Blessed Like One Snowflake

 Numbers 6:24 “The LORD said to Moses, Tell Aaron and his sons, ’This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:

 “The Lord bless you

  and keep you.”

 I am watching a snowflake reach its final resting place.

 Against the silver-gray January sky, I watch the snowflake complete the final part of its long silent journey. Multitudes of snowflakes fall, but none touches this one on their downward descent. As if God molded it, held it, released it to gravity’s pull. Alone but not alone. Finally, it lands, not with a thud, but like a small child gently laid onto a bed, barely making a dent. Kept safe all the way.

 Imagine God molding you, releasing you, watching you, floating like a feather on the quietest of breezes, falling toward your most gentle of landings into the waiting arms of the saints.

 “May the Lord bless you and keep you.”

 One snowflake floating home.

 

Your Land is My Land

 Leviticus 25:23  “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.”

 God instructed the Israelites about how they were to treat the Promised Land which God was giving them. (Lev. 25:1ff.)  The highlight was the Year of Jubilee. God declared that after every 49 years, the 50^th year brought liberty, redemption, and release for both the land and the people.

 People could possess land temporarily; they could never claim permanent ownership. Everyone was always, in essence, a guest, residing by grace on God’s land.

 When we think about the Creation over which we are supposed to be stewards, how would our usage change if we viewed ourselves as God’s guests? Would we not want to return it back to God as we received it, minus normal wear and tear?

 Not all ‘land’ is the same as the Promised Land provided for Israel. But all land was created by the finger of God.

 Might this be God’s message to us today: treat the land which God give us to live, work, and play upon as if the God who holds it in his hand is returning.

And Then the Birds Vanished

 Leviticus 16:22 “The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.”

John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

 In the first light of the morning, I saw the flock of gray birds enjoying the thorn tree’s winter berries prepared for them by God.

 Israel was assured on a regular basis that their sins were taken away, out of the sight and memory of God as the priest ceremonially places his hands on the scapegoat’s head, confesses the sins of all the people, and then gives the goat to someone who releases the goat and their sins in the wilderness. Gone forever.

 Centuries later a prophet announced the arrival of Jesus not with his name but with his title and his mission.  The Lamb of God bears the sins of the world on his head. Your sins. Gone forever.

 When the morning light grew, as if someone had sounded a cue, the entire flock of birds lifted their wings as if they were one bird and then they vanished.