SEASONS - THE KING IS IN THE FIELD

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Oh, how I love the writings of King Solomon in The Song of Songs! In Chapter 6, verse 3, I can read my favorite words from his writings; "I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine."  

When written in the original Hebrew language the first letters of each word form an acronym that spell the month of Elul.  This is the Hebrew month that will be coming up in 2016 beginning with the civil calendar date of September 2nd.  

Elul's acronym, "I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine", illustrates this concept; its first letter, aleph, stands for "I" (in Hebrew, "ani") – and the second letter, lamed, represents, "my Beloved's" (in Hebrew, "ledodi") - God. The meaning of this verse is that of being “face-to-face” in expressing one's love for another. This is the idea that the heart of the giver is entwined with the heart of the receiver and vice versa. There is a reciprocal relationship of this love. Each one has the other's heart.  One cannot help but think of the soon coming return of Christ and wonder how much longer it will be before He returns for His Bride, the Church.

On this last month of the Hebrew calendar, many of us try to focus on the past year of our lives.  

It is a time to bring before our Beloved our misdeeds, mistakes, and wrong actions so that He can show us how we can make changes for the new year to come.  

I have come to look at this act the same way you would look at preparing for a wedding.   How do these shoes work?  What veil should I wear?  Is my dress ready?  What should I keep?  What should I change?  What about all of this is in keeping with my heart for my beloved?  Have I spoken to the groom about everything?  

 If you are engaged to be married, you need to discuss all the skeletons in your closet before the wedding.  You wouldn’t want your loved one to discover these from someone else, or to be surprised and hurt by them after your marriage.  You need to confess everything that your future spouse might not yet have heard about you, so that you will know for certain that all past mistakes are forgiven and forgotten, and you are safe with the one that you have chosen to live your life with.  You MIGHT just be surprised at what they know that you don't know they know!  You would, of course, promise them never to revisit these things.  With the love between the two of you, it is possible to begin a fresh new page of life.

This is how I have learned to speak to my Beloved, Jesus, during the time of Elul.  He knows I am not perfect.  He loves anyway.   

In The Song of Songs Solomon speaks of the conversation that is held between two lovers.  

They are not afraid of one another.  

They are comfortable enough in their love that they can speak of their faults and mistakes.  

They are humble enough and so much a part of each other that one can come to the other and ask forgiveness for things done wrong because this one knows that anything they have done will have an instant effect on the other.  No sin is a sin all alone.  Every sin we commit hurts our Beloved.  

This is a time for the healing of this pain.  Healing begins with honesty and confession.  

Healing always comes before joy.

Elul is definitely a time to say “I want to change for you and never put you through such pain again.”   The honesty, love, truthfulness of this confession only makes the bond of love stronger.  The stronger the bond between lovers, the less likely it will ever be broken.  

It is a time of the weaker seeking strength from the stronger.  There will be encouragement that comes from the stronger lover that will change the spirit of the weaker lover from sadness to joy, from being ashamed to being confident and sure of their love.  

Together they will be capable of things they could never achieve apart from one another.  

All of the conversations in The Song of Songs seem to be very relational.  This is the state we should be in during Elul, a relational state, totally in tune to the desires of the One we love the most, looking to see what He will show us, listening to hear what He will tell us.  

If we are out of step, He will help us pick back up on the beat of the dance through the rhythms of life.   

It is a time of bearing our soul to the only One who truly understands our souls.  He truly loves us as we are, and accepts us with all our flaws; even enough that he would die for us and all our imperfections;  but He has a loving desire to help us change into the person that He created us to be.  

When we seek His face and ask His forgiveness, He loves us, flaws and all.  He reaches out to us to pull us up and help us to change.  

One secret to knowing how to change is that of dwelling on the words of the scriptures that tell us; "I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.”  If you divide this sentence down into two parts you begin to see they each represent a different aspect of our relationship with God. 

The first part:  “I am my Beloved’s” alludes to our main thoughts during Elul, to cry out to God, to communicate our love and loyalty to Him.    This is our speaking.  

The second part; “and my Beloved is mine,’ hints to God’s activity toward us in this time, in which it is possible for a divine revelation to descend upon us from above.  This is our listening.  Good communications involve both speaking and listening.

We speak joyfully to our Beloved during this month, not simply because we are about to begin a new sacred year, but because God is shining forth his attributes of mercy toward us.  

