Lookhead: So a given episode would include the experience of intense joy when they would miraculously reunite, followed by the experience of gut-wrenching sorrow when they would have to say goodbye, seemingly for the last time.  Each time (until I fast forwarded and started screening based on plot descriptions), it seemed like there would be no way that they would survive and/or that circumstances would allow them to reunite.  This probably happened ten times! 🙂 I’m sure Kleenex stock has gone through the roof since these cathartic Netflix Series were released!!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  James 1:16

And now we come to one of my favorite concepts in the whole Bible:  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above…

Now if every bad gift and every imperfect gift (like yesterday when I tested positive twice for the “gift of COVID”) was from above, this would have been the optimal time for James to mention that as well.  

Au contraire, James promises that God’s gifts are good and perfect.  And all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the Glory of God through us. 2 Corin 1:20

Jesus Himself describes God’s gifts:  Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!  Matthew 7:9

Ever since I became sold-out on James 1:16  in the late 90’s, I have fallen into the habit of thanking God for every good thing that happens to me, and for every answer to prayer.  It’s not religious—it’s spontaneous.  Gratitude just overflows from my heart.  Really. 🙂 

The Greek word for “good” is agathos.  Bible Hub had a rather lackluster definition—agathos means good. And regarding usage:  intrinsically good, good in nature, good whether it be seen to be so or not, the…most colorless of all words with this meaning.  So when James was describing our Good Father, why would he use a lackluster word? Well the Aramaic is a totally different story.  The Peshitta really does it justice:  good, proper, appropriate, precious, valuable, of worth, (heart, mind) happy, feeling good, very, much most, maximally, much more than good, beautiful, fine, nice, kind, saintly, the better. I think I’ll go with the Aramaic. 🙂

Side Note and Reminder:  Two helpful links if you want to plumb the depths in Aramaic language—

http://www.dukhrana.com/peshitta/index.php

http://assyrianlanguages.org/sureth/

Back on track — And He NEVER changes!!  He is the One constant in the universe, and the One we can depend on.  Our earthly fathers may be all over the map (I had an alcoholic father who was married to my mentally ill mother, so there was always an unpredictable quality in their actions/behavior).  Not our heavenly Father.  He has revealed Himself in scripture and in communion with His Spirit.  We can always rely on Him to behave in a rock solidly consistent fashion.  

On Labor Day, I watched a fictitious South Korean TV series with English Subtitles.  It was about two star-crossed lovers  (and “lovers” is used with the most pristine connotation here to describe what was really an ethereal, higher order type of love).  The man was a N. Korean Captain from a highly prestigious military family, the woman was a S. Korean CEO; and they met in the demilitarized zone when the S. Korean’s hang glider was blown off course by cyclone winds.  The relationship was adversarial at first but then the pair fell deeply in love.  This happened as plots within plots within plots were developing in parallel. And what happened next was…a flood of tears from everybody—the leads, the second leads, the third leads, the extras. 🙂 Man, can they act!!  But it was a flurry of waterworks (yeah, I binged).  Later, when I found myself doing my Siskel/Ebert thing mentally, I realized that I felt sorry for the lovers—who kept sacrificing their relationship and their safety to prevent governmental retribution against their respective families.  So a given episode would include the experience of intense joy when they would miraculously reunite, followed by the experience of gut-wrenching sorrow when they would have to say goodbye, seemingly for the last time.  Each time (until I fast forwarded and started screening based on plot descriptions), it seemed like there would be no way that they would survive and/or that circumstances would allow them to reunite.  This probably happened ten times! 🙂 I’m sure Kleenex stock has gone through the roof since these cathartic Netflix Series were released!!

I tried to better understand why I had real sympathy for obviously fictitious characters in a highly implausible storyline in an Extreme Tear Jerker. 🙂 And I realized that a lot of relationships in my life had this same ON again/OFF again aspect, e.g., having an alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother who could run hot and run cold in terms of emotional accessibility; or dating an ex-spouse for years after the divorce, in, yup, an ON again/OFF again Long Distance relationship.  And later (surprise!) finding myself in yet another longer-term ON again/OFF again relationship.  As bad as the breakups were, the makeups (when I realized that I was still loved and not alone) joyfully erased the pain—and this pattern started from childhood!  So the thought of someone else, or regretfully the past me, being trapped in that type of relationship was cause for sadness.

But when the LORD came into my life, He set me free from that lifestyle, and from any loneliness I might ever feel.  I learned from James 1:16 and many, many other verses that He is always with me, always watching over me, always loving me. 🙂 (Examples in https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/loneliness-bible-verses/) And during the times when I am needy, His presence is tangible. 

Nevertheless, in thinking this through, it also became evident that this ON again/OFF again syndrome may influence how I view God on a subconscious level.  When the enemy is trying to invade my territory, I worry that it’s the LORD “breaking up” with me because I fall so short of perfection.  Fortunately He’s given me the wisdom to recognize that I am the one who let His hand go, not the other way around.  It’s like a sermon that I additionally watched during Labor Day week.  I heard a TV Pastor essentially say, if you feel like Jesus has left you alone in the boat, take courage! He’s still there—look for Him in the waves.  I’m putting a little extra spin on this:  If you can’t feel His presence in the boat, it may be that He wants you to look outside the boat and watch as He deals with the wind and the waves in your life.  Either way, He is always watching over us.  

Father of heavenly lights…Patros tōn phōtōn…The “heavenly lights” Greek word is very interesting.  Literally, it means lights.  Figuratively, it has many connotations.  But the “heavenly lights” rendering was chosen because of the next phrase that talks about turning, which immediately suggests rotating or revolving.  Therefore, “lights” seemed to refer to a heavenly body that would rotate/revolve. However, there are no “heavenly bodies” or “stars” or “planet” definitions for phōtōn in the Bible Hub Greek Lexicons. The closest thing is “a heavenly light, such as surrounds angels when they appear on earth.”

Basically, I think this title expresses that God fathered light in accordance with And God said, Let there be light. And there was light.  Gen 1:3

And with Him is no variation….  

parallagé  From a compound of (1) para and (2) allasso:  transmutation, i.e. (figuratively) fickleness: variableness.

(1) para:  from beside, by the side of, by, beside

(2) allasso: to change: to cause one thing to cease and another to take its place, to exchange one thing for another, to transform: 1 Corinthians 15:51; 

1 Corinthians 15:51 of course says:  But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed…followed by :53, for our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.

God isn’t going to undergo some transformation and change into another version of Himself.  He is what He is (and Who He is).  He’s not subject to diminishing capacity or electro-chemical upheavals or personality changes as He encounters crises in the universe; nor is He given to hypocrisy or faulty programming glitches or cognitive reprogramming on any level for that matter. (He) is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8  He said it Himself:  For I am the LORD, I do not change. Mal 3:6

or shadow of turning….

tropēs: to turn, change, mutate from trepon—a turn, revolution

aposkiasma:  a shading off, obscuration. 

I always thought this was talking about a heavenly body like the moon or some other source of light (direct or reflective) that was turning or revolving or rotating.  Depending on how and where that body turned in its orbit, its light might not be visible.  I.e., the verse was saying that God would not ever turn or revolve or rotate away such that He ceased to illuminate us with His Light.   

But now I’m thinking that it’s more human-centric.  If we turn away from a fixed light source, we will lose the light.  However, if everywhere we turn, the Light is with us, we will never lose the Light—or risk seeing shadows or darkness. 

Wherever we go, no matter how or where we turn, He will always be there, to drive out the darkness with perfect, pure, shadow-free Light.