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I didn’t want to pray today. Palm Sunday, right? I don’t know why I didn’t want to pray, I just didn’t. Yet, it was time to sit down and do it. I could think of a lot of things I’d rather do at this moment. (But I’m sure you’ve never been in that frame of mind, have you? Have you?)

Even so, I figured I’d do it. After all, I had my prayer list, and I thought that since I really didn’t want to get into it with God today, I’d just pray the list.

God, of course, wasn’t having any of that. As soon as I with opened the channel, (you know, bowed my head, closed my eyes and said, “Our Father. . .) focusing, ever so slightly on God, He spoke to me. Frankly, it surprised me a bit. I figured if I didn’t have a thing of substance, of real thought, of real intention to say to Him, neither would He pay any attention to me.

I was wrong. He unloaded on me immediately. (I find that frequently to be the case.) He told me to put down the list and just listen. Very shortly several related thoughts came to me. First in line was, “Am I a Child of the King?” Why did I think that? Well, many times, I think that I am a pretender and not a child of His. I say this because of sins I have committed.

In a short running conversation between God and me going on in my mind, He said, “Of course, you’re a Child of the King.” I argued, “But I have sinned, I am a sinner, and I deserve damnation!” He replied, “Yes, you have sinned, but I have forgiven you. Yes, you are a sinner – but a sinner saved by Grace. So, don’t worry about your immortal soul, I’ve got that.”

I realized, somewhat shockingly, that in fact, I WAS a Child of the King. I didn’t get there by not sinning, and I don’t stay there by not sinning. This is true for two obvious reasons. First, I do sin and I will sin. If it were left up to me to keep my status by not sinning, I would not keep it, or as the Old Preacher said, “I’d bust Hell wide open.”

Secondly, and more importantly, I’m a Child of the King because the King loved me and adopted me. He made me so. I’m not totally sure why. I suppose it has to do with His undying love for humans. In fact, this week, Holy Week, we’ll mark just how far He went to make that happen.

That being so, I should do my best to be worthy of my status, though, in some regards, that is a fool’s errand, but, it’s not for my sake, but, for His. It is my task and honor to uphold His name because I now bear it.

That’s the other thing God said to me, “You’re a Child of the King, now, just act like it. No rules, no commandments, no lists, no plaques, no stone engravings, just act like you’re a Child of the King. If you do that, the rest – the “doing” – will fall into place. Not because you CAN do it, you cannot, but because I say so.”

I’m sitting here in a lawn chair, in the driveway, subject to a newly-minted “Stay at Home” order, 70 years old, a church member for about 63 of those years. And this, all of a sudden, is the most astonishing assurance that I can remember receiving! As the former televangelist, Ernest Angley would say, “Amazing, amazing!”

Yes, it IS amazing. And, despite my bent toward hubris, it’s not because I earned anything, but because God said so. And HE is AMAZING.

Because His Name is “Amazing,” and because I bear that name, should I endeavor to be anything less? I think not. Will I achieve this? Again, I think not. But, by His “Amazing Grace,” I’m a Child of the King and I’ll act like.

I almost wrote, “… and I’ll try to act like it.” But then I thought of a quote from Yoda, the Jedi master, “Try not – do.”

So let it be written, so let it be done.

I didn’t want to pray today. Palm Sunday, right? I don’t know why I didn’t want to pray, I just didn’t. Yet, it was time to sit down and do it. I could think of a lot of things I’d rather do at this moment. (But I’m sure you’ve never been in that frame of mind, have you? Have you?)

Even so, I figured I’d do it. After all, I had my prayer list, and I thought that since I really didn’t want to get into it with God today, I’d just pray the list.

God, of course, wasn’t having any of that. As soon as I with opened the channel, (you know, bowed my head, closed my eyes and said, “Our Father. . .) focusing, ever so slightly on God, He spoke to me. Frankly, it surprised me a bit. I figured if I didn’t have a thing of substance, of real thought, of real intention to say to Him, neither would He pay any attention to me.

I was wrong. He unloaded on me immediately. (I find that frequently to be the case.) He told me to put down the list and just listen. Very shortly several related thoughts came to me. First in line was, “Am I a Child of the King?” Why did I think that? Well, many times, I think that I am a pretender and not a child of His. I say this because of sins I have committed.

