December 17, 2011

An Excerpt from _Beholders of the Rising Sun_ by David Plaep

Very many thanks to my BIL and SIL, Daddin' Around and Just KT, who I believe gave me _Beholders of the Rising Sun_ by David Plaep when Eric and I were either just about to be married or our first Christmas as a family of three.  If they didn't, whoever did, please forgive me for my faulty memory and know that it is really you that I am thanking.  I remember reading it that first Christmas Eve.  Several times, I had to put it down to let some of the thoughts really sink into my poor, pitiful, brain.  It helped me appreciate Christmas in a whole new way.  I have read it several times since then and I would like to share a section of it with you.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have, and may you have a blessed Advent season.

"The Word become flesh and made his dwelling among us..." (John 1:14)


The power of the Most High overshadowed Mary and the Word became flesh.  In that moment, a parting....
By the words of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, we know that there is only one God:


"Hear O Isreal, the Lord our God the Lord is one."


However, at the beginning of the Apostle John's Gospel, God reveals an additional, mysterious truth about Himself:


"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."


The Lord is one--but the He is also intimately plural.  


The relationship that our intimately plural God experiences stretches far beyond our understanding.  In fact, like little children who have only the most vague idea that Daddy and Mommy are also husband and wife, we may not even give a thought to the private live of our intimately plural God.  Like little children who cannot possibly understand the unique and mysterious pleasures of a man and woman in one-flesh relationship, we cannot comprehend the depth of pleasure and love that Father, Son and Spirit have always enjoyed together.  But the truth is, passion and desire are written in God's name:


"...the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." (Exodus 34:14)


Jealous..God's name is Jealous!


In his name, His eternal nature--such passion, such intense feelings!  The astonishing revelation in this name, Jealous, is that God has always lived an intensely passionate life.  This was true before anyone or anything was created.  


Throughout eternity, Father, Son and Spirit have been profoundly happy together; delighting in their perfect Goodness, Purity, Power and Beauty.  Their love for each other burns intensely; exquisite desire for each other--deep, everlasting pleasure.  More than anything else in the universe, this perfect love that our intimately plural God has always lived in should be jealously guarded.  It should never be disrupted.  And yet...


...The Word became flesh...


Father, Son and Spirit approached the womb of Mary and stood at the threshold of unspeakable pain.  In the moment when the Most High overshadowed Mary...a parting.  A painful, tearing in the life of God; in the way the Father, Son and Spirit have always lived.


God with God became God with us--to eventually become sin for us


In the moment when the Most High overshadowed Mary, the first groans of the Spirit--too deep for words--lifted in lament from this fallen world.






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