Morning devotions
I’m using Kilby’s room. When God calls me in the morning, I am leaving the comfort of my own room, the temptation of my own bed, the sweetness of the sleeping Warmth next to me, and taking myself to Kilby’s room. On her bed is my big, old NKJV, her book on Martin Luther’s instruction on prayer, and her copy of Dr. Reymond’s The Lamb of God.
The bed is still made up in the plaid sheets Adriana used last week, the sheets I bought at the thrift store for Nonnie’s room which she did not like. I was distracted for a few moments in the midst of my devotion to the Lamb and Our Father this morning by looking up at the morning light coming in at the window. I have the blinds open on the top half, but I have pushed the slats downward on the lower half for privacy. So the half light was coming in and settling on the three picture frames on Kilby’s east wall, arranged closely together, but not in lock step; and the light reflected in slanted parallel lines on the glass of the pictures echoed the plaid in the bed underneath me, the plaid in the green and white seat cushion on her oak ladder-back chair that was carelessly positioned between the bed and the east wall.
I delighted in the design, the notes of color and light, the patterns, the composition of it all (remembering the ambiguous instruction of my early art teachers about how the eye is moved from one element to another), and I thought of Susan’s growing delight (not that it has just begun, but it is getting pushed ever deeper, ever more meaningful) in music composition, and I then thought of Kilby’s gift with word and words. And my heart rejoiced in God our Savior, God our Creator, for His gifts to us.
From this morning’s reading: Dr. Reymond, in the first chapter “The Lamb Prophesied: Genesis 3:15, 21" teaches of Christ’s destructive work: “Latent then in everything the Bible affirms about Christ’s ‘Lamb work’ is the motif of his conquering, destructive work conducted against Satan and his demonic forces!”
Pausing to reflect on what I was reading I looked up and noticed that Kilby had pasted on the underside of the shelf above her bed an index card with Mark 6:31: And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. Now I have learned not to guess what is in Kilby’s mind ever, but I was thankful for the pictures in my mind of her late at night, tucked in bed, reading her Greek New Testament or some other book by the light of her bedlamp. And I am thankful that God has given her this large and spacious room, her ivory tower, in which to pray and meditate and write and exercise and live.
And then I wondered if she is getting the time for devotions as I assumed she would at Shannon’s. It occurs to me now that perhaps she is living the life of the busy mother, there being little time for quietude and solitude. If that were the case I would tell her about Evelyn McAlister’s admonishment to me back when Kilby was a baby and I was complaining about how I never had time for meeting with the Lord anymore. I compared my life then to my life in my twenties when I had rich daily communion with God in His Word. Evelyn suggested that that rich decade had built up my reserves, like the seven years of abundance under Joseph’s management, that I might be fed those busy years of young motherhood from the storehouse, not from the fields.
There was also a card, slipped in under the first card. Curious, I pulled it out and read the Latin for Psalm 118-10, 11. All nations surrounded me, But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. They surrounded me, Yes, they surrounded me; But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. Now, I am really curious, notwithstanding degenerated conversations about mushroom clouds... Kilby, why are you learning it in Latin? And what about this passage signifies to you especially?
The bed is still made up in the plaid sheets Adriana used last week, the sheets I bought at the thrift store for Nonnie’s room which she did not like. I was distracted for a few moments in the midst of my devotion to the Lamb and Our Father this morning by looking up at the morning light coming in at the window. I have the blinds open on the top half, but I have pushed the slats downward on the lower half for privacy. So the half light was coming in and settling on the three picture frames on Kilby’s east wall, arranged closely together, but not in lock step; and the light reflected in slanted parallel lines on the glass of the pictures echoed the plaid in the bed underneath me, the plaid in the green and white seat cushion on her oak ladder-back chair that was carelessly positioned between the bed and the east wall.