In a short running conversation between God and me going on in my mind, He said, “Of course, you’re a Child of the King.” I argued, “But I have sinned, I am a sinner, and I deserve damnation!” He replied, “Yes, you have sinned, but I have forgiven you. Yes, you are a sinner – but a sinner saved by Grace. So, don’t worry about your immortal soul, I’ve got that.”

I realized, somewhat shockingly, that in fact, I WAS a Child of the King. I didn’t get there by not sinning, and I don’t stay there by not sinning. This is true for two obvious reasons. First, I do sin and I will sin. If it were left up to me to keep my status by not sinning, I would not keep it, or as the Old Preacher said, “I’d bust Hell wide open.”

Secondly, and more importantly, I’m a Child of the King because the King loved me and adopted me. He made me so. I’m not totally sure why. I suppose it has to do with His undying love for humans. In fact, this week, Holy Week, we’ll mark just how far He went to make that happen.

That being so, I should do my best to be worthy of my status, though, in some regards, that is a fool’s errand, but, it’s not for my sake, but, for His. It is my task and honor to uphold His name because I now bear it.

That’s the other thing God said to me, “You’re a Child of the King, now, just act like it. No rules, no commandments, no lists, no plaques, no stone engravings, just act like you’re a Child of the King. If you do that, the rest – the “doing” – will fall into place. Not because you CAN do it, you cannot, but because I say so.”

I’m sitting here in a lawn chair, in the driveway, subject to a newly-minted “Stay at Home” order, 70 years old, a church member for about 63 of those years. And this, all of a sudden, is the most astonishing assurance that I can remember receiving! As the former televangelist, Ernest Angley would say, “Amazing, amazing!”

Yes, it IS amazing. And, despite my bent toward hubris, it’s not because I earned anything, but because God said so. And HE is AMAZING.

Because His Name is “Amazing,” and because I bear that name, should I endeavor to be anything less? I think not. Will I achieve this? Again, I think not. But, by His “Amazing Grace,” I’m a Child of the King and I’ll act like.

I almost wrote, “… and I’ll try to act like it.” But then I thought of a quote from Yoda, the Jedi master, “Try not – do.”

So let it be written, so let it be done.

To Be or to Do? That is the question.
To-Do lists, calendars, daily planners, schedulers – ad infinitum. Sometimes it seems that these control our lives. We are not our own. More importantly, we are not God’s. We spend our lives doing. Have we forgotten that rather than “to do,” God calls us “to be?”

Maybe that’s not your experience, I’m going to pray today that it is not. But I must confess that it is my experience. Even in my retirement, I have allowed myself to be ruled by things causing me to forget how to simply be.

May I remind you – an especially myself – we as Christians, are first “be-ers” of the Word? Since my time as a boy in Vacation Bible School, I have made James 1:22 my life’s verse. Paraphrased and truncated as it was for me, it read, “Be ye doers of the word.” Somehow, I left off the remainder of the verse and took it out of context. In context it says:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror, and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it-not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:22-25 NIV.

Even back to the beginning, God created the first people first to “be” before they were to “do.” Notice closely that while they were immediately given tasks “To Do,” they were first given “To Be.”

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Remember in Luke 10:38-41 Jesus visited the house of Martha in Bethany?

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10”38-41 NIV.

Which one did Jesus approve? Mary, of course, the one who merely sat at his feet listening.

Among Jesus’ last words to His disciples, one finds this passage in John 14.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” . . . “If you love me, keep my commands.” John 14:6,7,15 NIV.

Love is an act of doing, but first, may I submit that it is a state of being. “We love [Jesus] because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. Paul reflects this notion in 1 Corinthians 13 when he says that if we do all sorts of wonderful things but don’t have love, we are just making a loud noise that attracts the attention of the world but not of God. Note that “have” is a passive verb.

Here is the summation. N.T. Wright says that God created people in Genesis to reflect Who God is back to Himself and to people. We can only reflect God out of who we are (Be.) This “Be-ing” is first received from God. If we do out of this who we are or who we “be,” only then can our actions reflect God to the world.

On the contrary, if we “be” out of what we reflect or do, then we reflect only ourselves and place ourselves firmly in the stream of the world rather than in the Will of God.

