than the kind of person you admire for his or her commitment to Christ. 

The fact remains…you can choose an “unequal yoke” of being a believer married to an unbeliever, but you will also be choosing against God’s perfect will for your life.

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

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For another post on Numbers 22 see The Strength of a Marriage and Follow the Leader 

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[1] The image is from Worldwide Marriage Encounter

 

The VOW of LOVE

 

[1]

Monday, February 3, 2020

In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land.  So a man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to live in the country of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him.  The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi.  Their two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in the land of Judah.  And when they reached Moab, they settled there.  Then Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons.  The two sons married Moabite women.  One married a woman named Orpah, and the other a woman named Ruth.  But about ten years later, both Mahlon and Kilion died.  This left Naomi alone, without her two sons or her husband.  Then Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had blessed his people in Judah by giving them good crops again.  So Naomi and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland.  With her two daughters-in-law she set out from the place where she had been living, and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah.  But on the way, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back to your mothers’ homes.  And may the Lord reward you for your kindness to your husbands and to me.  May the Lord bless you with the security of another marriage.”  Then she kissed them good-bye, and they all broke down and wept.  “No,” they said.  “We want to go with you to your people.”  But Naomi replied, “Why should you go on with me? Can I still give birth to other sons who could grow up to be your husbands?  No, my daughters, return to your parents’ homes, for I am too old to marry again. And even if it were possible, and I were to get married tonight and bear sons, then what?  Would you wait for them to grow up and refuse to marry someone else?  No, of course not, my daughters!  Things are far more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord himself has raised his fist against me.”  And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye.  But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi.  “Look,” Naomi said to her, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods.  You should do the same.”  But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back.  Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live.  Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.  Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!”  When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.  Ruth 1:1-18

At many of the weddings I’ve been privileged to officiate, the wedding candle has been used to help represent the official moment of establishing of a home.  Along with the bride’s and groom’s candles flanking the center unity candle, and rings, and vows, these are symbols of two lives bringing their commitment to form a new union in holy matrimony.

Along with the visual drama as the bride and groom bring their candle’s flames to light the center candle, they also recite the familiar words of kindness spoken to Naomi by Ruth…words filled with the commitments of life one person, unselfishly loving, can offer to another:

I will go with you, stay with you, worship with you, and even die with you.

These are words spoken by a descendant of Ruth’s some generations later, the words of Jesus of Nazareth to his friends in an upper room on the night he would be arrested, tried, and killed for their (and our) sins.

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  John 15:13

For You Today

Isn’t it amazing how the tragedy of one woman losing her husband, her sons, and being forced into homeless migration just to survive, can foreshadow the blessing of God on the whole of humanity just a few years down the road?

Ruth and Naomi did not live on this earth long enough to see the fulfillment of what their lives enacted on that day.  However, by faith, their trust in God was sealed in heaven. 

So is yours!

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

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[1] Title Image:   via Wikimedia.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

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The Time Has Come

[i][ii]

Monday, April 1, 2019

Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder:  “Praise the Lord!  For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.  Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him.  For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself.  She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.”  For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.  Revelation 19:6-8

I’ve officiated at enough weddings in the past 40 years to know the pecking order of things when that special day of the ceremony arrives.  During one rehearsal a groom kept asking questions of the pastor about where he should stand, and if he should keep his hands folded this way or that.  When the 3-year-old flower girl had a melt-down everyone took a break.  The pastor took the groom aside and told him:  Listen, just stand in that one spot and look at the bride with everyone else…it doesn’t matter how you hold your hands, bud; nobody’s going to be looking at you.  Considering the norm, a groom will wear a $75 rented tux, while the bride’s gown makes the national debt look like an austerity program.  

When Elizabeth and I got married we saved the tux rental too because I had my Army uniform to wear.  One of the groomsmen told me it was appropriate; that uniform with the private’s stripe shouted that I was a guy who knew how to take orders!

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb will be like none other.  According to this end time prediction the bride will be beautifully dressed in the most elegant way, adorned with the sacrificial works of the church in caring for people throughout the ages.  But the groom, the spotless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, the One Who died for this bride, will be the center of all creation and beyond. 