We know that we need to use this time to atone and work on our selves, and God empowers us to do so when we approach Him seeking forgiveness.  

This is the time of us expressing our desire for complete atonement.  At the end of the time, when we reach Yom Kippur, that is the time He expresses His complete desire to atone us, so much that He died to redeem us.  He inspires us and arouses our spirits to awaken to His desires.

There is a beautiful Jewish parable that speaks of this very act.   It is printed below for your reading and meditation:

THE PARABLE OF THE KING IN THE FIELD

A King returns to his city following a long absence. The city's inhabitants stream out to the countryside to greet him. When the king enters the field a new phenomenon occurs. The field equalizes everyone who is found there. Now, for the first time, virtually everyone is empowered and permitted to greet the king. All partitions which usually separate him from the populace are nullified. The king, in turn, graciously receives each and every one. This phenomenon does not take place outside the field. For, within the capital, and surely within the palace, only select dignitaries can access the king.

Is this parable not a beautiful portrait of how Jesus loves us? 

He went up to Heaven to send His Holy Spirit so that we could communicate better with Him and The Father.  So many times when we pray, we are looking up to heaven, seeing him on a royal throne, knowing His kingly power is at work constantly redeeming us, but often it seems we are at a distance, further away than we want to be from Him. We tend to see Him like a King of a city who went away.  We know He is still in control. 

We know He still exists and is coming back, but then one day He does come back!  He walks through the fields of the city.  These are the fields where the common workers toil and labor every day.  This is where they have broken the ground, planted the seeds provided by Him, watered them, weeded them, watched the crop grow to be ripe and ready for harvesting.  The citizens are so proud of the harvest that is just ripe for the picking!  They can’t wait to tell the Master about how beautiful and bountiful it is; then they look up and see Him actually walking through the fields!  They are overcome with joy!  It is Him, The One they have been laboring for all along!  He had returned!  They run to greet him.


As the everyday ordinary people run to great their King who has come down to walk in the field, they all seem somehow the same.  

Their differences are not showing.  

No one is more important.  

No one voice is heard above the other.  

All are equal in the field.  

It is not formal here, like it might be in the royal palace.  No one is announced, or proclaimed.  They all just come toward Him, one at a time, each one special and unique, yet everyone sharing the same honor of greeting the King and having the King recognize them and speak to them of their own particular tasks.

 Here all feel free and comfortable to discuss the physical aspects of the harvest with the King.  Who would know more about harvesting than a King who is also A Creator?  Who could possibly know more about preparing for a good harvest?  

They drink in His advice.  

They sit at His feet to listen to His instructions.  

They freely admit their mistakes and short-comings to Him because they can look into His eyes and see how much He loves them.  It is not hard.  They are not afraid.  They all feel safe. 

The King looks happier here, in the field among the people of His city, maybe even happier than He ever looks on His Royal Throne.  He is glad to be here.  Is it not what He has purposed to do all along?  He is smiling and gracious and generous.  He uses the ordinary existence in the field to explain to all the important principles of His Kingdom and here in the field the lowest realms of existence are transformed into a dwelling place for a King.  

Everyone is excited to know that The King is in the field! 

It is the strangest thing to think about, but even when the King is walking through the field, the primary mundane matters of life must still be carried out!   

It is a time for pausing, but not stopping.  

It is a time of reflecting while still working.  

In our daily lives we concern ourselves with many activities that are not in and of themselves holy, but these things are performed “for the sake of the King.”  Now when we see the King walking through the field, He may stop and talk to us of our activities.   We find out that “little things” are very important to Him.  

He has noted everything, every action, every task that we have done during the times of the seasons before the harvest.  They HAVE mattered to Him.  

He has not overlooked us, or forgotten us when we could not see Him or reach out and touch Him.  He has noticed every little thing!   Suddenly we recognize that in seeking His will in all things, we have made a part of our world His dwelling place, a place where He may come down and walk with us, even in our imperfections, even into the day-to-day activities of “the field.”

Hence, to continue looking after the field of The King in the best possible manner, during Elul we chose to put special emphasis on study of the Holy Scriptures and prayer, because even while The King is walking through His field, we recognize that it IS His field and we honor Him by continuing on with our work for Him. 

THE PASTOR'S WIFE SPEAKS - BECOMING A GRANDMOTHER-IN-TRAINING

Wow, I’m a grandmother in training! 

