Red Plate Day

By Cheri Cowell –

“It’s a Red Plate Day, Grandma!” I’d exclaim on the phone to my grandmother.

“Oh, tell me all about it,” she would say as she listened with the enthusiasm only a grandmother can show. Sometimes the story was about an award I received at school, a new skill I mastered, or something that might have seemed insignificant to anyone else but my grandma and me. “OK,” she would say, “I’m getting out my Red Plate for dinner tonight and you get yours; together we will celebrate your Red Plate Day.” The red plate was our take on the Red Letter Day tradition that began when churches marked the holy days on their calendars with red ink.

God has a lot to say about making people feel special. In this verse, Paul is teaching that because we are Christ’s representatives in the world, we should reject all that corrupts and strive to treat others as God treats us. Paul outlines six concrete ways that Christians “put off” their old lives and “put on” life in Christ, and how we use our speech can make someone feel special…like they are having a Red Plate Day.

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29 NIV).

PRAYER: Thank You, God for the love You show through the encouraging people You’ve placed in my life. Help me to be more like You in how I treat others—help me use my words to lift up those who are down and encourage those who are discouraged.

Blue Ribbon Worthy

By Cheri Cowell –

One of the highlights of a good old-fashioned county fair is the farmer’s market. Here locals compete for the title Best in Show with flowers, fruits, vegetables, and livestock. I particularly like the flowers and vegetables because it is easy for me to see what the judges saw. They (and I) are looking for the perfect specimen—the one without blemish or spot. God is looking for the same thing and He’s placed a blue ribbon on you and me.

We are blemished. Sin has disfigured and scarred us. We are no longer perfect. God presents us at His county fair for judging. But miraculously, we are presented as unblemished—our scars removed, our disfigured souls replaced with souls that are perfect, holy, and blameless. God, in grace, places a blue ribbon on each of us. We’ve been forgiven and judged Best in Show.

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:21-22 NIV).

PRAYER: Thank You, Judge, for the miracle of forgiveness, for presenting me as blameless and deeming me Best in Show. I praise You for daily making me blue ribbon worthy.

From Nobody to Somebody

By Cheri Cowell –

Are you widowed? Disabled? Downsized? Empty nesting? Do you feel the world telling you that you are no longer useful or have no purpose?

During Bible times a widow, even one with considerable wealth, would have been someone without purpose, someone to be pitied and powerless. Women had value primarily through their husbands or fathers, but many widows had no such connection.

As a woman of wealth, prior to her husband’s death, Mary, the mother of John Mark, would have commanded a leading role in supporting her husband’s affairs. However, upon his death, she would have become powerless and a nobody. But then she met Jesus through a traveling missionary and all of that changed.

We know that Mary’s home was the gathering place for the early Christian Church in Jerusalem. When miraculously released from prison, Peter went directly to Mary’s home where he knew the believers would be gathered. She was no longer a nobody without influence or power. In the world she was just a widow, but in God’s kingdom she could use her gifts to glorify Him and serve the growing Church. Because Herod Antipas had recently executed the Apostle James, it took courage and great faith to offer her home as a place of worship and prayer. She was no longer a nobody; she was a somebody with a mission and purpose.

“When this had dawned on him [Peter], he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door” (Acts 12:12-13 NIV).

PRAYER: God, there are times when I feel like a nobody or someone lacking purpose and direction. I ask you to give me a new purpose like you did with Mary. Thank You that in Your kingdom there are no nobodies, because You as my Somebody has re-purposed each person who gives his or her life to You.

Ave Maria

By Cheri Cowell –

The Ave Maria is one of the oldest and most popular Catholic prayers, and is perhaps one of the most beautiful of Christmas hymns. The Ave Maria (Hail Mary) is of unknown origin; it was not officially incorporated into the liturgy (as part of the Rosary) until the 15th Century. It is composed of two distinct parts, a Scriptural part and an intercessory prayer.

The first part, the Scriptural part, is taken from the Gospel of St. Luke and joins together the words of the Angel Gabriel with Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary. The joining of these two passages can be found as early as the fifth and perhaps even the fourth century in the eastern liturgies. The opening word of the greetings translated “Hail,” literally has the meaning “rejoice” or “be glad.” The second half of the prayer (Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.) can be traced back to the 15th century where it first appeared in print after the Council of Trent.

Ave Maria has been set to music many times but its most famous version is that of Franz Schubert, who wrote it at age 27 for Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake. According to Schubert, his friends were surprised at the deeply devotional character of the Ave Maria. Explained Schubert, “I think the reason for this is that I never force myself into devotion or compose hymns of prayers unless I am truly overpowered by the feeling; that alone is true devotion.”

PRAYER: Dear God, as Schubert, Elizabeth, and Mary did, I fall in adoration and am overcome by devotion at the gift You’ve given us in Christ. Today I stand amazed in how You used a frightened little girl to deliver the Christ child, and today You continue to use anyone who, like Mary, will humble themselves to be a vessel of the Most High God. May I be such a person.

“The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” “In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”” (Luke 1:28, 42 NIV).

Joy to the World

By Cheri Cowell –

Descriptives such as “Genius” and “father of English hymnody” have been showered upon Isaac Watts (1674-1748), the author of “Joy to the World!” Only one other English-language hymn writer, Charles Wesley, is seriously compared to Watts. A nonconformist pastor and author of about 60 books and 700 hymns, Watts is most remembered for the extraordinary hymns, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “Our God Our Help in Ages Past,” and the Christmas favorite “Joy to the World!”

First published in Watts’ 1719 work, The Psalms of David, Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, “Joy” was a paraphrase of the second part of Psalm 98. Originally the opening line read, “Joy to the earth,” but eventually the better term “world” entirely supplanted “earth.” Both words and music joyfully proclaim the birth of Jesus. Of all the sacred carols, “Joy” is perhaps the most positive and uplifting declaration of the message of Christmas. The exclamation point almost universally inserted by carol editors after the initial line, “Joy to the world!” powerfully punctuates the exhilarating effect this carol has had for the past century and a half. As you read the Scripture today that his carol is based upon, may your heart sing with Joy!

PRAYER: Lord, I make room today in my heart to receive The King. Help me remove the busyness and the worry I often focus on this time of year, and instead focus on the wonders of His love.

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—shout for joy before the Lord, the King. Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity” (Psalm 98:4-9 NIV).

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