All that exists will be turned towards the groom on that day.  And that means every believer, every man, woman, and child who has trusted in Christ will be in attendance, and all attention will be on Messiah; no one will have eyes for anyone but Jesus.

The Apostle John, writing down this Revelation vision about that day as Jesus spoke it to him, recorded that the bride had prepared herself.  That preparation is the sum of all the good that has been done by believers in the name of Jesus over the last two millennia.  I believe it also includes those pre-cross saints, such as Abraham, Abel, the prophets, King David, Samson, and everyone who trusted in God’s promise of a Savior.  Every kindness ever done in the name of our Lord is remembered in Heaven (whether or not it is recorded on earth) and will be rewarded on that day.

When I was much younger that day of Jesus’ return, and the marriage supper of the Lamb seemed so much more removed from reality than today.  Perhaps, owing to the naïve nature of the 1950’s sans Internet and lightning-fast news reporting, as well as my own preoccupation with growing up, playing sports, and generally surviving the threat of polio and measles.  My mind just didn’t have time for thinking about all the wonders of the world coming to an end before I’d even had a chance to explore some of it.  

Fast-forward to the dawn of the 3^rd decade of a new millennium, I can’t believe it hasn’t happened yet!  Wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, floods, famine, atmosphere collapsing…Jesus’ Mt Olivet sermon[iii] warnings of end times approaching read like the gloom and doom of the daily news reports.  Perhaps it’s just my age, or a different stage of preoccupation with Scripture’s forecast, but the question occupying my mind mostly these days is how much longer can it be?

For You Today

It isn’t for any of us to know the exact time, or exactly what it will be like when Jesus Christ returns to set everything right which has been wrong.  But we have the larger picture – it is going to be the best…better than any human imagination can conceive.  The time…when it comes…will be so grand, no believer will ever look back on this life wishing for the good ol’ times; as the poet said, the best is yet to be!

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

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[i] Title Image:   Pixabay.com

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

[iii] Matthew 24-25

A Bit of Encouragement

[1]

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Devotion VIDEO here

So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11^(NLT)

Encouragement is almost tangible!

A memory:  In 1967 a pair of 19 year old kids, facing the unknown of Vietnam and what the future might hold, decided to tie the knot.  The local minister at the Smithtown Methodist Church agreed to juggle the schedule and marry us right at the end of that Sunday’s service.  It was amazing how people just dropped everything and helped us put together (in only three days) a wedding with a full bridal party and reception in the church fellowship hall.  So encouraging!

For our one-day honeymoon trip we drove to New York City to attend a Broadway play.  It’s amazing how intimidating the whole nightlife scene of that city can be, even for people who grew up just an hour’s drive from the city that never sleeps.  But we managed to locate the theatre, and it was such a relief when the parking garage was right across the street.  An attendant took Elizabeth’s old 1960 Rambler and gave us a ticket stub; the car disappeared as he drove it into the tunnel entry.  Valet parking!  This was going to be first class!

The show ended late, and the people poured-out of the theatre; we were across the street in a jiffy, handing the ticket for our car to the attendant.  While we waited the crowd thickened, until there seemed to be no end to the sea of people.

We were like young does caught in the headlights.  The freezing New York February night air, a crush of thousands of strangers milling around, the noise of traffic, people shouting to be heard over the street sounds,  and our old Rambler stuck in a 10-story parking garage – well, it all made for some anxious moments; would we ever make it back to sleepy, little Smithtown?

Our answer showed up right on cue.  The first vehicle to emerge from that tunnel of an entryway to the parking garage was none other than our 1960 green and white Rambler with “Just Married” written in soap and chalk all over the front and sides.  Balloons and streamers still hung from the rear bumper.  It was a welcome sight! 

Then the attendant yelled out our ticket number, and suddenly the whole world silenced as people stopped talking to check their stub; then ten thousand pairs of eyes fixed on the little green car with JUST MARRIED glaring off every surface as it rolled-up to where we stood. 

