ANGUISH

 

Hope Deferred by Chris Brazelton

My soul is rent with anguish

In this vale of sorrow and tears;

I dim, I dim like a candle,

hoping the wind will set me free.

My pleas ascend to Thee,

Seeking Thy mercy to rescue me.

 

-     CATHRYNE ALLEN

RUBIES OF THE WORLD

 

Stay By The Tree by Judy Cooley

“An anonymous text from the Tradition says that, in life, each person can take one of two attitudes: to build or to plant. The builders might take years over their tasks, but one day they finish what they are doing. Then they find they’re hemmed in by their own walls. Life loses its meaning when the building stops.

“Then there are those who plant. They endure storms and all the many vicissitudes of the seasons, and they rarely rest. But, unlike a building, a garden never stops growing. And while it requires the gardener’s constant attention, it also allows life for the gardener to be a great adventure. Gardeners always recognise each other because they know that in the history of each plant lies the growth of the whole world.”  (Paulo Coelho, Brida)

For centuries men have been found on scaffolds of buildings but women were found in gardens. With their inherent qualities women have put into motion chains of goodness that outlast generations. They did this primarily through giving birth and raising children but mostly through those qualities that befit only their gender, the sensitivities that men do not possess.

Unfortunately, in our world today many of us women have lost the desire to garden. We are too busy climbing the scaffolds to prove ourselves capable and invincible. When the mother of King Lemuel asked that famous question: ”Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies” (Proverbs 31:1, 10), women were very much valued. They were valued for their virtue and their gardening skills…..their willingness to bear future generations was their crowning glory. They produced kings, leaders, philosophers, educators, conquerors, inventors, and more gardeners who sow plants that multiply, adapt, and give back more than they take. Today women kill their children before they can even draw breath, they neglect, abuse and destroy.

Now here is something interesting about rubies: Even though they vary in colour, the most valued rubies are bright red....The Mogok Valley in Upper Burma  was for centuries the world's main source for rubies and has produced some of the finest rubies ever mined. However, in recent years very few good rubies have been found there…..…. just as a virtuous woman, as valued as a bright red ruby, is fast becoming a rare possession in today's world.  

The dictionary defines virtue as: moral excellence, goodness, righteousness, uprightness, effective force, power or potency. Instead of becoming a force for good that can change the course of this world through this one meaning of the word, we have made it all about us. We have become dissatisfied  with our inherent gardening skills and we have acquired an insatiable need for want of power, recognition, praise, wealth and prominence.

The freedoms we enjoy today as women have no precedence. We have, however, abused our rights to these freedoms. Instead of building upon our true natures to yield an influence in the world that would combat evil and change the course of our imminent destruction, we have joined those very forces which cause immorality, destroy families and bring emotional and physical distress. We are sick, unhappy and discontented.

Yet there is hope in those women in the world who are yet true to their womanhood and their gardening skills. These are the virtuous, the devoted, the believers, the rubies who will one day be the jewels in Christ’s crown when He appears (Malachi 3:17).

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

NONE ELSE

 

I Will Send the First by Dan Wilson

There is none like Thee,

My Saviour and my King

With power and glory in Thy wings.

There is none like Thee,

Showing mercy and kindness

To someone insignificant like me.

Who can compare and who can equal Thee

In Thy unfailing care of me?

Let me worship Thee

With my lips and my heart

And let me be steadfast

From Thy favour never to part.

 

-      CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE PRICE OF RUBIES 7: ELISABETH AND MARY

 

(Art: Jump for Joy by Corby Eisbacher)

There were once two women whose sons were to change the history of the world. Two women who shine as the brightest rubies because of their submissiveness to God’s purposes for the good of all mankind. One was a young virgin called Mary and the other her cousin, advanced in years and past the bearing age, called Elisabeth. They together proved that with God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37).

 

Elisabeth and her husband Zacharias walked blamelessly before the Lord and even though they prayed many years that Elisabeth would bear a son they arrived at the autumn of their lives childless. It was in the year of his appointed priestly service that Zacharias travelled to the temple in Jerusalem from their village of Hebron to perform sacred rites and ordinances.

 

Just as Zacharias was burning incense inside the temple, the multitude were outside praying for redemption of Israel from the Gentile yoke (Luke 1:10). As the timely prayers ascended, angel Gabriel stood on the right side of the altar of incense and spoke: “Fear not Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard: and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John” (Luke 1:11,13).

 

Six months later the same angel appeared to young Mary advising her she too will bear a son, also of a miraculous birth (Luke 1:30-33). No doubt a young girl like Mary was amazed to receive angel Gabriel's announcement that she shall be the mother of the Son of God. Every woman in Israel hoped for the privilege of becoming the mother of the expected Messiah.

 

Gabriel explained to Mary how the baby would be conceived and no doubt perceiving the alarm that must have arisen within her, he quickly told her about her cousin Elisabeth who also was a recipient of a miraculous conception. What comfort that would have been to such a young girl to know she did not stand alone in the realm of hard to explain miracles. But there was another, her cousin Elisabeth, who had conceived by a miracle so this too was possible.

