COME AS A CHILD LESSON 111 - THE CHILD THAT WAS DRAWN OUT OF THE WATER

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

We are told in Exodus chapter two that a man from the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son.  The people of God were still living in Egypt under the bondage of slavery.  It was a very bad time to be pregnant with a son.  They were all being killed by Pharaoh’s orders.  The Egyptian astrologers had seen a sign in the sky that had predicted the birth of a leader that would deliver the Israelites out of Egypt's bondage.  Pharaoh did not want this to happen.  He felt threatened by every Israelite boy that was born after this prediction by his wise men and he was determined to kill them all.  One little boy survived. 

Before we speak of this very special son; what do you remember about the tribe of Levi?

Levi was one of Jacob’s twelve sons.  Levi had three sons; Gershon, Merari and Kohath.  Kohath had four sons:  Uzziel, Hebron, Izhar and Amram.  Amram is the man from the tribe of Levi spoken of in the previous sentence.  He was the father of the little boy who survived. 

Amram married Jochebed.  Some of the ancient writings proclaim that Jochebed and Shiprah, the head midwife, were the same person.  We have no way of knowing if this is correct or incorrect.  There are scrolls that have been found that some think show good evidence.   The same writings suggest that Jochebed was a good bit older than Amram and that she was actually his aunt, and Gershon’s daughter.  The marriage to one’s aunt would not have been wrong in this time period – the commandments forbidding this had not yet been given, so she is not without honor because of this.  This history also could be wrong information; we have no way to know for sure, but some writings seem to point this way.  A few scripture passages here and there lead you to believe this is probably true.  You can study and decide for yourself.  It does possibly answer one question though, the question that asks why God would have left out the name of the mother of Moses.  Perhaps He did not.  Perhaps Shiprah and Jochebed were the same woman with both Hebrew and Egyptian names.  It seems logical.   

 Amram and Jochebed had three children; and the oldest was a daughter named Miriam.  There is historical evidence to suggest that Miriam served along side of her mother as a mid-wife.  Many believe she was the same as Puah.  If this is true, both the mother and the sister of Moses would have been named in the scriptures and not overlooked.  It seems logical, but we do not know for sure. 

The other two younger children of Amram and Jochebed were boys named Aaron and Moses.  Aaron was the oldest and he was born before the prophesy came which caused Pharaoh to kill all the boy babies of the Hebrews.

Moses was born on the 7^th of Adar during the times of the slaughters.  It is significant to note that Moses also died 120 years later on this same day.  As a matter of fact, many significant things happened on this particular month of the calendar that coincided with Moses birth and death.  If you want to follow an interesting trail of events go back through history and study the things that happened to the Jewish people during the month of Adar.   It is quite a study.

As stated earlier, it was prophesied by the Egyptian prophets that a liberator of the Hebrew people would be born and Pharaoh felt threatened by this prophecy and did all within his power to see that every male child under two years old died during this time period. 

Moses was born during the time of the slaughter of the innocent babies by Pharaoh.  The midwives did not kill him in the birthing process.  There are stories and legends stating that when he was born the whole room became filled with a great light and the midwives knew he was destined to become a great leader.  

When his own mother first saw him she too instantly knew that he was a fine child with a destiny; so she hid him for three months.  

The time came when she could hide him no longer.  All of the Hebrew women had been told to throw their babies into the river after birth.  If they did not obey this order, the soldiers of Pharaoh’s army would come and kill the children before their eyes.  They could only keep the girls, but the boys were destined to drown in the Nile. 

Jochebed decided not to throw her baby into the water with no protection.  She got a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch.  It was like a little ark and one has to wonder if Jochebed had studied the story of Noah and was using all she knew of the story of the flood to save her youngest child. 

