Cry of Creation

Tears well up and spill across my page. Will they love you? Will they know you as I have? I wonder. I close my eyes an envision who I've created and contemplate their fate. How will they be handled, be read, be remembered, or maybe not. What if they are not treated well. Misunderstood. Disregarded. Left to languish without hearing their story. What will come over me then? Will I cry and spill my disappointment, singular sadness, gushed out on paper with ink spoken words? Will I try to seem unconcerned when their very lives are at stake...at printable stake. These thoughts come to me as the revisions are revised and "my darlings", Faulkner's words,are at stake. There are so few I will relinquish without great pain. May they stay, may they live to grace a printed page? That will all depend on me. Did I write them a fair life, give them a clear voice, have them make their presence irreplaceable? My heart hurts just thinking I'll mistakenly judge them unneccessary. Already a few are gone. Here I sit with "in or out" decisons that have to be made. It's the literary way. If all the characters in all the books I've read could stand before me now, I'd know the ones who have made me laugh, cry, mad, fear, dread. Know the scary, shameful, sordid, strong. the beautiful, tragic, triumphant, brave. So many. So few stand out, but many are remembered. Several I've immulated. Some still trying to forget. The music in my head is playing now as I see my folks acting out my story. It is just that, a story. A fairy tale that happens to people that are not, but seem to be...real. I just love them. Want the best for them. Almost like my children, I want them protected from what will come and especially from me. I write on... to do them justice. To see them thrive. this blog post was supposed to be about them..... but I remembered......................................... I am a created being. My Creator has my life in His hands. He can make or take my life. He can "open any anything that is shut, shut anything that is open". Yet He doesn't worry about me. He knows all "my going outs and my coming ins". My Creator. If I being a human want good things for my created, how much more does my Heavenly Father desire for me. ... realizing I am not God, but His workmanship, I will work.. thrust Him, my Designer, to make my creations what He wants them to be, do, accomplish. He is trustworthy. My created are ultimately in the most trustworthy of Hands. I will dry my tears now. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

Moon and Me

Waking, seeing silver, it's 3:15 a.m. Outside our bedroom window shone a glowing old friend, the moon. This time he was only half full, but no less the white pearl in the sky. His face so familiar it seemed he was gazing into our window as if to say, "I was just in your area and wanted to say, 'Hello." I knew he was near, having been so full, so close, just nights ago. I'd missed his big display, so sorry with our life-long relationship. Now he hung, shining bright over my face, through the cedars he outlined. It's a moon bathed bed. A reflection across my cheeks that I love. I never want him to change. Lying there staring, afraid I'd miss one moment of his presence, dozing wants to take over. Then, still so enthralled, I see that he's higher in the night sky. Now traveling upwards, away from my eyes. Pulling his silver strands with him, going his ancient way. My face now losing it's glow. My eyes now unable to see his face, I unwillingly fall back to sleep. So thankful he awakened me so for a moment we could visit....face to face.

TODAY

The evening is still dimly lit. The frogs are doing their best to out-sing the robins. The geese have just flown over, heading to whatever pond they have claimed as theirs. My face is illuminated by the lap-top screen, one dog at my feet. Spring is officially here.

This has been a sweet weekend. A granddaughter captured our hearts as she blew out her four birthday candles.Aided by her brother and cousin. Her cake a creation of her great-grandmother and her aunt. All the grandchildren were entertained by running wide-open in the yard of her grandparent's farm.
All of life was illuminated by the beauty of childhood and many cherished relationships.
Quite frankly, it's almost unbelievable.

This morning, a pastor took a moment to speak to us before the teaching time began. His English difficult to understand, we sat enthralled as he spoke and wept, asking for help for his church in Japan. He was visiting here when the destruction took place and when he returns to his home it will be without many of his congregation, most of his town. He boldly asked for many volunteers to come to Japan and help his people rebuild, restore, clean away, have their spirits lifted. He had a word of welcome to any and all who would come and his small frame showed the severe sorrow he bore. Quite frankly, it's almost unbelievable.

As I sit writing this my heart is overwhelmed with joy and sorrow and hope. I pray that someday the children of his town will once again have a safe plot of ground on which to play.
That they will know there are people who care for them even though there is no way to know us.
I pray that they will be able to see joy in their families' eyes and that they too will have a time of celebration of their life. I pray we understand the beauty of our life.

With that reminder, I will embrace the life I have. I will live it to celebrate the love we have. I will be filled with gratitude for each day of life and all that means. If we have learned anything we should know from our far-eastern friends that "seize the day" is not to be ignored. We have so much to be thankful for and so much to share. I don't want to take any of this for granted.
Let's sing with the frogs and run with the kids. Eat birthday cake even when it's not our birthday. Drink deeply of the goodness. Mourn with those that mourn. Sing with those who sing. Call out the good in people and bless those around us. Life isn't always good, but God is.

