Skip to main content

Four Calling Birds

My first Christmas as a wife and step-mother I received the most luxurious package. My darling neighbor had a box of golden gourmet pears delivered. Included was a charming pear shaped ornament with an image of a bird on it with no explanation. The subtlety made me love it all the more. Once realized, I decidedly commenced my family on a twelve year commitment. The following years would be memorialized in alignment with the carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas. 


Rob found our second year's ornament in a shop at Christmas in the Village in the Historic Gold Hill.  The merchant explained that she acquired the ornament from an estate sale and believed it to be from the nineteen fifties.


In our third year as a family, my mother-in-law did extensive genealogy research. Her work divulged the surprising truth that Rob is not primarily Italian but rather, quite purely, half French! A convenient development given our tradition. I took great pleasure in making several ornaments. First there were the three hens with French berets, the more elegant Eiffel tower ornament, and lastly the bulb with a cut out picture of each of our faces for the three French hens.


December has been quite busy so we turned to good ol’ Amazon for our four calling birds ornament. Not every year can be full of inspired creativity.  


This year I have reflected more on the theory that the song was used to teach Christianity. The idea is that the partridge in a pear tree embodies Jesus; two turtle doves represent the old and new testament; three French hens symbolize faith, hope and charity; four calling birds epitomize the four gospels and so on.


So here we are on the four gospels. Our friends Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. Luke is my favorite of the gospels but let's take a closer look at what sets the four accounts apart.


We must first look at the men themselves. Mathew was a tax collector who famously left his post simply at Jesus’ invitation. Matthew would have been greatly criticized by the Jews for his occupation. It has been said that the book of Matthew is the most Jewish of the four gospels. Matthew seemed to wish to help redeem his accusers by convincing them that Jesus is the Messiah. 


Mark is thought to be John Mark, the evangelist who sparked a controversy between the Apostle Paul and Barnabas. The book of Mark seems to be more of an evangelical call to convert Greeks rather than a detailed account of happenings.


Luke is widely believed to have been a physician and the most educated of the four gospel writers. The book of Luke is also aimed to convert Greeks but those a generation apart from the life of Jesus, who wanted historical evidence. Luke's education served him well in this endeavor. 


John undoubtedly enjoyed the closest relationship with Christ, than the other gospel writers and possibly any person. The book of John was designed for believers of the Christian faith who were faced with increasing persecution. John aimed to encourage devotion in perilous times.


So there we have it, a Jew, an evangelist, a physician, and a Christian sharing the good news in personal ways to their target audiences.


What kind of calling bird are you? Are you most likely to connect to those from your past? Are you more inclined to seek out strangers? Maybe your intellect has you call out as an apologist. Or do you wish to encourage fellow runners in the good race?


As we connect to our Lord, we must remember to connect to others. The good news was always meant to be shared. It's not a matter of "if" but rather a question of "how" and to whom.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Revisting: If I Were a Bird & The Season of the Ox

Today I'm revisting two posts from June of this year. My regular devotional reading has me back in Ezekiel and back to the four living creatures. With the Hebrew calendar ending in September, today was the first day I asked the Lord for my word for this upcoming Hebrew year. All things considered, I felt it necessary to revist these posts. Now, I know of at least one dream that was not from the Lord. I'm not sure I am done learning about the ox, but I've learned a little.  If I were a Bird Recently I had three separate people, in three distinct settings begin a thought with, "If I were a bird."  Bizarre, right? At the first comment, I began to joyfully hear Nelly Furtado's "I'm Like a Bird" song in my head. By the third comment, in a matter of just forty-eight hours, I was curious. I could not recall ever hearing anyone share such a thought before, and then to have a few in a short matter of time had me wondering. Seemed either an odd coincidence...

Revisting: Wisdom & Authority

Today we are revisting a post from August 18th, 2023. How important it is for each of us to rightly balance wisdom and authority in our own lives. That balance becomes more crucially necessary in marriage. Wisdom & Authority  My husband and I had our routine check-ups this week. He is an emergency room nurse and promptly schedules all of our appointments. For two decades of my adult life, I took care of these matters myself. His planning is a welcome change in married life. He is also handy and takes immaculate care of our yard. Really I won the husband lottery because he also cooks, cleans, and is good at basically everything.   Not that he does everything. We share a fairly even distribution of responsibilities in running our household and raising our daughter. I may not be handy, but I was a responsible homeowner before we met. As someone who left home at 17 and married at 37, I learned how to take care of things on my own, but life is better together. Both my husb...

Revisting: Never Ignore

Today, we are revisting a post from July 13, 2023. One thing we can count on is changing emotions. One day we deal with intense anger, the next extreme apathy. Our emotions may not be wise, but they are telling. Never Ignore I came cruising into my day refreshed and ready to go. Then, I experienced anger. Someone's misinformation inconvenienced my easy, breezy day.  Anger is one of those emotions I find less becoming than others. I was trying to calm myself down when Holy Spirit reminded me that I was not designed to reconcile my emotions on my own. In the past, I have fallen prey to ignoring and stuffing my emotions, but nowadays, I am more likely to try and reconcile my emotions on my own. Perhaps when I have "figured out" what needs to change, I then might go to God to request said changes. Today, I managed to be reminded that God likes us to come to Him raw. In the heat of anger or depths of despair, He wants to be invited into what we are feeling, thinking, and exper...