The Ultimate Gift

December 25, 2024

The Ultimate Gift

Considering the name of my blog, it wouldn’t seem right to allow Christmas to pass without a word from me. After all, Jesus IS the ultimate gift. In the wee hours of Christmas morning, I’m feeling too exhausted to write, yet too wound up to remain silent.

From One Extreme to the Other

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, I was in bed recovering from my initial cervical spine surgery. It was the quietest Christmas that I ever recall. I watched enough Christmas movies to exceed my life’s quota all in one month! This year I felt like I couldn’t have possibly packed another thing into December. Thankfully there were precious celebrations of the season with friends and family to break up that lengthy list of tasks that come with preparing for Christmas.

Singing and Ringing

Music played a big role in making this a December to remember. It was an honor to play a beautiful Christmas medley with the handbell choir early in the month. The following week, my church presented a Christmas cantata for the first time since 2019. What a joy it was to sing in that again after the lengthy layoff!

Words are Powerful

The Christmas Eve service last night felt like the grand finale. I recently admitted that I do not pay a whole lot of attention to the words I’m singing. Songs in my digital library are generally there because I like the tune. And just when I admitted that publicly, the words in the choir music suddenly started jumping off the page. They have moved me to the point that I get too choked up to sing at times. It happened again last night when the choir sang a beautiful anthem titled “Behold Our God.”

To cap it off, my pastor delivered a powerful message that everyone needs to hear, using a ladder as a prop. We strive to be closer to God, to reach the top of the ladder. But life happens, and no matter how hard we try, we can’t earn our way to the top. Good news—God knew that from the start and had the perfect solution. His name is Jesus. Love came down to us at Christmas. There is no greater gift!

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Matthew 1:23 NIV

Merry Christmas!

Charter Oak Church
Christmas Cantata ’24

November 27, 2024

Rainbows

As I was driving to the pool one recent morning, I encountered a rainbow. What a great start to my day! It brought a smile to my face…and got me thinking.

The Weather Conditions

Rainbows are only visible in the sky when certain conditions align. They require the presence of water droplets and sunlight. Often, rainbows appear after rain, and sometimes that rain comes in the form of a storm. The sight of a rainbow can provide a sense of calm and comfort after the unsettling effects of thunder and lightning.

Rainbows in the Bible

Rainbows are mentioned at various places in the Bible and have spiritual significance. The first such appearance is in the very first book—Genesis. God uses a rainbow as a sign of His covenant with Noah after the flood.

“The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth. It will remind you that I will keep this promise forever. When I send clouds over the earth, and a rainbow appears in the sky, I will remember my promise to you and to all other living creatures. Never again will I let floodwaters destroy all life.

‭‭ Genesis‬ ‭9‬:‭12‬-‭15 CEV‬‬

A Glorious Display of His Splendor

A rainbow appears in the final book of the Bible too—Revelation. The Holy Spirit gave John a vision into the throne room of heaven. He describes God’s glory and power with these words:

“And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne.”

‭‭ Revelation‬ ‭4‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Can you picture that magnificent scene?

His Presence and Power on Display

From beginning to end, a rainbow is an important symbol of God’s presence and power in the Bible. To Noah, it was a reminder of God’s gifts of grace and mercy, a metaphor for faith.

My Personal Favorite

Throughout my life, I’ve witnessed many rainbows, but the most memorable one was photographed by my cousin after my father’s funeral. The photo was taken masterfully from behind my nephew’s headstone in the cemetery adjacent to the church where the service took place. The impact is in the details.

A Rainbow for the Broken Heart — Photo Credit: Karyn Murphy

A rainbow, in all its splendor, appears only against the backdrop of a gloomy, rain-filled sky or when the sun begins to pierce through the clouds. For me, a rainbow serves as a symbol of God’s steadfastness during turbulent times. It is in the storms of life that I most need reminded of His faithfulness.

God’s Perfect Timing

About that rainbow that I mentioned at the outset—I saw it just after the sunrise on November 6. The significance—it was the day after an incredibly contentious and divisive election. Why did I smile at the sight of it? Because it served as a reminder that regardless of who occupies the Oval Office, God remains sovereign. He is still on the throne! No matter how you voted, or even if you didn’t, may this assurance bring calm and comfort to your heart as well.