“To be” is what God first called us to do, and that “be-ing” is the thing He first approves. See the example of Mary, supra.

A cartoon saying from the 1960s has always stuck with me. “Tooter” was the brash and headstrong old turtle from the show “King Leonardo and His Short Subjects.” He always got himself into trouble by trying to be someone like else.

In every adventure, Mr. Wizard, the Wise old lizard had to rescue Tooter by saying, in a middle European accent, “Tootor, Tooter, alvays I tell you, ‘be chest vat yooss iss und not vat yooss iss not, causs dose vat tus iss ze happiest lot.”

Please know that I have prayed that each of you will “be” before you “do,” and I have prayed individually as God led me for each of you and your church or mission. May God bless you today as all days.

In Jesus’ Name, I pray, AMEN.

Perhaps, we could add to that assessment of the “labeling issue” the notion that when we label a person or label ourselves, we dehumanize such person. Regrettably, for us, dehumanization is exactly the opposite of the reason why Jesus came to be with us and remains with us.

He, being fully God,  came to be with us becoming fully human. What label should we put on that? The only label that comes to mind is “love.” ” For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…” John 3:16. 

Conversely, when we have compassion for someone, even ourselves, it is much more difficult to place a label on such a person. (And this from a psychotherapist!) While everyone else in the world knew this, it came as a revelation to me, Captain Obvious – at your service. 

I tend to be an inwardly judgmental person even if I do not express the judgment to others. I’ve heard it said that if you remain silent, people may think you a fool, but if you open your mouth, you may remove all doubt. 

That being said, I am even much more judgmental of myself than of others. Referring back to my therapist friend’s comment, this means that my capacity for compassion is limited. As we might say in politically correct jargon, I find myself “compassionately challenged.” 

Over the years, I have blamed this on my mother and my grandmother, (true, hardcore South Alabama Southern Baptists from the old school. ) Thus, I reason, it’s not my fault. 

My therapist friend, as well as most of you, would submit that while they may (or may not) have been a “labeling influence,” to label vel non, is a choice I have made. To put it into theological terms, while they may or may not have sinned, I bear no responsibility either way. Contra wise, if I don the righteous robe of the judge, I also snap the steel-shanked shackles of the sin.

The “Good News” that there is a remedy for both the sin and the psychosis. This can be remedied by volitionally choosing to see people as people and by choosing to have compassion on them. In other words to paraphrase an old wristband, “What DID Jesus Do? You all know the answer better than I. You have demonstrated that in your ministry time and time again. 

When I have compassion upon someone, I will cease to be judgmental of that person. God make it so. 

So let it be written, so let it be done. 

The final chorus of the 1967 Shel Silvestein’s song, “The Unicorns,” informs:

You’ll see green alligators and long-necked geese,
Some humpty-backed camels and some chimpanzees,
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you’re born,
You’re never gonna see no unicorns.

