From: Francis Harper
wbfrmsup@iowatelecom.net
Francis Harper Message for 12/20/2019
“A virgin shall conceive and shall bear a Son . . .”
(Isaiah 7:14)
A few days before Christmas of 1992, I thought of six friends I wanted to add to our Christmas card list. I asked Iris if she had some cards expressing the real message of the season, to which I could add a personal note. I was not satisfied with the cards she had on hand. So I told her I would pick up the ones I needed at the local Hallmark shop. I was surprised when from the hundreds of cards on display, I could not find a single one that satisfied me.
I returned to our store discouraged and frustrated. To my secretary I expounded and exhorted about the atheistic, unbelieving society in which we live. She listened patiently, then searched our files and found a few generic cards, obviously designed not to offend anyone except the believers.
I sat down with a feeling of heaviness in my heart. I had not realized how little the people of this world seem to care about the real message of Christmas. I wanted to shout, “Doesn’t anyone know, or appreciate, how much God loves us, sending his Son that ‘we might have life and have it more abundantly?’ ”
Suddenly the phone rang. It was after five and closing time. It was cousin Tom. He asked if I could stay at the store a little longer. He explained he had found some things he wanted to show me.
I was not certain about the urgency of his request, but I promised to wait. As I waited, I recalled that earlier that day I had tried to discourage him from going to the orchard warehouse to continue cleaning it. I felt the weather was too cold. My words had not discouraged him.
He soon arrived with a box he had found at the warehouse. The box was filled with a few of my father’s keepsakes. Among these things were my father’s eighth grade diploma, some musty old letters, A Big Chief Tablet with minutes of the “Brush Hollow Pig and Chick Club,” a Saint’s Hearld from the year 1897, and six unused Christmas cards, complete with envelopes! I thanked him for bringing the mementos and we both returned to our homes.
The significance of this experience soon began to dawn upon me. Tom had brought me the exact number of cards I wanted, each with the message I had been looking for, complete with envelopes, in perfect condition, preserved in a larger envelope, all in perfect timing. I had no doubt this was the work of God! It was a miracle.
Pictured on the cards was a painting by the seventeenth century artist, Esteban Murillo, entitled The Adoration of the Shepherds. The cards were beautiful, and so appropriate.
I wrote my Christmas messages that day, rejoicing and pondering: Jesus was born of a virgin just as it was prophesied. God, who sent his only Son two thousand years ago is still revealing his love today.
After this testimony was given to me, do you suppose I will ever doubt any of the miraculous details of the nativity of Jesus? “Where is room for doubt? No where!”
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Dear Ones,
My message this week is the same message sent to you on 12/21/18. It is timeless. It is the best breaking news story ever reported. The news was announced by an angel, who said: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you [and all people] is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this is the way you shall find the babe, he is wrapped in swaddling clothes, and is lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10-11).
Many artists have endeavored to portray the way it was when the shepherds hastily came, as they were directed by the angel, to visit the newborn Christ-child. I believe none have done better than Murillo. His masterpiece depicts the reality and truth of the actual event that took place a little more than two thousand years ago.
I have an enlarged picture of Murillo’s The Adoration of the Shepherds that I love to share with people. I ask a series of questions about the scene. I point to the baby, and ask, who is this? Nearly everyone correctly identifies the baby as being Jesus. Next I point to the lady hovering over the baby. Once again, she is most often correctly identified as Mary; the mother of Jesus. Then I point to the man standing near Mary. He is also easily identified by most people. I proceed by asking the identity of the other two men. This is a little more difficult but eventually someone will notice that one of the men is holding on to a sheep and the other is wearing an article of sheep-skin clothing, identifying them as shepherds.
Who is the other lady? I usually have to give some hints to help in the identification of this final person. You may not have noticed the hens sitting under the manger, or the basket of eggs the woman is carrying? And if the picture was a little larger you could see the expression of joy on her face. Surely the artist wanted us to sense the reality of this great historical event. He wanted us to look beyond the scene he painted and imagine the rest of the story. Someone like the woman with the eggs had to meet the couple, weary from many days of travel, whose troubles were being compounded by the beginning of the young woman’s labor pains. The one who had compassion was the woman whose husband owned the stable with the cow and chickens. It is quite likely that she also provided the swaddling clothes and was privileged to assist in the delivery of the “Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
Centuries before this event, of which I write, it was prophesied by Isaiah: “Hear ye now, O house of David; . . . Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:13-14). Only God could have arranged the fulfillment of this prophecy.
The prophet Micah, who was a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah, prophesied: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2). Once again, it was only by the divine arrangements of God, that this prophecy was fulfilled. “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory for ever. Amen” (Romans 11:33-34, 36).
My Love to All,
High Priest Francis Harper
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