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The Arch

Blogger Jodie Montgomery

I’ve been staring at the Gateway to the West St. Louis Arch for three days now. I’m in St. Louis with my husband who is at a steel conference. The Arch is steel and quite the engineering feat.

The Gateway Arch is the tallest man-made monument in the United States. It is 630 feet tall and on a clear day you have a 30 mile view from its small windows. The Arch commemorates President Jefferson and the push for the nation to expand to the west. The structure is supported by concrete foundations that extend 60 feet into the ground and triangular steel and concrete sections that were piled one by one up to the sky during construction. The Arch weighs over 43, 000 tons.

What amazes me is that a few hundred men built the Arch in under three years and no one died in the building. I’ve seen the construction pictures and men were perched all along the outsides as the Arch grew taller and taller. They welded, hammered, cleaned, polished, and fitted the huge structure together while dangling from scaffolding supported by the incomplete Arch. I notice no safety lines on the workers in the old construction photos. At times, many men were cramped together way up in the sky on little walkways. If I had been one of the workers, I would have accidentally knocked you off the thing. Heights are dizzying to me and heights without hand rails and safety nets are overwhelming.

When a people come together, amazing things can be accomplished. I’m encouraged when I stare at the Arch to see something beautifully monumental as the outcome when so often our news reveals the destructive path taken by a group of people. A few blocks away the police, camera crews and EMS folks are gathering to get ready for opening day at the ball field. For many this will be a fun family time but in the beer garden next to the stadium there will be a lot of trash to pick up and possibly some lives to save. I see the Arch, the stadium, the emergency folks all from my hotel window. I pray for safe fun in our nation.

There are so many things that I just cannot accomplish on my own. I do not have the resources. The cost is too high. My salvation is one of those things. There is no way I could build a way into the holiness of God. I need the Great Designer. So I stare at His promises of life and I marvel. He constructed the bridge to eternity for His children.

Luke 14: 28-30 For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

The Basis of Dignity

Genesis 28:3 — Isaac to Jacob: “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.”

Dignity: the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect. I have witnessed dignity defined. My friend Julie Oliver was physically diminishing as she battled cancer. She was bed-ridden in her home. Dignity is a husband of many years, holding his wife’s hand, praying, reading Scripture, and singing as his wife battles a mean disease. Dignity is a beautiful daughter with her head resting near as she waits with her mom for promised life. Dignity is sons who are present and providing updates that are honoring and considerate to family and friends. Dignity is praying, protecting, and patient in the midst of great sorrow. Dignity is loving friends experiencing life and death with you. It is pretty black and white photos of family and friends at a bedside. Dignity is loving hands tenderly caring for a temporary body. It is tears of mourning, appreciation, laughter, memories, and angst. Dignity is being recognized as created in the image of God and as a precious life from God. Dignity honors and respects the value of each life.

To God be the glory for the life of our loved ones. I am so thankful for our value in Him. “God created man in His own image, . . . male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).

We live in this tension of being capable of many things as even though we are highly dependent upon our Maker, we are given His dignity as we are created in His image. The tension is to walk according to His revealed word or to value our own reasoning about what is good and best. We can seem pretty successful and we can escape some temporary trials with our human reasoning. We struggle with humble reliance on anyone, as we are equipped with many great resources including the capacity to think and feel for ourselves. There seems to be much we can do within ourselves and our own little realms.

Isaac’s prayer for his son is that he will live in the blessing of his Maker. Through God our lives have meaning. Through God we form a community, that can collectively bless many others and, in doing so, restore dignity to humanity. Through God we have a future, a promised victory over our great enemy death, and a land in His kingdom to come.

Isaac has a bigger picture of what is most important for his son than his son has for himself. Isaac longs for Jacob to be restored to the dignity given him by God prior to all his failures and self-centered doings. Isaac sees a way for Jacob to overcome his greatest fears. Mankind longs for God’s dignity to be revealed, as the blessed person is the one who realizes that true dignity comes from identification with the people of God, with the Seed of the Woman. 

The Christmas Lamb

I do “deck the halls” at my house. This includes Christmas bedding, my daughters’ nutcracker collections, bathroom decor, and a number of Christmas trees. This may not be your thing but this has become tradition in our home and a way to remember as we celebrate.

The tree in the living room holds ornaments that remind me of many dear folk and many prayer requests through the years. My gentle sister-in-law Marcella sends us a White House ornament every year; so we pray for our governing authorities. Bible students through the years have provided many of the ornaments; so we pray for our homes. My prayer partner Susan P. has given us gorgeous glass reminders of the manger, the cross, His name; so we prayerfully worship. I have my family pictures through the years in ornaments; so I give thanks. Remembrance is good, even if bittersweet.

This year I was given an ornament with a simple sketch of a lamb. The person who gave me the ornament is dear with a tender heart for all. So I consider The Lamb:

Genesis 22:8 Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

Exodus 12:21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb.”

2 Chronicles 30:17 For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves; therefore, the Levites were over the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was unclean, in order to consecrate them to the Lord.

Ezra 7:17 …with this money, therefore, you shall diligently buy bulls, rams and lambs, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings and offer them on the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.

John 1:29 The next day he *saw Jesus coming to him and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
John 1:36 …and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

Revelation 5:6 And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

Revelation 6:9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained;

Revelation 7:17 …for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

Revelation 15:3 And they *sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!

Revelation 19:9 Then he *said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he *said to me, “These are true words of God.”

Revelation 21:23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Revelation 22:1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb…

Revelation 22:3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, …

The Lamb is the Anticipated Anointed Savior. Holy is He and He is with us!
Merry Christmas!

Website Challenged!

Everything I read said that I could create a website in 20 minutes to under an hour. It took me four days to get my nerve up to buy the domain. I’ve been playing with website themes for six hours now and missing most of a Hallmark movie playing in the background. I have no idea why my google analytics won’t save my email address. I think some things should be static although they seem to weirdly move around. Hope you the reader are okay with that!

Arghhhhhhh….. so why is this website challenged woman creating a website? I’ve got at least three reasons: I’m in a new season of life and I need to find my voice. I wrote a devotional that takes the reader through the Bible in a year and I hope to get the word out about this resource. I love to encourage women regarding who they are in Christ; I think what we believe matters. I also know that many, including me at times, are discouraged. I hope to promote abundant, joyful Life. I guess that is four reasons.

The whole blogging and website thing can be so self-serving. No one is that interesting. I bore myself. But I’ve learned that many are really patient with me even when I’m incredibly boring. Just spending a little time with one another can encourage at just the right moment. I need my sisters in Christ. God lifts my head through you. So I hope this website will bless us as His children and stir up sweet emotions through a few choice words. Let’s nourish one another with His grace.

1 Timothy 4:4-6 (NASB) For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.