The song says that God made unicorns at the time He created the other animals, and that they were His favorites owing to their beauty. However, when Noah’s flood came, the unicorns didn’t make it on the ark. And that’s why today there are no unicorns.
The poetic truth of that not withstanding, some of us spend the greater portion of our lives believing in unicorns, hoping against hope that the beautiful perfection they embody will come to the fore in our lifetimes. Fruitlessly we think that we will discover it or better still, bring it about.
Last week, as I was cleaning out a badly neglected room, I found hanging on the wall, a lovely framed artist’s rendering of a unicorn. I don’t know why I even had it or when it was acquired. For a then-undiscovered reason, I decided that it was time to give the unicorn away to my 7-year-old granddaughter as she is in a “unicorn period.”
I am usually loathe to throw things away, and the discard weighed on my mind. Upon reflection, I wondered if my giving away the unicorn was less for hygienic reasons and more for psychological ones. Was I just tired of looking at it, or had I finally quit believing in unicorns?
Here, the unicorn represents either something that is believed in but does not exist or alternatively, it represents something that once existed but is now no longer believed in.
Could it be that the Apostle Paul wrote about unicorns millennia before Shel Silvestein? Let me explain and re-frame the question beginning in the theological and ending in the practical.
In the famous chapter on love, I Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul wrote:
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 1 Corinthians 13: 8-10 NASB.
The perfect has been variously interpreted by scholars much more learned than I. However, may I suggest that in a sense, the perfect could refer to the unicorn?” To explain this bizarre interpretation, may I submit the following?
Some of us erroneously believe that the perfect will come in our lifetime, a time when everything will be fixed, all the ills of the world will be healed, and all of the mean people will be changed into veritable angels. We will experience Heaven on earth – Nirvana.
Experience, hard won and scarred physically, emotionally, and spiritually dictates that this is not the case. This is a difficult pill to swollow because to come to the realization that this is not the case is to admit to ourselves that we are failures, that nothing we have done counts for anything in a lasting sense, and that the world will be as it is when we are gone – unchanged and unapologetic. That conclusion compels us to abandon our belief in unicorns.
Or…
To conclude that we won’t fix everything is to come to the “grown – up” realization they we are human. We are not God. We did not, in fact, create anything, we have no control over anything, we cannot fix anything.
The Apostle finishes 1 Corinthians 13 thusly:
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; [but] when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 NASB.
In his earlier life, Paul believed in unicorns, but when he met the LORD that day on the road to Damascus, his eyes saw the world differently forcing his beliefs to make a radical shift. More importantly, Paul saw himself differently. He realized that he was a broken man living in a fallen world, knowing with the prophet Isaiah, that he was living “among a people of unclean lips…” This realization came only because his new “eyes [had] seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Isaiah 6:5 NIV.
But God didn’t leave Paul (or Isaiah for that matter) mournfully singing the song from “Hee Haw,” “Gloom, despair and agony on me; Deep dark depression, excessive misery…”
Rather, God gave Paul, Isaiah, and us a vision of reality, the reality the since He, God, is in charge, we don’t have to try to be. It’s not our job to create, control, or fix anything. It’s our job only to look to Christ and to realize that “13… now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV. Jesus said,
Come [unto] me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 NIV.
When we allow God to give us the realization that an earthly unicorn, ie. perfect peace achievable through the efforts of people, including us, is an illusion, He shows us that “when the perfect (Christ) comes” there will be “peace on earth [and] good will toward men.”
Obviously, that time is not yet come, BUT IT WILL COME in God’s time. All we have to do is to love Him. How do we do that? By loving our fellow people.
Again Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, [the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the strangers, and the prisoners,] you did it for me.” Matthew 25:40 NIV.
It is true that we do not live in the “Age of Aquarius” with “sympathy and trust abounding” when “peace will guide the planets.” No, we live in a better Age, the Age of Christ, the King. The “now and the not yet.”
Believing that we live in a better age is infinitely superior to the belief in unicorns because it is reality not fantasy. Christ’s reality renders that of man not only a lie, but an unworthy lie. Realizing the truth, we can sing with Horatio G. Spafford:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
This is my prayer for you today.
The final chorus of the 1967 Shel Silvestein’s song, “The Unicorns,” informs:
You’ll see green alligators and long-necked geese,
Some humpty-backed camels and some chimpanzees,
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you’re born,
You’re never gonna see no unicorns.
The song says that God made unicorns at the time He created the other animals, and that they were His favorites owing to their beauty. However, when Noah’s flood came, the unicorns didn’t make it on the ark. And that’s why today there are no unicorns.
