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Letty
https://narnia.fandom.com/wiki/Letitia_Ketterley
The girls waterfall read as Jadis demands a chariot, Andrew begins to realize he is out of his depths, and Aunt Letty utters one of the greatest rebukes in fictional Christendom.
Lewis, blessedly, does not ship his darlings and allows Letty to be spared by her own modest industry. She lands on a mattress she was mending.
His voice is clear in the kitchen, as is the Aslan he introduced us all to.
I aspire to be like Letty. A stalwart soul, fending off harm with stout heart and no nonsense.
Janice
Janice and I both came from families with “ups and downs.” She died when she was still a teenager and I mourned the loss of her from another country.
It has been 40 years since she died, and I still miss her.
She gave me the gift of prayer in the dark. For me, insomnia or no, I thank God for her prayers for me, which have become a light I hold in my hands clasped to my chest as the world gets darker
And the wise ones tend their oil.
Write another one!
I read the last one to her and she said write another one
As she counted the fruit (mostly apples) from “Honey Many”
One could say that the love and justice remain
In a box of fruit sent from a long way off
When every second, every moment, every minute-hour-day-spiral of the earth around this lovely sun
Slingshots is closer
To Home.
But, why?
I have a beloved child
Who likes to say things like
But why? and it isn’t fair!
she reminds me of me
Snarking at God when
My little world is not all He sees
And his answers are
“Love” and “Justice/just Us”
Respectively.
Thy kingdom come
If my language were ever reduced to one word, I would want that single word left to me to be Jesus.
I freely admit that when crisis becomes too heavy, I repeat his name until my panic or anxiety subsides.
The name of Yeshua of Nazareth, Jesus the Anointed One, is power full, real, and holy.
None of us can go wrong by invoking the presence and person of the Rescuer whose name means God Saves.
When Jesus sent his disciples out, he told them to tell people that “the kingdom of God is come near.” He is the King. He was, is, and will be the kingdom come.
None of us short of Heaven really know what that kingdom will feel like, but he gives us lots of clues.
He also invites us to come close now, through prayer, Bible reading, and worship of the King.
I call that the front porch of Heaven. Come with me there
As we wait for his kingdom
To be all in all
The country of forever.
Surely he has
Isaiah 53:3-5 KJV
[3] He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. [4] Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. [5] But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Someone I love was bitten by ants. I am praying for this person while I search the internet for remedies. This painful, episodic grief leads me to ponder what happens each time Jesus miraculously heals someone.
Most of us would prefer to think his unstoppable divine power pours out over the sufferer, which is true…but not all.
He thoroughly and completely absorbs the pain, the grief, the horror of human afflictions in a way that is both unspeakable and necessary.
He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
He is the Remedy.
Matthew 8:14-17 KJV
[14] And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. [15] And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them. [16] When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: [17] That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
Hallowed
Hallowed be thy name
Even his name shines brighter than the sun
This line of the prayer reminds us that even the ways we call or refer to God are saturated by his pure-light identity.
He shines like the sun. He would be totally unapproachable if he didn’t send a Mediator to intervene
Because we are anything but holy without Divine Intervention.
God makes real
Many years ago I self-published three small, obscure books. One was a memoir about loss, one was a poetry book for a wedding, and the third was this—
I have always loved the cover of this book. Fierce Angels is about loss and traveling through grief, but the children on the cover are so lovable.
My beautiful daughter has been counting down the days until Halloween, despite my deep trepidation about its origins and practice. She said she wanted to be an angel, so I bought wings and diaphanous capes, and an archangel costume.
She wore it to the river after the sun came out. She was so beautiful and shimmery and I suddenly realized that God had made my beautiful book cover real in her, a fierce angel.
What else can he do?
Raise the dead?
Set the captives free?
He is the miracle God.
Who Art in Heaven
Surely goodness and mercy
Will follow me
All the days of my life
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever
King David/Ps 23
I have long held the belief that it is very possible that Jesus was being quite literal when he told his listeners that we all had to “be converted” to be like little children to enter into his kingdom
Heaven is where we will “play until Someone tells us to stop”
And Someone never will
He delights in his little ones
So when Jesus addresses “our Father” who is in heaven
He is defining in both directions
A God who makes a place home
Home a place inhabited by love.
Bring your friends with you
Make heaven crowded.
