No umbrellas allowed

Most of us have a mental attic or basement, where we store information that was at some point interesting but not very useful. Information we like but have no actual need to use. We can’t bring ourselves to throw it away, so we pack it up, put it on a shelf, and then forget it. Let me give you a few tidbits to stash in your ” umbrella facts box.” If you don’t have one with that label, take this opportunity to add another box, there is always room for one more box.

But first, the word itself. Our English word “umbrella” has a confusing etymology for me. The Old French word, “ombrage,” collided with the Latin word “umbraticum.” Both words have to do with shade or shadow. I cannot get straight in my mind how it happened; the collaboration between the two gives us “umbrella.”

The umbrella started out as a covering designed to keep the hot sun off glamorous heads. Although I have assumed the umbrella was invented by the Chinese, it wasn’t. It seems that umbrellas were first used by the ancient Egyptians four thousand years ago. Next, the Chinese made it folding and waterproofed the fabric, or paper, to protect from rain or snow. Finally, the British made it an icon for the gentile man.

Obviously, I am stuck in an “umbrellic” cognitive vortex. Thank you for suffering the twists as it gets out of my system.

If you ever attended a middle or high school football or soccer game when it was raining, you know umbrellas are not welcomed in the stands. It is even more true for all outdoor collegiate and professional sports. Rain has a way of separating the “fans” from the “spectators.” When an umbrella pops up, the horizon disappears for the person behind you. Therefore, there are no umbrellas allowed in stadiums. Obviously, the reason is that when you shelter your own little head, you diminish the view the person behind you paid with their hard-earned money to secure. Theoretically, the only persons who could claim a right to use an umbrella were the average Joe, who could only afford the high-altitude benches, the last rollers.

Pardon my mental burp, but I just have to type the words, “Gene Kelly, Singing in the rain.” Sorry for the interruption. I feel better now.

When it comes to living an adventurous life with our Creator, we all have our umbrellas out and up to protect us from any damaging or threatening conditions that may make us feel uncomfortable. We do not like anything that challenges our well-established rules of engagement with the world, particularly the tempests that God’s truth initiates.

Humans have a way of embellishing their opinions about how the world should work to look glamorous. But glamorous is not very functional. Each human longs for some acceptable level of glamor in this life, to feel worthy, accomplished, and respected. But that is a false and, at best, distorted and twisted version of what God has offered us, Himself. He has provided us glory, His glory.

Glamor will shift and move about, driven by the whims of personal taste. Glory is eternally established, unchangeable, unchanging. Glory is the person of God. You were created to be an example of God’s glory. That is nearly incomprehensible!

We are created in His glorious image. That is what heaven will be, the return of His glory to my life. Glamor is defined by human critical thinking. Glory is established by the person of God. He alone is glorious, and He alone can “make” glorious. So I must learn, and it is learned, to leave my spiritual umbrella at the house and endure the elements of His grace as they shape me to think and act as He thinks and acts. More simply, to love as He loves.

Don’t settle for a glamorous life! Glamor is for people who live among people. Glory is for people who choose to live before God. Insist on the glorious life your Creator has promised.

There is a truth in Proverbs’ description of a “woman of noble character,” but its application is unisex. 

Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. (Proverbs 31:30 CSB)

Photo – Sunset at Shekinah Villlliage and The Stables at Creekside Glenn in Partridge, Kentucky. Both are part of the Meridzo Center ministries based in Lynch, Kentucky. (https://www.meridzo.org)