The poetic truth of that not withstanding, some of us spend the greater portion of our lives believing in unicorns, hoping against hope that the beautiful perfection they embody will come to the fore in our lifetimes. Fruitlessly we think that we will discover it or better still, bring it about.
Last week, as I was cleaning out a badly neglected room, I found hanging on the wall, a lovely framed artist’s rendering of a unicorn. I don’t know why I even had it or when it was acquired. For a then-undiscovered reason, I decided that it was time to give the unicorn away to my 7-year-old granddaughter as she is in a “unicorn period.”
I am usually loathe to throw things away, and the discard weighed on my mind. Upon reflection, I wondered if my giving away the unicorn was less for hygienic reasons and more for psychological ones. Was I just tired of looking at it, or had I finally quit believing in unicorns?
Here, the unicorn represents either something that is believed in but does not exist or alternatively, it represents something that once existed but is now no longer believed in.
Could it be that the Apostle Paul wrote about unicorns millennia before Shel Silvestein? Let me explain and re-frame the question beginning in the theological and ending in the practical.
In the famous chapter on love, I Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul wrote:
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 1 Corinthians 13: 8-10 NASB.
The perfect has been variously interpreted by scholars much more learned than I. However, may I suggest that in a sense, the perfect could refer to the unicorn?” To explain this bizarre interpretation, may I submit the following?
Some of us erroneously believe that the perfect will come in our lifetime, a time when everything will be fixed, all the ills of the world will be healed, and all of the mean people will be changed into veritable angels. We will experience Heaven on earth – Nirvana.
Experience, hard won and scarred physically, emotionally, and spiritually dictates that this is not the case. This is a difficult pill to swollow because to come to the realization that this is not the case is to admit to ourselves that we are failures, that nothing we have done counts for anything in a lasting sense, and that the world will be as it is when we are gone – unchanged and unapologetic. That conclusion compels us to abandon our belief in unicorns.
Or…
To conclude that we won’t fix everything is to come to the “grown – up” realization they we are human. We are not God. We did not, in fact, create anything, we have no control over anything, we cannot fix anything.
The Apostle finishes 1 Corinthians 13 thusly:
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; [but] when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 NASB.
In his earlier life, Paul believed in unicorns, but when he met the LORD that day on the road to Damascus, his eyes saw the world differently forcing his beliefs to make a radical shift. More importantly, Paul saw himself differently. He realized that he was a broken man living in a fallen world, knowing with the prophet Isaiah, that he was living “among a people of unclean lips…” This realization came only because his new “eyes [had] seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Isaiah 6:5 NIV.
But God didn’t leave Paul (or Isaiah for that matter) mournfully singing the song from “Hee Haw,” “Gloom, despair and agony on me; Deep dark depression, excessive misery…”
Rather, God gave Paul, Isaiah, and us a vision of reality, the reality the since He, God, is in charge, we don’t have to try to be. It’s not our job to create, control, or fix anything. It’s our job only to look to Christ and to realize that “13… now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV. Jesus said,
Come [unto] me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 NIV.
When we allow God to give us the realization that an earthly unicorn, ie. perfect peace achievable through the efforts of people, including us, is an illusion, He shows us that “when the perfect (Christ) comes” there will be “peace on earth [and] good will toward men.”
Obviously, that time is not yet come, BUT IT WILL COME in God’s time. All we have to do is to love Him. How do we do that? By loving our fellow people.
Again Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, [the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the strangers, and the prisoners,] you did it for me.” Matthew 25:40 NIV.
It is true that we do not live in the “Age of Aquarius” with “sympathy and trust abounding” when “peace will guide the planets.” No, we live in a better Age, the Age of Christ, the King. The “now and the not yet.”
Believing that we live in a better age is infinitely superior to the belief in unicorns because it is reality not fantasy. Christ’s reality renders that of man not only a lie, but an unworthy lie. Realizing the truth, we can sing with Horatio G. Spafford:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
This is my prayer for you today.
The final chorus of the 1967 Shel Silvestein’s song, “The Unicorns,” informs:
You’ll see green alligators and long-necked geese,
Some humpty-backed camels and some chimpanzees,
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you’re born,
You’re never gonna see no unicorns.
The song says that God made unicorns at the time He created the other animals, and that they were His favorites owing to their beauty. However, when Noah’s flood came, the unicorns didn’t make it on the ark. And that’s why today there are no unicorns.
