Category: Advent 2022 – Love Story

Advent is over at last and tomorrow Christmas will be here. What joy we will have opening gifts and being with family and friends. But take time for one last thought about the One we wait for.

June 20, 1942…no, my father did not write to his parents the day after their wedding! However, my grandfather wrote to everyone in the family giving a lengthy description of the joy shared by all on that day. A brief excerpt from my grandfather’s letter: “The great day has come and gone and I think it could hardly have been lovelier…There was a processional hymn in place of the wedding march, and as we clergy came into the chancel, it gave us a thrill to hear such a volume of singing.”

In the wedding ceremony, the vows state “until death do us part.” My mother died over 40 years ago. A year later, my father remarried a dear woman we all love and call Grandy. And then, after almost 35 years in that second marriage, my father died. Dad and Mom’s love affair is over and so is this series of Advent devotionals, but “God’s Love Story” continues. No such promise of “until death do us part” is necessary at the wedding supper of the Lamb. In heaven, there is no death. Nothing will ever be able to part us from our Bridegroom! You see, God’s love story is eternal. It will never end.

At Christmas, we sing carols and celebrate the long-awaited arrival of Jesus, but one day in the future, we will celebrate with joy when we attend the wedding supper of the Lamb. As we conclude “God’s Love Story,” I recommend you listen to a special love song, a hymn sung by the bride to her eternal Groom as she walks down the aisle… “Love Divine, all loves excelling.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud5a7P-Wmao

PS…I am also attaching a photo of my mother and father on their wedding day!

Thanks for sticking with me. Only one more day of Advent. Christmas is almost here!

During the month before their wedding in mid-June, both Dad and Mom faced additional stress above and beyond making plans for the wedding ceremony. Dad took his final exams at his seminary, graduated first in his class (tying for that spot with his roommate), faced his ordination exam, and then planned for his ordination into ministry.

For her part, my mother had to wrap up her teaching for the semester. Her visa permitting her to stay in the USA was expiring. Would Uncle Sam kick her out right after the wedding? But she had the extra stress of worrying about her parents back in Ireland: Due to WWII shortages growing worse by the day, as my dad explained to his parents, “they no longer have coal [for heat], all private cars are off the road [no gas]…The worst part is the long queues of poor people waiting at bread shops. The bread is just black bread and no flour to be available until June or July.”

Somehow, in that month, Dad did graduate and was ordained, Mom finished teaching her classes, and her parents survived the war. And, the wedding went forward!

Christmas is coming. We have no idea what feelings went through Jesus in that final week before He was born. Labor and delivery is a traumatic experience for both mother and child. But we do know that Jesus experienced stress in His final week of life on earth. He bore the pressure of knowing Judas was about to betray Him. Guards beat, mocked and spat upon Him. He faced a farce of a trial. Nails pierced His hands. Acts 2:25-27 reveals some of His emotions: “I see that the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad, and my tongue shouts his praises! My body rests in hope. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.” His body waited in hope.

As we have already seen, being a believer does not exempt any of us from the stress and problems of life. Yet we too can have hope!

Christmas is only three days away! Hold on tight as we near the climax of “God’s Love Story”!

Each year, my son John offers a theme in his weekly reports from Rockville, MD. One year each letter to family offered a new word to learn, another year there were jokes each week. This year there is a favorite hymn mentioned in each letter. Do you have a favorite hymn? My mother had one.

On April 28, 1942…my father wrote, “I had to laugh at the reason we aren’t having the Lohengrin wedding march. I always thought it was rather nice, but Joan tells me that Aunt Bess doesn’t like the way the story turns out!! However I shall be just as happy with a hymn for her entrance though I’ve never heard of it being done before.”

After reading this letter, I had to do some research. The traditional wedding march (think, “Here Comes the Bride”) was originally from the Lohengrin opera by Richard Wagner. Because Wagner’s work did not honor a bride’s trip to a Christian altar but was sung to the pagan bride as she was escorted to her bridal chamber, the Catholic church discouraged the music’s use in church weddings.

In addition, the story of the bride and groom ends in typical Wagnerian tragedy rather than happily ever after. Thus, my mother requested that she might process instead to the music of a familiar hymn, something unusual at that time but she started a tradition that I followed in my own wedding.

