December 10: Prepare Him Room
♫ Music:
Day 14 - Saturday, December 10
Title: PREPARE HIM ROOM
Scripture: Luke 2:4-7
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Poetry & Poet:
“The Lanyard”
by Billy Collins
The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.
No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.
I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.
She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light
and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.
Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth
that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.
PREPARE HIM ROOM
Billy Collins’ poem gives us a touching picture of how a mother loves and how a child is oblivious. The kid has no idea what birthing and raising him has cost his mother. He thinks a lanyard might even out the score. Even if you didn’t go to summer camp during the era of plastic lanyards, you can think of other things mothers receive from their children—a handful of wilted flowers, a hastily scribbled drawing, breakfast in bed with a mess left in the kitchen—all pictures of the inevitable mismatch in value when kids try to give something to their parents.
Now let’s think of God and all he’s given us. What do we give in return? A bit of time on Sunday? An attempt at a tithe? Random prayers? Some service hours? Even a lifetime of service? It’s all even more ridiculous than Collins’ lanyard. Or is it?
Before we answer that question, let’s turn to today’s art. Anna Sokolan’s mother and child appear to be in the bottom of a deep well. The perspective starts with a wide circle and narrows down to the figures in the center. Perhaps the artist imagined Christ in vast uncreated eternity becoming smaller and smaller through the incarnation until he became a little baby. In the icon, the baby is lying in what could either be a manger or a coffin, presaging Christ’s death on our behalf.
Now let’s imagine the reverse journey. We start with our tiny hearts, shrunk by sin, restricted in perspective. First, they open enough to let Christ in, and are redeemed by his death and resurrection. Then they expand ever more widely through the actions of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Today’s Scripture gives us a great phrase. Faced with the gift of God’s son, Luke says that the people in Bethlehem found “there was no room.” What does it mean to act counter to that, to make room for Jesus, to “prepare him room” as the lyrics of the joy-filled carol say?
It means that we acknowledge Christ as King, recognizing that there is no one else among all the nations who can rule with truth, grace, righteousness, and love. We come with humility about our own limitations. We worship him with awe and reverence. We are willing to wait in hope. We recount how much he has done for us, coming to earth from heaven. We comprehend more and more how vast his love is and how little we appreciate it. We open ourselves to his work in our lives and align ourselves with his wide, merciful work in the world. We act according to Matthew 25:40, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” We know that our gifts to God are paltry, but they give God pleasure, just as mothers receive lanyards, drooping flowers, and hand-drawn cards with joy. And so we continue to give God our hearts, time, money, and service.
At the bottom of Sokolan’s icon are small pictures of the traditional gift-givers of Christmas, the shepherds and magi. But at the top is a gold semi-circle, a hint of heaven. Ultimately, it’s not about the gifts we offer God, but about our hearts having room enough in them to live in light of the reality of God’s ultimate heavenly kingdom and rule.
Prayer
Lord, even though what you have given me in Jesus is unfathomably great, receive my poor and pitiful gifts. Lord, enlarge my heart to make ever more room for you, and enable me thus to be more like you in all I think, say, and do. I pray that today you would reveal one specific area where my heart is still cramped and help it become more spacious for the sake of your Kingdom.
Amen
Dr. Kitty Barnhouse Purgason
Professor Emerita
Department of Applied Linguistics and TESOL
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we ha
About the Artwork:
Christmas
Anna Sokolan
2018
Acrylic and graphite on wood panel
203w x 284h x 5d cm
Drawing upon the traditions of icon painting, Ukrainian artist Anna Sokolan is one of the new iconographers who brings a fresh treatment to this traditional art form. Sokolan’s Christmas is built compositionally on the foundation of a cross which places the Christ Child and Mary at the very center. Each quadrant of the work illustrates a different aspect of the nativity story—worshiping shepherds with a seated St. Joseph, the three Magi bearing gifts, heavenly angels, and the star of Bethlehem. Within the bottom portion of the cross there is the Tree of Jesse representing the genealogy of Jesus. On the left side of the cross is a bowl of manna, signifying that Jesus came to be the "bread of life.” The work, which Solokan renders mostly in blue, gold, ocher, and gray, creates a sense of peace and calm. The blue tunic of the Virgin symbolizes heavenly purity. Gold and golden ochre for the angels and the celestial sphere and the cradle of Jesus signify royal glory, dignity, and wealth. Jesus is swaddled in white—symbolizing purity and holiness.