 

Both of these women rose to the greatest challenge of their lives. Elisabeth did bear a son who became the forerunner of the Messiah. I think she understood her responsibility well. As Herod’s murder edict reared its ugly head and her husband lost his life unwilling to disclose the whereabouts of his son (Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51), Elisabeth took baby John into the mountains and hid him from the impending doom. This narrative does not appear in the New Testament but it comes from the early Christian tradition such as the Infancy Gospel of James, a text written around the second century A.D. It does, however, correspond with the New Testament narrative of John’s upbringing in the deserts and being raised on locusts and wild honey (Luke 1:80; Matt 3:4; Mark 1:6). It doesn’t bear thinking that John, as an infant, would have been taken into the mountains and left there alone without his mother.

 

According to historical custom of marriage in the meridian of time, it has been estimated that Mary had Jesus when she was around 15 years of age. Imagine a young girl such as that submitting herself to the will of God which would ruin her reputation as a chaste Israelite girl betrothed to another man. This was brought to Jesus’ attention by the Jews who accused Him of being born of fornication (John 8:41).

 

This young girl grew up to be an adult woman who cried at the cross of her son’s crucible. Did she at such a momentous time reflect back on the famous words she uttered: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” or did she remember Elisabeth’s words to her:  “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke 1:42). Blessed indeed…..

 

ODE TO MARY AND ELIZABETH

 

Among valiant sons of God

Who were chosen rulers to be

Stood the daughters so fair

They echoed throughout eternity.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

SELF WILL

 

Thy Will Be Done by Jay Bryant Ward

 

I pleaded with you on bended knee

My fears to dissolve.

You sat in silence

Hoping I would give You

what You yearned the most to own:

My self-will,

My hesitance to relinquish control.

In the end I gave it up

And found solace to my soul.

 

Yes, You said,

Now you understand.

I paved the way

In Gethsemane long ago.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE PRICE OF RUBIES 6: ESTHER

 

Light of Truth In the Darkness of the Persian Palace Esther and King Ahaseurus by artist Alex Levin

During the Babylonian exile, a young Jewish girl by the name  of Esther was chosen for her outstanding beauty to marry King Xerxes of Persia. This was a girl who chose to walk the path of courage, not for herself, but for the good of the whole…..something that is missing in our ‘me, myself and I’ world today.

 

Marrying outside the covenant was a big no no for the Jews but Esther was in captivity and subject to the King of Persia so in all likelihood she didn’t have a say in the matter. It was especially precarious for men to marry outside of the covenant because men that did so followed the religious convictions of their wives. It was a sure way to end up knee deep in idolatry if you married outside of the covenant in ancient Israel. (see the story of Judah in Ezra 10)

 

In Esther's case, however, the roles were mercifully reversed. She was a God-fearing woman and the man in her situation was the heathen. Esther did not seem to be at risk of abandoning her faith. She kept her religion and continued to worship the God of heaven. She did not adopt her husband's religious practices.

 

When God gave a commandment in the beginning that a man should leave his mother and father and 'cleave unto his wife' (Genesis 2:24) I believe that somehow this became a very literal mandate for men, with women being given the advantage and privilege of influence.....as was proven by Esther who saved her entire nation from annihilation (Esther 8).

 

And now here is a great lesson for us women....Esther did not rely on her beauty and her womanly wiles to convince King Xerxes not to kill her people. She could have done that. The King was clearly smitten by her to the point that he would have granted her every wish and given her even half of his kingdom (Esther 5:3,6; 7:2).

 

Instead of relying on her womanhood, Esther employed God's assistance in her influence over the king. She designated a three day fast for all the Jews in the kingdom and offered two banquets to the King and his right-hand man Haman who was intent on the Jewish annihilation. The 24 hours in between those two banquets was crucial because during that time the King had a sudden desire to read the records which threw a light on the situation at hand. This desire was obviously inspired from above (see Esther 6). The King gained a greater understanding of the situation and the disaster was averted.

 

The fasting of Esther and her people brought the Lord into the situation. It's a rather lengthy story but a highly entertaining one. The whole event is celebrated even today among the Jews through the Feast of Purim all because of the courage of a righteous woman who didn’t hesitate to put her life at risk when she approached the unapproachable King with these memorable and courageous words:

 

“If I perish, I perish”  (Esther 4:16) 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

HOME

 

(Artist Unknown)

I know You are watching me

From the shadow of Your love,

Hoping I will remember You

And our celestial home above.

 

I see You beckoning

For me to rise majestic and tall

But my path is unsteady beneath me

And I seek a soft place to fall.

 

Angels are around me,

They whisper and they mourn

Spreading their wings to catch me

Wanting to take me home.

 

I want to go with them

I am tired and all alone

I yearn to feel the comfort

Of that everlasting home.

 

Yet I don’t know if I am ready,

If I have given my very all,

So I can join You in Your shadow,

The safest place to fall.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN