The Colley House is getting excited about the new study to be announced in late August. Target start date for this study is September 1st. Mark it on your calendar. Invite a friend to study along. Make it a group or a class. Remember there will be a printed study guide or defer to the free downloadable one. But make plans now. So often, a sister contacts me in November and says, “I wish I’d known about this last summer.” It’s okay to jump in anywhere at any time. But it’s more fun to jump in on September 1st with your new book, pen and highlighters in hand and get ready for the first dig-a-bits and podcast. It’s fun to do it in sync. Here’s the blurb from DD 2024-25:
In the conversation at the wedding feast, once again, Mary was in the moment. It was, to her, important to do something about the embarrassing shortage of wine. Somehow Mary had something to do with the host and the party and she was concerned about a hostesses nightmare. Jesus, in His “Woman, what do I have to do with you?” answer was, again, pointing to a bigger mission for which the time was approaching, but had not yet come. The miracle, itself, was a kind gesture, and it began a process that would take Him to the cross, but Jesus seemed to be gently saying, “Mother, there are bigger fish to fry. I have some problems to overcome, but wine at a wedding is not part of the big picture, here.” Yet he went on and made his mother happy, in her moment.
I think it had to be this way. How could Mary have had any semblance of normalcy or happiness if her life had always been about the cross. How could the relationship between mother and son have been the full experience of humanity and trials as we know them, if Christ had not shielded his mother from some of the burden that no human could fully understand, anyway? And doesn’t that make the whole life of Jesus, from the standpoint of His humanity, so much—so much of a sacrifice— when relationships that were precious were also lost and in need of the darkest moment in human history that was his piercing?
And I do think it is a little like that in our “talks” with heaven. If I am praying for the bone not to break before I can get the baby to the ER, or if I am praying for the decision we are making about a home purchase, or if I am praying about the choice of curriculum for my child, must it seem to Jesus, my advocate in heaven, that I am in the moment? Must He smile and say, “Cindy Colley is doing the best she can, but she cannot think fully in “redemption mode“ yet? I will hear her pleas and heaven will answer her, because she is in me. I have paid her price. One day she will see me face to face and the trials and challenges of the road will seem nothing.” It seems that this must be something like reality when I think about my finite self in prayer.