The Hebrew word for “ark” is “teba” and this word is seen only twice in the holy scriptures, once speaking of the flood of Noah’s time and again in the passage that speaks of Jochebed making the basket for Moses.  She covered the basket with tar and pitch just like Noah covered the ark and she made him to be safe in the little basket that floated on the water.  The word “teba” has a connection with the meaning of “salvation from waters.” These are the same words we often use when describing water baptism.  People say they are “saved” from the cleansing of the water.  We know they are delivered by the miracle of the power of God, just as Moses experienced.  All of these things have a water connection.

 Moses Mother placed him inside the basket and put the basket among the reeds along the banks of the Nile River.  Surely she was hoping that some miracle might happen and her son would survive.  

The baby’s sister (Miriam) stood off at a distance, just watching to see what would happen to her little brother.

It was a very hot day and Pharaoh’s daughter Bithya came walking beside the cool of the river.  

She intended to cool herself by taking a bath in the waters of the Nile. 

Her maids attended her. 

 As she prepared to bathe, she suddenly heard the cry of a small child.  She turned around to see the basket containing Moses.  

She thought him very beautiful and she was intrigued with the child.  

She understood that he must be one of the Hebrew children condemned to death, but she wanted to keep the baby for herself. 

Some of Bithya’s maidens tried to nurse the baby, but he would not take their milk and he continued to cry.  Miriam came out from the bushes and offered to find a Hebrew nurse for the child, one that could keep him for the princess and feed him until he was weaned.  Bithya liked this idea and Miriam ran home and brought back her own mother and presented her to the princess as a nurse.

By this great miracle Moses was left in the care of his own mother for the next two years, with Bithya visiting often and becoming more and more attached to the child.  

Finally, she told Pharaoh about the boy she had found and adopted and her father did not object.   By that time the astrologers told Pharaoh that more than likely the one who was appointed according to the stars had already drowned in the waters of the Nile and the time had passed for his birth. 

Pharaoh was over his paranoia for a little while and he agreed for Bithya to take Moses into the palace at the end of two years.  

That is how Moses, a Hebrew slave’s male child came to be raised as a Prince of Egypt.  

All the people of the land knew him to be the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.     His name “Moses” meant “I drew him out of the water.”  

SEASONS - GO GREEN FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Thursday, March 17, 2016 is St. Patrick's Day!  

Do you always wear green on St. Patrick’s Day?  Did you know that originally at the first celebrations the color was actually blue?  

The blue has been long forgotten in honor of the fact that Ireland is the Emerald Isle and Ireland’s flag is green, and St. Patrick used the green 3-leafed clovers to teach.  An old legend also goes that wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns who will pinch you if they can see you.

For the hidden, not often shared, educational value of the green; we do know that wearing green commemorates the Irish Rebellion of 1798, when the British, who were oppressing Ireland, declared that wearing a shamrock (or anything green) was considered a symbol of support for Irish rebellion and was punishable by hanging. Many people were shot on sight for the offense back in those days.  

Back then green was used by the Society of United Irishmen; a political organization that was fighting for parliamentary reforms as well as a Republic for the Irish people.  An Irish Republic would have ended the English rule.  The wearing of the green is, therefore, a "fist in the air" act of defiance representing the brave men and women who fought for their independence.  

Today things are much more civil, if you do not wear a touch of green on St Patrick's Day you get symbolically punished by getting pinched instead of getting killed.  I think I like this progress!

In the 1700's, Irish immigrants in the United States started the first St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City.  Those old Irish traditions came to be cherished forever after in the land of the free and the home of the brave; making Americans enjoy this day as much if not more than they do in ole Ireland.   

In the very beginning though, the original Irish Catholics noted this day for celebrating the life and times of their patron Saint Patrick, which is a real interesting twist of the story, considering the fact that the real St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish.  He was born in Britain around A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Christian family, who owned a townhouse and a country villa and plenty of slaves.

