Kissed by the Spirit

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

God’s plans for us are always good. We might feel that something was missing, that we lacked an essential relationship or missed out on some advantage in our life, but God was with us all along and He doesn’t make mistakes. His plan has always been to prosper us spiritually, and to give us hope and a future.

When my mother was eight months pregnant with me, my father had a major stroke but survived. He was much older when they married and being their last child, I grew up with an elderly father, who had emotional and cognitive deficits resulting from his stroke. He was more like a grandfather, who was physically present, but emotionally absent. 

The father I knew was emotionally disconnected from the family, through no fault of his own, and so we never had a personal relationship. 

My mother handled this lack by staying upbeat and strong in her Christian faith. She filled the role of being both a mother and a father, by taking us to church, baseball games, theaters and vacations. When she observed my older brothers’ interest in science, she bought them chemistry sets and a high quality telescope. I remember looking through that telescope one summer night and seeing Saturn’s rings. Through her example of faith and love, I always felt that my brothers and I had a great childhood, being nurtured and encouraged to pursue our own gifts and talents. 

Still, I must have had a subconscious longing for a father relationship, which was evident by a recurring dream I had as a child. I dreamed that I was lost in a crowded room full of strangers. I finally was relieved to see my father across the room, at a distance, so I ran through the crowd to him, but when I got to him, he didn’t know who I was. I woke up feeling a strange emptiness and lack of a father’s affection. I dreamed this disturbing dream more than once during my childhood.

Later, as a young adult, I opened that door of my life to God and came to know Him as my true father. Now, I  am confident that He is the one who truly knows me and would greet me with open arms in a crowded room full of strangers. When I run to Him, He is the Father who is happy to see me, and always loves me as I am. 

He loves us not because we are good, but because He is good. I have been blessed to finally know the security of a father’s love, because of my relationship with Jesus. Whatever I lacked growing up, has been restored through Him, the One who was knocking on my door from the start. 

Whether we’ve lost something we once had or we never had it at all, God knows exactly what we are lacking. If we listen, we will hear His Son’s voice at our door, knocking, whispering and calling us by name. 

I have learned that the Lord is as patient as He is generous. Jesus knocked on my door for years, until I finally heard Him and invited Him in. When we offer Him all that is empty within us, He heals, restores and fills us with more of Himself. 

He is the same Lord who filled the widow’s empty jars, and sent down heavenly bread to His hungry people in the wilderness. He opened wombs that were once closed, healed every type of disease, and gave sight to those born blind. It’s never too late for the Lord to bring healing and deep restoration to an area that we are most lacking in. 

He is a good Father, who stands before us today with open arms, overflowing with “Paternal love” for us. All we need to do is open our door and run into our Father’s arms.

Lord, refresh our image of you, standing and knocking on the door of our lives. Come inside any area that is lacking in us and fill every empty place with the abundance of your love and grace. Amen

“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress. Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me.”

Matthew 26:36-38 (NAB)

Holy Week is probably the only time each year that we are all reminded of the garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus said to His friends, “Stay with me, my soul is sorrowful to death.” The garden is the one time, that everyone dwells on the sorrow of Jesus, and the human side of His emotional suffering. 

The word Gethsemane, in Hebrew means, an olive press. An olive press crushes olives, squeezing all the oil out of them. Jesus was emotionally and spiritually crushed, in the garden of Gethsemane, having so much squeezed out of Him, and He did it willingly for all of us. 

In our own lives, we experience something like a garden of Gethsemane, through sorrows that happen, which we have no control over. Jesus knows what it feels like to be emotionally squeezed and He can relate to us, in our olive press. We cannot control the events that happen, but we can know that Jesus is with us and leading us in our garden of Gethsemane. 

Since pressed olives produce oil, the oil that comes from the time spent in our garden is a healing oil. The garden prepared Jesus to go on and it also strengthens us to go on to the next phase in our life. There is a type of healing balm that comes from the olive press in our own lives. It is a balm of healing that can only come from God.

I experienced a Gethsemane when my son Jon, suffered a traumatic brain injury from a motorcycle accident in 2023. To observe how his adult life became crushed by a disability, not able to talk or walk, I felt that same sense of crushing, like olives in an olive press. Within that olive press, I came to realize that there is also an oil of healing and peace. 

