I have just started listening to a great book, titled ‘Breakfast At Sallys’ by Richard LeMieux. What a book! We find out over and over again that amazements are stored in the most unusual places. There is a kind of order and perfection we have come to expect in life but life does not always pan out as expected. Geniuses don’t always dwell in the most dignified bodies, some of them are so awkward and clumsy. Divinity or the creative force has a way of bursting our well organised and ordered arrangement to birth it’s purpose. Mary was pregnant before she got married! Now that is not the way we do things, at least at that time and in that environment. Imagine the ugly glances and the talk around town, but imagine the stress for both Joseph and Mary, Joseph was minded to put away Mary until the Angel appeared, but I can assure you the talk did not end there, it went on and is still going on today, because that is not the way we do things, but that is the way that divinity will have it.
While we are still on the issue of birth, I never cease to wonder why the place where the body discharges its waste is also the part where the greatest miracle of birth takes place. It is also the part where the greatest pleasure known to man is stored. Someone once said, but things could have been separated. We could have but some distance between the different functions. Better still there are some more dignified parts of the body that would appear more appropriate for the job of birthing. But that which seems appropriate to man is not always what is appropriate to God. ‘Kill and eat’ God said to Peter. ‘No Lord!’ Peter replied and added ‘I have never eaten anything unclean or impure. God knew that already, it is the law and Peter was a law abiding man but today divinity is demanding that he breaks the law for purpose. What God had cleansed let no man call unclean. Let us not be righteous over much, but the religious, the Sadducees and the Pharisees can not accept this, can not accept the way of the Lord, the same way they can not accept the birth of the Christ for it is not in accordance with the Law. The Law had been blast into the Waters! Do we then become lawless? Absolutely not! But the Spirit must trump, the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life. Before we Judge we must always find out ‘what is the Spirit saying?’.
Jesus Christ broke the law and healed a man on the Sabbath! Why in God’s name will he do that? Because that is just what God wants him to do. Why would David and those with him eat the consecrated bread given that this was reserved for the Priest? Because that was what had to be done. Why will a Prophet of God marry a prostitute? Because that was how God laid it out for Hosea. Why was it Rahab the prostitute that hid the spies that came to spy out the land? Why was she chosen to be part of the fulfilment of destiny? Because she is! Time and time again, in Scriptures and in life, we see occurrences that do not follow the ordered path becoming the chosen one.
The story of Elijah is one that stays with me, he was fed for some time by Ravens. Now this is not usual, when do Ravens become Meals on Wheels or some kind of Ocado delivery service? whether we understand, gerrit or not, this is the way Elijah was to be fed at that particular period in his life. He has a choice, he accepts and is sustained or he can refuse and starve. He can argue that this is not the way things are done and rightfully so, but for that time in his life that was how things were to be done. Sometimes as we continue in our travel in life the path is not bone straight, it bends, winds, narrows, constrains etc we can insist on going straight ahead irrespective and face the consequences but there are times we just have to curve with the road of life, eat the show bread, kill and eat unclean and impure animals, marry a prostitute and allow the Raven to fed us etc. It is up to each and every one of us to look into our lives and prayerfully consider, who and where are the Ravens ( the unlikelies) chosen to feed us? Let us not be righteous over much, let’s feast at the Master’s table.
Like the waters, be fluid!
Beautiful Ivory 