Patrick professed no interest in Christianity as a young boy.  At 16 Patrick’s destiny unfolded.  He was kidnapped and sent overseas to tend sheep as a slave in the chilly mountainous countryside of Ireland for seven years.  It was during this horrible experience that Patrick met God and became a deeply convicted Christian.  It is a long and intriguing story but according to St. Patrick’s Day lore, Patrick used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Christian Holy Trinity; the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.  

Many traditions have evolved from this day over time, some centering around St. Patrick and some not, some very Christian, so not so much.... 

In 1962 in a show of solidarity in Chicago, the city decided to dye a portion of the Chicago River green.  A parade organizer for a plumber’s union noticed how a dye used to trace possible sources of river pollution had stained a fellow worker’s overalls a brilliant green.  He decided why not use the dye to turn the whole river green on St. Patrick’s Day?  It not only added to the celebration, but helped to keep the river healthy.  The custom is still traditional in Chicago today.   Many other places have taken this tradition.  Fountains in cities turn green, rivers turn green, everything possible turns green!

Aside from the "green" traditions, the food and drink of the Irish have been added into the traditional events.  5.5 million pints of Guinness beer are consumed around the world on any given day, but on St. Patrick’s Day that number more than doubles to 13 million pints.  

It seems those Irish immigrants brought this habit with them to America.  This is a night when Irish pubs in both countries, as well as pubs in general, are packed.  If you happen to run into a real lrishman in one of these happy establishments, he will probably tell you that St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland was at one time only a special story, and possibly a nice dinner at home.  The hugeness of the day didn't really surface until the Americans turned it into parades and large community celebrations to raise money for charitable causes.  They aren’t complaining in Ireland though, they have even upgraded their own celebrations in order to attract more tourists in the spring.  Everyone wins, and it is really a lot of fun.

Do you have a favorite Irish food that you eat on St. Patrick’s Day?   You will find corned beef and cabbage in all the finest restaurants on this day, as well as, Irish stew, colcannon and soda bread all served up with green beer.  Green icing is on every desert and all the tablescapes are, you guessed it, green.

So go ahead – Go green!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 110 THE IMPORTANCE OF MIDWIVES

(WRITTEN BY SHEILA GAIL LANDGRAF)

So Joseph lived out his days in Egypt, surrounded by his brothers; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher; twelve sons from Jacob’s loins. 

The Book of Exodus starts out by mentioning that 70 souls came from these sons.   

After the mention of the twelve sons of Israel we hear of no more names called until we come to the time of Moses, with the exception of two individuals named Shifrah and Puah, who were the midwives in charge of all those who delivered the babies of the Hebrews.  

By now Joseph and all of his brothers were dead.  The generations after them lived in the land of Egypt, becoming very fruitful and mighty.

The day arrived when a new Egyptian King came into power.  This was a king who knew nothing of Joseph, or the people of his family.  He looked out on his kingdom one day to see that the foreign Israelites living within the land were greater than the native Egyptians living within the land.  This troubled him.   He began to think about the fact that Israel’s descendants were foreigners and they might come closer to agreeing with some of Egypt’s enemies than with the ways and laws of Egypt.  He became fearful of the possibility that they might someday join in with Egypt’s enemies and overpower the Egyptians and help others to take over the country. 

This set the new king to thinking of ways to eliminate the Israelites.  He decided to treat them like slaves, hoping this would control the situation.  More than likely, this started with heavy taxation until the people owed so much that they had to go into slavery to repay their debts.   He put taskmasters over them and organized them into various labor groups which he used to provide manpower to build his treasure cities.  

His treasure cities were the places where he kept all of his nation’s treasures stored.  The two main cities were Ramses and Pithom.  They skirted the country’s borders and in order to enter Egypt one had to go through these cities first.  They were heavily guarded by the armies of the King.

Oddly enough, even after they were made to be slaves, the Hebrew people were still very fruitful and strong and they grew into an even greater multitude.  Multiple births were very common occurrences with the Hebrew women.  Some gave birth to four or five babies at once.  When Pharaoh noticed this he cracked down harder.  He put them under total bondage and made them serve by making heavy bricks and mortar.  He worked them for long, hard hours each day.  The work was hard and grueling. 

