An article in National Geographic several years ago provided a penetrating picture of God’s wings.
After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno’s damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree.
Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother’s wings.
The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise. She could have flown to safety but refused to abandon her babies.
When the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, the mother had remained steadfast. Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.
“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.” (Psalm 91:4)
The following article appeared in my hometown newspaper, The Daily Commercial, on Sunday, December 27, 1998, and was written by Marci Elliot, and copied here with her permission.
The real Christmas began Friday
Merry Christmas, everyone. What? It’s over, you say? It ended on Friday, Christmas Day?
No, no, no. The Christmas that ended Friday was the commercial christmas.
The Real Christmas began Friday. Today is the third day of Christmas.
People who believe in the Real Christmas understand this, of course. The rest of you have me to explain it, so hold on. Here’s my Real Christmas gift to you.
The 12 days of Christmas are the 12 days between Christmas Day, Dec. 25, the birth of Jesus, and the Epiphany, Jan. 6, the day Christians celebrate the arrival of the magi and the revelation of Christ as the light of the world.
The Christmas song, “The 12 Days of Christmas” may sound silly and contrived to many of us. But it actually had its origins in religious symbolism – and with a serious purpose.
Here’s the background: From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not allowed to worship and practice their faith openly. The song, “The 12 Days of Christmas,” was written by one of them as a kind of secret catechism they could sing in public without getting persecuted.
The song has two levels of interpretation – the surface meaning, plus a hidden meaning known only to members of the church. Each element is a code word for a religion reality.
The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus.
The two turtle doves are the Old and New Testaments.
Three French hens stand for faith, hope and love.
The four calling birds are the four Gospels.
The five gold rings recall the Hebrew Torah (Law), or the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament.
The six geese a-laying stand for the six days of creation.
The seven swans a-swimming represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The eight maids a-milking are the eight Beatitudes.
Nine ladies dancing are the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The ten lords a-leaping are the Ten Commandments.
Eleven pipers piping represent the 11 faithful Apostles.
Twelve drummers drumming symbolize the 12 points of doctrine in the Apostles Creed.
If you think Jesus being symbolized as a partridge in a pear tree sounds blasphemous, listen to this: He is represented as a mother partridge in memory of His sadness over the fate of Jerusalem in the verse, Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so..(Luke 13: 34 and Matthew 23: 34).
The “true love” in the song refers to God Himself. The “me” receiving the gifts is every baptized person, i.e., the church.
Now you know.
So that “silly” song we sing at Christmas time has more meaning than we thought. Since the song sounded like rhyming nonsense, the persecutors never caught on.
They never knew it was a religious song used to serve as a memory aid to teach religion.
As a matter of fact, the song’s message was rather ecumenical – so Catholics could even claim to be Protestant if by some chance they were cornered by the authorities.
The point here is that Christmas has just begun. There really are 12 days of Christmas, partridges or not. So have a happy, merry, meaningful Christmas.
And may you all receive lots of real “gifts” from your real True Love.
Hello dear friend! Well, as you know, it’s time for my birthday again. Last year, they had a real big party for me and it seems like they will again this year. After all, they’ve been shopping and preparing for it for months now, and there have been announcements and advertisements almost everyday about how soon it’s coming! They really do go overboard about it, but it’s nice to know that at least on one day of the year some people are thinking about me a little.
You know, it’s been many years now since they first started celebrating my birthday. Back then they seemed to realize and appreciate how much fun it is for the little children. Just the same, it seems that most folks are missing the point of it all. Like last year, for example: When my birthday came around, they threw a big party, but can you believe it?… I wasn’t invited! Imagine! The guest of honor, and they forgot all about me! Here they had begun preparing for the festivities two months in advance, but when the big day came, I was left out in the cold! Well, it happened so many times in recent years, I wasn’t even surprised. Even though I wasn’t invited, I thought I’d just quietly slip in anyway.
