Monthly Archives: April 2013

Illuminating Gifts

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We own a spectacular flashlight that came to us in an unusual way. It’s made of aerospace-grade materials and is impact and water-resistant. Should it be dropped, it has a spongy, rubberized sheath around the vulnerable bulb-end, and it’s a foot long. The words “Coleman Graphite” are printed along the side.

Super-flashlight

If I was forced to look at the powerful bulb, my eyes would hurt for days, but the generous swath of light it puts forth is almost like a car’s headlights on high beam. I’ve checked online, and an equivalent flashlight would cost about $50, a far cry from the dime-store variety of our other flashlights.

Back in 2005, when Nate and I put our suburban home on the market after living there nearly 30 years, we never dreamed it would take 4 years to sell it, especially since the real estate market was still on a rapidly-rising bubble.

When we finally got the offer that “stuck,” our potential buyers asked for an asbestos inspection, and wouldn’t you know, the attic insulation contained microscopic bits of it. The buyers insisted we have it cleaned out, and after the 3-day process I climbed a ladder to peek at how the attic looked. Without insulation (and with a new white sealant on walls and floor joists), it looked pretty good.

As I stood on the ladder half-in and half-out of the attic, I noticed a big flashlight across the room. Climbing through the opening and crawling over the joists to retrieve it, I saw what good quality it was and figured it belonged to the asbestos team. Later I called them.

“No,” they said, “it isn’t ours.” I pressed the point, so one of the workers came by to look at it, but he was sure it wasn’t theirs. After that we asked people who came and went, but when we finally moved, we figured it was ours.

Coming into a high-quality flashlight isn’t any big deal, but the unexplainable way it came to us can be an object lesson for the way God does things. For example, maybe we need something specific or even just have a wish for it. We tell God about it in prayer, and one day, after we’ve forgotten we asked, there it is.

When God gives us the desire of our hearts (an un-sinful desire), he often brings it by a circuitous, improbable route. Why? Because he wants us to recognize that it’s him. If the way the gift arrived makes no logical sense and occurs against the odds, then I think we can rightly credit the Lord.

So, when I use our Coleman flashlight, it’s not the asbestos company that comes to mind. It’s God, and his sometimes unusual, often unexpected, but always welcome gifts.

“If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Minding Our Minds

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This weekend my long-term girlfriend-club gathered in Michigan for our bi-annual hiatus from real life. In decades past, the M&Ms met monthly in the Chicago suburbs, but in the last 5 years it’s become more difficult to find monthly dates that would work with busy schedules.

We finally settled on two “retreats” each year, both in Michigan. That’s a boon for me, since the rest of them still live in Illinois. But they willingly bear the expense and commitment of a 200 mile round trip in order to spend 24 hours together twice a year.

M and Ms.

Sometimes we find a quiet place to have a prayer time, but whether or not that happens, increasingly we end up talking on spiritual topics. That’s because our personal commitments to Christ are the glue that has held us together all these years, and that same glue promises to bind us throughout eternity.

In any given year we don’t get to spend much time together, what with diverse travel schedules, grandmothering responsibilities, active careers, and volunteer hours, but nothing can take away the sense of togetherness we share that’s outside of time and space. That’s made possible by our God who lives outside of those realms and sometimes invites us to join him there. For example, in prayer.

Figuratively, the M&Ms meet in the Lord’s throne room whenever we approach him in conversation, and if the requests we bring are about each other, we like to think of ourselves as being in there together, with him and with each other.

A man named John Fawcett said it well in a hymn:

Blest be the tie that binds

Our hearts in Christian love;

The fellowship of kindred minds

Is like to that above.

 

The M&M women have a “fellowship of kindred minds.” The word “fellowship” means shared mutual interests and experiences in relationships of trust. “Kindred” refers to a person’s family or relatives collectively, and the 7 of us certainly do feel like family members who can be trusted. So… “the fellowship of kindred minds” describes what the M&Ms have. As the old hymn says, the tie that binds our hearts is Christian love.

Sparkling halo

All of this may sound weighty and overly religious, but lest you think there was any halo-polishing in my Michigan cottage this weekend, know that we also played the word-game “Catch Phrase” from 10:00 pm until 1:20 am, laughing ourselves into laryngitis and bellyaches. Though our minds are tied together in Christ, those same minds can also get good-and-goofy, too.

 

“God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord… that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.” (1 Corinthians 1:9-10)

Everything We Need

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We often hear Christians say, “God provides for my every need.” How can this be true when we see so much that’s still wrong in this world like poverty, abuse, and orphaned children? What about terminal disease?

Although these questions seem logical, maybe they’re the wrong ones. It might be better to say, “Can we point to situations where compassionate people are helping the poor? Do we see God placing orphaned children into families? Are there avenues of support for people fighting illnesses?”

The answers ought to be rooted in the good deeds of those who want to please God and people at the same time. And isn’t that the definition of godliness?

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Waterford bowl

More than 20 years ago, Nate gave me a beautiful Waterford crystal bowl. It came in a velvet-lined box and included a small booklet explaining the symbols cut into the glass. I don’t know if the Waterford people meant for this piece to be a lesson in godliness, but it certainly could be.

Although the explanatory booklet is long gone and neither the Waterford web site nor my Facebook friends could help me interpret the symbols, here’s one set of possibilities:

  • The heart = God is love (1 John 4:8)
  • The dove = the Holy Spirit (John 1:32)
  • The sun = Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2)
  • The wheat = prosperity (Psalm 147:13-15)
  • The bow = God’s promises kept (Isaiah 14:24)

The heartThe dove

A second option might be to associate the symbols with our basic human needs:

The sun

The wheat

 

 

 

The bow

  • The bundle of wheat could represent food.
  • The sun might signify the warmth of hearth and home.
  • The heart could be the love that all people crave.
  • The dove might indicate our need for inner peace in the midst of tumultuous circumstances.
  • The bow could symbolize the gift of life itself, since the other 4 items tie together to keep us alive.

Maybe the bow simply represents generosity. When I use this pretty piece, I always think of my generous husband. He knew I loved glass and made a point to give it to me, but despite the crystal being beautiful to look at, it’s good in another way, too. If I let its symbols nudge me into the godly behavior of reaching out to meet the basic needs of someone else, it can become much more than just a pretty gift.

“Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)