As the young man in uniform escorted his bride of 36 hours to the passenger side of the little green Rambler and opened the door for her, the crowd (all 38 million of them) erupted in applause.  I looked around to see if perhaps the stars of the Broadway show had appeared, but it became embarrassingly obvious that the mob was applauding Elizabeth and Russell.

That was nearly 49 years ago.  But the encouragement of so many people who wanted to congratulate us and encourage us is an indelible picture moment that warms my heart as each February approaches.

Encouragement is supposed to be like that.  It comes from unexpected places and always at the right, but most unlikely times.  It might be a simple word, a comforting touch, a bill paid, an invitation extended, or one of a thousand other commonplace or extraordinary kindnesses…but encouragement lasts for a lifetime.

I know.

For You Today

You might have missed the last time you had a chance to encourage someone; don’t miss the next one.

You chew on that out on that Rocky Road today…and have a joy-filled and blessed day!

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[1] Title image:  By English: CZmarlin — Christopher Ziemnowicz, via Wikimedia Commons

King of Kings and Lord of Lords

In the liturgy of our church we often reaffirm our common belief in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Part of that affirmation includes the prophetic faith in Jesus’ bodily return to set everything right.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ….
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,             
and his kingdom will have no end.[1]
         Until that day believers are commissioned by Christ to live in the here and now; we are expected to live into God’s plan for building His kingdom.  The problem is that God’s enemy, Satan, always wants to go in the opposite direction!

The Christian life is compared often in Scripture to a warfare.  And so it is!  Whenever I think of war movies, the 1940's black and white ones are the pictures in my mind's eye.  There are always some constants -- there is a guy who prays a lot because there's an enemy; there is a couple who want to get married before Johnny goes off to battle; and there is a time of preparation for the battle -- scenes of Worship, Wedding, and War:

Worship Scene

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah!  Salvation and glory and power to our God, for his judgments are true and just; he has judged the great whore who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”  Once more they said,“Hallelujah!  The smoke goes up from her forever and ever.”  And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who is seated on the throne, saying, “Amen.   Hallelujah!”  And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, and all who fear him, small and great.”  Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying out, “Hallelujah!  For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.            Revelation 19:1-6 (NRSV)

Only here in the New Testament, does the word alleluia appear.  It means praise to the Lord.  The word omnipotent means He who controls all.  At another church I served, we often sang as the call to worship, Our God Reigns. 

How lovely on the mountains are the feet of those

who bring good news, good news,

Proclaiming peace and liberty to everyone,

Our God reigns, Our God reigns.

There was never a time when we sang it, that the little hairs on the back of my neck didn't stand at attention.  It put the picture in my mind of that great worship scene, where the praise of the multitudes of saved sinners lifts the roof off planet earth.  The salvation, power, honor and glory are expressions of gratitude, reverence and trust to the God who is omnipotent and reigns.  God judged the false church, and now defeats the Beast with his truth.  His judgment was predicted:

 Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, O my soul.  Praise the LORD! 

Psalms 104:35 (NRSV)

And His reign was predicted through the line of David:

Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.             2 Samuel 7:16 (NRSV)

Why do we worship in anticipation of the reign of the Lord God, Almighty?  It is the defining moment in all of human existence.  It is the fulfillment of the promise that sin would not always be our lot.  It is the moment when God declares that enough is indeed enough!  It is the second coming of our Lord.

Beyond the Worship Scene, there is a...

Wedding Scene

A READY AND RIGHTEOUS BRIDE

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.  And the angel said^£ to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”   Revelation 19:7 - 9 (NRSV)

If all of the saved of the ages anticipated the second coming of Christ; it is the marriage supper of the Lamb, for which the church has waited.  Paul's passage which we read at weddings is really about the church, the bride of Jesus:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:25 - 27 (NRSV)

This tells us that Jesus is expecting a righteous bride.

²I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 2 Cor 11:2

By contrast with the harlot of a false church in the Tribulation period, the true church of Christ is faithful to Him.  It is something that ought to make us pause and check the things we do daily.  Our works do follow us to glory. 