So I came in and stood off to the side. Everyone was drinking, laughing and having a grand time, when all of the sudden, in came this fat fellow in a bright red suit, wearing a phony white beard and shouting, Ho Ho Ho! He looked like he had more than enough to drink, but he somehow managed to weave his way running the floor while everyone cheered. When he collapsed into a big armchair, all the children went running over to him excitedly yelling, Santa!! Santa!! I mean, you’d have thought he was the guest of honor and the whole holiday was in his honor! Then he began telling them the most ridiculous stories you’ve ever heard … that he lived at the North Pole with a crew of dwarfs and that every year on my birthday he rides in his sleigh pulled by a bunch of flying reindeers, delivering presents to children all over the world!! I mean there wasn’t a word of truth in anything he said! Imagine telling such poor, little, impressionable kids such far-fetched fables! Finally I just had to leave, I walked out of the door, and it was hardly surprising that no one even noticed that I had gone.
As I walked on the street afterward, I felt about as lonely and forlorn as stray dogs! I could hardly remember the last time I’d felt that low. Maybe you do not think I cry………..That little manger scene you had put in the corner of your living room was really touching!! It’s sweet of people to commemorate my birthday like that. But did you know that nowadays, in some countries, the authorities won’t even allow manger scenes to be displayed in the parks, streets, or public places anymore! Not to mention their schools! And I’m not talking about Communist countries! I’m talking about the good USA, Imagine!! What could be more innocent than a manger scene to remind people of my birthday?…. And yet they ban it! They’ve actually passed laws against it and made it illegal! What’s this world coming to?
Another thing that amazes me is how, on my birthday, instead of giving me presents, most people give presents to each other! And to top it all off, it’s usually all kinds of stuff they don’t even need! Let me ask you, wouldn’t you find it odd if, when your birthday came along, all your friends decided to celebrate it by giving each other presents and never gave you a thing? Someone once told me, well, it’s because you’re not around like other people are, so how can we give you a present? You know my answer to that one: Then give gifts of food and clothing to the poor, help those who need it. Go visit the lonely! I said, Listen, any gift you give to your needy fellowmen, I’ll count as if you gave it to me personally! (See Matthew 25:34-40)
Well sad to say, things are getting worse each year. You can just imagine my shock a few years ago when I began seeing them taking my name out of my birthday greeting and replacing it with an X What an insult!!
Think of it!…X-mas!! What if I wrote you a birthday card and said Happy Birthday X! You’d probably never talk to me again! And that’s just about how I feel, I mean what more could they do to push me right out of the picture on my own birthday? It reminds me of what happened recently to a friend of mine, a sweet elderly fellow. He’s from the poorer side of town and he’s been trying unsuccessfully for years to join the church. But it was a very exclusive church for the proper kind of folks, and they just did not think he was good enough to be a member, I found him one day sitting by the church steps with his head on his hands bowed and I asked him what was wrong. He told me about it. I put my arm around his shoulder and told him I knew how he felt. I’ve been wanting to enter that same church for twenty years and they’ve never let me in either!
Well, there’s an end even to my patience. So I’m going to let you in on a secret……… Now this is something I’ve been planning on doing for quite sometime, but the way things are going, I think I’m planning of holding my own party! How about that? It’s going to be the biggest most fantastic feast you could possibly imagine! It might not happen this year, but I’m sending out invitations now anyway because I know you’ll want to come. There’s going to be room for billions, for everyone who wants to come! Some really famous old timers and celebrities are going to be there and I’ll reserve you seat of honor right with them! (Matthew 8:11)
So hold on to your hat because when everything is ready, I’m going to spring it as a big surprise and a lot of people are going to be left out in the cold, because they didn’t answer my invitation!! Let me know right away if you’d like to come, and I’ll reserve you a place and, write your name in large golden letters in my BIG GUEST BOOK!!
There was once a man who didn’t believe in the incarnation of Christ or the spiritual meaning of Christmas, and was skeptical about God. He and his family lived in a farm community. His wife was a devout believer and diligently raised her children in her faith. He sometimes gave her a hard time about her faith and mocked her religious observance of Christmas. “It’s all nonsense – why would God lower himself and become a human like us? It’s such a ridiculous story!” he said.