Still the people were fruitful and multiplied. 

The Hebrew babies were delivered by midwives.  Realizing how the Israelites were constantly increasing, Pharaoh told the midwives to kill all of the Israelite sons when they were born and to only leave the daughters alive.  This could be done from the birthing stool where the midwife sat during the birth process without anyone really realizing what was happening.  They would simply strangle the male children as they were being born and not strangle the female children.  The male child could then be presented to the mother as if it had been still born.  Two midwives were told to instruct all the others in this method.  It was to be done quietly but it was not to be ignored.

Still, somehow sons were being born.  It didn’t make sense.  Pharaoh questioned the midwives and they told him that the Hebrew women were very strong and did not labor as long as the Egyptian women when giving birth.  They told him that a lot of the babies were being born before they could arrive to assist with the delivery.  This wasn’t the whole truth.  In actuality, the midwives feared God more than Pharaoh.  They were deliberately stalling and even when they arrived in time, they would often allow the Hebrew sons to live despite Pharaoh’s commands.  God blessed these midwives because of their bravery.  He blessed them materially and financially with homes and provisions for their families.  He blessed them with protection from Pharaoh even realizing what they were doing.   The two head midwives that the scriptures called by name were Shifrah and Puah.  Why out of all the individuals that lived from Joseph till Moses did God inspire only their names to be recorded? 

One must consider that without the brave heroic acts of these midwives, much of the history of the nation of Israel would have been wiped out completely.  Because they listened to God over Pharaoh the midwives allowed a whole generation to be born that made a difference in the lives of the Israelites.  

One cannot help but compare these midwives to those working for pro-life issues today.  I wonder how many of the babies they have saved from abortions are the ones who will make a difference in our country one day?   

It is not so clearly spelled out in the scriptures and you really have to read between the lines, but Israel at the time we are speaking of was decaying.  As a nation and a culture of people they were moving backwards instead of forward.  They had forgotten the teachings of Joseph, Jacob and Abraham.  They were not worshiping God; they were merely trying to survive. 

This time of the killing of the innocents in the history of Israel is said to be a type and shadow of the conditions of the nations during the end times.  Many think the Egyptian experience is a foreshadow of what the people of God will experience before their final redemption. 

We know that the people of Israel had been living in Egypt and existing through the horrible conditions of slavery for so long that they had become almost like animals.  Their world had been turned upside down.  All that was good had turned into a time of slavery and bondage.

Knowledge and righteous living was so silent that the connection between God and the people was almost severed.  Though many of the people still had the knowledge of God and His ways within their memories, they had not actually internalized it.  It was not a whole part of them. 

There, in the foreign land of Egypt, a whole nation had been conceived.  The nation was swollen in pregnancy, ripe and ready to give birth, but the nation was stuck without the ability to deliver.  Without the help of the midwives, new birth would not be possible.  They would remain in slavery and death forever.  The midwives provided the connection needed to bring new birth.  They changed a totally bleak situation into one of hope.  Many now think their names were inspired to be placed strategically between the Patriarchs and Moses because they had been the actual conduit of life that brought the Exodus which gave the people freedom and new life.  They were the actual link from death to life. 

If you look at translations of the Hebrew you begin to see that many of the words used to describe the Israelites in this period of time were not positive.  They translate out to mean animalistic, reptilian, insect-like in reproduction.  It seemed that through time they had taken on all of the cultural qualities of the greater Egyptian population.  Life and birth are sacred experiences in the Hebraic way of thinking.  Here in Egypt though, life was unimportant and birth was insignificant.   The grandchildren of Jacob seemed to have lost all of their distinguishing marks of being God’s chosen people.  Nothing appeared to be sacred anymore.   They did not remember their sense of purpose.  

