The final verse of Only a Holy God says, “Who else could rescue me from my failing? Who else would offer His only Son? Who else invites me to call Him ‘Father’? Only a holy God…only my holy God!”

Rounding out the month on generosity and a year about various virtues, I want to provide a short profile of a dear friend.

Her name is Nyla McKinzie, and she moved from her native Hawaii to settle in rural Illinois, to work faithfully beside her dear farmer-husband Jim and raise three beautiful children. Being Hawaiian in an otherwise generally all-white and rather remote area was not the only thing that made Nyla initally different from her neighbors, however. The thing that made her most wonderfully unique was her generous heart.

When I was growing up, I remember experiencing time with Nyla as a respectable, honest, kind, and warm lady. But when I got older and returned to her home and community for occasional visits, I understood her and appreciated her in a different, deeper way.

Nyla — who I have now called Tutu (Hawaiian for grandmother) for some time — finds tremendous delight in giving to others as she feels God lead her to do so. Her time, energy, resources, and ideas have blessed so many, both in when she gives (at such opportune times) and how she gives (with such joy).

The truest generosity is born out of a listening heart.

Tutu loves to study and meditate on the names of God. His names in the original scripture languages and their meanings as we grasp them in our own tongue. And those meditations have refined a beautiful soul in her over years and years of dwelling.

The most beautiful generosity is born out of a thirsty heart.

Tutu has the forgiveness of God through Jesus so deeply stamped on her core being that she must tell others (in her natural, endearing way) about how His grace and His invitation changed her forever. And she knows that there are some very “good-hearted people” in the world…but without the goodness of God’s heart transforming each person’s heart with a familial relationship, that person will never be good.

The sweetest generosity is born out of an adopted heart.

Thank you, Tutu, for encouraging me to love like this. I know I can follow your example because you follow the example of Jesus.

Verse three of Only a Holy God says, “What other glory consumes like fire, what other power can raise the dead, what other name remains undefeated? Only a holy God.”

Charles Wesley is best known from history as being a key founder in what we now call the methodist movement or Methodist Church. But for those who have loved singing hymns, he is better known and loved as a writer of such classic church songs.

I was blown away, however, when I learned that he wrote about 6,500 during his long and faithful life. 6,500! A bit of basic math tells me that of he wrote one hymn a day, every consecutive day, that would have equalled nearly 18 solid years of writing. (I have no evidence that all of his hymns were written in such a fashion; I just say that for sake of perspective.)

The line highlighted in this post’s word art comes from my favorite of his hymns (of the handful I know well!). In this line, I see a prayer and a plea as well as a promise.

As an artist and a writer, I know that my creativity and my worship through designing are both greatly enhanced when my heart’s slate has been wiped clean of sin and fear for a time. For sin chokes the Spirit’s influence on my ideas, and fear holds me back from wanting to share my inspiration with the world for God’s glory. After all, if His name and power are so great, why should sin still bind me, and why should fear threaten my heart?

When I think of Charles Wesley, then, I think of another key aspect of true generosity. In order for us to live with the fullest measure of generosity each of us can display, we must crave the promise of freedom from sin and fear — and claim the promise daily as we walk on in faith. The result, when we embrace such an outlook, can be mind-boggling, for we never know what an impact our redeemed living might have on our present community or what a legacy our unfettered attitudes might have on future generations.

This month’s four posts will briefly profile subjects as inspired by the words of a song. Not a traditional holiday song, but a modern hymn written by the team at CityAlight and Dustin Smith. Each week, I will focus on a verse, a person, and an elemental truth that defines the virtue of generosity.

Verse 1: “Who else commands all the hosts of heaven? Who else could make every king bow down? Who else can whisper and darkness trembles? Only a holy God.”

This week will be a bit different in that my profiled person is not a human but an angel. Gabriel is his name, and being an ageless yet created being, he has witnessed the whole span of known time, from before existence of our space, to creation of light and all that was perfect, to the Fall and the fall, to the lines of our history and his obediently announcing the coming baby king who would set all things right again. He saw that baby grow to live and die and crush the eternal hold of death. And he exists today, obedient still and anticipating with all creation a day when complete newness will obliterate brokenness.

He has dwelt in the presence of God most holy and stood watch over the few-pound form of God most fragile. He has witnessed the beauty of Eden and wept in the shadows of Calvary. And he, through it all, has modeled generosity.

For to be generous is to hold nothing back. And that includes, fundamentally, our very being. It is to be who we were made to be and live out of that core being for the glory of God. In obedience and in truth, even when that means facing what is not easy or pleasant. Because to ignore this inherent need to walk with an open heart and life before our Creator is to starve the life essence of any created being.

Is this a new thought? Certainly not. Yet, neither is it an easy one to live out in a death-courting world, nor a natural one to embrace when hiding and retreating seem so much more comfortable for we who cannot throw off the weight of our own shame.

