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
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
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
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
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
This is a
beautiful story of loyalty of one woman towards another and the godly path it
created….. a story of another ruby above price.
Ruth's story
begins in Moab, her home-land, where she married Mahlon, one of the sons of an
Israelite couple called Elimelech and Naomi, who had fled from their hometown
of Bethlehem because of famine and came to Moab, a gentile country east of the
Dead Sea. Another Moabite woman by the name of Orpah married Chilon, the other
son of that family. Neither of the women produced any children before the
father and both sons died leaving three women destitute.
Ruth's story
is a prime example of how you can go from nothing to everything if you live a
life of loyalty and selflessness. When the famine abated, Naomi, the matriarch,
decided to return to Bethlehem and entreated her daughters-in-law to remain in
Moab and return to their families. Both of the women wept at the suggestion
wanting to follow her but Orpah consented after further encouragement from
Naomi while Ruth refused to abandon her aging mother-in-law who faced a life of
uncertainty without offspring and opportunity (Ruth 1:15-17). And here begins a
life of loyalty.
Ruth, a
convert, accompanied her mother-in-law to Bethlehem and there gained a
reputation of a virtuous woman in Israel. The entire city of Bethlehem knew how
good she was and told Naomi that Ruth was better to her than seven sons (Ruth
3:11, 4:15).
As the poor
in Israel were accustomed to do, Ruth offered to go gleaning the barley fields
being harvested. Gleaning was in effect gathering any stalks of barley that
fell from the harvesters' hands and that were left on the field for the poor to
gather to save them from starvation. Being new in the area, Ruth, unbeknownst
to her, chose a field that belonged to Boaz, a wealthy relative of Naomi's
husband, but not just any relative. Naomi identified him as the 'next kinsmen’.
This is
where Ruth’s sense of duty, loyalty and care comes into play. Ruth, a young
woman did not seek a man closer to her own age and of her own liking to marry.
She instead heeded the counsel of her mother-in-law and approached Boaz to lay
claim to a 'levirate marriage'. As the 'next kinsmen' it would be his duty to
marry the widowed Ruth and provide her with offspring. This duty would have
fallen to her husband's brother had he remained alive.
What is even
more interesting is that Naomi could have laid this claim herself but Naomi was
too stricken in years to bear more children. If Ruth married and had a son, she
would provide a way for both women to be cared for in their old age. Lucky for
Ruth, Boaz was a good man and was impressed that she was following the
Israelite family law in seeking a rightful husband rather than going after her
own selfish desires. He regarded her proposal as 'a proof of feminine virtue
and modesty by offering herself as a wife to an old man like him rather than
going after young men’. (Ruth 3:10,11)
Ruth, a
converted Gentile, came to Bethlehem empty but was filled in every way. She
went from nothing to everything. By chance that she might have a son, she
married an old man she didn’t know and they had a son, Obed who was the father
of Jesse, who was the father of David, who was the progenitor of Mary, who was
the mother of Christ (Ruth 4:17-22).
By giving
birth to Obed, Ruth brought honour again to her mother-in-law who was left
childless: "And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom and became
nurse unto it. And the women, her neighbours, gave it a name, saying, There is
a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed...." (Ruth 4:16,17).
Thus by her
life's choices Ruth became a symbol of selfless loyalty to be emulated by all the
daughters of God……a loyalty that alleviated the suffering of another…..there is
no greater.
I was tempted my burdens
To lay to Your charge;
I considered them acutely unfair.
Then you opened my heart
And showed me Your godly task,
Beyond human capacity to bear.
Knowing where you had gone
I would never have to go,
I sorrowed and sought
My arrogance to bury;
In humility I assent,
Your mortal burden,
So valiant, so holy,
I would never in this life
Have to carry.
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
