THE BOND BETWEEN US

God with Us

Carry On

Living a full life is a blessing denied to many beyond our understanding, but it also comes with the determination to carry on in the brief time we have to live apart.  We lose parents, grandparents,  aunts and uncles, close friends, soulmates, children, etc.  However, we can embrace peace, faith and hope in the understanding that we are an eternal soul with a mortal body.  The bond between us is merely paused for a season.

I’ve found the following observation to be useful:

“The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same, nor would you want to.”

--Elisabeth Cabler-Ross 

 

THE AGE OF AQUARIUS

Sunshine Freedom, USA

MEMORIAL WEEKEND 2021

The 1960’s hit musical Hair included the Fifth Dimension hit recording Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In and promoted a new age of peace, love and light.  Some astrologers suggest it started on the conjunction that occurred in December 2020 or at the vernal equinox on March 20, 2021. 

Let it be so and let it start with you and me as we honor those who have given their all to preserve the freedoms of our great country—freedoms that we often don’t pause to appreciate and that we need to embrace more than ever on this dawning of a new age and Memorial weekend 2021.  Let us cast off the masks of hate and violence to reveal the light of a more perfect union, so that their sacrifice will not be in vain!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbCH5lnZ6sA

DAY BLIND STARS

Overcast Skies, Jamestown NC

I’ve boarded both commercial and business jets on some of the most dismal, overcast days of my life.  These are the kind of days in late fall when there is a cold nuisance mist in the air which just adds to the depressing atmosphere.  These are not the kind of days that you wake up for a trip with unrivaled enthusiasm.  The plane begins its slow crawl away from the tarmac and makes its way in line for takeoff.  The engines strain against the grounded brakes and are suddenly set free to race down the runway and lift off into the mucky weather.  Droplets of moisture form lines across the windows as forlorn passengers blankly stare out into the nothingness.

And then it happens!  We burst out of the dense cloud ceiling into a pure white floor of mounding clouds highlighted by the bright sunshine.  That’s when it occurs to you that the sun was shining all the while you were complaining about the dark weather outside.  It was only the temporary cloud cover that had obscured your outlook on the day.  The sun was doing its thing in spite of the brief interlude of a weather front that was slowly dissipating. 

But have you ever considered that even on a beautiful sunny day in June the stars above are also waiting with their light?  It’s actually the intense sun that is obscuring their beauty and rendering us to being day blind to their presence.  Then the sun begins to pale on the western horizon as it slowly slips out of sight, taking its intense light with it.  Soon we are unconsciously aware that the light saber has been passed on to the myriad stars in the evening sky as the moon begins to rise and subtly reflect the sunbeams cast from the other side of our planet.  This becomes even more poignant when flying overhead at this transitional time of the day with a view of the skyline as major city lights begin to appear in the darkness below.  You’re left to wonder what all those millions of souls are doing right now and reflect on the unique smallness of your own being. 

  

Once I began to experience this revelation, dim overcast days and sunny days that I thought would never end came into better focus.  The Light in this world is always with us even though there are times that make it seem we have been abandoned.  We simply need the understanding that there will be times when life is obstructed by the dark things of this world and we need the faith to believe that the Light will never leave us and brighter days will come regardless of the situation.   

CHRISTMAS CHECKMATE

Chapel of the Angels, Beit Sahur, Israel
Shepherd, Qumran, Israel

There is a field just east of Bethlehem in this war-ravaged region that is the hallowed ground of a momentous announcement.  It is where a messenger of the Lord and a heavenly host of angels announced the arrival of a Savior for the world.  Isaiah prophesied that this child would lead the wolf to live with the lamb.  It’s important to note that this message was not delivered to kings and religious leaders, but to one of the lowest classes of the time—shepherds who were watching over their flocks on one very significant starry night.  The world of that generation was filled with hate and war and the people of the region were anxiously awaiting a warrior king to bring peace to their lives.

They received the Prince of Peace.  The mystery of this miracle was that the Creator entered his creation wrapped in human flesh as a present to all mankind.  The angel told the shepherds not to be afraid for he was announcing good news.  And then a host of angels sang:

“Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

As I walked this land and followed in His footsteps, I couldn’t help but wonder why we still had not achieved that peace which was promised over two thousand years ago.  As an adult, Jesus gave men a simple formula for peace—love God and love your neighbor.  And He left mankind with a way of living through his teachings and model that can restore peace in the world.