The poetic truth of that not withstanding, some of us spend the greater portion of our lives believing in unicorns, hoping against hope that the beautiful perfection they embody will come to the fore in our lifetimes. Fruitlessly we think that we will discover it or better still, bring it about.
Last week, as I was cleaning out a badly neglected room, I found hanging on the wall, a lovely framed artist’s rendering of a unicorn. I don’t know why I even had it or when it was acquired. For a then-undiscovered reason, I decided that it was time to give the unicorn away to my 7-year-old granddaughter as she is in a “unicorn period.”
I am usually loathe to throw things away, and the discard weighed on my mind. Upon reflection, I wondered if my giving away the unicorn was less for hygienic reasons and more for psychological ones. Was I just tired of looking at it, or had I finally quit believing in unicorns?
Here, the unicorn represents either something that is believed in but does not exist or alternatively, it represents something that once existed but is now no longer believed in.
Could it be that the Apostle Paul wrote about unicorns millennia before Shel Silvestein? Let me explain and re-frame the question beginning in the theological and ending in the practical.
In the famous chapter on love, I Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul wrote:
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 1 Corinthians 13: 8-10 NASB.
The perfect has been variously interpreted by scholars much more learned than I. However, may I suggest that in a sense, the perfect could refer to the unicorn?” To explain this bizarre interpretation, may I submit the following?
Some of us erroneously believe that the perfect will come in our lifetime, a time when everything will be fixed, all the ills of the world will be healed, and all of the mean people will be changed into veritable angels. We will experience Heaven on earth – Nirvana.
Experience, hard won and scarred physically, emotionally, and spiritually dictates that this is not the case. This is a difficult pill to swollow because to come to the realization that this is not the case is to admit to ourselves that we are failures, that nothing we have done counts for anything in a lasting sense, and that the world will be as it is when we are gone – unchanged and unapologetic. That conclusion compels us to abandon our belief in unicorns.
Or…
To conclude that we won’t fix everything is to come to the “grown – up” realization they we are human. We are not God. We did not, in fact, create anything, we have no control over anything, we cannot fix anything.
The Apostle finishes 1 Corinthians 13 thusly:
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; [but] when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 NASB.
In his earlier life, Paul believed in unicorns, but when he met the LORD that day on the road to Damascus, his eyes saw the world differently forcing his beliefs to make a radical shift. More importantly, Paul saw himself differently. He realized that he was a broken man living in a fallen world, knowing with the prophet Isaiah, that he was living “among a people of unclean lips…” This realization came only because his new “eyes [had] seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Isaiah 6:5 NIV.
But God didn’t leave Paul (or Isaiah for that matter) mournfully singing the song from “Hee Haw,” “Gloom, despair and agony on me; Deep dark depression, excessive misery…”
Rather, God gave Paul, Isaiah, and us a vision of reality, the reality the since He, God, is in charge, we don’t have to try to be. It’s not our job to create, control, or fix anything. It’s our job only to look to Christ and to realize that “13… now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV. Jesus said,
Come [unto] me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 NIV.
When we allow God to give us the realization that an earthly unicorn, ie. perfect peace achievable through the efforts of people, including us, is an illusion, He shows us that “when the perfect (Christ) comes” there will be “peace on earth [and] good will toward men.”
Obviously, that time is not yet come, BUT IT WILL COME in God’s time. All we have to do is to love Him. How do we do that? By loving our fellow people.
Again Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, [the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the strangers, and the prisoners,] you did it for me.” Matthew 25:40 NIV.
It is true that we do not live in the “Age of Aquarius” with “sympathy and trust abounding” when “peace will guide the planets.” No, we live in a better Age, the Age of Christ, the King. The “now and the not yet.”
Believing that we live in a better age is infinitely superior to the belief in unicorns because it is reality not fantasy. Christ’s reality renders that of man not only a lie, but an unworthy lie. Realizing the truth, we can sing with Horatio G. Spafford:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
This is my prayer for you today.
The final chorus of the 1967 Shel Silvestein’s song, “The Unicorns,” informs:
You’ll see green alligators and long-necked geese,
Some humpty-backed camels and some chimpanzees,
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you’re born,
You’re never gonna see no unicorns.
The song says that God made unicorns at the time He created the other animals, and that they were His favorites owing to their beauty. However, when Noah’s flood came, the unicorns didn’t make it on the ark. And that’s why today there are no unicorns.
The poetic truth of that not withstanding, some of us spend the greater portion of our lives believing in unicorns, hoping against hope that the beautiful perfection they embody will come to the fore in our lifetimes. Fruitlessly we think that we will discover it or better still, bring it about.