One snowy day, she and the children left for church while he stayed home. After they had left, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening.
Then he heard a loud thump, something hitting against the window. And another thump. He looked outside but couldn’t see. So he ventured outside to see. In the field near his house he saw, of all the strangest things, a flock of geese! They were apparently flying to look for a warmer area down south, but had been caught in the snow storm. The storm had become too blinding and violent for the geese to fly or see their way. They were stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter, unable to do more than flutter their wings and fly in aimless circles.
He had compassion for them and wanted to help them. He thought to himself, “The barn would be a great place for them to stay! It’s warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm.” So he opened the barn doors for them. He waited, watching them, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But they didn’t notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. He moved closer toward them to get their attention, but they just moved away from him out of fear. He went into the house and came back out with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread trail to the barn. They still didn’t catch on. Starting to get frustrated, he went over and tried to shoo them toward the barn. They panicked and scattered into every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where there was warmth, safety and shelter.
Feeling totally frustrated, he exclaimed, “Why don’t they follow me? Can’t they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm? How can I possibly get them into the one place to save them?” He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn’t follow a human.
He said to himself, “How can I possibly save them? The only way would be for me to become like those geese. If only I could become like one of them! Then I could save them! They would follow me and I would lead them to safety.”
At that moment, he stopped and considered what he had said. The words reverberated in his mind: “If only I could become like one of them- then I could save them.” And then, at last, he understood God’s heart towards mankind, and he fell on his knees.
Life’s a little thing! Robert Browning once wrote. But a little thing can mean a life. Even two lives. How well I remember. Two years ago in downtown Denver my friend, Scott Reasoner, and I saw something tiny and insignificant change the world, but no one else even seemed to notice. It was one of those beautiful Denver days. Crystal clear, no humidity, not a cloud in the sky.
We decided to walk the ten blocks to an outdoor restaurant rather than take the shuttle bus that runs up and down the Sixteenth Street Mall. The restaurant, in the shape of a baseball diamond, was called The Blake Street Baseball Club. The tables were set appropriately on the grass infield. Many colorful pennants and flags hung limply overhead. As we sat outside, the sun continued to beat down on us, and it became increasingly hot. There wasn’t a hint of a breeze, and heat radiated up from the tabletop. Nothing moved, except the waiters, of course. And they didn’t move very fast, either.
After lunch Scott and I started to walk back up the mall. We both noticed a mother and her young daughter walking out of a card shop toward the street. She was holding her daughter by the hand while reading a greeting card. It was immediately apparent to us that she was so engrossed in the card that she did not notice a shuttle bus moving toward her at a good clip. She and her daughter were one step away from disaster when Scott started to yell. He hadn’t even gotten a word out when a breeze blew the card out of her hand and over her shoulder.
She spun around and grabbed at the card, nearly knocking her daughter over. By the time she picked up the card from the ground and turned back around to cross the street, the shuttle bus had whizzed by her. She never even knew what almost happened.
To this day two things continue to perplex me about this event. Where did that one spurt of wind come from to blow the card out of that young mother’s hand? There had not been a whisper of wind at lunch or during our long walk back up the mall.
Secondly, if Scott had been able to get his words out, the young mother might have looked up at us as they continued to walk into the bus. It was the wind that made her turn back to the card – in the one direction that saved her life and that of her daughter. The passing bus did not create the wind. On the contrary, the wind came from the opposite direction.
I have no doubt it was a breath from God protecting them both. But the awesomeness of this miracle is that she never knew. As we continued back to work, I wondered how God often acts in our lives without our being aware. The difference between life and death can very well be a little thing.
Comment: Miracles often blow unseen through our lives.
This is my personal collection of thoughts and writings, mainly from much smarter people than I, which challenge me in my discipleship walk. Don't rush by these thoughts, but ponder them.
Milo 