"Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord"

Last night while after singing "Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord", the Holy Spirit brought to my remembrance a quicksilver stream of connections:

• First, the hymn itself, but especially the last verse "to children's children and for evermore".
• Next, Magnificat, The Song of Mary, upon which the hymn is based with its last verse "The promise made to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children for ever."
  
• The last verses of Psalm 22, "26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the Lord will praise him-- may your hearts live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, 28 for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. 29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him-- those who cannot keep themselves alive. 30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. 31 They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn-- for he has done it. "
• Not only does this bear an interesting resemblance to the ending of the Magnificat, it is worthy to note that these were the last words our Lord Jesus Christ spoke on the cross (Matthew 27:46, John 19:30) and that the Holy Mother Mary was present at the time (John 19:25).
  

Waiting ... for the in-breaking of the Kingdom

We are still awaiting the arrival of our first child. My beloved reaches 40 weeks on Tuesday and we have already had 2 trips to the hospital in which labor suddenly stopped. It is not the anxiety of fatherhood that is my primary emotion, but the eagerness of wanting to meet my son. It has brought to mind how all of nature must have awaited the birth of the God-man.

Romans 8:20-25
20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Resource Improvements

I just discovered that one of my favorite sites has been making some improvements: http://ccel.org Christian Classics Ethereal Library. It is a great source for eBooks and even has a few audiobooks.

Accidental Resurrection

"A secular who had a son came to see Abba Sisoes on Abba Anthony's mountain. On the way, it happened that his son died. He was not troubled by this but brought him with confidence to the old man and bowed down with his son, as though making prostration, so that he would be blessed by the old man. Then the father stood up, left the child at the old man's feet and went outside. The old man, thinking that the boy was bowing said to him, 'Get up, go outside.' For he did not know that he was dead. Immediately the boy stood up and went out. When he saw it, his father was filled with amazement and went back inside. He bowed before the old man and told him the whole story. When he heard it the old man was filled with regret, for he had not intended that to happen. So the disciple asked the father of teh child not to speak of it to anyone before the old man's death."
--from p. 216 of "The Sayings of the Desert Fathers" trans. by Benedicta Ward, SLG

Alien

I find it fascinating that some people believe in aliens, but do not believe in God. As Christians we believe that God is completely and wholly Other. So in that sense, God is the most alien of all aliens.