EDELWEISS

 

Did the title make you think back half a century to a sweet little song in the hit musical, "The Sound of Music"? I admit that the lullaby-like "Edelweiss" was one of my favorites, along with the Do-Re-Me song through which star "Maria" (Julie Andrews) taught her charges how to sing.  And I have something in my jewelry box to remember it: a real edelweiss on a necklace from Switzerland, homeland of my maternal aunt's husband. It's how I remember my Aunt Agnes, who spent much of her life teaching in Panama,  and where she and Uncle Willy met and married--both employees of a banana plantation.

But what of the edelweiss? Yes, it's a mountain flower that belongs to the daisy or sunflower family. But it prefers thin, cool air: rocky limestone places at about 5,900-9,800-feet altitude. Yes, high, rugged places. It blooms only between July and September. The hardy people who lived in the Alps and Carpathian mountains used it for traditional medicines to treat abdominal and respiratory diseases. But they had to search hard for it. It was scarce and short-lived. It eventually became a national symbol of those mountain countries, which of course included Austria, the setting for “The Sound of Music.” Embroidered likenesses of the flower decorated many military badges—thus the veiled message behind the film's Austrian military leader (“Captain Von Trapp”) who sang the song with his musical family before a daring escape from the Nazis.

Oh yes, it's associated with royal love. In 1856 the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph and his wife, Empress Elisabeth, went on a high mountain hike. He picked an edelweiss from a steep rock just for her. In 1865 the empress posed for a portrait with diamond jewelry depicting edelweiss in her hair.

I also think about this flower when I read a favorite old book, Hannah Hurnard's “Hind's Feet on High Places,” a classic fictional “journey” about growing in the Christian walk. Set in Switzerland, it draws lessons from the gorgeous scenery and scary aspects of alpine living. The author described “pure white flowers through whose half-transparent petals the sun shone, turning them to burning whiteness. In the heart of each flower was a crown of pure gold” (Tyndale/Living Books edition, paperback, p. 191). She didn't use the name “edelweiss” but the description fit. The author likened the flowers to heaven's “cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 12:1. She also wrote that such alpine flowers "speak of the beautiful loving-kindnesses and tender mercies which [God} wants to shower on others through us" (p. 287).

About the time I was writing this blog, I heard from my nephew David, who enjoys metal crafting with around-the-shop things like nuts. He sent a photo of a metal flower he'd created for a family member. I remarked that if he'd done it in white and yellow, it would have some resemblance to an edelweiss. A few weeks later, here came one as a gift! I'm keeping it on my desk as a reminder that when I go through life's exhausting climb to eternity, it's the high places, where the going is tough (and the most beautiful blossoms of hope and trust grow), that bring me closer to sensing God's presence.

It's a truth I encounter often in scriptures. I'm to be rooted in Christ Jesus (Col. 2:7), depending on Him instead of my inadequate coping skills. Enduring hardship (like those alpine flowers enduring storms and thin soil) is part of following Christ (2 Tim. 4:5). And in the end, perseverance in trials will have its reward: the "crown of life that God has promised to those who love him" (James 1:7). That's the best analogy for these hardy, crown-like blooms.

Some years ago, someone wrote hymn words to the Edelweiss tune. I really liked them, and wrote them down in my devotional journal. The same for a spiritual adaptation of the "Do-re-me" song from that film. But I have learned I cannot share them in print because of copyright rules with heavy penalties.(1) Sorry. But someday, when Heaven voids all those man-made copyright rules, maybe they'll be among the praise songs we sing with robust voices, around the throne of God. “Sing a new song unto the Lord” we're told in various scriptures.* I can hardly wait.

*Psalms 33:3, 96:1, 98:1, 144.9, Isaiah 42:10.

1. Here is a discussion of the tune infringement: Discipleship Ministries | “Edelweiss” - A Song We Love But Must Not… (umcdiscipleship.org)

Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm119:1-56: Walking, stumbling

Headlines about our Central Washington firestorms became personal with a phone call the morning of July 18. Made from a borrowed phone, the call came from a family friend who said, “The fire took my home.” About 11 p.m. the previous night, a neighbor roused him with frantic knocking and the warning that flames were close to their little rural neighborhood. He escaped with his truck and the clothes he hurriedly put on. A bachelor in his early seventies, the only child of parents long dead, he turned to us in this devastating event that destroyed the simple home he’d built himself in a rural area.

