Angel of Light

Angel of light most beautiful,

Gloriously radiant,

But only by reflection,

Of the divine.

 

Mistaken in your belief,

The glory was your own.

Your aspiration,

The highest throne.

 

Fallen to earth,

Beauty retained,

But only as a façade

A diabolical deceit.

 

You roam the earthly sphere,

Whispering in our ears,

Sly and attractive

On the surface.

 

Judging by outward appearance,

We think we are safe.

Until the trap is sprung.

We see too late.

 

Spirit of the living God,

Whisper in my ear,

Give me discernment

To know Truth.

The Power of Words

During the non-stop coverage of the protests/riots at the capitol, I heard Norah O’Donnell talk quite piously about the “power of words.”  She was referencing the ways in which Trump’s comments have been incendiary and caused the uprising.  I find this ironic given the ways in which the media in general, and Norah herself, have contributed to the divisiveness of the past year.

Is Trump guilty of using words…lots of words in person and by tweets… to throw gas on fires?  Yes, he certainly is.  He has been very unwise in both quantity and quality of words.  He has said much that is irrational, and it has resonated with lunatic fringe who are eager to translate words into actions.

However…

The media shares in the guilt.  Trump has been so hated from the beginning that absolutely everything he has done has been dissected and criticized in a way I have not previously seen.  Please don’t try to tell me the same thing happened to Obama or Bush or that it will happen to Biden.  Many of Trump appointees were raked over the coals unmercifully without a chance to prove they could do the job.  In contrast, some of Biden’s appointments, although there are valid concerns, have barely been mentioned in the media.  Biden is on camera bragging about a quid pro quo, but Trump was impeached for suspicion of the same.

The worst is always assumed of Trump.  If the media doesn’t know what he is doing, they assume he is off golfing…i.e. loafing.  Recently when that was the accusation, he was in fact off visiting the troops in Afghanistan.  A president cannot publicize everything he does.

The media long ago stopped reporting the news and began editorializing.  Trump did not just “ say” something.  He “lied” about something.  Do they think we are incapable of making any judgments for ourselves?

This has become a vicious cycle of unwise comments from Trump, over reaction from the media, Trump lashing out, the media responding, Trump getting angrier and the media getting more hostile.  The situation has escalated because both sides have been unwise.  Trump has frequently behaved like a toddler throwing a tantrum.  The best approach to that situation is to ignore the toddler and go about one’s business.  Do not reward bad behavior with attention.  Award good behavior.  Is there nothing positive Trump has done that the media could have emphasized?  Actually, there is quite a bit.

There is currently an ad for CBS now running in which Norah’s voice is heard saying that the most important question is “why?”  She and the rest of the media ought to be doing some soul-searching regarding “why” we are in the current morass of hatred and confusion. 

Yes, Norah…words have power…and that includes your words.

We are facing destruction

I have never been very interested in politics…but the nature of man does interest me.  Here are some thoughts.

A dictatorship or monarchy would work well as a system of government, if the despot had a strong moral compass and was inclined to be compassionate.

Democracy works well when the people have a strong moral compass and are inclined to be compassionate.

Capitalism works well when the members of the society behave morally and are inclined to be benevolent and even philanthropic, if they acquire more than their fellowmen.

Socialism works well when the members of the society have a strong work ethic and are tolerant of not acquiring more than their fellowmen.

Here’s the pattern…no form of government or economic system is sustainable outside of a strong set of moral values, a robust work ethic, and an inclination to care about those around us.

And…that is why the United States is in trouble.

History revisionists have attempted to remove the Christian context in which our country was formed, but it was fact.  Our government has only lasted as long as it has because of its moral underpinnings.  That has changed in my lilfetime.  When I was young, even people who were not overtly Christian understood the value of Christian principles and of having moral absolutes.  This is no longer the case.  We are not only pluralistic, but also relativistic.  Almost anything can be rationalized as tolerance.  It has become more important to be “tolerant” than it is to be “moral.”

We are on the slippery slope to destruction.  It is not Trump’s fault, and it will not be Biden’s fault.  It is our fault as a society.

II Timothy 3:1-5 (Phillips translation)

But you must realize that in the last days the times will be full of danger.  Men will become utterly self-centered, greedy for money, full of big words.  They will be proud and contemptuous, without any regard for what their parents taught them.  They will be utterly lacking in gratitude, purity and normal human affections.  They will be men of unscrupulous speech and have no control of themselves.  They will be passionate and unprincipled, treacherous, self-willed and conceited, loving all the time what gives them pleasure instead of loving God.  They will maintain a façade of “religion,” but their conduct will deny its validity.