We are in baby shower mode at our house right now.  

Things have surely changed since I was a young girl.  Not only that; I have noticed that my own experiences at this “motherhood” thing came about in a quite different way than that of my gorgeously attired and perfectly put together daughter’s experiences will be.  We both have experienced, or will be experiencing, a lot of the same feelings and emotions regarding making a home and raising children; but in quite different ways.  I think about this a lot as I watch the progression of her young life unfold and as I see her step into motherhood.  I am amazed at the studies of contrast that I see, and I am reminded that it is often these contrasts that make life more interesting and less boring.  Wisdom reveals itself in a whole new light when you are not following the typical patterns.  

When I married her Dad both he and I were recovering from very destructive divorces.  It was a miracle that either of us could be brave enough to venture into the land of the married again.  We had both enjoyed perfectly planned weddings with all the teas and celebrations; then came the unhappy ever after part of going on to live what turned out to be hellish nightmares in both of our former marriages.  Finally the reality checks came crashing down and two people who did not believe in divorce found themselves walking down that long lonely road.  I was walking it alone, but he had four children all under nine years of age.   The two youngest were twins.  One of those twins is now expecting our first grandchild.   I’m still not sure how we even had time to meet, much less date. 

In contrast to our story, my daughter (from our marriage) finishes school and meets her prince; love at first sight.  They plan their dream wedding, neither of them ever having the blemish of a mistake in their past.  My heart is overwhelmed with gratitude toward God for guiding them so safely and surely.  What a contrast, and I'm glad for her that it turned out this way!

My husband was a very good father and it was quite a job raising four very young and active kids.  Also, for me when it came to dealing with the children, an ex-wife was automatically a part of the package.  It has not been easy for me always having to deal with another woman in making important choices and decisions for them, especially since the two of us have never agreed on anything.   I was raising them daily in our home and dealing with the day-to-day of life, yet she could step right in and cause total chaos whenever she chose to do so.  That part of life required lots of prayer and patience.  It required putting the peace of the children first every time.   I'm sure it felt as stressful on their birth mother's end.   I’m most grateful that my daughter will never have to encounter this type of stressful situation.  I thank God for bringing us all through it without too many injuries and wounds, and I thank God that my grandchild will never have to chose between spending time with her mommy or her daddy.  A broken bridge has now been repaired through the marriage of our daughter to a good man and with the birth of their first child begins a healing direction for the whole family.  We are truly blessed in ways that only we would be able to see, and only we could truly appreciate.      

Getting back to the contrasts between our experiences and the next generation's experiences in our family; I have to also remember how hard the road had been for me after the time from my divorce until I met the right man and married for the last time. Being the hard working career woman that I was, I should have known to stand up for my financial rights in the divorce, but like a million other women who always wanted to believe the best of their mate, I let someone who didn’t care a bit about me walk away with every earthly possession that I had worked very hard to attain.  I should have put up a fight, but I was emotionally unable to do so.  I felt quite wasted after the process was over.  Even worse were the things that money could not buy.  Time and love are the two most precious possessions we have.  They should never be taken for granted or wasted.   After that sad experience, I found myself starting life over with a lot of debts which I had nothing to show for.   My point in bringing up this painful statement from very long ago is that I felt robbed and also felt I had nothing material to offer back in the way of remarriage.  All I had to offer was me and my problems, that was it!  Somehow God took all that brokenness and used it to help form four wonderful lives.  I may have wasted some of  the first of my days and it was true I had nothing to show for them, but I learned quickly.  I had everything to show for the last part of my life; and they were walking and talking and moving in amazing ways.  It was a concept of motherhood that my daughter will not realize, but she will also know something that I cannot know in the process of actually giving birth and creating new life.  Even our blessings stand in contrast, yet they flow together to create God's masterpiece He painted and called our family.  Not one brush-stroke could be changed and give us the same wonderful results that have developed.   The contrasts have only made us more beautiful.

Somehow my husband of the last 21 years found me and loved me in spite of my sad circumstances.  We knew it was meant to be, but this was truly a marriage, not a show for the world to watch.   Neither of us were about playing, entertaining or putting up a front.  Life was brutally honest.  We were in the trenches together night and day doing that survival dance that people always have to do eventually.   It wasn't easy to put it together while he was paying almost everything he had in child support and I was trying to pay down a mountain of debt with nothing to show for it.  

