Shout joyfully to the Lord
by Bill Drennon
The earth was moved, in a thermal asymmetric way, to create a great wind which poured from the west to slap the land with a concomitance of sound, confessing the awesome power of the Lord over all the earth. Attending walls of water from the sea, in pulsating rhythm, spit forth upon the rocky ledges. Yet the very wind that brought the spray, stole it again in evaporative pulses, leaving behind, in gleaming white, a gift of salt. The wind sang out,"He has the power to destroy, and the love to preserve. In life and in death, the Lord is glorified. Shout joyfully to the Lord."
A tree, a pioneer upon the coastal slopes, whose leaves danced in that very storm, received its portion of the glistening chloride. The gleaming salt beautifully complimented the tree's bright green leaves which were soon to turn brown, as that same salt would eventually enter the roots, leading the plant to an osmotic death. The same salt that can preserve can execute the sentence of death.
The killing salt did its preserving work again as the xylem tissues of the tree's interior would not decay. Eventually, the fallen tree would be discovered and transported to the City of David, perhaps via trade, to be ultimately transformed into a feeding box for the tree's heterotrophic kin. However, this box was to hold no ordinary grain, but the bread of life itself.
The same God who could fell a tree with a substance that symbolizes life, was to produce a great paradoxical irony. A life was to be created out of the Creator, a new life, yet older than creation itself, 100% man child yet 100% God, in a mathematics that only works in a miraculous birth without chromosomal exchange. This Christ child was to be sheltered in the wood of a tree, fashioned into a manger. A tree. The very life form that was now to provide a comforting first home for the Christ child was to become his final domain, one of sorrow, ridicule, loneliness, death. The form of organism that would eventually become the executioner of this Jesus, would for this moment provide comfort and joy. During the celebration of this first Christmas, another tree, now sharing his breath in the cyclic role of photosynthesis and aerobic respiration, would eventually steal his breath away. The same tree that can preserve life can execute the sentence of death.
With each movement of the child in the bowels of the wooden box, the wood responded with a sound of joy, a quieter sound than the sound of the storm that caused it to reach this place in history, a higher pitched sound, a creek. Yet the message was the same. "He has the power to destroy, and the love to preserve. In life and death, the Lord is glorified. Shout joyfully to the Lord"
Over and over, mitotic divisions took place within the cells of the Christ child. Despite his miraculous origin, the organism was to grow and develop like others of its kind, with all of the needs that bind others to their earthly home. The god child had become man, totally, completely. The earth would orbit the sun more than thirty times. Whereas most men repeat their sins, even adding a degree of skill, with each orbit, the god-man would remain solid in his loyalty, in his devotion to his father and would be without sin. Yet his sinlessness, his genuineness, his obedience and loyalty to his father would be his undoing. His own species would turn against him as would all nature. Man would condemn him to his fate. Iron, his own created metal, would rip through his hands. The wood of a tree, his early home, would lift him now to mockery. The stupendous mass of the earth would rip gravitational pain through his body. Is God sovereign now? No wind sang his praise. No tree limbs danced to his glory. No rivers clapped their hands. No mountains sang out. It was a time of shame for all. If their was any music at all, it was played in a minor key, or perhaps, a cocaphany of discord.
Yet, the moon was not to rotate more than a ninth of its orbit, when shame would be turned to glory, sorrow to joy, death to life. God is sovereign indeed. For the christ's loyalty and obedience to his father, his sinlessness as a man, was a greater force than gravity, a greater act than any other ever found on earth. It appeased the father's wrath Any act contributing to death of the Christ, could be forgiven. It could be reversed as sure as the christ's death was changed to resurrection. The entire earth could sing,"He has the power to destroy, and the love to preserve. In life and in death, the Lord is glorified. Shout joyfully to the Lord."
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