Tag Archives: The 39 Days of Christmas

Weeping Over the Wayward-The 15th Day of Christmas

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On the 15th day of Christmas my true love gave to me tears over my wayward soul (Lamentations 1:1).

I am a planner. I like to know well in advance if someone wants me to attend an event. I like to take inventory so I can properly plan my event. And I like to already know who is ready to receive me in the event that I don’t have time to plan in advance. Nevertheless, it’s all planning, anticipating that things will go well, the people will come because you have invited them. You don’t have to be an event planner to know that rarely will everyone you invite will show up, no matter how timely your organizing is. But have you ever experienced an entire no show? This may be the reason Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. He cried over the children of Israel not showing up to God’s invitation to holiness and allowing Him to care for their every need:

Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the LORD. A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the LORD their God.
“Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God” (Jeremiah 3:20-22).

God cried over and out to the Israelites so they would return to Him, and they said they would, but they were unfaithful and caused Jerusalem to come to ruin.

How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave (Lamentations 1:1).

Jeremiah is a type of Christ, a prophet who also wept over Jerusalem and her inhabitants:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:37-38).

This weeping is a weeping for all wayward folks who claim Jesus Christ as our very own. Jesus Christ has an open invitation, planned well in advance, before time began, to come to Him so that our lives will go well. He invited us to receive Him as Savior so we spend life after death with Him, but until then He invites us to make Him Lord of our lives. We can, in our strong black woman strength, be our own lords, but God continues to bid us to come to Him. With Him is guaranteed protection, provision, and peace. Jesus Christ invites us to this and so much more. Don’t let Him weep over your waywardness. He has already planned to take care of you, no matter what the issue. Stop thinking, “I got this,” and let God take you under His wings.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

Waiting for Superman-The 16th Day of Christmas

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On the 17th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a promise to punish bad pastors (Jeremiah 23:1-2).

Waiting for Superman is the hotly discussed documentary that highlights America’s failing public education system, features some successful alternative education systems and challenges all to stop waiting for Superman to come fix the schools; we can be super together to devise a system for all children because everyone’s quality of life is at stake. After I watched the film, I was charged up, ready to start an educational Tea Party of sorts. Well, not exactly. Of course, I’d leave out the racism part and the myopic idealism that comes across as racism, but, like the Tea Party being fed up with politics as usual, I wanted to stand up, do my part, to ensure that no child is left behind and is pushed ahead WITH knowledge to succeed. We should all involve ourselves somehow in educational reform, especially ejecting the fat cats who have gained on the backs of America’s children. Their devilish deeds remind me of corrupt pastors in churches who seem to be able to bounce back like a fat cat with nine lives. But God’s word says their day is coming:

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD.

Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD.

Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.

I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness’ (Jeremiah 23:1-6).

God the Father declares that He will take care of corrupt pastors and Jesus Christ, whose name is the Lord is our righteousness (Philippians 3:9), will ultimately “reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” (Romans 15:12; Revelation 19, 22:16). This is Jesus, super beyond Superman, who will handle all systems and peoples of injustice when He returns to earth. Yes, we will wait on Him for their ultimate blow. But until then, there is a lot of work for us to do. So let’s allow Jesus to reign in us, and let us ask Him how He wants us to do our part to tear apart these unsavory systems. We have Beyond Super in us so we don’t have to ever wait for Superman.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

The Ugly Parent-The 17th Day of Christmas

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On the 17th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a face to change my reality (Isaiah 52:14).

Sometimes Sundays make me sad. When I should be continually rejoicing because I get to go to church, worship with the saints and potentially hear a great word (depending on how my 1 year old is acting) I get sad and sometimes feel I just want to stay home. I don’t want to get washed and dressed, get three children washed and dressed, prepare food and feed us, pack diaper bags with diapers, wipes, drinks and snacks, get bibles, coats, gloves and hats, drive to church, unpack the children, take off our coats, take the oldest two to their classes and wait with bated breath until I have to go to the Cry Room to listen to a word from the babies. And all of this, most times, without a made-up face. That’s right, no makeup to cover up eyes that earlier cut across rooms to remind the boys to hurry up and a mouth mentioning that we will be late. I think I would just be better, feel better, if I had a made-up face, but I go plain, often, because taking care of my boys doesn’t allow time for a made-up face.

Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness—(Isaiah 52:14).

Then this comes to mind, a description of what the greatest parent ever, Jesus Christ, would endure: heavy hands from hollowed hearts, cruelty unimaginable that made Him unimaginable (Philippians 2:7-11). Jesus willingly received a face He didn’t want or choose but accepted so we could have a chance at life, a beauty beyond makeup basics with everlasting implications. His face was made up in a different way, beaten and bruised beyond recognition, suffering cruelty and being ugly for you and for me.

For now on Sundays may make me sad but I hope more with the sullen reality of my selfish desire for a face that will never be life-changing.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith

My Beloved-The 18th Day of Christmas

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On the 18th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a love that would ever be true (Song of Solomon 7:10).

God loves us deeply. In the Old Testament the children of Israel were called His bride and so is the body of Christ in the New Testament. Song of Solomon illustrates this deep love, sometimes only fathomable between two lovers. In it we see God’s love for the Israelites and His love to come for the church. This just made me think of how Jesus loves me, personally, and I wanted to share with you a glimpse of our love affair:

My Beloved
You came to me in my whirlwind
Life messed up, thinking I had my stuff together.
But my stuff was spinning, flying high, making me sick when it hit
Chaos taking me in its mix
Tossing me, turning me, preventing me from sitting still to just hear.
You came to me in the whirlwind
Changed it in an instant with your call
Told me I didn’t need to know all about you
That you would show me more about you
If I just trusted you.
And I did
In my bedroom on the side of the bed on the pink bedspread and room with the grey wallpaper.
You heard my doubt but took me out and took me in knowing that you would show me where to begin and YOU.
You, the one who made me and gave me purpose before time began.
The one who commanded light to shine to distinguish day from day’s end
My friend, my beloved, who can melt the earth He made and bring it back together again
YOU
Know
See
Hear
Feel
Carry
Sustain
Love
ME, messy ME
fiercely
deeply
tenderly (and toughly sometimes)
always beckoning me
Come.
I did.
And when I do
I feel beautiful
Wooly locked hair
Light brassy bronze skin
Dark almond-shaped eyes
Within a head you made to house eclectic thoughts
And a boxy frame short and not big enough to contain all your love loving on your lovely me.
There’s a glory in your love that shines in and through my heart.
I can never part from that love, my love, from you, my Jesus, my beloved, my Savior, my Lord, my lover, my friend.

By Rhonda J. Smith
Copyright November 12, 2010

Heart’s Desire-The 19th Day of Christmas

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Eternity is in every man’s heart, a beating desire for the things of this world, placed there from the start so we would start looking for the author of all things beautiful (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Even in the thick of worldly pursuits, our hearts told us and keep reminding us there’s more to life than what we see, someone behind the life that we see. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon knew this person was God, “the one shepherd,” he called him, pointing us to Jesus Christ, who is the Good Shepherd, able to keep those who are His and giving us a better eternity, one with Him.

The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd (Ecclesiastes 12:11).

Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:54).

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

In this life of high pursuits with diminishing pleasure and more pain that we can stand sometimes, I’m glad of the Shepherd who keeps us slow sheep when we stray. “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28). Solomon knew that this world was full of emptiness, a longing for the wrong things, and he gave us the remedy for this.

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). God put in us a desire to pursue Him and I thank Him for the power to turn from our ways and to Him so life can be divinely what it should be.

Copyright 2010 by Rhonda J. Smith