There is a peace in knowing that God loves my children more than I do, and He is still the One in control over all of our lives. That truth brought the first effect of healing balm for me. 

The oil of healing that comes through the garden of Gethsemane is a personal realization that God is love, and because He loves us, everything that He permits us to go through, is for our eternal good. We may never know in this life, how it is working toward our eternal good, but one day we will. 

Jesus told us to let the children come to Him, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. So we entrust our babies, our young children and our adult children to come to Jesus, who has His own ways of drawing all children to Himself. God understands grief and loss more than any of us, since He watched His only son suffer and die a cruel death. 

Whether we are parents or not, our strength comes through our trials and adversity, which is our personal Gethsemane. Any way we look at this difficult topic, God’s healing balm is released in us by being squeezed in the Gethsemane olive press. It is there that we receive the strength to overcome by trusting in His love for us. 

Jesus received the strength in the garden, helping Him the next day to walk all the way to the cross. 

Whatever appears to be a loss, we can know that God is working out all things for the eternal benefit of every soul involved. 

Jesus didn’t ask much of Peter, James and John. He only asked them to “remain here and keep watch with Me.” He had a reason for asking them to just be there with Him. It is a gift to be with someone who is going through their Gethsemane. Maybe Jon can see that his family is there with him. 

I found comfort in knowing that others were with me in my garden. Each time someone told me that they were praying for Jon, it was another drop of healing balm to my soul. We can be a blessing to others by simply being there and keeping watch with them. Knowing others are there with us is another effect of the healing balm in the garden of Gethsemane.

There is no place where Jesus leads us, which isn’t safe for us to go. The Shepherd’s feet form the path for His sheep to follow. We have nothing to fear if we keep following those nail pierced feet. He promised to take us to green pastures and we can trust Him for that destination. 

Lord, bring your healing balm to all who are being pressed or are grieving in their garden today. Help us to be there with someone else and strengthen our faith and hope in your eternal love for all of us. Amen

“Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

”Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
 and the glory of your people Israel.”

Luke 2:27-32 (NIV)

Simeon was very advanced in age, but he had been waiting and praying his whole life, to behold the Messiah with his own eyes, before he dies. 

With faithful anticipation, Simeon praised God in the temple, year after year, although no Messiah appeared. 

Over the years, his sense of anticipation never ceased. He kept coming to the temple expecting that perhaps this is the day, that he would behold the Messiah.

One day, he spotted a certain couple carrying an infant who was a little over a month old. He was moved by the Holy Spirit, that this was not just any baby boy, but the One he was waiting for. Simeon walked straight over to Mary and took the infant from her arms into his, looking at Him in amazement. Then he worshipped and praised God, to finally behold His Son, the Savior and gift to the world.

If we could only go to church every week with the same sense of awe and anticipation that Simeon had, it would enrich our church experience. Simeon knew that the Messiah would come one day, but he wanted more than knowledge. He wanted to experience Him, by touching and being touched by Him. It was a life changing moment for Simeon to behold Jesus, the Messiah.

Maybe we could go to church with Simeon’s attitude, wanting more than the knowledge that God is there. Maybe we could take our faith a step further, and have the same anticipation that this is the day that we will experience Jesus in a new and deeper way, to spiritually touch Him and be touched by Him, as Simeon did, by beholding Him.

Going to church with Simeon’s  anticipation, means more than hoping to hear a good sermon or sing a favorite song or hymn. It’s more than knowing we are in God’s house. It’s about coming to church, and anticipating the Presence of Jesus, as if for the first time. 

I asked myself if I ever come to church with Simeon’s anticipation. 

I think I come in obedience and in gratitude, and with my many needs for God to meet, but Simeon’s mindset was much different than that. He came to the temple with an attitude of praise, yet always seeking to behold the Presence of the Savior.

Meditating on Simeon, reminds us to continually expect to behold Jesus in a new way. As we sit in our pew, do we consider that this is the day that the Lord might show up in a way that we have never beheld Him before? 

That is Simeon anticipation. 

To behold Jesus is to adore Him for who He is, and not for what we need from Him. To behold Him is to desire Him even when we have no answers to difficult questions in our lives. By faith we say, “I don’t understand much of what is happening Lord, but help me to behold you, like Simeon.”