Much like the generations living today, the quality and goodness of a godly life seemed to be completely removed from them.  They were slaving, mating and giving birth and repeating the process over and over.  Everything was rote, without thought or purpose of design or a plan.  The meaning behind the lives they birthed so frequently was lost in a foreign culture contrary to their God.  

Then the midwives entered the scene.  They were not merely assisting with the birth process; they were assisting in the birth of a new nation.  The midwives had not sold their souls out to tiredness and hopelessness.  They continued to trust in God.  They continued to believe in the promise and sacredness of life.  They were righteous in the face of death.  Because of the unselfish deeds of these midwives male children were born that would grow up to be the men who served God in leading the people to freedom.

It was Pharaoh’s design to destroy this very pregnant nation, but God had other plans.  

God had strategically placed these midwives in order to begin a re-birthing process for the Nation of Israel, just as God has strategically placed The Holy Spirit in place to minister to the Church so that people may be "born again."   

This is yet another proof of the evidence that God uses the lives of faithful women to do his work.  It is not a new notion that has only come about in recent years because of woman's rights, God has always used women to accomplish His will.  Not all of the greatest leaders were men.  Many women played a crucial part in the forming of a people for God as well as the forming of a Bride for Christ in the Church.   God did not overlook their faithfulness or let their names go unrecognized and unnoticed.  He recorded them in his book for all the world to know that they were faithful servants.

Pharaoh, seeing that the midwives could not or would not control the situation, charged the people of Israel directly.  He ordered them to cast their own sons into the river as soon as they were born.  He claimed that their daughters alone could live. 

Can you imagine the panic and the broken hearts of the people? 

Not only would they lose the lives of their precious children, a whole nation would now be snuffed out.  Without the male children the present generation would be the last of the Israelites. 

This was the plan of Pharaoh, but God had other plans indeed!

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 109 A WORD BEFORE THE EXODUS BEGINS

  

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

On a Thursday back on January 4^th of 2014 I started writing this series of bible studies we have called “COME AS A CHILD.”  

Together, we have now studied the whole first chapter of the bible called Genesis.  It only took about two years!  If you are like me, you were amazed at what all the first book of the bible contained, and really, we didn't touch on everything because it would have been impossible to ever finish.

  

It has been fun!  

I hope you have learned as much as I have about God’s Kingdom and how to walk through it with the eyes of a child.  I want to extend my heart-felt thanks to each of you who have been brave enough to join in with me every Thursday!  I am humbled in the fact that I know some of you are much better teachers than I will ever be.  God just has a way of helping us all out.  I am so happy that you have taken this journey with me.  Everything is always better with a good friend at your side!

What you must realize now is that we have only just begun!  The journey through Exodus is about to start with our very next lesson. 

I thought it would be good to go back and review our goals and the purpose for all of this study.  Many of us have already read through the bible, some of us many times over.  The goal here is not just to read through, and not just to study, but to approach scriptures with new eyes.

 

I’ll be repeating some words for those of you who got in on the very beginning of our journey together, but I think they bear repeating.  The whole point of this particular study is to get you to look at the Holy Scriptures with the wide-opened, wonder-filled eyes of a child.  Hear the words all fresh and new and imagine a loving Father inviting you into His story.  Come as a child. 

Why?  

There are many reasons.  Some of them follow below. 

Let’s start with some scriptures:

Psalms 131:3:  But I still my soul and make it quiet, like a child upon its mother’s breast.  My soul is opened within me.

Matthew 18:3: And he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

That was Jesus speaking!  

He says we must come to Him as a little child.  Just what exactly does this mean?

Stop and think for a moment about what is involved in being a child. 

Everything is new to you.

You are learning every day.

You put your complete trust in your parents and all of those around you.  (For the purpose of this study that would be God, The Father.)

