The Star

Visitors last week who belong to a sect which focuses on matching current world events to Biblical prophecy. Their attitude was fatalistic, as they believe that God has a pre-ordained plan and all we can do is try to read the signs of the times and distance ourselves from the world. 

Their focus  is on digging into Scripture in order to identify its correlation to world events; mine is to dig into Scripture in order to deepen my relationship with Jesus. I don’t want to get hung up on the scenery and staging and miss the star. 

I recently took a cookbook out of the local library which is full of recipes to combat the onset of dementia. (No signs of it so far ... but dealing with it in loved ones makes me aware.) The writers prefaced the recipes by going into great detail about each food and vitamin which either nurtures or shrinks our brains’ cognitive capacity. I nearly fell down the rabbit hole of thinking I needed to learn it all to apply it to every meal I prepare from now on.

For me, that would drain the joy out of cooking and eating.

I stepped back and picked out a few recipes which appealed. We have just eaten a very delicious spicy lentil soup, followed by a Moroccan couscous. I can just about cope with learning four or five new dishes and adding them to my repertoire, hoping that they, along with a greater intake of fish, fresh fruit and veg ... and that daily glass of red wine and bit of dark chocolate ... will keep the little grey cells connected.

Food is for enjoying; life is for living; Jesus came so that we could have life to the full. Joy to the world, the angels sang. The Lord has come!

Seasons

Seasons.

It is a beautiful spring morning. Birds singing their sweet songs. Trees budding and blossoming. Grass growing. Sun shining out of a clear blue sky.

The change of season. Spring is a welcome change. Summer is a welcome change. Autumn, though beautiful, less welcome. And winter – well, I have to look beyond it to spring!

And so with life. Change. Growing old. Losing comprehension. Being frightened. Imagining things. Someone I love is entering that dark tunnel and it feels like winter is coming. 

I have to look beyond it to spring. So does she.

God’s faithful to his promises. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is always with us. He will be there to welcome us into his heavenly kingdom.

I am so grateful. Clinging on. Trusting. Trusting in our faithful God who loves us so much he died for us. Paul begged God to take away a severe trial, but Jesus said to him, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ 

Leaning on my Saviour. Trusting in his grace.

What is Truth?

A summer day dawns. Perfect blue sky stretches above a verdant green countryside. Across the field towards the wood, a layer of mist hangs, neither touching the earth nor touching the sky. 

The mist obscures a section of forest; I can see above and below but there is a section which lies hidden behind the filmy white.

What is truth?

Pilate asked Jesus, and although Jesus is The Truth, Pilate just couldn’t see it. There was a mist clouding his vision.

Perspectives distort and cloud our perception of truth. We argue over politics, over religion, because we see as if through a glass darkly – things are distorted and obscured in our earthly understanding. 

But while we have mental agility and acuity it behoves us to exercise our minds and our spirits to understand as best we can, with the help of God. Because a day may come when the mist settles more permanently over our minds.

Elderly folk who are slipping into dementia often ‘confabulate’. That is a word new to me but one which I am using more and more in relation to a dear loved one. I am hearing her declare things to me day by day and because I know some of them are definitely not true, I then begin to question the rest. For her, she is speaking the truth. She is not trying to lie or pull the wool over my eyes. She is constructing a scenario on the hoof, as she speaks, which she herself may not remember in a few minutes. She is confabulating.

There are horrors going on in our world right now, more horrors than usual, and the truth is obscured. It is lost in the mist over Ukraine, with the shooting down of the passenger plane and the terrible death wreaked on innocent people. It is hidden in the historic and thick thick mists hanging over Gaza and Jerusalem, where it seems everyone confabulates to justify their own actions. 

Jesus knows the truth. Jesus is the Truth. One day this mist will lift and we shall all see his face, and we shall see clearly. We will know the truth, and the truth will truly set us free.

In the meantime, we walk by faith. We walk, trusting in Truth, trusting in Jesus, trusting that he can negotiate the way through the confabulations and out the other side. It is not a case of the blind leading the blind, but of Perfect Love leading the beloved.

That’s you. And me. Have a great day, resting in Jesus despite the mist hanging over so much of the world.