Newlyweds do not have guarantees about how their marriage will turn out. Some marriages are joyful, but others often end in tragedy or divorce. Thankfully, we know how the story for believers comes out…and it is no tragedy! In Revelation 21:4, at the wedding supper of the Lamb, we learn that the Lord “will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Now listen to the hymn my mother chose: “For the Beauty of the Earth,” including its verse about human love….

Do you find that sometimes time passes slowly (like for children waiting for school vacation), but other times the days fly by (like parents trying to prepare for Christmas visitors)? Thank you for returning here each day to join us as we learn about “God’s Love Story.”

My father and mother were engaged for over a year. It must have seemed that time crawled by, but many busy months intervened between the second half of 1941 and the start of 1942. During this time, my father was completing his final year of seminary in New York. He gained experience by preaching at small churches. Meanwhile, my mother taught at a small private school and completed her semester courses at Harvard in New England. In the Spring of 1942, they were at last busy making plans for their June 19th wedding and investigating sites for the honeymoon. Dad’s letters to his parents were full of these daily activities. Still their love remained as an undercurrent.

Jesus too faced all the demands of daily life. He had to eat and sleep, to bathe and walk from place to place. He had only three years to teach his disciples but they were constantly interrupted by people who asked to be healed and other people who wanted to argue. Did those years fly by or were there some slow times also? In Matt. 12:15, Jesus withdrew from the area where people wanted to kill Him, but other people followed him. In Luke 5:15,16, we read, “despite Jesus’s instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.” He never complained about the intrusions. After all, these were the people He came to save.

Our love of Jesus does not remove us from the obligations of daily life. We still have to eat, sleep and work. But His love is always there as an undercurrent sustaining us through toil and stress. If you find time is rushing you today and your plans are interrupted, thank God for stepping into your day.

Thank you for returning here faithfully each day as we prepare our hearts for Christmas and to see more of “God’s Love Story.”

Will you be apart from some members of your family during the holidays? Does that prompt sadness at your end? Some family members may have already passed on to Heaven, as my husband did two years ago. It seems like part of us in missing.

July 14, 1941…During the summer, my father spent several months studying in Ohio and thus was apart from Mom who was back in Massachusetts. The separation was difficult for each of them. Dad wrote about a party that he attended at the home of friends where he was the odd man out. “I felt very incomplete without Joan [when I was] among all these young married couples.”

In Col. 2:10, St. Paul says, “So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” And he wrote to a similar message to the Ephesians (3:17-9): “Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

I would feel incomplete without my Savior…I’m so thankful He is with me always. Do you feel the same way?

Will you gather with family for Christmas? For some people, this is is a difficult event, marked by tension and even abuse. I think that many people have never heard about “God’s Love Story.”

One of my former clients from the pregnancy center once told me that when she married, she looked forward to taking on her husband’s name. She had not been able to choose her original birth family or any of the foster families where she grew up, but marriage offered my client her first chance to choose her own family. With World War II in full swing, my father had no opportunity to meet my mother’s family until after the wedding, but his future wife met his parents and siblings. They welcomed her into their home.

Though the letter for today is undated, it occurs in chronological order…my father jotted a brief note to his parents: “[Joan] wrote such a happy letter about [her visit with Mother and Father] last weekend and I think you must have been lovely to her – her descriptions of everything were so true to life that I almost felt as though I had had a visit with you all too.”

In Christ, we become part of God’s family. Not just a niece or nephew, not a distant cousin, but children and heirs of the Kingdom. Romans 8:14-17 tells us, “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.”

We do not need to fear abuse as an enslaved person might, but we are welcomed into the family as heirs! How do we offer a welcome when we meet new members of God’s family?

Only one week left until Christmas arrives. Only one more week to complete the story of my father and mother’s engagement, but we will need all of eternity to grasp the fullness of “God Love Story”!

Weddings rings have deep significance. For hundreds of years, a Roman woman received only a simple wedding band made of ivory or iron or copper or even bone. The ring was a mark of ownership. (Not very PC in our culture!) A thousand years later, the engagement ring entered the picture. And diamonds and jewels did not appear on these rings for another 500 years. A diamond has a natural beauty with all its facets and planes reflecting the light, but, being the hardest of gems, it also represented the enduring nature of a relationship. My father chose to have a family diamond reset in a ring for my mother.

April 2, 1941…he wrote, “I gave Joan the ring last evening which I think greatly delighted her – and it does look well on her, if I do say so.” Dad laughed when “Joan’s friend, Daisy Nixon, put on her dark glasses when she heard Joan was coming down to show her the engagement ring.” My father gave my mother a diamond because he planned to be with her for a long time!