There are no preconceived ideas; you accept things as they are.  (Maybe you have been taught “this” and “that” about the scriptures.  That was probably someone else’s interpretation.  I simply ask that you erase all other interpretations from your thoughts for this study and listen to no one but God.  (Not even me!)  Let God speak to you and reason with you about these lessons.  Sit with him each time and LISTEN to Him guide you.)

As a child, you haven’t learned hate or caution or bitterness or manipulation yet.

You are not competing with anyone else.  Life is simply all about being yourself and relating to the world just the way God made you to be.

Everything is out in the open.  Nothing is hidden or fake.

 

The most important part of your world consists solely of you, your parents and the home you are making together.  You are completely dependent on this environment, for your food, for your comfort, for everything you have. 

You never worry.  You don’t even know what that is yet, because your Father takes care of all the details of your life.

You are not afraid.  Fear is a learned behavior, you do not know it yet.

You are innocent.  Sinful thoughts are not a part of your day.  You are pure.  You do not know the things that make up a sinful nature.  Your thoughts are uninhibited by these things.

You have not learned to be prejudiced.  You simply love everyone and everything. 

Joy is a delightful part of each day as you explore the universe that your Father has created.  

Every day is full of wonder and delight!

Are you getting the idea?  Welcome to true worship!  This is just the way that Adam and Eve lived in the garden with God before sin entered in.  

This is the way that God originally intended for us to worship Him.  

In true worship you simply come to God the way a child would, trusting, expecting, letting God do the leading and planning, simply being the person that God created you to be and worshiping God with love.

What could be better?  

What could be more simple?

Yet, in our humanity, we humans make this a complicated, complex mess by trying to do everything OUR way instead of leaving it all up to God.  If worship isn’t straight from God, can we truly call it worship? 

So the idea is to simply relax and find that child-likeness that takes you directly to God.  

Give yourself to be in awe of God.  

Let yourself be completely dependent on God.  

Worship!

We could all do this when we were children.  

Have you ever prayed with a child or watched a child in worship?  

What came to us naturally as children is often hard to achieve in pure form as an adult.  

We have to lay down what the well-meaning people of the world have taught us and look to God to be taught.  

When we truly take the time to listen to Him with a child’s heart we find ourselves learning and living what the scriptures say.  The wonder of it all overflows from our hearts into our lives. 

So as we approach each new passage of scripture we come realizing there are no wrong answers.  You might hear something in your time with God that I did not hear, and I might see something in a passage that you do not see.  The key is to listen to your Father.  He knows each of our own individual needs and like any good father, He shows us what he knows we will relate to.  We both might learn something completely different from each lesson, that is okay!  Neither of us are wrong, there are no wrong answers when you are listening to God.  There are only the answers that He is giving to you.  He shows us in the perspective that we need to know.

 

For example, three people might be looking at a chair.  One person sees the front, one the side and one the back.  It is still the same chair.  We all have seen it from our own perspective.  Trust God to help you have the perspective you need to live in your circumstances.  He will show you.  Have the trust of an innocent child.  Do exactly what God tells you because you believe Him.  He may ask something of you that He doesn’t ask of your neighbor, and vice versa.  This is OKAY – there are no wrong answers, just people who do not listen.  Children listen to their father’s voice.  They know it and they follow it.  That is what these lessons are all about, to help you listen for your Father’s voice and follow it with complete trust. 

As we come as a child with an open heart we want to give our lives away to God’s Holy Spirit and let The Holy Spirit be completely in charge of our learning and our sharing and our doing. 

We must die to ourselves and let God show us everything.  This all starts by approaching God with the heart of a child. 

So now that we have entered through the beginning, let’s go and take the Exodus together, God will go with us.  There will be a new lesson every Thursday – just bring your childish heart!

PEN ART - A BEAUTIFUL POEM AND A LOVELY SONG

(Commentary by Sheila Gail Landgraf, poetry and song lyrics by Allen Levi)

Today's Pen Art is not my own, I must give all credit to Allen Levi, who has blessed us with the following words of a very poetic song:

  

Golden Choir of Aubiere,

( by Allen Levi)

Rows and rows of bowing heads,

Sunflowers say their evening prayer,

A congregation of the field,

The golden choir of Aubiere.