I heard of a man who told his story  of living as an atheist, making many wrong choices over the past thirty years of his life. One day he walked into an empty church, looked up and said, “I don’t know who you are; I don’t know how this works; but I’m a mess. Please help me.” 

Jesus responds to that kind of plea. 

The man didn’t come to church to hear great preaching or great music, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but he came there seeking one great person. He spiritually reached out for Jesus, and was touched by Him. Like Simeon, he beheld the Lord for the first time, experiencing His love and mercy, and his life was changed forever.

Jesus said “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

(John 20:29)

We are the blessed ones, if we are  coming to church, without physically seeing Jesus, yet believing in Him. We can follow Simeon’s example, by coming into the temple with life changing anticipation, to behold Jesus, in a new way. 

Lord, give us Simeon’s anticipation  that this is will be the day we behold you as if for the first time, and be touched in a new way by your loving and merciful Presence, as we enter your house with praise. Amen

“Let those who seek my life be put to shame and disgrace. Let those who plot evil against me be turned back and confounded. Make them like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them on. Make their way slippery and dark, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.”

Psalm 35:4-6 (NAB)

When I graduated from 8th grade, my great aunt gave me my first bible. It was white leather with a gold zipper, gold letters on the front, and all the words of Jesus were printed in red. I thanked her and put it on a bookshelf in my bedroom, where it remained unopened for six years. 

I never knew that the powerful treasure hidden within those white leather binders would eventually transform my mind, soul and spirit. After pursuing my own path, eliminating God from my life, during my teenage years, at the age of eighteen, He gave me a wake up call one night, through a dream.

I dreamed I was running anxiously to catch a train. I finally got there, and feeling relieved, I jumped on board, but discovered I had jumped aboard a train of coffins, traveling through a cemetery. I woke up with my heart racing, but had a new respect for God and a curiosity for His truth. I remember wondering, if there is a God, what does He expect of me? My heart opened up and the Holy Spirit started guiding me on a new path, closer to Him.

The following year I had a life altering experience by praying and surrendering my life to Jesus. From that moment on, that white leather Bible became my love letter from God, and I haven’t stopped reading scripture since. I later discovered the treasure and power of combining prayer and scripture. 

A day came when I needed to use that powerful tool for the same great aunt, who gave me the bible in the first place. She and my mother moved in together in sunny California, since they were both elderly widows, and decided to spend the rest of their retirement together. 

They were living peacefully until the estranged schizophrenic adult son of my great aunt started to regularly visit and harass them, asking for money. He was frequenting their home, asking for money. After giving him meals and money out of their kindness, they finally told him they had no more money to give. The day they refused him, he became angry and started kicking at their front door. Thankfully, he left and though they were unharmed, the threat of him returning was very stressful. 

The day my mother told me about this, I was so worried, but also felt so helpless, living in another state. They knew to call the police if he returned, but I had a bad feeling about it and really didn’t want him to ever return again. 

While I was unable to protect them, I began praying and reading Psalm 35. I could not protect them, but I knew God was able to. I lived far away from them, but God was near them, so I decided to put all of my worries and anxieties in God’s hands. 

I prayed, reading out loud what God promises us in Psalm 35.  I prayed that psalm, saying, “Lord, send your angel and drive him away like chaff in the wind.” I asked God to do exactly what the psalm says He would do, and a few days later, my mother called me. She told me that he ended up in a nursing home due to a double foot amputation, resulting from diabetes. 

I was shocked, but relieved and thankful that my mother and great aunt were safe. He was alive and well cared for, and could no longer harm two helpless old ladies. God worked it out with a fair and just solution for all. 

I have prayed this Psalm many times since then, and sometimes it’s not necessary for an angel to drive an enemy away. Sometimes God makes a way for us to be at peace with our enemies. Whatever the situation is, God will send His angels to protect us. When we pray God’s words, from scripture, we will see amazing and powerful results.

The words written in a white leather bible, which for years sat neglected on a book shelf, opened my heart to a mighty God, who fulfills His own promises, when we dare to believe Him for it. 