Way back in the book of Genesis, God gave His people a sign of His enduring commitment. He had just caused a flood to destroy all of humanity except for Noah and his small family on the ark. In Gen. 9:11-13, he told Noah, “I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will flood waters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.” Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is a sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth.”

I find it interesting that God chose to give us His whole heart but only half a ring – an arc – to show His commitment. What sign do we offer as a symbol of our commitment to Him? Does it glitter for all to see?

Tomorrow is Sunday. I hope you will be able to join God’s family in worship at your church, but I also hope you’ll take time right now for another thought in our series on “God’s Love Story.”

Going to church was important for both my father and mother as they prepared for marriage. My mother grew up as a Methodist while Dad was planning to follow his father into ministry in the Episcopal church. Yet they were united by their faith in Christ,

March 18, 1941…continued: One Sunday, they enjoyed being able to attend church together. “Joan came over for the 11:00 o’clock service and I sat with her in the congregation – which created quite a stir and much turning of heads and curious glances, especially from the young people in the choir. Everyone seems to notice us – especially in the subways, and I enjoy seeing their faces light up as they look at Joan.”

Dad was not threatened by people paying attention to my mother. In similar fashion, John the Baptist too never pointed people to himself but to the coming Messiah. In John 1:15, John cried aloud, “This is the man I meant when I said, ‘He comes after me, but he takes rank before me.’” And he repeated this just a few verses later: When Jesus walked by, John told his followers, “There is the Lamb of God; it is he who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I spoke when I said, ‘After me a man is coming who takes rank before me.’”

We can be happy and proud of our relationship with God’s Son. As He grows greater, we must grow less. Are you walking in a way that causes others to take their eyes off you and see only Jesus?

Welcome back to this Advent series of devotionals about “God’s Love Story.”

Ordering Christmas gifts on line is a challenge for me. I am so thankful that my daughter helps me navigate the mysteries of Amazon.com! We all need people in our lives who can advise us when perplexed. During their engagement, my father and mother were no different. Dad was studying in New York and Mom in Massachusetts. My mother’s parents were over 3000 miles away in Ireland. There were many decisions to be made. Phone calls were prohibitively expensive. Wartime mail service was unpredictable. Communication with those she loved was difficult.

March 18, 1941… Dad continued his letter home, “All her life, I imagine, [Joan] has looked to her father for advice, and I know that she misses him greatly.”

Did Jesus ever feel the same way? He traveled not across a mere ocean but moved from heaven to earth, he stepped from eternity into time. What was it like for Jesus not to sit at His Father’s side in the same way as before His incarnation? Jesus looked to the Father for guidance as He spent a night in prayer. Which of all the men he had met should be among the Twelve? He was still dependent upon the Father.

In John 5:19,20, Jesus told the Jews, “The Son can do nothing by himself; he does only what he sees the Father doing; what the Father does, the Son does, for the Father loves the Son and shows him all his works, and will show greater yet to fill you with wonder.” And just a few verses later, he added, “I cannot act by myself; I judge as I am bidden, and my verdict is just, because my aim is not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

What big decisions lie ahead of you in the New Year? Need some good advice? Step aside from all the rush of this season and spend some extra time in prayer as Jesus did.

Are you so busy that you might forget to enjoy this season of Advent? Slow down, take a deep breath, relax, and consider another aspect of “God’s Love Story.”

March 18, 1941…on this date, my father wrote to his parents about a recent visit with Joan. “We had such a good time this weekend, and I love Joan more and more every minute that I am with her – so much so that at times it almost hurts.” They were busy shopping and preparing for a wedding during a period of wartime rationing and shortages, but their joy was still very evident. As they walked up 5th Avenue after looking at settings for rings at Tiffany’s, Dad wrote, “We happened to meet Jerry Beekman and his mother, to whom I introduced Joanie…His mother afterwards remarked that she had never seen anyone look so obviously happy as we did!”

True happiness simply bubbles over and can’t be suppressed. One of my favorite verses is Zephaniah 3:17. “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

There are several Hebrew terms for “joy” in that verse but the one I love is, “he will rejoice over you.” Picture a father holding on to the arms of his young son and spinning the child around in circles in the air. The child whoops with joy and the father laughs out loud. That joy bubbles over and infects all who watch them. As John the Baptist said of Jesus, “That joy, that perfect joy, is now mine.”

Let others see your joy today as you walk with Jesus.