I delighted in the design, the notes of color and light, the patterns, the composition of it all (remembering the ambiguous instruction of my early art teachers about how the eye is moved from one element to another), and I thought of Susan’s growing delight (not that it has just begun, but it is getting pushed ever deeper, ever more meaningful) in music composition, and I then thought of Kilby’s gift with word and words. And my heart rejoiced in God our Savior, God our Creator, for His gifts to us.
From this morning’s reading: Dr. Reymond, in the first chapter “The Lamb Prophesied: Genesis 3:15, 21" teaches of Christ’s destructive work: “Latent then in everything the Bible affirms about Christ’s ‘Lamb work’ is the motif of his conquering, destructive work conducted against Satan and his demonic forces!”
The Seed’s ‘conflict work’ is primally depicted a few verses later in Genesis 3:21 when Yahweh God took the skin of a single animal and made garments for the naked pair who were experiencing the shame of physical nakedness that ss only the external reflex of the internal nakedness of the sin-burdened mind before God. This divine activity points up the truth that Adam and Eve were not wrong in seeking a ‘covering’ (Gen. 3:7). Where they went wrong was in seeking a covering in their works rather than seeking God’s forgiveness that is grounded in the Seed’s ‘conflict work’ depicted by the animal skin. For that is precisely what the skin depicted: a sacrifice for sin, becoming thereby the first tangible depiction in history of the Lamb slain from the creation of the world....Thus begins the history of the Old Testament Messianism and more specifically the doctrine of God’s Lamb slain for the sins of his elect, both of which run right through biblical revelation. I f one will get right the principles of redemptive theology that are set forth in Genesis 3 it will help him to stay away from doctrinal error as he moves through the rest of Scripture.
Pausing to reflect on what I was reading I looked up and noticed that Kilby had pasted on the underside of the shelf above her bed an index card with Mark 6:31: And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. Now I have learned not to guess what is in Kilby’s mind ever, but I was thankful for the pictures in my mind of her late at night, tucked in bed, reading her Greek New Testament or some other book by the light of her bedlamp. And I am thankful that God has given her this large and spacious room, her ivory tower, in which to pray and meditate and write and exercise and live.
And then I wondered if she is getting the time for devotions as I assumed she would at Shannon’s. It occurs to me now that perhaps she is living the life of the busy mother, there being little time for quietude and solitude. If that were the case I would tell her about Evelyn McAlister’s admonishment to me back when Kilby was a baby and I was complaining about how I never had time for meeting with the Lord anymore. I compared my life then to my life in my twenties when I had rich daily communion with God in His Word. Evelyn suggested that that rich decade had built up my reserves, like the seven years of abundance under Joseph’s management, that I might be fed those busy years of young motherhood from the storehouse, not from the fields.
There was also a card, slipped in under the first card. Curious, I pulled it out and read the Latin for Psalm 118-10, 11. All nations surrounded me, But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. They surrounded me, Yes, they surrounded me; But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. Now, I am really curious, notwithstanding degenerated conversations about mushroom clouds... Kilby, why are you learning it in Latin? And what about this passage signifies to you especially?
posted by Compleat Mom at 8:45 AM
2 Comments:
So what if you didn't have those years of rich daily communion and you don't have as much in your storehouse? I am struggling with this. I miss QT but rarely get it nowadays. If I get up really early I find myself too tired for it to have any benefit. *sigh*
Tina, the Lord is our Shepherd, we shall have no want. He has promised us to meet our daily need. Our need is for Him, whether we get to greet Him as we'd like or not. And He is very much with us. A pastor's wife taught me to pray as I went about my daily tasks. And Martin Luther told his barber: "It may well be that you have some tasks which are as good or better than prayer, especially in an emergency. There is a saying ascribed to St. Jerome that everything a believer does is prayer, and a proverb says, 'Those who work faithfully pray twice.'This can be said because believers fear and honor God in their work and remember the commandment not to wrong anyone, or to try to steal, defraud, or cheat. Such thoughts and such faith undoubtedly transform their work into prayer and a sacrifice of praise." More later.
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