Lord, you are a shield of protection for us, and your word is filled with promises, wisdom and expressions of your love. Thank you for angels who execute your faithfulness according to what is written in your word. Amen

“Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.“

1 Kings 17: 13-15 (NIV)

The Lord told the prophet Elijah to go to a certain widow’s house, because He had already directed her to supply him with food. We don’t know how God directed her, but she heard from God, and was willing to obey what He told her, even though she still had anxiety about it. 

She was at the absolute end of her  food supply during a famine and a drought. The whole land was in an economic crisis, and she only had enough flour and oil for one last meal. Elijah saw her anxiety and in greeting her, he told her not to be afraid. He assured her that her jars would never be empty for as long as the drought lasted. She then used up the last of her flour and oil, to make bread for the prophet. 

After she used the last of her food, she probably wondered how she would feed her son tomorrow, since her jars still looked empty. 

God didn’t give her the details of His plan, nor did He give her a lump sum supply to last for her lifetime. She was told through Elijah that her oil and flour would not run out, and she  had to trust God, based on His words, and not what she saw with her eyes. 

We face similar testing like this all the time. What we see doesn’t match up immediately with what we know God has promised us. As fear and anxiety start to take hold, it takes faith to trust Him at His word, when the jars we see, still look empty. 

Elijah told her the supply would not run out. Just as she put her trust in the promise of Elijah, we put ours in the promises of Jesus through His word in scripture. We may see empty jars, but we hold on to His promises by faith in His word.

The next day her jar of flour and her jug of oil were refilled. It continued to be refilled, day by day, with enough to last her until the famine was over.

The miracle happened as God promised, by refilling just enough for each day. The way God works is to give us what we need one day at a time, and He expects us not to depend on what we see, but what He promised. 

God blessed the widow in her scarcity and He provided for her as long as the famine and drought lasted. If we prioritize God, and put Him first in our lives, He will always supply us according to our needs, one day at a time, and His provision will last as long as we need it. 

Lessons like this one teach us to trust God even beyond our financial or material needs. We can apply this story to trusting God to refill any area of our life that is empty or depleted. We may be emptied of patience, love, peace, faith, or have reached our limit on forgiveness toward someone who has repeatedly hurt us. If we open our heart and our home to God, we never have to remain empty.

I remember once going through what felt like a famine of virtue, because I needed to be replenished with patience, faith, hope and love. Stress and trials left me depleted, but when I brought all my emptiness to Jesus, He started to refill me, one day at a time. 

We all have a holy man dwelling in our home, and He is greater than Elijah. As we welcome Jesus into our home, through all of the famines, droughts, pandemics or any crisis of scarcity, we can trust Him each day to keep us in peace and fill what is lacking. 

Lord, we believe you are the Holy one who is with us every day. We lift all of our empty jars to you, and trust you to refill what we need. We ask in faith, not by sight, and will expect to receive it from you one day at a time. Amen

“At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.”

1 Corinthians 13:12 (NAB)

My mother was talented in so many areas. She was an excellent seamstress, a water color artist and very gifted in the craft of embroidery. She once made me a beautiful tapestry embroidered picture which I still have in a frame. As I looked at it one day, I thought of the well known metaphor of the tapestry. 

The backside of an embroidered work of tapestry appears as a cluster of multi colored threads that make no sense. No picture can be seen from looking at the back of a tapestry, but from the front, it is a beautiful work of art. In the same way, we cannot make sense out of the illnesses, losses and tragedies that we experience, but one day, we will see the front side of the tapestry of our lives. 

People of faith trust that there is a design to the sorrows and trials woven throughout our lifetime, like the threads in a tapestry. Research has proven that those who have faith in God, trusting in him as a Master designer, have better outcomes to medical treatment, and live longer and healthier lives.

Jesus never promised a trouble free existence, but He assured us that He will lift and lighten our burdens, when we come into Him. 

(Matthew 11:28-30)

I said something like this once to a lady who had lost her husband, without knowing her faith outlook. She asked, “How is losing someone I loved lifting my burden?” 

I started to explain my point, but then decided to simply acknowledge her suffering, and make a point of telling her that God loves her and that I would pray for her. 

After our conversation she thanked me for the kind words, but I realized how much harder life is for someone living without faith in God. 