People at the birth of Christ and people today expect him to save us from our enemies, but he came to deliver all of us from ourselves.  Sadly, the line between good and evil passes through the heart of every man, but we have been given the free will to choose where we stand.  And on that fateful night we were sent an ally to walk with us as we exercise our free will to do something actionable about the hate and darkness in this world that we were given stewardship over.  Darkness and hate were not eliminated that night in this field, but light and love were sent to checkmate them.

MAKE THE WORLD GOOD AGAIN

TOTALITY ECLIPSE, NASA

The Greek historian Herodotus noted that a solar eclipse in 585 BCE occurred during a fierce battle between the Lydians and the Medes. As the the daylight blended into darkness, this celestial event prompted the soldiers to immediately lay down their weapons and declare peace. Steve Ruskin, a historian of astronomy, has observed that “no matter the time period or the scientific knowledge, human responses to an eclipse are consistently, universally, expressions of awe and wonder, and even fear and terror.”

Astrologists consider an eclipse a time of new beginnings and an awakening. Native American Shamans consider a solar eclipse a powerful time of healing. It’s considered a time of mutual understanding that can help the world unite in love and harmony. What better time in world history could this heavenly alignment of the cosmic trinity of earth, moon and sun bring to the human race? According to NASA, a total solar eclipse of the moon covering the sun’s rays happens somewhere on the earth every year and a half, but it generally only happens once in a person’s lifetime. And it’s been 99 years since the grace of a total eclipse descended on a 70 mile wide swath of America from coast to coast. That prompts many to consider this an omen or a portent.

And what more timely words from Martin Luther King, Jr. than those spoken during the civil rights era that “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” "Experiencing an eclipse changes the way we feel about space and how we are connected. I hope this moment reminds us all that we share a common origin among the stars, and that we are all citizens of the same planet," said Bill Nye, CEO of the Planetary Society.

There are two ways of spreading light in this world: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. Jesus spread love and light and we can reflect His light back into the world through our lives and our actions. Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Life noted that “receiving, reading, researching, remembering, and reflecting on the Word are all useless if we fail to put them into action. We must become ‘doers of the word’. Your heart represents the source of all your motivations—what you love to do and what you care about most.”

We Americans were drawn together for a brief few minutes yesterday by a rare cosmic event that reminded us of our place in the universe. It also reminded us of our ability to join in peace as one brotherhood of man. And it was a visible clarion call to action so that the words of Edmund Burke would not be our legacy; “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

NEUTRINOS--THE SECRET OF THE SUN

Light, Jamestown, NC

I recently ran across one of those “What did he just say?” comments in The Greatest Story Ever Told—So Far, by Lawrence Krauss. It seems that every second of every day, more than 400,000 billion neutrinos are passing through our bodies and the Earth undetected. Wikipedia confirms that “the majority of neutrinos in the vicinity of the Earth are from nuclear reactions in the Sun. In the vicinity of the Earth, about 65 billion solar neutrinos per second pass through every square centimeter perpendicular to the direction of the Sun. And neutrinos can be created artificially with nuclear reactors and particle accelerators.” Just to be clear, that’s 24,000,000 billion neutrinos passing through us every minute of every day of our lives!

Who knew? I’ve been walking all over this planet for over seventy years and was never once aware of all these billions of extremely tiny particles slipping through my body 24/7 without even the slightest tingling of my skin! Krauss continues, “the whole chain begins with a reaction in which two protons collide, and via the weak interaction one of them converts into a neutron, allowing the two to fuse into the nucleus of heavy hydrogen, called deuterium, and release a neutrino and a positron. The positron later interacts in the Sun, but neutrinos, which interact only via the weak interaction, travel right out of the Sun, to Earth and beyond…This fusion releases about a million times more energy per atom than is released when coal burns…This allows the Sun to last about 10 billion years.” Hans Bethe received the Nobel Prize in 1967 by predicting this scenario and the experimental observation of neutrinos almost 40 years later confirmed his predictions. Krauss concludes “The secret of the Sun—the ultimate birth of light in our solar system—had been unveiled.”

