come on home - your room is ready and waiting

I have been pondering the wisdom of sheepiness as it relates to Jesus in my life. Jesus says,

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” John 10:14

I’ve heard many times how we humans are sheep, when this verse is read. Not having ever really known sheep, or even met one, it’s hard to see the significance of this first-hand. But did you notice - Jesus is comparing shepherds to the Father. And therefore, he’s comparing sheep to children. Now that I can understand.
Many of us have heard the parable of the lost sheep, one of a hundred in the flock - how the shepherd will leave the 99 and go out and search for the one until he finds it, and brings it home (Luke 15:3-7). I remember all the times I’ve seen distraught parents appealing to the public for help finding their lost child. It’s a common theme in movies and novels but finds its most distressing depiction in real life. From time to time, we hear of a parent who continues to search for the lost child many years later, still hoping, still believing that the child will be found and returned home. I’ve often wondered how they can go on, never giving up, still holding that space in their hearts and lives for the lost child.
Thinking about Jesus in this context, I begin to see that his loved is just like that. He never gives up on us, no matter how far we wander. He continues to call us home to his loving arms, even to the end of life. I knew a man once who, when I visited him at his deathbed, confessed that he had heard God calling to him all his life, but never answered. Now that he was dying, he regretted that and wished he could answer. He cried out to me that he wanted to go to heaven, but he thought that it would be a “cop-out”, at the last moment, to give his life over to the Lord after many years of ignoring Him and living a sinful and unredeemed life. Thank God! I was able to reassure him that it’s never too late to answer the call of the Spirit in our livcs. And I’m certain that as we prayed together, all the angels in heaven rejoiced over this one lost sheep,
who was found and returned to the fold.
Jesus is truly the lover of our souls. To paraphrase an old saying, He will search for you until you find him. Don’t be shy - answer him. And never think that God, loving Parent, will not want you to come home again. He has kept your room ready, and is standing at the door watching for you even now. Come home!

making a space for change

The winter is passing, and spring will soon be here. The garden is waiting for the warmth of the spring sunshine to reawaken it and start bringing life back into the dormant plants. Spring is the time for change: moving, removing, sometimes a wholesale redesign of the garden plan. Sounds like a lot of work!
I think of myself, and my own internal garden. Change and growth are hard. Much more so, a complete remake of my life and purpose. We do not often undertake such a project unless forced to - but when force is applied, one must move.
As I reluctantly considered the amount of work involved in making a substantial change, lazybones that I am, I remembered the humble caterpillar, who undergoes a complete and radical change in becoming a butterfly. It occurred to me that the butterfly does no work; it just appears. Where, then, does the hard work take place? It’s the caterpillar who provides all the effort and resources, in building the cocoon.
And what is a cocoon? Merely a space for change to occur. This is the secret I discovered in this meditation. The worm works hard to create the cocoon - the space for change. Once it’s done, the worm rests, and change happens on its own. It’s built in. And the butterfly emerges when it’s time.
In order to effect change, I must first make room for that change to occur. Now, where did I put my spinning silk? ...

let go and wait to see what comes next ...

It’s autumn, and the chilly mornings are followed by warm sunny afternoons in the Garden. The trees are starting to change colour, and God’s world is revealing new beauties. “The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let go” (author unknown). It occurs to me that this is the logical follow-up to a summer (or life stage) of growth and fruit. There is an ending, and there is a beginning. The autumn leaves fall from the trees, and the new leaf buds can form, then open in the spring.
However, there are some trees that do not let their dead leaves fall. They hang there, ragged and dry and brown, all winter. When the spring arrives, the old leaves are forced off the branches by the swelling buds. I don’t really want to be like that - I want to eagerly let go of those things whose time is past, and wait through the winter, getting ready in hidden ways until the spring should burst forth on the earth and in me. Then it will be revealed what God has wrought through the quiet, seemingly dead time under a blanket of snow, through storms, wind and rain.
God will surprise me with what is contained in my new beginning, in my new season, and it will be GOOD!

what's in YOUR investment portfolio?

I was asked a simple question the other day: What's the fruit of an apple tree? Apples, I said, with great assurance. To my surprise, that was not the answer! The fruit of an apple tree is more apple trees! The apples are only the means to the end.

I remembered the Parable of the Talents, as told in Matthew chapter 25. The man expected multiplication of his money from those he entrusted with it, not just safety. The one who merely protected the money had it taken from him and given to the one who made the greatest profit. This story, along with the apple tree question, opened up to me a whole new way of thinking about life, about ministry, about spiritual growth: I call it God's investment plan.

So what is God's way of investing? What is the fruit of Laurie? God has given me talents - skills and areas I'm gifted in, both spiritually and naturally. At work, I teach others to use their software at a more advanced level, and seek to make more skilled users like myself. I seek to multiply myself and my skills in them. It should be the same in my spiritual life: make others like me - at least, like me in certain ways. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, and he has called all of his disciples to "go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (the Great Commission, Matthew 28:19).

I am a disciple, and my fruit is therefore more disciples. How do I do this? By investing myself in others. As God puts coins of discipleship into my hands, so I invest them into others and they increase in discipleship too. God receives a return on his investment - and so do I! It seems simple and obvious now I've realized this, but sometimes the most important things are hidden to us until a simple key thought unlocks the full meaning and we see with new understanding.