About the Artist:
Anna Sokolan is a Ukrainian artist who specializes in contemporary painting and icon painting.
https://www.saatchiart.com/account/profile/1121121
About the Music:
“Joy to the World” from the album Joyful Christmas
Lyrics:
Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let Earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the world! the Savior reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
About the Performer:
Eddie DeGarmo (b. 1954) is an American contemporary Christian music recording artist, keyboardist, producer, and singer. Throughout his over fifty years in music, DeGarmo has had a storied career, with success as an artist, songwriter, producer, and businessman. He was one of the leading pioneers of contemporary Christian music as part of rock duo DeGarmo & Key, which was recently inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. During his seventeen years with D&K and also as a successful solo endeavor, DeGarmo sold millions of albums and garnered nine Grammy nominations and dozens of Dove Award nominations. He went on to co-found ForeFront Records, where he developed multi-platinum-selling and Grammy-winning artists such as dc Talk, Stacie Orrico, Audio Adrenaline, Geoff Moore and the Distance, and Rebecca St. James. He was then recruited to lead the largest faith-based music publisher, Capitol CMG Publishing. Under his supervision that company went on to change the face of modern worship music.
https://www.eddiedegarmo.com/home/#about
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_DeGarmo
About the Composer:
Isaac Watts, arrangement by the American composer Lowell Mason
English hymn writer Isaac Watts (1674–1748), known as “The Father of Hymns,” wrote over seven hundred and fifty hymns of praise to God during his life. Many of these still remain in use today and have been translated into numerous languages. Watts based many of his hymns on particular psalms since in the early Church of England only hymns from the Psalter were allowed. "Joy to the World'' is an English Christmas carol written in 1719 by Watts, and its lyrics are a Christian reinterpretation of Psalm 98. It is usually sung to an 1848 arrangement by the American composer Lowell Mason. Since the twentieth century, "Joy to the World" has been the most-published Christmas hymn in North America.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/poets/isaac-watts.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Watts
Lowell Mason (1792–1872) was an American hymn composer, music publisher, and one of the founders of public-school music education in the United States. Mason became a choirmaster of the Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia, and in 1822 he published The Handel and Haydn Society’s Collection of Church Music. Mason returned to Boston in 1827, having negotiated a position as music director at three Boston churches, and between 1829 and 1869, he published about twenty further collections of hymns. Those collections favored adaptations of tunes by prominent European composers rather than the traditional rural hymn tunes. In 1832 he founded the Boston Academy of Music, and in 1838 he established in Boston the first public-school music program in the United States. His compositions include the hymn tunes for “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,” “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” and “My Faith Looks Up to Thee.”
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lowell-Mason
About the Poetry & Poet:
Billy Collins (b. 1941) is an American poet and professor who has been called “the most popular poet in America” by The New York Times. He has served two terms as the United States Poet Laureate (2001–2003 and 2004–2006), and his works have been widely anthologized and awarded. Spanning twelve collections of poetry, his work is characterized by humor, simple language, and by sensitivity to the experience of his reader. He currently teaches for the M.F.A. program at Stony Brook Southampton.
https://billycollinspoetry.com/
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/billy-collins
About the Devotion Author:
Dr. Kitty Barnhouse Purgason
Professor Emerita
Department of Applied Linguistics and TESOL
Biola University
Kitty Barnhouse Purgason is professor emerita of TESOL at Biola University. She has a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from UCLA. She has lived, studied, served, or taught in India, Russia, Korea, China, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Mauritania, Indonesia, Kuwait, Oman, Vietnam, Spain, and Tajikistan, She is a three-time Fulbright fellow and a US State Department English language specialist. She is the author of Professional Guidelines for Christian English Teachers (William Carey Library).