What was left of our friend's home.

What would you do if you were numb with unexpected, incomprehensible loss?  At the time I’m writing this, more than 300 homes about an hour’s drive north sit in ashes from this monster wildfire. Their owners never imagined that such devastation would come their way. And never did I expect my study of Psalm 119 to resound so strongly with these circumstances:
My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. (119:28)
Found in the psalm’s fourth stanza (verses 25-32), built on the Hebrew letter “Daleth,” it’s part of the picture of someone who’s down-down-down. The stanza begins, “I am laid low in the dust,” which in the original Hebrew speaks of “cleaving to the dust,” or, as we might say, “eating the dust.” He is flat-out humbled and sorrowful. But he doesn’t stay face down in utter despair. He asks God to renew him, teach him, help him understand, strengthen him, and keep him from “deceitful ways.” He wants to rise out of this. In amazing contrast to the dust-biting stance of the stanza’s first verse, he concludes:
I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free. (119:32)
The word translated “run” reminds us that the Christian life is not a reluctant walk, but a race, as Hebrews 12:1 says: “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Even when life throws us against the wall (like marathon runners experience when they think they can’t keep going), God says, “Keep going, I am with you.”

Some truths from other stanzas of Psalm 119:

1. Aleph (1-8): Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! (v. 5). Against such yearning stand quotes like this by Robert Murray McCheyne, passionate missionary to native Americans in the early 1800s, who died before he reached 30: “According to your holiness, so shall be your success. A holy man is an awesome weapon in the hands of God.”

2. Beth (9-16): How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you (vv. 9-11). One mark of youth culture is conformity to “do what everybody else does.” Today, that includes the shallow values of electronic social media, and the false idea that the number of Facebook “friends” you have reveals your personal worth. Instead, we need what this verse says and fresh reminders of how it worked out in the lives of spiritual giants of the past. We have the legacy of people like Jim Elliot, martyred in the 1950s alongside an Ecuadorian river. His biography, Shadow of the Almighty, prepared by his widow, is a classic insight of an all-out faith that included commitment to scripture memory.

 

3. Gimel (17-24): Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law (v. 18).  The apostle Paul expressed a similar yearning: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (Ephesians 1:17, and though I won’t quote the rest, verses 18-23 complete this amazing prayer for spiritual insight). 

4. Daleth (25-32): Already covered, above. I would also add the Lord Jesus’ encouraging word to Paul in the midst of his trials: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

5. He (33-40): Turn my eyes away from worthless things; renew my life according to your word (v. 37). The psalmist wants to keep faithful to the end (v. 1) and he wants his heart and mind filled with things of eternal significance. The phrase “worthless things” (translated “vanity” in older versions) is from a word that also refers to useless or desolating things.  I have “TV” written in the margin of my Bible, and that could include other fluffy electronic and internet entertainment. Along those lines, the apostle James decried those who had a little Bible knowledge but didn’t act on it to change their lives (James 1:22).

6. Waw (41-48): I will speak of your statutes before king and will not be put to shame (v. 46). I’ve heard the term “Arctic River Christians,” explained as those “frozen at the mouth” in sharing their faith. That wasn’t true of Paul: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” (Romans 1:16). For historical proof of that, go to Acts 24-26, where he laid out the Gospel before the enthroned Festus and Agrippa.

7. Zayin (49-56): Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge (v. 54). Paul, along with Silas, illustrated this remarkably as they sat in a filthy Philippian jail after their arrests and severe beatings: “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25). The rest of the story was an earthquake and the conversion of the Philippian jailer.  When we lift up the Lord in negative circumstances, people take note.

Next: stanzas 8-14.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 21

PORTRAIT GALLERY
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” –Hebrews 12:1

Most of us like to display family photos on a shelf or our home’s walls. But for a real “portrait gallery,” we need to go back a few hundred years to the palatial manors of aristocrats. They had entire halls lined with larger-than-life formal portraits of family members. In England in the 1700s, many such portraits came from the brushes of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was especially skilled at making unattractive clients look good, despite the grotesque hats, bonnets, and wigs they wore for sittings. Asked how he endured painting such ugliness, he replied, “They all have light and shadow.”