We got married by the Justice of The Peace in a small-town county courthouse with four small children as the witnesses.  We had to save for three months just to have enough extra money to buy the marriage license.  Things were that tight financially.   We would have liked a nice little wedding with all our family and friends, and we used to say we were going to have a ceremony one day to repeat our vows in a church full of friends when we got a little extra money.  Little did we know there would always be mortgages, doctor bills, school fees, braces, huge grocery bills, constant car pool expenses, taxes, cars for us as well as four children starting out their working lives, insurance for six for a long period of time, then college, teas, showers and weddings for all.  Now we are in baby shower mode.  It all suddenly seems like a blink and all the things that I thought would be very hard to pull off don't seem so hard any more.  God keeps His clock and we all keep making the circle and it all works out.  We only move forward, we never move back.

Don’t misunderstand this, we’ve enjoyed every moment!  Not one second even of the hard times would I ever think of giving back.

Yet, it is just SUCH a study in contrast to look at  how we started out and how my daughter who is now expecting started out that I am sometimes held in awe of the whole picture that is being painted.  

I remember my parents looking at us in amazement as we sat down in their living room and gave them the news that we were going to marry.  No one expected much of either of us after our past problems, and everyone around us could only see how hard it was going to be.  I doubt any one thought we would survive the odds.  Instead of a shower or tea, we got lots of free advice from well meaning friends.  We started in the minus zero mode and had nothing between us but determination.  Our honeymoon happened in the little cottage we rented  to live in for $425 a month, and the days off only lasted through the weekend.  My husband had to go right back to work and so did I.  There was one highlight in it all that I will ever be grateful for.  The little group of office workers I worked with were very kind to us.  They gave me a surprise luncheon/shower at work one day.  They treated me to a meal in one of the nicest restaurants in town and everyone came.  They had all gone in together to buy many pieces of dinnerware from a china pattern that I loved and had already started collecting.  I took my elegant new china home to our tiny little rental and we had a candlelight dinner in our cozy little cottage.  It was great!  We always felt blessed.  I will never forget that generosity from those sweet people.  It meant more to me than all the extravagant teas and showers of my first marriage.  It was a sweet moment in time that will always be a good memory.

Somehow we never got around to that simple elegant little party for ourselves where we would repeat our vows in front of everyone; but we have not spared a dime on making sure our children had those things and those special moments.  I’ve been amazed at how we have been provided by God just what we needed whenever we really needed it to do the important things that we wanted to do.   

Our simple little courthouse wedding with a flat tire to change on the way in a broken down car so greatly contrasts with the four hundred person wedding and the renting of a chapel and a museum for the reception for one of our daughter’s weddings.  She had every little detail she wanted, right down to the last little exotic flower color, then she moved into a perfect first house, with a perfect diamond ring on her finger and of course, her groom stepped right up into a management position with his company right after the wedding.  They went on a trip to Europe for their honeymoon and have been back again over the first three and one-half years of their marriage.  They sold the perfect little house and bought a perfect larger house in a sweet little community to raise a family.  They quickly hired an interior designer and furnished the house with perfect furnishings that went right along with all the designer things they received as wedding presents.  They now enjoy living in a perfect little community that will offer all the advantages that a neighborhood should offer to a growing family, and of course, they are doing this in the style they enjoy.  There have been no compromises.  They are both driving good cars to their management positions at work every day and planning how to schedule enough off-time around the multitude of friends who are gathering to give them several baby parties where they will receive lovely and extravagantly luxurious gifts.  They will delight in putting all of the new things into the newly and perfectly decorated nursery once the precious little one arrives.      

Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand the facts here.  I realize all of this perfection took a lot of planning and hard work on their part.  I know it wasn't always that easy and magical as it seems.  They live in real life in a real world just like the rest of us.   They work hard long hours at real jobs.  Keeping the world perfect at all times requires a great deal of thought, energy and time.  They have also been very creative and thoughtful about certain things.  I’m very proud of all their hard work and planning; yet  I still find myself simply amazed at how different it was for us in starting out our own marriage.   I keep thinking about the contrasts of our life styles, yet how both of us have turned out to be happy couples.  It is a great mystery that only God could explain!  There seems to be no magical five step program to happiness.   No rhyme, no rhythm, no pattern or design.  There is only one common denominator that always comes up.  Love equals happiness and joy.