But, how can we be wrinkle-free?  (I can't even get a no-iron shirt out of the dryer without a major wrinkle or two -- How am I going to have my own life without spot or blemish?)  The answer is in the imputed righteousness of Christ.  We can never be perfect -- but He is, and God forgives us for Christ's sake!  That's how the church will be spotless -- Jesus puts us through the holy rinse and spin cycle!

The sight of all this made John the apostle, lose his sense of propriety -- he fell at the feet of an angel to worship him,

Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”  Revelation 19:10

Only God should be worshipped.  He is the author and finisher of our faith, and everything in scripture points to Jesus.  That which we do in Jesus' name here on earth, will become like a fine white linen garment of righteousness. 

We will not wear them very long, however.  I believe, as in the case of the Elders casting down their golden crowns at the feet of Jesus, we too will gather around, and the garment of His righteousness in us will serve to reflect the glory of the throne throughout the entire universe. 

Nothing created -- including the devil in the abyss, and the lost of all ages -- will be able to look in the direction of the throne.  It will be too wonderful and painful a sight for them.  But for us --- glory, glory, glory!

A worship scene, a wedding scene, and,

A War Scene

¹¹Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. ¹²His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself. ¹³He is clothed in a robe dipped in^£ blood, and his name is called The Word of God. ¹⁴And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. ¹⁵From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule^£ them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, “King of kings and Lord of lords.”                   Revelation 19:11-16

This is indeed a war scene, but there is hardly anything of war -- but there most definitely is A Warrior!  The picture of the coming of the Lord should make our mouths drop to the floor.  Jim Henry is the Senior Pastor at First Baptist Church in Orlando, Fl.  He tells of an incident from his youth.  He was saved at Hopewell Baptist near Nashville, Tenn.  Just as he entered his teens there was going to be a special service at Hopewell.  Jim lived nearly 30 miles from the church by then.  Wanting to attend, he convinced his mother to allow he and his cousin to hitchike out to the service.  As they were walking along, a big black Oldsmobile came down the road, going in the same direction.  Jim Henry stuck out a thumb.  As the car got near, it began to screech to a halt, and Henry noticed a State Trooper sitting behind the wheel.  He was afraid the Trooper would arrest him.  The window rolled down -- Wher'ya goin' boys? he said.  Jim explained, and he and his cousin were invited to hop in.  When he got in the back seat there was another man in a suit.  The man stuck out his hand and said, Hello, Jimmy, I'm Frank G. Clement, governor of Tennessee.  I am going up to the Hopewell Church to speak, and I will be glad to give you and your friend a lift. 

They took off and the patrolman got them there in a flash.  When they pulled up there was a welcoming crowd.  The whole county was there.  Who was the first one out?  Jimmy Henry!  He tipped his hand in the direction of Mr. Clement, and said, Thanks for the ride, Governor -- and God bless you.  Ol' Jimmy Henry was somebody![2]   The fact is Jimmy Henry was next to somebody.  He was still little 13 year old Jimmy.  Governor Clement was the somebody. 

Who is somebody to you?  The last time Jesus came, He had a manger, and simple barnyard animals for admirers.  He told us plainly who he was,

You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am.                  John 13:13 (NRSV)

Yet, he was still a nobody to us all:  He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.   John 1:11 (NRSV)

The next time Jesus comes, the only animal in sight will be the white horse underneath him -- a horse ridden by a victorious, conquering King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. 

The next time He will not be a gentle baby, with Mary singing lullabyes in some feeding trough.  He will be a mighty warrior with an avenging righteousness.

The next time He will not wear a simple shepherd's robe.  He will have a garment dipped in blood, with which he will cover, cleanse and purge the entire earth. 

The next time He will not hold a shepherd's staff.  He will have a conquering sword that will smash the world systems into oblivion. 

The next time He will not pass out broken bread and grape juice.  He will be marching on the grapes of wrath, and squeezing every last drop of the fierceness of a holy God who has been scorned.

The next time no one will put Him on a cross.  This time He will hold up the cross and every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.  Amen!

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[1] The Nicene Creed

[2]Jim Henry, Heartwarmers, (Nashville, Broadman Press, 1977), 15