Matthew 6:9 Interlinear: thus therefore pray ye: ‘Our Father who art in the heavens! hallowed be Thy name.
— Read on biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/6-9.htm
I have loved CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia for over half a century (yes, I am old).
Lately, I have been particularly drawn to certain narrative elements of The Silver Chair.
The conditions of the enchantment of the Prince and Aslan’s signs—
How does a person wake up from a deadly delusion? How do the people around them help to “break the enchantment?”
And what are the signs we begin to forget in the castle of our besetting giants?
Jesus gives us all we need to navigate through the end of the world or an ordinary Tuesday.
Know the signs
And know the wonders too.
Matthew 24:4-46 KJV
[4] And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. [5] For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. [6] And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [7] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of sorrows. [9] Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. [10] And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. [11] And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. [12] And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. [13] But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. [14] And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. [15] When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) [16] Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: [17] Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: [18] Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. [19] And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! [20] But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: [21] For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. [23] Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. [24] For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. [25] Behold, I have told you before. [26] Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. [27] For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. [28] For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. [29] Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: [30] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. [31] And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. [32] Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: [33] So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. [34] Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. [35] Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. [36] But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. [37] But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. [38] For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, [39] And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. [40] Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [41] Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [42] Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. [43] But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. [44] Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. [45] Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? [46] Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
Matthew 18:2-14 KJV
[2] And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, [3] And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. [4] Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. [5] And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. [6] But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. [7] Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! [8] Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. [9] And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. [10] Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. [11] For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. [12] How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? [13] And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. [14] Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
Isaiah 46:12-13 KJV
[12] Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness: [13] I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.
This week there was an assault on a farm in Wisconsin that raises beagles for research purposes because they “are trusting, loyal, and easy to handle.”
In England, two men are on trial for unspeakable abuse of a baby they adopted then abused to death.
Jesus became the embodiment of unspeakable horror to pay for unspeakable pain. He bore our sins then bore the holy wrath of God.
He became the sacrificial beagle for the sacrificed baby.
When the minor griefs of my quotidian life hit me hard in my chest, I have to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus. I have to tell Him that I cannot fathom the depths of the horror He endured for this broken, afflicted, heartbroken world.
The wrath of a Righteous God
For the broken beagle
For the broken baby
For the broken-hearted
He is coming back soon
The rain came down all day, in a dry and thirsty place
The rivers and gullies rose, brooked banks, flowed, opaque with runoff, to the sea
The little girl felt the weight of it all, no running across the bridge, no looking for turtles and treasury things
The kitchen dance party helped, and the toasted sandwiches
Thank you, God, for the gentle rain, the dappled night, and Dollar Tree ponchos
Which make us all shimmer like apparitions as we walk the dogs through, dark, light, shadow, puddles you can kick up into arcs with your bread roll clogs
Puddles so deep and wide a girl can see her own reflection in them
Reflection of Him (who made the water, who calls the rain)
Who calls us all to shine like this all the time
In the wedding clothes of Light
(Revelation 22
Central Texas)
Who questions the story? The strange-god-man beast? His labyrinthine abode? His carnivorous diet? The architect of his incarceration? The boy prisoner?
The last flight
wax and feathers, frenzied, ersatz wings
We all know this is not going to fly
But we proceed nonetheless
Watch them go in your mind, at least, father and son soar in the cloudless
sky where
All literary imagination and polytheistic scaffolding cannot stop the
Firmament from becoming thin and cold a million miles from the sun
Not hot at all, wings useless but intact
The boy would have died eventually, no doubt, but not from any hubristic ascent
No rather, the same things that tie us all to the ground
Aged and infirm
Dragging beautiful, insufficient wings across a sandy shore
First, there is a forgotten Grace—tie this end to the fastening nail, hold onto the string no matter what!—
lights along the highway, who else is up at this hour?
-unspooling like a fishing line—
Saviors, truckers, a rogue paper man, and someone buying ice
-who knows how long the journey-
Love songs and lighted windows
Make a map out of insomnia and vigilance
Lost phones and lost loves
Welcome to the labyrinth/ hold tight to the scarlet cord
Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God
Dissolved into Light
“That was too short!“
I tell her that it would have been longer if
She had been quiet faster
Will you write another one if I am quiet? She asks
Hard to, nay impossible to,
Say no
Beautiful mockingbird
Origami daughters
Their hair ribbons of color and light like their mothers
Were-are-will be
“nothing shall be impossible”
Wind! Birds! Mockingbird! Mother!
He is
The wind that shakes the trees, lifts the wings
Heals the world
(John chapter 3–all of it!)
Like the scent of evocative perfume
The words lift across
Street in the heart
Of a town named for a long-shot Gospel writer
Words about finding love and fish in the oceans
Surprisingly geographically specific
Pacific Ocean…Indian Ocean
These similes for lost love
A thin, reedy, fearless voice
Neon lights
Somethings are lost in the now
Known only to the One who sees
The not yet the will be
Impossibles come true
One day we will all know
The words
Within days of the end of an era I lay beneath a cloudy night sky and drew faces from slow moving clouds and stars and planets
I resisted the urge to cup your face in my hand or bang the flats of my palms against the heavy plate glass of the cathedral
Yell your name
But I had to
Had to
Had to
Touch the hem of your garment
Pray you turn and say my name
Carrying Light 