The nature of man is not basically good and moral.  We are desperately wicked and in need of a Savior.

And…there is a Savior!

I John 1:9 (KJV)  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Romans 10:9 (NIV) If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Without repentance, we are facing destruction both individually and as a nation.

Why Will You Die?

We are on the verge of 2021, and I hear so many people holding out high hopes for the coming year.  Everyone seems glad to be rid of 2020, as though there is something magical about the turn of the calendar page.  That is, of course, pretty shallow thinking.  The division of our days into years is arbitrary.  There is nothing innately special about the change from December 31 to January 1.  It’s just another rotation on our axis, another revolution around the sun which is a continuous circle beginning and ending at any point.

People are so hopeful that with the new year and the possibility of getting a vaccine against covid, the pandemic will be over.  This makes the assumption that this pandemic will not be followed by another.  Or that the virus will not mutate in a way that makes the vaccine ineffective.  I’m watching people on television standing in line for the vaccine so excited that now life will get back to “normal,” and they will no longer have to isolate from family and friends.  I hope this optimism is warranted, both for their sakes and my own. 

And then there is the hope of the stimulus money…if only congress will pass that bill that gives everyone $2000 instead of $600.  Where do you suppose this money is coming from?  If the government needs money, it just prints it.  Here comes inflation which produces even more hardship.

Those who are left-leaning politically are so sure that the Biden administration is going to solve the problems of our society.  If we can just get rid of Trump, all will be well.  The right-leaning element is, of course, sure that disaster looms.  We will lose our freedoms.

None…well, maybe a few…of our problems are Trump’s fault, but Biden is not our savior.  There is only one Savior.  It doesn’t matter who sits in the oval office, God is on the throne of the universe.  I do not pretend to know the mind of God or be able to predict the future, but I can’t imagine how much longer He will tolerate the flaunting of His guidelines.

In spite of the crises we have faced, I do not see people in droves realizing the need to repent of their wicked ways and give God His rightful place in their hearts and in our society.  The threat of annihilation has been wasted on us.  That being the case, perhaps actual annihilation is coming. 

Here I am dressed (figuratively) in sackcloth holding a sign “Repent for the end is near.”  Perhaps this is influenced by my recent Bible reading in Ezekiel.  Last night I read, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.  Turn! Turn from your evil ways!  Why will you die…?”

I want the New Year to be a happy one.

I want us to be able to see one another’s faces without masks.

I want to travel to see my grandchildren.

I want hospitals to return to “busy” and leave “frantic” behind.

We all want “normal,” but what does that mean?

Are these things possible in a society that accepts immorality…promotes immorality…praises immorality…a society in which immorality has become the “norm?”

Wednesday, December 23, 1998.

December 23^rd fell on a Wednesday in 1998.  I remember the day vividly, because it was the day my mother left us and went to be with Jesus.

My sweet and beautiful mother had a series of health issues that year.  She and my Dad had lived with us for a few days during the ice storm at the beginning of the year, as they were without electricity and heat.  During that time, she passed out repeatedly due to irregular heartbeat.  As soon as the hospital was off generator power and again functioning normally, she had a pacemaker inserted.  But her troubles continued.  In June she had a heart attack and in July she had a stroke…a massive stroke.  Rather than put her in a nursing home, we cleared out our dining room and put in a hospital bed for her and a twin bed for my Dad.  And there she was as Christmas approached, unable to do anything for herself, and with a leg that was becoming increasingly black with gangrene due to terrible circulation.

Hospice came in daily for an hour to help with her care.  A few days before Christmas, they gave us an aide for an entire day so I could finish my Christmas shopping.  At the time, my first three grandchildren were very young, and I was trying to figure out how I could celebrate Christmas with them when my Mother was dying in the adjacent room.

The morning of December 23^rd was a gray and gloomy day.  There was no snow on the ground, and it was looking like it would not be a white Christmas.  Inside, things were as cheery as possible.  The tree in the living room was positioned so that my Mom could see it from her bed in the dining room.  The gifts were wrapped and under the tree.  The dining room table was in a small sitting room between the living room and kitchen, so I would be able to serve a family meal.  I had made a special gift for my Mom.  Since she always wore hospital gowns, I had made two of them out of lovely soft fabric and trimmed them with lace.  I had previously made a small green fleece blanket with reindeer on it to cover her.