I suppose we all might be better off if I had never pointed this out. I’ve been blithely wandering around being bombarded with these tiny neutrinos my entire life and was quite content in not knowing this, but science marches on with or without us. The good news is that this assault on our being is nothing like being microwaved, or we’d all be crispy critters by now! It seems that the more we learn about this mysterious universe we inhabit, the more it leaves us in awe.

Note: See August 10, 2017 USATODAY article on the new Sanford Deep Underground Neutrino Research Lab.

WINTER SOLSTICE HAIKU

STONEHENGE SOLSTICE, Internet Domain

The Earth tilts away,
withdrawing warmth and sunshine.
Dark night of the soul.

A time of stillness.
A stirring of inner strength.
A transition time.

Embrace the darkness!
Let die those parts of ourselves,
that do not serve us.

Embrace the bright light!
Welcome the new light within.
Plant new seeds that serve.

Nurture healthy growth.
Light is ascendant again.
Hope springs eternal!

SWALLOWTAILS & DRAGONFLIES HAIKU

Swallowtail Butterfly & Dragonfly, Summerfield, NC


TRANSFORMATION
To become a butterfly you must have a desire for flight that is passionate
enough to enable you to sacrifice your life as a caterpillar.

Blue pickerel plants,
swallowtails and dragonflies,
line the summer lake.

Lavender-blue spikes,
and glossy green leaves abound,
under lazy clouds.

Earthbound at the start,
swallowtails and dragonflies,
transition with grace.

The flying spirits,
symbolize transformation,
accepting changes.

The power of light,
reveals beautiful colors,
reflected by wings.

When they touch your life,
swallowtails and dragonflies,
renew your spirit!

CONCH CROCUS HAIKU

Conch Shell Crocus, Jamestown, NC

The young crocus shoots,
desperately seek sunshine,
and find sweet freedom,
through the shell’s broken surface.

CHRISTMAS 2015

Angel Mosaic, Bethlehem, Israel

There is a field just east of Bethlehem in this war ravaged region that is the hallowed ground of a momentous announcement. It is where an angel of the Lord and a heavenly host of angels announced the arrival of a Savior for the world. Isaiah prophesied that this child would lead the wolf to live with the lamb. It’s important to note that this message was not delivered to kings and religious leaders, but to one of the lowest classes of the time—shepherds who were watching over their flocks on one very significant starry night. The world of that generation was filled with hate and war and the people of the region were anxiously awaiting a warrior king to bring peace to their lives.

They received the Prince of Peace. The mystery of this miracle was that the Creator entered his creation wrapped in human flesh as a present to all mankind. The angel told the shepherds not to be afraid for he was announcing good news. And then a host of angels sang:

“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

As I walked this land in February, I couldn’t help but wonder why we still had not achieved that peace which was promised over two thousand years ago. As an adult, Jesus gave men a simple formula for peace—love God and love your neighbor. And He left mankind with a way of living through his teachings and model that can restore peace in the world.

People at the birth of Christ and people today expect him to save us from our enemies, but he came to deliver all of us from ourselves. And on that fateful night we were sent an ally to walk with us as we exercise our free will to do something actionable about the hate and darkness in this world we were given stewardship over. Darkness and hate were not eliminated that night in this field, but light and love were sent to checkmate them.

MAY THE PEACE OF CHRISTMAS ABIDE WITH YOU ALL THOUGH THE NEW YEAR!

NEW DAY BLESSING

Guiding Light, Paris, France

May our Creator bless you with Light, Love, Power and Presence to chase away the darkness and guide your path this new day.

SEED CORN & SCROLLS

Cave 4, Qumran, Israel

Seed Corn Pot, Mesa Verde, CO.

As I was standing in the bright desert sunshine at the northern end of the Dead Sea in Israel, the wind was rushing over the sandy outcroppings before me. They say that God is in the wind and as a boy growing up in the windy central Kansas plains I came to instinctively know this as well. Jesus mentioned that “God’s Spirit blows wherever it wishes. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going.” The sunshine was reflecting off the Dead Sea behind me as I gazed at the site of one of the most famous discoveries of the past century. I was within a stone’s throw of the cave (4) where all fifty two chapters of the ancient Old Testament Biblical book of Isaiah was discovered. Other caves in this desolate and difficult to reach region also contained many other scrolls of Biblical books along with other writings. They had been copied and later hidden in clay jars by an ascetic sect called the Essenes who had retreated from the broken world around them between the second century B.C.E. and the first century C.E., thus preserving some of the earliest copies of world famous writings. The occupying Romans conquered Qumran in 68 C.E in response to the great Jewish revolt of the time and dispersed the people.

