There's a plenitude of beautiful language in the Bible....metaphors, similies, allusions and more... I think you can find just about every kind of literary device there is in God's Word. And that's as it should be, isn't it? Such powerful words and pictures of God's grace.
I recently read the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke and was struck at the end by Zechariah's hymn he sang - appropriately - after receiving back his voice. He began telling of the things his baby son John would do to prepare the way for Christ. At the very end he tells of God's tender mercy and how very soon the sunrise would visit the earth to bring light to those lost in darkness, to those sitting beneath the shadow of death. What a great picture of the coming of Christ... a sunrise. I like the word the King James version uses even better: dayspring...the springing of the day.
Almost every morning I'm up before the sun simply because that's the way my body is made. On a good morning when the sun begins to rise I'm reading the Bible or a devotion book and sipping hot, strong coffee in my chair that faces a large window looking out to our backyard. I can't actually see the sun itself for all the trees and the northerly slant of my window, but I know it's beginning to march that ancient track across the sky by the way the world begins to ever so gently light up.
And isn't that how so many of us have experienced the coming of Christ into our lives? There was no great flashing, blinding light for me. No scales on my eyes that had to be prayed over before falling away. No. It was a calm and slow lighting up of my life. Not a harsh and piercing laser beam, but an ever invading, and all encompassing, light that unquestionably chased away the cold darkness of night. Like the sunrise, Christ gave me the chance to adjust my eyes to His brightness, to His truth. He has been a gentle lover of my soul.
And He's still rising, still bringing more and more light into my life. Yes, shadows remain lurking in the corners, pooling up under the trees. Shadows that cause the darkness of fear to leap into my heart. But with the sunrise comes the promise of high noon when all the darkness and all the shadows will disappear. So, like the birds outside my window each morning, I will lift my voice and sing.
"...because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:78b-79
May our feet be guided into the way of peace, bloggy friends ~
I recently read the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke and was struck at the end by Zechariah's hymn he sang - appropriately - after receiving back his voice. He began telling of the things his baby son John would do to prepare the way for Christ. At the very end he tells of God's tender mercy and how very soon the sunrise would visit the earth to bring light to those lost in darkness, to those sitting beneath the shadow of death. What a great picture of the coming of Christ... a sunrise. I like the word the King James version uses even better: dayspring...the springing of the day.
Almost every morning I'm up before the sun simply because that's the way my body is made. On a good morning when the sun begins to rise I'm reading the Bible or a devotion book and sipping hot, strong coffee in my chair that faces a large window looking out to our backyard. I can't actually see the sun itself for all the trees and the northerly slant of my window, but I know it's beginning to march that ancient track across the sky by the way the world begins to ever so gently light up.
And isn't that how so many of us have experienced the coming of Christ into our lives? There was no great flashing, blinding light for me. No scales on my eyes that had to be prayed over before falling away. No. It was a calm and slow lighting up of my life. Not a harsh and piercing laser beam, but an ever invading, and all encompassing, light that unquestionably chased away the cold darkness of night. Like the sunrise, Christ gave me the chance to adjust my eyes to His brightness, to His truth. He has been a gentle lover of my soul.
And He's still rising, still bringing more and more light into my life. Yes, shadows remain lurking in the corners, pooling up under the trees. Shadows that cause the darkness of fear to leap into my heart. But with the sunrise comes the promise of high noon when all the darkness and all the shadows will disappear. So, like the birds outside my window each morning, I will lift my voice and sing.
"...because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:78b-79
May our feet be guided into the way of peace, bloggy friends ~
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