The tapestry metaphor doesn’t only apply to those who have lost a loved one, it refers to any loss that is confusing or hard to understand. It can refer to the loss of a relationship, loss of health, or anything in life that puzzles us and leaves us with unanswered questions. 

Without faith and hope in God, no one could survive the sorrow that a loss can cause. The tapestry reminds us that people of faith trust in a Supreme Designer, even when we can’t see the front side of His design. For now it looks like a mass of jumbled threads or a blurry reflection in a mirror, but we believe that God is the designer of the tapestry in each person’s life. He takes our losses and turns them around for the good of our eternal souls.

If we look at the backside of the tapestry of Jesus’ life on earth, most unbelievers would say that He was an innocent victim of injustice, torture and murder through a political system that needed to be overthrown. He definitely was a lamb led to the slaughter, but the front side of His life’s tapestry reveals a completed and beautiful work of salvation. 

In Jesus, we see the love and mercy of God, who never stops weaving opportunities for each of us to draw nearer to Him during our lifetime. The backside view looks like a mess and a tragedy, but there is a front side view to every story. 

Let’s anchor our faith in the Chief Designer, who knows how to weave a beautiful work through His choice of colors and threads in our tapestry. We may not always like the color of thread He chooses, but He knows how it will all work in the end, and His perfect design will benefit our souls for eternity. At present we know only partially, but one day we will know fully. 

Lord, help us to trust that the tangled threads we see now, will one day reveal the front side of your perfect design in the tapestries of our lives. Amen

My mother’s handiwork-she told me that the boy in the picture is Jesus 

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

1 Peter 1:8-9 (NIV)

Peter speaks of loving and believing in the God we cannot see, which results in the joy and salvation of our souls. In all other relationships, we use a physical sign of assurance, such as hand holding, which is a gesture of affection, protection, guidance, and comfort. It’s an expression of love and support between parents, children, lovers and friends, and it crosses all ethnic and cultural boundaries. 

Jesus made it very clear that He loved little children, and told us if we want to get to heaven, we would have to become like one of them. A young child is totally reliant and trusting in their parents for all things. There is a spiritual place of childlike reliance, trust and humility, that Jesus invites us all to.

Trusting Him without seeing Him, can be difficult under pressure. Peter tells us that loving Him without seeing Him, brings inexpressible joy. As much as we all believe and desire this, problems come along, drag us down, and we forget that Jesus is with us, extending His hand to us. It requires a childlike reliance and trust to believe what we cannot see. We need to find that childlike heart within us.

I still remember a dream that I had at the age of five. The memory of this dream has stayed with me, and it still helps me find my childlike heart during the most challenging and stressful trials. I dreamed someone took hold of my right hand and walked me out of my burning school building. I was led peacefully through the halls, around corners and safely outside the door. When I looked up, Jesus was next to me, holding my right hand. It was a divine life lesson through a vivid and realistic dream.

Life resembles a burning school at times, when we walk through fiery trials, not knowing what’s around the next corner, but as we trust Jesus with childlike faith, He holds our hand and guides us to safety.

Our  “school of life” is not to make us scholars, but saints. Jesus is the one holding our hand. He never promised to put out all the fires in our lives, but He knows where the all the fire exits are, and He will peacefully lead us out, if we keep our hand in His.

Lord, give us childlike hearts, trusting you in all our ways. As we keep our hand in yours, lead us and give us inexpressible joy and perfect peace. Amen

(Matthew 6:9-13)

Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer to pray, but also to use as a template for all prayer. In breaking down one line at a time, maybe we can better understand what He is teaching us:

      Our Father who art in heaven;

God is the King of the universe and yet He wants us to address Him as Father, because we are sons and daughters, not subjects or servants. He has a beloved son, but He wants to be our Father as well. A child doesn’t need to earn His father’s love with good deeds. A natural father loves his children from the day they were born, before they could do anything right or wrong. God also loved us first, before we even knew of Him. 

     Hallowed be Thy name;

The name of God is to be hallowed, which means to treat it as sacred and holy, because He is sacred and holy. I love the contrast of the first and second line in this prayer. He is our loving intimate father but He is also the most high, sacred and holiest God. We are loved by a holy God who also wants His children to be holy, as His Spirit searches and purifies our hearts.

     Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven;

This line reminds us that there is more to come and our life in this world is not all there is. God has a coming kingdom, and until that kingdom comes, He desires that we let His will be done in our lives. In all that we pray and ask for, our wishes and desires are still yielded to His will, saying as Jesus said, “Thy will be done.” We can say it because God always knows what’s best for us and we trust in His perfect will.

      Give us this day our daily bread;

Bread is nourishment, and for us it is both physical and spiritually nourishing. Jesus is our daily bread of spiritual nourishment. Everyone is on a quest for nourishment, but sometimes we look for it in all the wrong places. We look for it through relationships or things we can buy, but Jesus called Himself the living bread of heaven. Jesus is our daily bread and no other bread satisfies the soul and spirit as He does.

      Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; 

We are reminded that forgiveness needs to be a two way street. Here is the biggest challenge in the entire Lord’s prayer. Every statement in this prayer is one that Jesus talked about regularly. He reminded us many times about forgiving others, through his parables. If we want to be forgiven, He says we must forgive others. There’s an old Irish proverb “We bury the hatchet but mark the spot.” Forgiveness is easier if we have a short term memory, and forget where all the hatchets are buried. 

       Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The previous parts of the Lord’s Prayer pertain to things which we  can take control of, by lining our will up with God’s. We seek His daily nourishment, we allow ourselves to be loved and fathered by Him, and we forgive our enemies, but this last line is a plea for divine help. It’s asking for what only God can do, in keeping us from all evil. He is our good shepherd, who delivers us from evil. An old testament title for God is “El Gibor,” which translates from Hebrew to, “God, our hero.”

Jesus saves the best line for last, in the conclusion to this prayer, that God is our true hero, who delivers us from all evil.  After the many times we have all experienced His deliverance from evil, it’s easy to finally say, 

“To Him be the kingdom, the power and the glory, now and forever.”

Amen

“When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”

John 19:23-24 (NIV)

I think there may be a deeper meaning to that remaining fifth undergarment of Jesus, which was not torn and deliberately gambled for. The prophesy in Psalm 22, that men would divide up the Messiah’s garments and cast lots for His clothes is not something that could be staged just to appear to fulfill a prophetic scripture. Roman soldiers had no knowledge or interest in Hebrew messianic prophecies, and they didn’t know that they were doing what was prophesied a millennium earlier. 

John’s gospel confirms that the four soldiers, who were at the foot of the cross, said to one another, regarding that fifth garment, “Let’s not tear it, but decide by lot who will get it.” 

A skeptic could say that everything written in Psalm 22, might have been written from David’s own personal experiences, but some lines are too specific, especially verse 18, which says,

“They divide my clothes among them

  and cast lots for my garment.” 

That psalm foretold details of the crucifixion, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

There were five pieces of clothing, but only four soldiers, so they divided His clothes among them, and cast lots for the remaining fifth piece of clothing.

That fifth garment was a one piece seamless tunic, typically worn as an undergarment by temple priests since the time of Aaron, the brother of Moses. The priests who wore it, interceded for their people, as they offered a sacrificed lamb upon the altar. 

Traditionally, this tunic was woven by the priest’s own mother. I can just imagine Mary watching in horror, as the soldiers gambled for the hand made priestly tunic, woven by her, as her son hung on the cross. 

The Mosaic instructions for the care of this tunic undergarment was that it must never be torn. Not knowing anything about those Mosaic rules, the Roman soldiers cast lots for it, to avoid tearing it. 

The fifth garment would have been worn by Jesus when He healed the sick, raised the dead, and cast out demons. He wore it at the feeding of the 5,000, while walking on the water, and on top of the mount of transfiguration. He wore it at the last supper, while telling His disciples that He is the sacrificed Passover lamb. 

The day finally came when His tunic was stripped off of Him and treated as a common piece of clothing to gamble for. The soldiers cast lots to see who gets the tunic, but they were ignorant that the one who wore it, was dying for them. 

Such disregard for the sacred, is no different 2,000 years later. Some of the most sacred truths of the Christian faith, are still treated irreverently by our current culture. All that is highly regarded by God, is often treated in low regard by the world’s standards. 