My mind connected to a time many years ago when I was standing at the edge of a great canyon in Mesa Verde, Colorado and gazing in wonder at ancient cliff dwellings. The Anasazi Indians occupied these cliff dwellings as the wind circulated in a timeless Bernoulli effect through the canyon. They also lived in mountain caves and clay dwellings and occupied them between the sixth and fourteenth centuries. The Anasazi planted life giving corn on the “green tables” above them and retreated to the cliff dwellings for protection from the elements and warring tribes. Archaeologists speculate that a 24 year drought finally drove the people to abandon their community.

When we were walking the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings I noticed a display that was seared in my memory to this day. The archaeologists exploring the site had discovered a very important find. It was a large clay pot thrown and decorated in the ancient Pueblo Indian style. And it contained the most priceless treasure that the people possessed. The departing people had hidden a cache of seed corn for another season of planting. Agriculture societies must always set aside enough of the harvest to provide seeds for the next year’s life sustaining crop. Interestingly, the Essenes had accomplished the same objective by hiding these priceless scrolls in clay jars so that scholars could have the benefit of examining some of the earliest Biblical writings in existence 2,000 years later. The arid climates and caves had preserved both the seed corn and the scrolls for future generations. And once they had been exposed to the light, they both could germinate into new life!

A GREAT LIGHT

Christmas Sunrise, Kiawah, SC

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
On those living in a pitch-dark land, light has dawned.
-- Isaiah 9:2

OPPOSITES

Love, London, England

There’s an interesting comparison of how opposites relate in the physical world versus the emotional. Laws of thermodynamics show that cold is not only the opposite of hot, but actually the absence of it. Likewise, darkness is not only the opposite of light, but actually the absence of it. Hate is considered the opposite of love, but does not necessarily result as a consequence of its absence. However, if there is no love, a void exists and there is a better climate for the growth of hate in the environment. We understand that God is the essence of love and we were created in His image. His Son taught that there is one basic guideline to live a good life: to love God and others. As the world celebrates the life of Nelson Mandela, many are revisiting the legacy of his life and his words. Perhaps the following quote encapsulates why:

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background or his religion. People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite”.
--Nelson Mandela

THE GIFT OF GIVING

Anyway, Mother Teresa

The time was 1897, not all that long removed from the devastating War Between the States. It was a time when hope and faith were waning in this country as a minister’s son, Francis Church, was still reassembling his life as a war correspondent at the New York Sun newspaper. With the Christmas season on the horizon, his editor handed Francis a letter from a young eight year old girl named Virginia O’Hanlon questioning if there is a Santa Claus. His reply remains the most memorable in editorial history as Francis drew deep into the depths of his faith to find a suitable reply that resonates with people even today. He wrote that he exists “as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy…Ah Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding”.

We too can find the lasting joy in giving to make a difference in people’s lives. It’s a relative bargain compared to the money people spend on pursuing the fleeting happiness found in material things. And that’s the true power of giving—when the gift is given with love, generosity and devotion it is returned tenfold in the form of blessings of lasting joy and an enriched life. Jesus taught us in John 8:12 that He is the Light of the World and if we follow Him, we won’t have to walk in darkness, because we will have the ultimate gift of light that leads to life!

SLIP SLIDIN’

Warmth of Fire, Seagrove, NC

Isn’t it interesting how we human beings can establish a relationship with our creator and then backslide away from it? Even the ancient Israelites as a chosen nation drifted away from their creator God who withdrew His protection and they were ultimately invaded and carried away into slavery in a foreign land.

We can find warmth close to a blazing fire, but the further we walk away from the flames, the colder we become. Likewise, we can find abundant light close to a bright lamp, but the further we drift away from it the darker our world becomes. If we move into a garden of scented roses and honeysuckle, the sweet aroma fills the air all around us, but the further we amble away, the fainter the fragrance becomes.

So it would seem that we can develop a close relationship with our Heavenly Father as a son or daughter. But we have a nature that can cause us to drift away if we do not stay close to the source of our life. And we stay close by remaining in daily communication and plugging into the power source, so that our life remains firmly on track between the navigational stars on our circular trips around the sun.