So I ask, What is in YOUR investment portfolio? How will you also multiply yourself to bring God a return on the investment God has made in your life? A final thought that may help: Ecclesiastes 11:1 is something very familiar to many of us. "Cast your bread upon the waters, for you shall find it after many days [and much more with it]."

the goldilocks workout plan

This gorgeous Southern Ontario spring morning is warming up the soil and coaxing new life out of the chilled earth. As I cleared away the detritus of winter, I saw the green spears of tulips, tipped with red, emerging for the first time - I planted them last fall and have waited eagerly all winter to see them come up. I love tulips! And now they are three feet tall and topped with glorious red and white blooms. These ones are extra special: they are the new "Canada 150" Maple Leaf tulips bred in Holland for this year's sesquicentennial.

As I work in the garden I start a little conversation with my Vinedresser. It goes something like this:
Me: I love being in the garden with You. It's so peaceful out here. I want to learn to talk with you. To be able to tell You the deeper things in my heart. But I don't always know what to say.
The Vinedresser: That's ok - just go ahead. I'm listening ...
Me:  You know how much I want to have fruit. How much I want to DO something that will give back to you some return for spending so much love and care on me.
The Vinedresser: I know that. Be patient. You're doing fine! [Just then a freight train rumbles by on the far edge of the fields. I look up at it as the Vinedresser speaks into my heart...] But don't try to pull too heavy a load.
Me: [thinking ...] You know that's a difficult one for me. I always seem to get it wrong - take on too much, and run into trouble. [I think of the old story of the frog in the slowly-warming pot of water on the stove.] How shall I know when it's too heavy a load?
The Vinedresser: [smiling] If it feels good when you stop to take a rest, you'll know you have the right load.

I mull this over and it's clear to me right away just how much wisdom there is in that. It's like working out at the gym: Too much weight, or too many reps, and we get hurt or are stiff for days. If the load is too little, we don't even feel we need a rest: There's no real challenge, and we don't build strength or endurance. But when the load is just right, enough to give us a good workout, but not enough to break us down, we feel good - even exhilarated - tired and sweaty but invigorated.

Master Gardener, let me be like Goldilocks in finding the load that's "just right". Continue Your work building up in me the right sort of strength to do what I was created for, to fulfill Your purpose and bring You glory. Amen.

the camino - first century style

Imagine yourself in Bethany. It is summer, late 0020's of the First Century of this Common Era, and John is baptizing people and calling them to repentance, preparing the way for the Messiah. Imagine the scene and the conversation. Jesus, who has just been revealed as the Son of God during his baptism by John, begins to seek out those who will be his disciples - and the story goes like this (from the Gospel of John, chapters 1 & 2):

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galillee. He found Phillip.

Jesus: Follow me.

Phillip: Uh - what? Me? Where are we going? 

Jesus: There's a wedding in Cana and I want you to come along.

P: Cana! But that's 2 days' journey! We'll have to walk. And I have only just met you, Rabbi.

J: That's ok - we'll talk along the way. 

Can you imagine the long hours of walking with Jesus and his new band of disciples, talking, reflecting; stopping for a drink or a meal or to rest in the first bit of shade on the route in hours; finding a place to spend the night? Sounds very much like the renowned Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Now, in the 21st Century, I am on my own Camino with Jesus, my Rabbi, my Teacher, my Lord. He has chosen me as one of his disciples and he is teaching me how to be more like him as we travel together to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9). As I follow him and we journey together, we talk along the way, stop for refreshment and rest in the shade side by side when the sun gets too hot in the early afternoon. I invite you to come along: he wants you too, on this journey of a lifetime. There's always room for another, and the conversation is like no other!

made in the image of God

Genesis 1:27 is a familiar passage to many:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

It's familiar, but do we actually think about what it means to us today? Do we take it for granted, give it lip service, gloss over it? What about Ephesians 4:24:

... and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

What does this mean? We have not seen God, and we are mere humans: How can we be the image of God? A quotation from the writings of St. Athanasius of Alexandrea (4th century AD/CE) offers us an answer:We were made "in the likeness of God". But in course of time that image has become obscured, like a face on a very old portrait, dimmed with dust and dirt. When a portrait is spoiled, the only way to renew it is for the Subject to come back to the studio and sit for the artist all over again. That is shy Christ came - to make it possible for the divine image in man to be recreated. We were made in God's likeness; we are remade in the likeness of his Son. To bring about this re-creation, Christ still comes to men and Lives among them. In a special way he comes to his Church, his "body", to show us what the "image of God" is really like. As posted at http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/152.html, viewed May 2 2017

How can I present the image of God to the world? How can others see Him, not me? Keith Green's song "No Compromise" inspires me and challenges me to allow God to work in me to accomplish just such a miracle in my life:

I want to live, and let you live / Your life in me, that they might see ... 

(click here to listen:  https://youtu.be/GC2vvncga4U)

P.S. Athanasius is my hero! If not for his valiant and long-suffering championship, the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ would have yielded to Arianism, the belief that Christ Jesus was merely "a god".