Shade Tree Wisdom 1/20/08

We had rain again Friday night and my morning newspaper was double bagged again. That’s twice in three days. I can’t figure it out. I didn’t think our Christmas tip was quite that generous, or is the price of the paper about to go up? Anyway, it’s chilly today, and the old truth my father used to intone on such mornings, “When the days begin to lengthen, the cold begins to strengthen” seems to hold true.

Well, it’s true in Green Bay, Wisconsin anyhow. They are playing a football game in the elements and the temperature will be around zero. The grass on Lambeau Field was grown in New Jersey, and the field is heated by underground pipes. I, meanwhile, will be warm in our Texas home, probably doing some reading of the Bible and maybe watching a minute or two.

But this Bible reminds me of a truth we easily forget. “I am a stranger in the earth, how I need a map.” “Friends,” said St. Peter, “this world is not your home, so don’t make yourself cozy in it” 1 Peter 2,11. And St. Paul calls us Christians “Ambassadors for Christ” 2 Corinthians 5,20. As such, we represent someone else. But the Ambassador lives away from his home. He lives in a distant country to represent his King. The picture is that of one who is “stranger and foreigner’ here, and really has a different home altogether. And you have a message. The truth. That’s why Paul warns in Colossians, “8 Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Christ. 9 Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. “ Col. 2, 8.9. MSG

Now, God’s sun is shining, and it is warming up. So I shall end this with a word from David, Psalm 37,25. ”I was young, and now am old, but never have I seen the righteous forsaken, or His children begging for bread”. What a word of peace.

GPD 1/20/08