So... encourage one another daily, while it is still called "Today".....
Hebrews 3:13

Wash Away

My heart and prayers are with the suffering in Japan. There is absolutely no way I can know how that experience has already drastically changed their lives. but one overriding thought keeps coming to me...


Ash Wednesday, as I sit in the sanctuary and participate in the service, I hear the words,


"Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world",


for the first time I got it.

The whole world,

all sin,


He takes it away,


just believe.


I have believed it but it suddenly became so real.....so very real.


Then came April 11. The morning broke with the news of the tsunami and then the audio and the video soon after.


It seemed so surreal. Unbelievable that so much could be swept away. So much. So big. So powerful. Such aftermath of carnage beyond anything I can fathom.


Sin. It seems so surreal that so much could be swept away. So big. So powerful. such carnage.

Beyond anything I can fathom....but


Jesus the Christ came to take our sin away. Our personal sin. He can sweep it away as far as the east is from the west. He remembers it no more. His power to completely cleanse is the higher power. More powerful than any massive destruction the earth can throw at us. If only we believe....


that He is able to save to the utmost. that He is the Son of God. He can make the foulest clean, He wants to do this for us. Have we put ourselves out there and just trusted Him? It is never to late, so why not now? He loves you more than you will ever know.


There is debris of enormous magnitude left over after the water recedes in Japan. So our lives have to deal with the aftermath of our sin, but God's grace is greater than all our sin to carry us through all the cleanup, the life change, the new start we will receive.


My prayer is that Japan will be overwhelmed by the love of the true God for them and that a new life will be theirs in every possible way. How about you...do you need this washing away of your past, that pushing away of everything in the path to true forgiveness in Christ? My prayer is that you will be overwhelmed by the love of God for you and that a new life will be yours in every possible way.

"For God so loved the world

that He gave His only Son

that whosoever believes on Him

should not perish

but have everlasting life.

He came not into the world

to condemn the world,

but that the world,

through Him,

might be saved."

John 3:16-17

(I have infused many quotes from various sources. Better words than mine.)

For Such a Time as This & Then

The frogs are singing. I love them. It's their time of year to make their presence known. They naturally have plans for all their croaks....trying to be so attractive... giving these breezy cool nights an ambiance chasing away the recent snows. Tiny bodies, no bigger than a lemon, carrying on so loud that one can hear them, doors opened wide, all down the hall to our bedroom. I just love them. So small a creature..so big an effect.

Lately, kings have been on my mind. "The King's Speech" was an amazing film, so beautifully done. My daughter, Jennifer, gave me a fascinating book, Majestie, by David Teems. A biography of King James. You know, the king behind the King James Bible. What a couple of unique individuals...King James and King Charles VI. King James was beyond an individual. Very comforting to know. His heart was truly to make the Bible available and understandable to all men who spoke English, not just the learned. He was not your pious, behind the scenes kind of king. He was an imperfect, fleshly rascal...Yet...he was used beyond his wildest imaginations.

King Charles, VI was a wonder. His stammering could have sunk a lesser man. His birth order almost derailed his ability to rule, but his brother's weak, selfish nature brought him to the forefront of a time needing much more of a sovereign. Without Charles I wonder what would have become of Europe at the hands of the tyrannical maniacs that were strangling kingdoms left and right. His people would come to depend on him and he served them well. The final scene in the film is very moving to me, because they, the sovereigns, and they, the citizens, had no idea how devastating their next years would be. But they were victorious.

Now to the frogs...
tiny, temporarily noisy, ugly, illusive...they charm and give the spring a song like no other. I'm always blessed by their coming. A small span of time.

King James was an interesting king, much like his mother, Mary, Oueen of Scots. But it is obvious he had an enormous role to play and his time was started June 19, 1566. He was born and survived to adulthood to change the world for the better...despite his imperfections. God is Sovereign.

King Charles was not supposed to be the king. He had not actually been raised to be, nor did he actually desire to be..a king. But his brother the king's desire for a forbidden marriage overrode a responsibility to his country thus making him impotent in the worst way. It was one of the greatest reigns-gone-bad in the history of the world. Charles loved his country, his family and had a sense of responsibility far beyond his brothers ability to comprehend. Where would all free people have been without the right men in the front lines against a tyrant like Hitler?Charles knew how to apply the balm of security and understanding. God is Sovereign.

So...just wondering...what about callings on our lives? Do we say, "That couldn't possibly be me that is supposed to do that with my life? I'm not made of the right stuff." Two kings and a few thousand frogs would tell you different if they could. What song are you to sing, what new territory are you supposed to open up, what battle challenges you?

Do not miss your place in history....from the pond or the castle or your own piece of turf.


But Moses said to God,
"Who am I,
that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

And God said,
"I will be with you. "

Exodus 3:11 & 12a
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Mordecai to Queen Esther,
"....and who knows but that you have come to royal position
for such a time as this?"

Esther 4:14b
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All we have to decide is what to do with the time
that is given us.

J. R. R. Tolkien
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May we all make the most of our lives.