The Bridegroom’s Sacrifice

This story comes from friends who minister with Wycliffe Bible Translators. It is such a beautiful symbol of what Christ has done for us, I wanted to spread the story further.

The Mangseng people of Papua New Guinea (PNG) tell about a type of silk worm called a “Thong.” When the Thongs hatch, they are small caterpillars that eat the leaves of the tree they were born on until they grow big and plump, about the size of a thumb. Then they move to a fork in the tree and each one spins its cocoon, building one on top of the other until there is a nest of cocoons.

In this area of PNG it rains a lot, and the cocoons are porous. If left alone, the rain

would soak into the cocoons and the creatures would all die. One Thong takes it upon himself to waterproof all the others. He spins a sticky brown silk and attaches leaves and sticks in layers around the nest until it is completely covered over with leaves, much like a cast, and the nest is safe from the rain.

This Thong is now outside the safety of the nest he covered up. He dies and falls to the ground. As time passes, the caterpillars are transformed into beautiful

Cricula moths, free to live and fly.   

                                                                           

As Jesus gave up His life to cover us so we can live and be transformed into His beautiful likeness.

We are the redeemed Bride of Christ.

Isaiah 62:5b (NIV) “...as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will

your God rejoice over you.”

Broken Circles

Having been assigned the biohazard symbol to incorporate into a piece of wring, I was curious about its beginnings. According to Wikipedia, Dow Chemical came up with this symbol which is universally recognized, at least in the US, for caution regarding a dangerous substance.   

The symbol was chosen because it was “meaningless, but memorable ,” and Dow even ran some test studies to check out how memorable it actually was. The symbol apparently passed with flying colors.

My educational background dealt with music education, not science, medicine, or mining. Consequently, my first thought when seeing the biohazard symbol was unorthodox--I saw circles with pieces missing--broken circles.  That, in turn, led me to think of broken relationships, broken marriages, and broken families, either caused by death or selfishness.

As I look at what I think of as broken circles (the biohazard symbol), it seems to aptly represent our broken world. After all, we wouldn’t need this symbol if there were no harmful substances present in the first place.

At the beginning of time according to Genesis, the first book in the Old Testament, our world was perfect, unbroken, like heaven on earth. Then mankind decided to disobey God and their perfect world disappeared. Pain and death plagued mankind as well as the other creatures that covered the earth. St. Paul writes in the book of Romans that the creation (world) continues to groan for a healing of its brokenness.

The good news is our broken world now has the opportunity of healing the breaches made by sin/disobedience. When God the Father sent Jesus, God the Son, to earth as a baby who grew up to be a man, He culminated His work on planet earth by dying on a cross. Miraculously taking our sins on Himself  through His death, He did not stay dead! Three days later, Jesus was once again alive, through an awesome manifestation of God’s power. That was just the first step of hope for this broken world.

Forty days later Jesus’ disciples watched Him ascend into heaven, no doubt with their jaws dropping in amazement. The scripture says two men dressed in white suddenly appeared beside them and asked, “Why are you standing here looking up into the sky? Jesus, Who just left you, taken into heaven, will come back the same way.”

When Jesus, the King, returns, the broken earth will be healed. The Hope of the Ages will make all the broken circles complete. And we won’t need any more biohazard symbols. 

The Four Seasons

I was born and raised in the Midwest so my instant frame of reference  tied to the four seasons consist of the names, Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall. (We call it Fall in rural Missouri—not sure who calls it autumn.) As I sit here contemplating the subject , this question occurs to me.  Which season is first? Calendar-wise, that would be Winter. However, according to life cycles, one could argue for Spring.

At any rate, for twenty-one years I saw the four seasons delineated: Spring brought rain with grass, alfalfa and clover fields greening up. Baby calves were born and flowers bloomed.

Summer meant humidity along with a gambler’s toss of rain or drought. Getting the right amount of rain and dry times would make or break the corn crop planted in late spring and brought lots of fresh peas, green beans and tomatoes in home gardens.

 Fall means harvesting time to a farmer; pick corn, combine wheat, bale hay and dig matured root crops in the garden like potatoes and onions. Pumpkins, zucchini and cucumbers would also be picked and canned or frozen.

Winter brings onslaughts of snow and too often, freezing rain. But winter also meant walking to the “north forty” and chopping down the perfect Christmas tree, putting it up in the living room, decorating it with a star that harked back to the early 1940’s and enjoying that spicy, cedar-y smell from the tree for two weeks.

Then I moved West.

Having now lived over two-thirds of my life in Wyoming and Nevada means that my experience of the four seasons shows a decrease in number. Wyoming’s seasons are often Winter, Winter, Winter, and two weeks each of Spring, Summer, and Fall—if it’s a mild year. (There are some areas of Wyoming that don’t adhere to these seasonal vagaries, but they don’t cluster around I-80.)

Nevada also sometimes has years consisting of Winter, Winter, Whatever, and Winter. However, we do often have a month of Spring in June, followed by one-two months of Summer in July and August. September is often equivocal and October is usually Fall/Winter. Followed once more by Winter—generally lots of it.

This is all OK as far as I’m concerned. Like Louis Armstrong wrote, “That lucky Ol’ Sun keeps rollin’ ‘round heaven all day.” And that leads me to think of a favorite hymn, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” The second verse says something about summer and winter, springtime and harvest and the way God keeps all the seasons as well as day and night in order and on time. That’s a pretty heavy task and I’m glad He’s up to it.