October 1, 2024

Numbers

I like numbers. No newsflash there. After all, I teach math. Numbers give me a greater understanding of so much.

Concerning Numbers

Thinking back 28+ years to the months leading up to my daughter’s birth, I remember meeting with the head neonatologist at Allegheny General to discuss her case in depth. It was all so overwhelming. All the medical terminology flew right over my head, but a few things stuck. Namely, the numbers!! I understood that much at least. Our baby girl had a 10% chance of surviving, unless she was born in the right place at the right time. I can assure you that we, along with our doctors, did everything in our power to make sure she WAS born in the right place at the right time, increasing her odds of survival to 50/50. Sometimes those numbers don’t tell the story that we want to hear, but, nonetheless, they do tell a story.

The Battle Continues

After months of battling a MRSA infection, I find myself searching for a number again. Please feel free to read my most recent blog posts if you need to catch up on that news.

Multiple infectious disease doctors have told me that once the infection reaches the bone/hardware, it is really hard to eliminate. They are all in agreement on that. If it does return, the doctors say that they will have to open my neck up yet again and remove the hardware. You can imagine how appealing that is after having had 3 cervical spine surgeries in 4 months.

The Million Dollar Question

My question—how hard is REALLY hard? Give me a number so I can better understand what I am up against! When I posed that question at my most recent infectious disease appointment, my doctor could not (or would not) give me a number. She only replied, “I don’t know.” So, I am left wondering. Are the numbers in my favor? If not, how badly are the odds stacked against me?

Achieving (Im)balance

While I have been left pondering this question, the Holy Spirit led me to a passage in the Bible about numbers to give me some much-needed perspective. For the complete story, check out Judges Chapter 7. I am going to limit my deeper dive here to the numbers. In this chapter, Gideon is leading an army of Israelites into battle against the Midianites.

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

Judges 7:2-3 (NIV)

Calculating

If you do the math, that means Gideon’s army started with 32,000 men and was quickly reduced to 10,000. That is nearly a 70% decrease! Why? Because God did not want the Israelites to take credit for their victory.

However, God was not yet finished…

But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

Judges 7:4 (NIV)

Outnumbered

Minus all the details, God pared Gideon’s army down to 300 men. For perspective, there were 135,000 men in the Midianite army. Whoa—talk about outnumbered! There is no way the Israelites can pull this off, right? That was God’s whole point. When they defeated the Midianites, God wanted them to be certain of why they were victorious. It was because He was fighting the battle for (and with) them! Ultimately, the battle was God’s. And you know…

With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”

Matthew 19:26 (KJV)

Instead of searching for a number to which I can cling, I would be better served by clinging to the all-powerful God of the universe. At the end of the day, the number is not very important. If you are in a battle where the numbers are not in your favor, remember this story about Gideon and find comfort in this truth.

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31 (NIV)

May 19, 2024

Unfair Trade

Have you ever been involved in an unfair trade? All trades are not even. As a child, I learned that lesson firsthand. I collected baseball cards as a kid. My cousins from New York did as well. I always looked forward to their summer visits and the opportunity to “play” with our collections.

An Uneven Trade

One particular trade we made stands out from the rest. My cousins offered me 100 cards for ONE of mine. That didn’t quite seem like a fair trade. I was shocked that they would propose such a trade as I clearly was getting the better end of that deal. After all, 100 > 1. How could I possibly turn that down?

The Trade of All Trades

Did you know that God makes some unfair trades? It’s true! In fact, He is the author of the most lopsided trade in history. God gave us something priceless, Jesus, in exchange for something worthless, our sin, to give us the right to become part of His family, His children. Why would He do that? Because of love!

Reaping the Benefits

That trade is a done deal; however, to become His child and experience the abundant life that comes with that position, God requires something of us. He simply asks us to receive Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin and to fully trust that He alone is the way of salvation. God offers salvation to anyone who will receive it from Him.

“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”

John 1:12 NLT

What a deal! And it was all made possible by an unfair trade.

Shortchanged

About that unfair trade I made with my cousins–it turns out that they were the ones who got the last laugh. I did get 100 cards in exchange for my one. The problem—that one card I traded away was Roberto Clemente! Ugh….