Last week, as I was cleaning out a badly neglected room, I found hanging on the wall, a lovely framed artist’s rendering of a unicorn. I don’t know why I even had it or when it was acquired. For a then-undiscovered reason, I decided that it was time to give the unicorn away to my 7-year-old granddaughter as she is in a “unicorn period.”
I am usually loathe to throw things away, and the discard weighed on my mind. Upon reflection, I wondered if my giving away the unicorn was less for hygienic reasons and more for psychological ones. Was I just tired of looking at it, or had I finally quit believing in unicorns?
Here, the unicorn represents either something that is believed in but does not exist or alternatively, it represents something that once existed but is now no longer believed in.
Could it be that the Apostle Paul wrote about unicorns millennia before Shel Silvestein? Let me explain and re-frame the question beginning in the theological and ending in the practical.
In the famous chapter on love, I Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul wrote:
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 1 Corinthians 13: 8-10 NASB.
The perfect has been variously interpreted by scholars much more learned than I. However, may I suggest that in a sense, the perfect could refer to the unicorn?” To explain this bizarre interpretation, may I submit the following?
Some of us erroneously believe that the perfect will come in our lifetime, a time when everything will be fixed, all the ills of the world will be healed, and all of the mean people will be changed into veritable angels. We will experience Heaven on earth – Nirvana.
Experience, hard won and scarred physically, emotionally, and spiritually dictates that this is not the case. This is a difficult pill to swollow because to come to the realization that this is not the case is to admit to ourselves that we are failures, that nothing we have done counts for anything in a lasting sense, and that the world will be as it is when we are gone – unchanged and unapologetic. That conclusion compels us to abandon our belief in unicorns.
Or…
To conclude that we won’t fix everything is to come to the “grown – up” realization they we are human. We are not God. We did not, in fact, create anything, we have no control over anything, we cannot fix anything.
The Apostle finishes 1 Corinthians 13 thusly:
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; [but] when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 NASB.
In his earlier life, Paul believed in unicorns, but when he met the LORD that day on the road to Damascus, his eyes saw the world differently forcing his beliefs to make a radical shift. More importantly, Paul saw himself differently. He realized that he was a broken man living in a fallen world, knowing with the prophet Isaiah, that he was living “among a people of unclean lips…” This realization came only because his new “eyes [had] seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Isaiah 6:5 NIV.
But God didn’t leave Paul (or Isaiah for that matter) mournfully singing the song from “Hee Haw,” “Gloom, despair and agony on me; Deep dark depression, excessive misery…”
Rather, God gave Paul, Isaiah, and us a vision of reality, the reality the since He, God, is in charge, we don’t have to try to be. It’s not our job to create, control, or fix anything. It’s our job only to look to Christ and to realize that “13… now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV. Jesus said,
Come [unto] me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 NIV.
When we allow God to give us the realization that an earthly unicorn, ie. perfect peace achievable through the efforts of people, including us, is an illusion, He shows us that “when the perfect (Christ) comes” there will be “peace on earth [and] good will toward men.”
Obviously, that time is not yet come, BUT IT WILL COME in God’s time. All we have to do is to love Him. How do we do that? By loving our fellow people.
Again Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, [the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the strangers, and the prisoners,] you did it for me.” Matthew 25:40 NIV.
It is true that we do not live in the “Age of Aquarius” with “sympathy and trust abounding” when “peace will guide the planets.” No, we live in a better Age, the Age of Christ, the King. The “now and the not yet.”
Believing that we live in a better age is infinitely superior to the belief in unicorns because it is reality not fantasy. Christ’s reality renders that of man not only a lie, but an unworthy lie. Realizing the truth, we can sing with Horatio G. Spafford:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
This is my prayer for you today.

As a part of my annual pledge to my church, I pledged to pray for the church its staff and ministries on Mondays. With God’s help, I begin the satisfaction of that pledge today.

“Behold, Wise Men from the East Came,” John’s 2019 Christmas story is attached hereto. Did you ever wonder who were the “Wise Men from the East,” commonly referred to as the Magi? Were there exactly three? From where did they come? Why did they come? How did they travel to Jerusalem and these onward to Bethlehem? Where did they acquire their precious gifts?

In this year’s story,” Poppi,” the loquacious grandfather takes his two”flaxen-haired granddaughters for a long walk in a hayfield and discusses such matters.

Of all John’s Christmas stories, this may be the midst readable. It certainly has fewer footnotes, and it needs no glossary.

I challenge you to read this story to your young children. Maybe, they’ll learn something. Maybe, you will, too

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See also the following if you are a member.

https://www.academia.edu/s/57c9233a32