The Hospice aide arrived and began to bathe Mom.  As a nurse, this is a job I could have and sometimes did, but having someone else do it, freed me up for other necessary things.  I was at the time home-schooling our son, who had just had his 12^th birthday, so I had a lot on my plate.  I was in the room and helping the Hospice aide turn Mom on her side, so her back could be washed and massaged.  I saw the color drain from Mom’s face, and I knew she was going.  My Dad was sitting at a card table working on his Christmas cards, so I called to him, “Dad, she’s going.”  He, trying to be strong, responded gruffly that she was already gone.

It was late morning.  I called my husband and suggested that he take our son to Rotary with him at noon.  I didn’t want our son to see his beloved grandmother removed from our home in a body bag.  I called other family members who needed to know.  A Hospice nurse arrived to actually pronounce her deceased and help in the disposal of medications and other necessary matters.

The undertaker came.  Instead of the stiff black plastic body bag I expected, he had a soft blue corduroy bag.  Blue was my Mom’s favorite color and seeing her wrapped in something that looked lovely was comforting to me.  As they carried her body down the steps, I realized it had started to snow…big, soft, beautiful flakes of snow were drifting down.  It was going to be a white Christmas after all.

We had a typical Christmas with family, and the memorial service for my Mom was held on the weekend.  The timing turned out perfectly.  My Dad handled the loss well through the holidays.  The weight of the loss didn’t settle in until later.  I was unable to grieve at first.  Initially, all I could feel was relief that my Mom was no longer suffering.  It was months later that I could grieve the loss of the person she had been before that last year of pain and difficulty.

Many times in the past 22 years, I have found myself thinking “Oh, I should tell Mom about that!”  or “I wonder what Mom would say about this situation.”  She was beautiful, kind, intelligent, sometimes funny, always wise, and not afraid to do what was right even when it wasn’t convenient.  In a quiet and gentle way, she was a force to be reckoned with.  I look forward to seeing her again in heaven someday.  We will have lots to talk about!

Incineration

Made from the dust

And to ashes returned,

All transpiring in between

Destined to be burned.

 

The glory of His presence

An all-consuming fire,

He burns away the dross

On a refining pyre.

 

All that is material

Drifting as a cloud

Leaves behind a pile of ash

Underneath death’s shroud.

 

And what becomes of all we’ve done,

Of wood, hay, and stubble?

Will there be anything to show,

For all our earthly trouble?

 

How can I stand before Him?

How could I be so bold?

Unless the blood and the fire

Refine me there to gold.

Christmas Cookies

I love to bake, and I especially like to bake Christmas cookies!

When we moved to the retirement community, I must have told myself I wouldn’t be doing as much baking, because I don’t seem to have my cookie press or the cake pan that can be used to make that adorable manger scene.  If I did bring them with me, I have no idea as to their whereabouts.  But that’s okay, because there aren’t any children around to enjoy the edible manger scene, and there are still so many cookies I can make.

There are some deterrents.  I have essential tremor and sometimes a cup or spoonful of an ingredient ends up on the countertop instead of in the mixing bowl.  I have back pain if I stand up working for more than about 45 minutes, so I have to take breaks and sit down.   But on the other side of the argument is this irresistible urge to bake cookies….lots of cookies.

I should not be eating these cookies.  All that sugar isn’t good for me, and now there is that darn A1C test, which measures the average glucose level over the past 3 months.  I’m due for that in February, so the 3 month period does include Christmas cookie season.  It is my intent to give most of these cookies away…but…many of the old folks here that I plan to give them to probably shouldn’t eat too many either.  My husband just succumbed to his fourth warm-out-of-the-oven cookie from the current batch.  He used to run so regularly that it didn’t matter, but he is slowing down, and his waist is expanding.

At this point, I have baked sugar cookie cutouts, date bars, snickerdoodles and white chocolate-cranberry cookies.  I am planning on peanut blossoms, cherry blossoms, Christmas jewels and brownies with mint M&Ms mixed in the batter.  Eight different kinds should satisfy me, but my head is spinning with cookies from Christmases past.  What about rosettes, spritz, gingerbread, thumbprints, coconut orange tartlets, bon bons, fudge melt-aways, Russian teacakes, lemon bars, molasses crinkles???  What about all the kinds I haven’t tried for which I have recipes clipped out of magazines or printed from the internet?

I guess I could blame this on having a degree in chemistry, because there are similarities between chemistry and baking, but it’s more likely that this is all my Mother’s fault.  I have been conditioned since childhood!

I loved my Mother's cookies and so did many other people, including Santa.