Date: 01 Dec 1999
Time: 15:58:50
New clothes for Christmas. Salvation and righteousness, as beautiful as wedding garments. As festive and joyous as the crocus and jonquils that burst up through the snow before you know it. And what shall our gift in return be? Only to put on our new clothes and shine like torches, like the stars in the crown and sceptre we become for the One who gives such marvelous gifts. New clothes for Christmas! Tom in Tn(USA)
Date: 20 Dec 1999
Time: 03:32:44
Wow, Tom in TN, the "New Clothes for Christmas" is so right-on! Will we take those new clothes into the new year and solemnly, devotedly enter into a new covenant?! wanapreech Newfoundland, PA
Date: 21 Dec 1999
Time: 15:06:27
Tom - I also liked your new clothes concept. This passage also speaks of vindication. The clothes of the prisoner vs. the clothes of the released.
It is a vindication the nations will see (62:2) and so the world should see that we are saved (this being made possible by the "clothes" we wear). So our "clothes" are more than our salvation, but the lives lived by the saved.
I wonder though how we, as believers, are a crown and diadem in the hand of God? How are we symbols of God's rulership? Perhaps by how things go for us when we live under His Lordship ... and how things go when we don't.
Jeff in WI
Date: 23 Dec 1999
Time: 05:30:10
I'm struck by the image of the "new name," as it relates to ancient baptismal rites (left over in the form that we have: "what is the Christian name of this child?"), particularly when coupled with the Luke passage, as Christ is presented at the temple by his parents.
We are post-Christmas, and we can reflect on what our "name" is: Christian, child of God, beloved.
SS Vicar