Dawn to dusk, they only turn

Up to heaven where God lives,

Every face a separate light

Reflections of the love He gives.

 Lord of colors, Lord of light,

 Won't you teach me how to pray

 Like the flowers of Aubiere?

 Won't you guide me through the day?

Rose and lily grow so fair,

But, Lord, make me like the sunflower,

Looking always to your face,

Seeking you from hour to hour.

 Lord of colors, Lord of light,

 Won't you teach me how to pray

 Like the flowers of Aubiere?

 Won't you guide me though the day?

Rows and rows of bowing heads,

the golden choir of Aubiere,

the golden choir of Aubiere.

 As winter sweps across the landscape turning everything brown and gray, I long for the bright vivid colors of spring.  A song is forming in the caverns of my mind, and I catch myself humming....hopefully.  

I seem to need a large dose of it today as I look out the office windows and think of other places I would rather be.  The first place that comes to mind is the place in the song I hum, a place called Aubiere.  I know it is in the south of  France where the sunflowers and the lavendar are said to grow side by side for miles and miles.  

No, I’ve never been there, except in my imagination while listening to Allen Levi’s song.  If I could go though, I would head straight for the sunflower fields and check out the rows and rows of praying heads. 

If the sunflowers stand next to a contrasting purple lavendar field, all for the better!  The lovely contrasting flowers are like the two countries they hail from; each beautifiul in their own unique way.  Those beautiful yellow rows of color were such a sweet gift from America to France by the Spainards back in the 1600's.  Funny how people think of France when you mention sunflowers because it was the American Indian that first cultivated the flower.  What a gift to the land they have been, for both countries.

Everyone has a favorite song, poem, story, piece of art, right?  Golden Choir of Aubiere has always been one of my old favorites, as much for the words as for the melody.   Thank you Allen Levi for blessing us with the melody.  

There seems to be some mystery behind the lyrics that I cannot get to the core of, something that has not yet been revealed, but it doesn't stop the lovely haunting music from capturing my heart.   The simple beauty of the song has resided a tresure inside my mind from the first time I heard the poetic lyrics so many years ago.    

I first experienced the rich, poetic words and the simple tune inside my welcoming ears during a time when I was missing the joy of being constantly surrounded by anything of  beauty or grace.  In my state of struggling through much day-to-day dullness, these words lent the essence of what I found missing from my surroundings.  The slow soft lyrics and the bright vivid word pictures helped me to hold on until better days arrived.  They made me lift my head and become grateful in the midst of all circumstances.  They made me long for the simple life of the sunflower, one of joy, one of worship and faith.  That is what sunflowers do, they pray and worship and look up to God.  They are always patiently beautiful and cheerful no matter their surroundings.  They pop up in the most unexpected places and make your day just a little bit more special.  I learned back in those bleak times how to be a sunflower.  That lesson has made such a difference in the outcome of my life.  

I can now look back on those days and smile and know that God was forming and shaping my character into the person He wanted me to be.  He was teaching me to leave my own visions behind and look at the better vision He had chosen to give to me, one of simple beauty, joyous praise and thanksgiving.  We never realize how important these qualities are until we have lived in the place where they do not exist.   I pray that your days are all filled with sunflowers!

 

There is a field somewhere  in Aubiere where constant praise is being offered.  

Oh that we could all live like that lovely golden choir all the time!  

Oh that we could teach out hearts to sing the song that Allen Levi sang while (I suppose) he was there observing the beauty of his surroundings.  

There is a place like Aubiere out there for all of us.  We must not get lost in the hurry of our days and forget to pause in the place of peace and beauty and give thanks for the simplicity of God's plan.  

It all becomes very simple when you observe the Golden Choir of Aubiere.