After our courthouse marriage we rented a tiny little cottage in a small college town and my husband struggled to move ahead in his career.  We furnished the house by shopping yard sales and second hand stores.  It was cozy and clean and we have fond memories of being there.  When we gained full custody of the children, not long after we were married, we needed a bigger place to live.  We bought a small three bedroom house in the country and planned to build two bedrooms ourselves in the unfinished basement to save money and yet still have the space we needed.  We worked very hard to attain our standard of living with almost everything being supplied with a lot of  labor, patience and hard work.  Nothing ever came easy and starting out with a full house in the beginning, we were never able to get ahead.  We grew our own garden back then, and all our clothes came from second hand stores and the goodwill.  We picked them out carefully, so nobody ever knew  or even noticed this.  Our whole house was furnished from used furniture that other people were getting ready to discard; still it was cozy and clean and it always felt like home.  No one ever gave a thought to how the furniture was attained.  No one ever worried that every thing didn't appear to be the next shot for a magazine cover.  Thank God there was no Pinterest in those days!  It would not have mattered though because a computer was a great luxury and it was a long time before we bought one of those.

Now, I am looking at the whole different world, my daughter is starting her family in.  She will have those magic moments after the birth of her baby where they take those lovely black and white photos of Mom and Dad looking in wonder at their first child.  I'm sure they will give us one on some special occasion and we will cherish it.   I'm very happy for her to have this!  I'm amazed and happy to know that her life just keeps unfolding like the pages from a fairy tale, and again, I see the contrasting way that we both have walked into the profession of motherhood.

 Suddenly, overnight, I had eight large eyes looking up at me every morning.  They were already realizing that I would now be the person to furnish their every need.  They had the ability to talk; but had not yet developed the ability to reason.  It was a bit overwhelming.  I barely knew them; but I loved them.  I closed my eyes, lifted up a prayer and dove into the busiest life any woman could ever imagine.  It all worked out simply because we all had that magic ability to love.  That factor is the one thing, the beautiful common thread that I share in the motherhood experience with my daughter so far.  I know she will love her children with all her heart.  If I had to pick the one common ground for both of us to share in the world, I would have chosen this same one all over again.  It is love that makes every situation work out in the end, no matter how rich or poor, ignorant or intelligent, young or old, perfect or imperfect  you are.  It is the love of God that He deposits in the heart of every human being that walks the earth who is willing to reach down deep and express it to others.  It is only love that really counts, and in that one thing we have no contrasts.  

My daughter lives in a very indulgent world.  It would be easy to become self-centered and plastic in that world; but she has remained true to the values that we instilled in her as a child, and she has not forgotten how to be thoughtful, thankful and to show love to others all along the way.  She is still generous and kind and giving, only now she has more to be generous with.  That tells me that even though we did not always have the picture perfect “Better Homes and Gardens” life as she was growing up, something more valuable went on with her growing up time in our home that “took” and some of it will spill over from her, her husband, and us to our soon coming grandchild.  It melts my heart and gives me hope.   My joy is full as I stand in a place where all walls of contrast have slowly dissolved and disappeared by the love and care around them.    

So it is with that thought that I planned her baby party.   Baby parties are something foreign to me.  I never had one, and I’ve never given one before.   I received all four of my children overnight with nothing but a garbage sack full of crumpled and ratty clothes to go with them.    

I enter the world of baby parties a complete novice.   I actually did not originally think it would be proper for me to even do this thing, but I am told and was assured by all concerned  that the rules have changed drastically and mothers, step-mothers, grandmothers, and mother-in-laws are often the ones handling the parties these days for their expectant daughters.  So be it - on with the fun.  

I also learned that It is not fashionable these days to say “shower” or “tea” , did you know that?  It must be “party” and every activity must be gender neutral, meaning that both sexes should be invited to attend the party and participate.  

I have, as I've addressed and  issued almost 75 invitations to sweet, thoughtful and caring people, kept the “love” factor in mind.  I have followed the fashion and trends of this generation’s demands, and I have been amazed at how much people have spent on items that will only be used less than a year in a baby’s lifetime.  No second hand items for this little girl!  I promise you she will only have the best.  

But I have a few grandmother tricks up my sleeve that money can’t buy and time can’t steal away.  

It will be a good “party!”  I'm so very proud of our daughter and son-in-law, and I simply can't wait to meet our new granddaughter!

God is so good.  Especially to grandmothers!