During my college days, I went to a pub that was frequented by many college students. One night the owner was celebrating along with his patrons, and he began pouring wine in everyone’ glass, while mimicking the words used when serving communion. I was not religious back then, but I was a still shocked, knowing it was inappropriate to mock something as sacred as communion. 

People often do sacrilegious things in total ignorance, just like the Roman soldiers who gambled and cast lots for that priestly tunic. They handled that fifth garment in a common and unholy way, although it was worn by the holy, incarnate Son of Almighty God. 

As sacred blood flowed from the foot of the cross for them, they casually gambled, playing a game to win the fifth garment.

I know from my own experience that God has incredible mercy towards the ignorance of all people. His grace reaches far beyond the foolishness of our hearts. The fifth garment is a reminder of how grace and mercy overcomes all ignorance. “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.”  (Romans 5:20)

Sin and mockery of what is sacred, grieves God, but He has the heart of a Father, like the father of the prodigal, and He patiently waits for us to come back home to the truth. He gives people time to discover who Jesus really is, and His kindness leads all to repentance. 

(Romans 2:4)

God is not like people, who are quick to judge and condemn. He has a Father’s heart and responds with mercy instead of what we may deserve. 

The fifth garment reminds us of the patience, mercy and grace of God. Jesus was stripped of His priestly garment, to become our sacrificed lamb. “For by one sacrifice, He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Hebrews 10:14)

Lord, we have all mishandled your fifth garment at some time in our lives, but you are a loving Father, who patiently draws our childlike hearts back to you. Thank you for your mercy and grace that is greater than all of our sins. Amen

“You are all fair, my love;
 there is no flaw in you.”

Song of Solomon 4:7 (RSV)

The Song of Solomon was written around 965 B.C. by King Solomon but it seems to correlate with a New Testament chapter known as the “love chapter.” The love chapter is 1st Corinthians 13, and it’s read at all Christian marriage ceremonies. 

The love chapter describes the perfect love of God, as we are encouraged to emulate it. It fits with the Song of Solomon, because it describes love as that which “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” 

Bears, believes, hopes and endures, sounds like a rock solid commitment of devotion, even if everything around us appears to be crumbling. Since God loves us with this kind of devotion, it also pleases Him when we seek to do the same.

Both Jewish and Christian traditions across the centuries have adopted “allegorical” interpretations of the Song of Solomon, which has been read to portray the mutual love between the Lord and his people.

Christians have interpreted the Song of Solomon as the union between Christ and His bride, the Church. Jewish theologians view it as a picture of the ideal Israel, flawless, chosen and cherished by God. Both are beautiful insights into these sacred scriptures.

From the Christian perspective, the Song of Solomon, is Christ telling His bride, the church, that we are cherished and flawless in His eyes.

When Jesus looks at us, He knows us throughout, and sees the good and the bad, but it is His love for us that sees beyond our flaws. He is the one who cherishes us, who believes all things, bears all things and hopes all things. 

While we all know we have flaws, most of us don’t realize how much God loves us as we are, even before being cleansed and forgiven.

There are people who believe in God, but have doubts that He loves them. Some people were raised to believe that they are only lovable when they are good, or doing good things, but God loves us as we are, not because we are deserving. He doesn’t reserve or hold back His love from us, until we say we’re sorry. That is contrary to the truth of His word, which says, 

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

(Romans 5:8)

While we were sinners, God had passionate, relentless and unconditional love for us, long before we were remorseful or sorry for our sin. It is the love and kindness of God, that leads us to repentance in the first place.

Once we respond to the one who loves our soul, He shapes and develops us later. His Holy Spirit continually regenerates us during our life long journey of faith. If we try to see people through the same lens, that God is still transforming them, we can love better, by believing, bearing and enduring all things.

Through the Song of Solomon, we identify Jesus as the only one who loves us this perfectly, and cherishes us beyond our flaws. 

The truth that Satan keeps hidden from many well meaning Christians, is that God knows our gifts, sees our potential, and if Jesus is for us, nothing can succeed against us. 

Even if we give up on ourselves, become deeply discouraged, and are filled with doubt, God never stops believing in us, because in His eyes, we are cherished as His fair and flawless bride.

Lord, we surrender both our gifts and our flaws to you, and we ask that you shape and develop the beauty and talents that you have placed within each of us. Help us love one another as you have loved us. Amen