{"id":1282,"date":"2010-12-06T16:35:27","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T16:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/12\/nothing-so-permanent-as.html"},"modified":"2010-12-06T16:35:27","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T16:35:27","slug":"nothing-so-permanent-as","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/12\/nothing-so-permanent-as.html","title":{"rendered":"Nothing so Permanent as…."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"weston4.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Under a leaden sky<\/p>\n

                <\/span>The
\ngeese in V formation<\/p>\n

                <\/span>Head for
\nwarmer climes<\/p>\n

                <\/span>An
\nannual migration.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Under  <\/span>a snowy blanket<\/p>\n

The earth is hard as rock<\/p>\n

Yet 
\n<\/span>it can hear the ticking<\/p>\n

Of every season’s clock.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Under a shining star<\/p>\n

The weary Magi travel<\/p>\n

Visiting two kings<\/p>\n

 <\/span>And one comes quite unraveled.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Under a  <\/span>mother’s  <\/span>gaze<\/p>\n

A baby lies asleep<\/p>\n

With angels celebrating<\/p>\n

With promises to keep. <\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

Under normal circumstances<\/p>\n

Few believe in change<\/p>\n

Yet change is all around them<\/p>\n

Their radar’s out of range.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Under a Christmas tree<\/p>\n

One gift that changed us all<\/p>\n

A gift that keeps on giving<\/p>\n

And with the gift a call.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our natures’ better angels<\/p>\n

Have called us to believe,<\/p>\n

To give up fear based thinking<\/p>\n

To respond and to receive. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For hope must have an object<\/p>\n

Lest it be wishful thought<\/p>\n

So Heaven sends a question–<\/p>\n

What is it God hath wrought ?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The answer is so simple<\/p>\n

As gentle as a dove<\/p>\n

Obviously overlooked<\/p>\n

The answer is just  Love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Faith, hope and love<\/p>\n

The greatest saved for last<\/p>\n

Love came down at Christmas<\/p>\n

And cannot be surpassed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

BW3 12-6-10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Under a leaden sky                 The geese in V formation                 Head for warmer climes                 An annual migration.   Under  a snowy blanket The earth is hard as rock Yet  it can hear the ticking Of every season’s clock.   Under a shining star The weary Magi travel Visiting two kings  And one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nNothing so Permanent as.... - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/12\/nothing-so-permanent-as.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nothing so Permanent as.... - 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}