There’s also “light and shadow” in the Bible’s portrait hall, located in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Instead of paints, sin and redemption provide the contrasts of dark and light. Abel is there for his “better sacrifice,” Enoch for pleasing God, Noah for ark-building, and Abraham for trusting God in many moves and for a miracle son. Then come the Jewish patriarchs; Moses, chosen to lead the Exodus; the prostitute Rahab, who in faith hid the Israelite spies; and various judges and kings.The list ends with unnamed people who endured homelessness and cruel methods of persecution, torture, and execution. That left many with bodies we’d consider ugly. But God saw them as beautiful. He honored them by saying “the world was not worthy of them” (Heb. 11:38).

A few verses later, these devout and persecuted believers are called a “great cloud of witnesses” surrounding us (Heb. 12:1). The next verses urge us to live for Christ with the same focus as runners in a race. Some have taken this passage to mean that the “cloud of witnesses” (deceased believers) occupy a celestial grandstand, from which they cheer those on earth still running life’s race. That interpretation prompts some people to say, “Dad’s looking down on me from Heaven,” or “I think Grandma knows that I turned out okay.” But there is no Biblical evidence that saints in Heaven see our ongoing lives on earth. We can only be sure of this: “There is more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7). When people turn to God, that news gets through to Heaven.

Instead, the “cloud of witnesses” represents those whose faith and endurance set for us a high standard for living. We have their biographies and testimonies as inspiration to keep running the race. And we’re reminded who inspired them: “Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). Jesus voluntarily put aside His original glory as God’s Son, lived simply on earth to teach people about God, and submitted to an excruciating death—all in the eternal plan of God the Father. Because of that, someday we will be able to mingle with the vast Heavenly “great cloud of witnesses.”

Who knows what famous and unknown people you’ll see in Heaven? Aristocracy will mean nothing in Heaven. Heaven is based on holiness, not wealth. If they believed in Jesus, the professor will be there by the pauper, the legless beggar by the legislator, the historical figure by the housekeeper. Earth’s methods of preserving human likeness—line drawings, grand portraits, photographs—won’t be necessary. If we didn’t know them before, we’ll get to know them in Heaven.

A local newspaper gave front-page coverage to the funeral service for a community leader and vibrant Christian who died in an auto accident. The photo with the story showed her husband standing before a large photo of her, his hands raised in praise as the mourners sang a Gospel chorus affirming her faith in Jesus Christ. “Farewell to a faithful friend,” said the headline. But the rest of the story is this: someday there will be “Hello to a faithful friend.” In time, her Christ-believing friends (including those she led to faith in Christ) will join her in the halls of Heaven. She will no longer be a memory or a photo, but eternally alive. And that’s just a start. The grand halls of Heaven won’t have portraits, but this: “thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” plus all those “whose names are written in Heaven” (Heb. 12:22-23a). Imagine the size of it!

Even more, imagine the vibrancy in their countenances that even the best artist or photographer on earth couldn’t convey. There will be more than “light and shadow.” The joy of Heaven will dance off their faces, reflecting their thrill of roaming Heaven’s halls and of seeing God, the greatest Artist of all.

Prayer: Almighty God, I look forward to meeting the wonderful people in your Heavenly portrait gallery. Amen.

Winners and losers

I don’t remember this shirt, I said to myself as I hung up the wash the other day. My husband likes to shop for his own clothes, especially at clearance racks or thrift stores, so sometimes surprises show up. You’d think I would have noticed him wearing it, although he does have a lot of gray logo shirts. But this one was philosophical: “Winners train, losers complain.”

Immediately I thought of Paul’s counsel to his spiritual son Timothy: “Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7b-8). Some may have grown up with this translation choice: “exercise thyself rather into godliness.” The original text uses a Greek word, gumnazo, referring to the early Greek exercise or games in which participants wore their “birthday suits” (gumnos=naked). Try NOT to think of that next time you go by a modern gym!

Perhaps another way of saying this could be: “Get down to nothing between you and God. Strip away all pretense, all excuses, all fears, all whininess, all doubts, all barriers. Seek after the prize that God has for you and for you alone.” Hebrews 12:1 says similar things: “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

The respected Bible teacher William McDonald remarked that the weights represent sin in any form, but especially the sin of unbelief. Instead, we need complete trust in God’s promises and complete confidence that the life of faith will emerge victorious. The race isn’t an easy sprint, he said, and neither is the Christian life of faith. But God calls us to press on with perseverance through our trials and temptations to grow into all He intends us to be and have. (Believer’s Bible Commentary, Nelson, 1995, p. 2202).

In other words, winners train, losers complain.