The Best Robe

(We've sent this one out a number of times over the years. Before this year gets away, I wanted to do so again. Thanks, Glen)


"Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him" (Luke 15:22).


Who is the recipient of the "best robe?" Is it the Lord Jesus Christ upon His triumphant return to Heaven after He victoriously trampled sin, hell, and the grave under His nail-scarred feet? Could it be David upon his coronation as the king of Israel? Or might it refer to an overcoming saint who enters Glory after living an earthly lifetime of faith, obedience, and sacrifice for God and others?


While the Lord Jesus, David and the godly believer are likely candidates for such Biblical affirmation, they are not the subjects of this blessing. "The best robe" is rather reserved for one we would rightly deem unworthy of such exalted garb.


"And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found" (Luke 15:15-24).


We are all guilty of having sinned against our Father, and wasted His inheritance to the degree that the odor of swine is our most appropriate garment. If we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, however, the best robe has been bestowed upon us. It is the robe of our Savior's righteousness, and it is so effectual in redeeming us that God remembers no more our rejection of Him, or the degradation that led to our spiritual starvation. He looks upon us and sees the robe, the best robe. Forever thereafter He relates to us as the loving Father of sons and daughters who were dead, and are alive again, who were lost, and are found.


Upon our arrival in Heaven, the extent of our Lord's redemption will be known in infinitely greater measure. The realization will take our breath away, and we will feel that we cannot bow low enough to adequately worship the Author and Finisher of our salvation. In this we will be correct, but we will also hear our Father's command that we stand so that the universe can view the Blood-washed garment of righteousness that we wear. For as we do, the glory of the Lord Jesus will shine forth from us in a splendor heretofore unknown, and the display of grace will begin that will require an eternity to fulfill...


"But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."


(Ephesians 2:4-7)

"And lest the shadow of a spot should on my soul be found, He took the robe the Savior wrought and cast it all around!" (Isaac Watts).

The Star Carol Part 3

(A final take on the Star Carol blessing, from Frances.  She had never written about her experience of the matter, and I thought it would be special to get her thoughts.)

      As a child, the only method we had of providing music for our holidays was with vinyl albums. The compact disc player was not to become a popular mode for playing music until after I had married in 1978. 

     Two albums dominated our Christmas season rituals, Bing Crosby’s White Christmas and Tennessee Ernie Ford’s Star Carol.  I knew then, as I do now, the songs by heart and eventually learned the harmony to most of the songs as well.  I can remember hearing my brother’s beautiful baritone voice singing along with the albums during the holidays.  For both of us, who love the holidays and love music, these albums were a very special part of our holiday memories.

     As I started my own family, and our own holiday traditions, I could easily find Crosby’s familiar tunes but I was unable to locate the deep tones of Tennessee Ernie Ford.  I described the album to my husband as well as my dismay at not being able to hear it again.    We would look for the album from time to time at record stores and flea markets, but I had no idea he had made it a serious quest that would span the next two decades.

     How surprised I was twenty-six years later, to sit in my own living room and hear the preciously imperfect scratches from a vinyl record as Tennessee Ernie Ford crooned out one of my favorite Christmas songs ever,

“O hearken ye who would believe,
the gracious tidings now receive:
Gloria! Gloria
in excelsis Deo!

The mighty Lord of heav'n and earth
today is come to human birth!
Gloria! Gloria
In excelsis Deo!”

    Memories from Christmases past flooded over me.  I couldn’t imagine how my husband had managed to find the album and then, how did he ever manage to play it since we didn’t own a record player?

    When I discovered the album had been located at Gordon Oaks and given to me, through him, as a gift from the nurses and residents there, it was an even greater joy.  My own parents were then seven years gone and the residents of this nursing home had in many ways come to help fill the void the loss of parents had created. 

    It was a Christmas that needed a special treat, too. Our son was deployed to Iraq as a Reconnaissance Marine and we were not even sure of his location other than in a very general sense.   It was the first, and only so far, Christmas when all of us were not at home for the holidays.  Made harder still by the knowledge our son was engaged in a war, the kind gift offered a present better than any wrapped in paper and ribbon. 

    Knowing it was the sweet answer to prayer after prayer by my husband made it infinitely more precious to me than anything that could have been purchased in a store.  For me the album represented  both memories of the past and hope for the future, when all my family would be around the tree, sharing the holiday, with Tennessee Ernie Ford in the background encouraging us,

” O hearken ye who long for love
and turn your hearts to God above.
Gloria! Gloria
in excelsis Deo!

The angel's song the wonder tells:
now love incarnate with us dwells!
Gloria! Gloria
in excelsis Deo!”

The Star Carol Part 2

(Our friend Jay Grelen gave us permission to send out the column he wrote in 2004 about our finding the Tennessee Ernie Ford album, The Star Carol. Although Jay was a writer for a newspaper in another city at the time, our local paper ran the column on Christmas Day, 2004. You'll be blessed by his writing and perspective.)

"Musical Christmas Gift Answer To Prayers" - Jay Grelen

Somewhere along the way - garage sale, trash can, no one in the family remembers - Frances Davis lost her favorite Christmas recording.

That'll be an easy enough Christmas suprise, thought her husband Glen, when Frances told him of her loss early in their marriage, now going on 26 years. Glen, a romantic who writes songs for his wife, saw it as a grand quest with a happy ending.

The surprise was on Glen, a friend of mine from my days in Alabama.

The album, which was released in 1962, was long out of print. Telephone calls and catalog searches yielded nothing.

Glen, the father of a 22 year old Force Reconnaisance Marine who is in Iraq, is one of those guys who prays about everything. So he added to his prayer list Tennessee Ernie Ford's album, "The Star Carol."

Over the years, however, his dream of replacing the album dropped lower on the list.

On the last day of November, a Tuesday, Glen, as usual, was at the nursing home in Mobile, where he has been leading church services for two years.

As his friend Jack Skinner sang a hymn for the residents, Glen leaned against a grand piano, and his eyes fell on a familiar stack of old vinyl albums - Dean Martin, Andy Williams, the Andrews Sisters and other favorites of the retirement set.

Except this time, Glen noticed an album he never had seen in the stack.

His first thought was that he would return to the nursing home with a tape recorder.

His second thought was to change the topic of his sermon. He told the story of his search for the album and quoted Matthew 7:7: "Ask and ye shall receive." The literal meaning, Glen said, was "to keep on asking and ye shall keep on receiving."
After his sermon, the nurses handed him the answer to his prayer and wished him Merry Christmas. After years on the hunt, the album was his.

But there was this hitch. He didn't own a phonograph.

But there was a solution.
As you might guess about Glen, he saw the hand of Providence even at work in this. He once gave a turntable as a birthday gift to Jack, who, of course, immediately offered the use of it.

That night, Glen hid the record player behind the Christmas tree, turned out the lights except for the ones on the tree, made Frances close her eyes and sat her down in the living room. He turned on the player, set the needle on the record, and as it popped and crackled to life, he stood before his wife of 25 years with the album cover, Ernie Ford looking her right in the face.

She's not a screamer, he says, but more of a subdued squealer. "I think I got a kiss for the bargain," he says.

Glen, the minister that he is, is not one to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." He finds plenty of spiritual significance in all of this.

As he looked into the face of Tennessee Ernie Ford on the album cover at the nursing home that day, he says he was looking into the face of God, the original Christmas gift-giver.



Mobile Press Register; Saturday, December 25, 2004



Weekly Memory Verse

There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

(Job 32:8)