But there, in the song lyrics, we see the reminder that God’s voice and presence make darkness tremble. So, may we, like the faithful herald He sent, take a chance, be bathed in the light of holiness, and dare to generously show ourselves to the world, that the world might know Him.

Ending this month’s gratitude focus after a sweet Thanksgiving celebration that followed an even sweeter wedding celebration, I want to briefly step back further in time to focus on one ancient couple, to profile two people who were overwhelmingly delighted in and grateful for each other.

We find much of what we know about their relationship in the biblical text called Song of Songs or Song of Solomon. And while many Bible readers have tried to write off the contents of the book as more spiritual than physical, as an allegory about Christ and the church, I wholeheartedly embrace it today as a exquisitely woven reflection of gratitude for the gifts of sexual expression, trust, and physical design as rightly celebrated and embraced only within marriage between one man and one woman.

What does such gratitude for one we love look like, according to the mindset of these two people?

For the husband, called Lover in this epic poem, it means he is thankful for and attracted to his bride among all other women (2:2). He is also overwhelmed with the beauty of who she is all on her own (4:7, 9-10, 12), and grateful that she is content right in the place where she knows she belongs: at his side (7:10).

The wife, simply called Beloved, is also equally grateful for the loving husband to whom she has been joined. She is thankful for what he does (2:4), who he is (5:16), and how he can dwell contentedly in her arms (8:10).

While the Lover highlighted in this poem and blog was, sadly, not married to only one woman exclusively due to both political conventions and cultural norms, the rejoicing and pure revelry we see highlighted in that small book points to a kind of love and an accompanied attitude of thanksgiving that each married person is invited to embrace and nurture. It is one that will even make those observing say, “We rejoice and delight in you, we praise your love…!” (1:4). And it will reap a harvest of beautiful, faithful years together.

Last week, we looked at one grateful group from the New Testament era. Today, the day of my own wedding, we will look at another.

A dear friend named Kathy gave me a card recently in which she wrote, “May God keep you and Paul, and bless your union as Jesus once blessed the wedding at Cana.” I smiled because of her good words, but I also smiled because I had already planned to profile the Cana wedding guests as the focal point of this next post.

In the story of the Cana wedding, where Jesus performed his first recorded miracle, some characters tend to get criticized. Mary might be called a meddling mother. Jesus himself could be called reluctant to publicly start His ministry. And the wedding guests? Well, I have often figured they were already so joyous from wine imbibing and celebration that their comments sent back to the bridegroom after tasting Jesus’ miraculous supply were just off-handed silly talk from drunk people.

But I think I see them differently now. I consider that maybe they were genuinely happy and even grateful to have really good wine to enjoy as the party rolled on. They just didn’t know exactly who they were to be grateful to. The credit that belonged the Heart of Heaven went to the wedding host instead.

That is the thing about gratitude. It can sometimes be misapplied or misaimed. But that does not make it any less sincere. However, how sweet it is when gratitude is not only sincerely felt but also rightly attributed.

Then, how Jesus must smile.

My Paul has often asked me in the weeks leading up to this day how he has been so fortunate to find a lady like me who would want to love him and share my future with him. And I often smile and just remind him that we are both equally blessed and a gift of God to each other.

As I stand up to marry my love and he marries me, we will be grateful. Certainly, we will appreciate each other for so many reasons. But we will not only be thankful to each other. More importantly, we will be grateful to Jesus for each other. Because He is the one who brought us together and He is the one we will live for, together.

Paul, ultimately, does not deserve my primary gratitude. Just as I do not ultimately deserve his.

We both must always first be grateful to the Maker of the richest wine.

And, when we are, He will smile.

A new month of posts about what has so often become a seasonal virtue or a circumstantial virtue rather than a constant virtue peeks for a moment at a group of people rather than an individual.

Who were they?

An eclectic collection of followers from many backgrounds, all banded together with their newfound love of the world’s greatest teacher. Yet in their enthusiasm to join that family and share life together, they sometimes had to be made aware of their personal weaknesses and stumbling blocks, of which they so desperately needed to let go for their own good and for the good of the group. They were infants in faith and they were trying to grow quickly in the midst of a confused culture.

They were the early believers at Corinth.

What can we learn from them about gratitude?

We so often wish we could avoid suffering, correction, admonishing, and struggles in this life. But those who have experienced more of such things and not been crushed by them, those who have kept faith and grown to love more deeply and not taken anything or anyone for granted because of them: these are the people who show us by their maturing lives how thankful they are for the multiple chances they have been given to start again.

Thought of another way, a person’s life is like a clay cup. And the things we go through can stretch that cup as it is formed, to make our cup wider and deeper. And if we will learn and grow and see the blessing in each struggle, our heart will have so much more room to hold a greater volume of love and thankfulness.

Let us choose today to empty out any bitterness so that our cup can be filled to the brim with gratitude.