Afterwords -- a spring snow
March 12, 2023
Dear friends,
We awoke today with all our daffodils drooping with new fallen snow. It was not quite a Calvin and Hobbes kind of snow, but it was still pretty, though unexpected. Last week we had weather in the 60s and thought spring had arrived. Well, not so fast. In March, even April, the weather in our New River Valley can be temperamental.
We worshiped this morning with Blacksburg Chinese Church, our sister church here. I had been invited to speak and we enjoyed lunch afterwards with these precious brothers and sisters. I was blessed to learn, and sing (me in English), a worship song new to us, written by Grace Tseng: "I Will Offer You My Life."
I have always found gathering to worship with people from other cultures and languages to be very moving. Whether with the Yanomamo Indians of Amazonas, Venezuela, or the Builsa of north Ghana, it is a wonderful reminder that we all come together under the one true God, and exalt one Savior, the Lord Jesus. From Genesis to Revelation this has been God's plan:
"I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:3)
"And they sang a new song, saying, 'Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.'" (Revelation 5:9-10)
This will be a short newsletter, as I seem to have been busier than usual. But here are some recent articles I've been reading...
-- Retirees don’t miss working, they miss the people.
-- "Certainly, grace builds on nature, but we need to let nature be nature before we start building. We need to know what natural wisdom, justice, courage, temperance, and friendship are before we can know them as supernatural." (Anna Mathie, on the gospel according to J. R. R. Tolkien)
-- Where does science end and political theory begin?
-- What is the doctrine of "the illumination of the Spirit"?
-- "So welcome, my Christian friends, to the mishpocha, Hebrew for 'family.' We’re all on the outside now, but we’re outside together..." (Liel Leibovitz) Read "We're All Jews Now" here.
FINAL QUOTE. "I am not a 'democrat', if only because 'humility' and equality are spiritual principles corrupted by the attempt to mechanize and formalize them, with the result that we get not universal smallness and humility, but universal greatness and pride, till some Orc gets hold of a ring of power – and then we get and are getting slavery." (J. R. R. Tolkien, April 1956, The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 246)
That's it for this week!
Sandy
Image credit: drawing above is by Bill Watterson, creator of "Calvin and Hobbes" syndicated cartoon series. Below: "The Misty Mountains looking West from the Eyrie towards Goblin Gate," drawn by J.R.R. Tolkien and originally published in the first impression of The Hobbit. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