GIVING BACK

Divine Light, Jamestown, NC

I lost my mother and then my wife in the span of six months five years ago. A person could be very bitter and angry after experiencing such a loss. But the love and outpouring of support my family received from our Jamestown church family sustained us, along with the Easter hope in Jesus’s resurrection that we will all meet again in a beautiful forever. It’s a belief that is reinforced every Sunday and one that I would like as many others as possible to know. I understand that we all share a common destiny, but the Bible has taught me that once we depart this mortal life, those who believe in Christ’s salvation and the unconditional love of our God need only look to the cross for affirmation of His promise for an eternal spiritual life in His presence. In the meantime, Jesus left us with three years of teachings on how to live our lives and a model of the God who created us in His image. He distilled all the commandments into five simple words; “Love God and love others”. As a body of Christ, we have lots of opportunities to learn about this and to do this every day of the year, as the Light of God’s grace is generally dispensed through other human beings like us these days.

Our commitment pledge cards enable all of us to stop for a moment and evaluate our giving, what it means, and how much it should be for the coming year. It gives our church leaders a much better picture of how we should plan our ministry for the coming year based on our members’ giving plans and not guesswork. Our financial commitment to God is both a reflection of our faith and a critical part of what makes it possible to shine Light into the dark corners of people’s hearts.

THREE HOURS OF DARKNESS

Both the gospels of Matthew and Luke record that the sun stopped shining and a total darkness came over the land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour prior to Jesus’ death on the cross. Then he cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He was echoing the words of King David in Psalm 22 who was also experiencing a painful separation from God and was vainly appealing to God for acceptance. Those three hours of darkness were a period of great duress when the gravity of all the sins of the world were being taken upon God himself to atone for them as the final blood sacrifice for all mankind. There is no scientific explanation for such a phenomenon. Science records, for instance, that the longest duration eclipse of the sun is seven and one half minutes.

The Jewish clock begins at sunrise, so this darkness descended right in the middle of the day when the sun is at its brightest overhead. Total daylight hours are divided by twelve to arrive at each Sha’ah Zemanit or proportional hour. Those three hours of darkness had to be both physical and spiritual. They were symbolic of the separation of the Son from the light of the Father who had been together for all time. And of course, the Prince of Darkness has long been associated with world sin. If you’ve ever experienced total darkness, such as exploring an underground cave, it will definitely get your attention! All the people in the land surely must have known that something very extraordinary was happening. Revelation informs us that in the ultimate new heaven and new earth there will be no need for a sun or moon, as God’s eternal light will always be present. That infers that those who have not chosen to be with God will spend eternity away from the presence of God in a state of total darkness. No one would wish that fate on anyone if they had experienced such a painful separation for those three hours.

We all have the ability to be the carriers of the light of God’s grace to assure that others will not suffer this terrible fate.

CARRIERS OF GRACE

Light Waves, Wrightsville Beach, NC

Breaking waves carry light beams of grace from the divine presence that wash over us and are absorbed in the muted stillness of time between each arrival.

Be the Wave

EMISSARIES OF LIGHT

Emitting Light into the Darkness, Chicago, IL

Throughout history we’ve all read about how a king has sent a trusted emissary on a mission that is critical to the survival of the kingdom. In my mind, I can picture one of King Arthur’s knights riding out the castle doors on a muscular white steed adorned with colorful silk fabrics and banners. This gallant knight has spent years training and working for just such an assignment as he ventures out into the harsh world to serve his king. His subsequent adventures turn out to be the stuff legends are made of in our lives.

The prophet Isaiah was just such an emissary to our creator who knew that the faith that is begun in darkness is grown in the Light. He related an Old Testament mission that the Lord had anointed him to proclaim: A Messiah was to bring renewal and release to people hurting materially and spiritually. He would bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim release and liberation for captives, provide comfort and joy to all who mourn and raise up hope for the discouraged. Jesus affirmed that mission in his words and actions throughout the New Testament. As He ascended into heaven after his resurrection, the King of the world left all disciples with the Great Commission to do likewise. We do this by being a light upon a hill. And by following Jesus’ teaching to spread that Light of Life out into the world our fellow journeymen will not walk in darkness, but walk along a straight path in the eternal Light of our Heavenly Father(John 8:12).