Thinking on these things . . .

 It's November and the season of thankfulness. I see friends on Facebook whose status each day is what they are thankful for. We're trying at dinner to talk about our day and what it is we have to give thanks about.   But it's all so miniscule compared to all the blessings that God has showered down on us.   Here in the Midwest the color is spectacular. Every leaf is trying to outdo it's neighbor in brilliance. Footsteps are muffled in golden carpets and the sun filters through a canopy of the same; and then the wind blows and the leaves swirl down and take your breath away.   "Pour out Your unfailing love on those who love You.  Your unfailing love, O Lord, is a vast as the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of Your wings." Psalm 36:10,5,7   As I walk through this fall's scape I am reminded by the sheltering canopies of the shelter of His wings, of the paths He...

Is it just me or has "Christmas" come even earlier this year? Holiday merchandise is already front and center in the stores. A radio station had an "All Christmas Halloween" and so the music's begun. The Sunday paper contained several holiday toy catalogs. Starbucks has already gone to their red holiday cups. (although I can't complain there as I enjoyed a peppermint mocha...) And a couple days ago I saw a holiday themed commercial and since September I've been receiving "100 days until Christmas" emails. 100 days before Christmas? Are we really to the point that we need to prep for almost 1/3 of the year for this one holiday?? What about today - did we prep for today? Do we have special things planned? Décor? Food? Gifts? Special activities to make fond memories? Of course not - we're too busy planning for the perfect Christmas and putting all our eggs into that basket. But what about today? And tomorrow and all the days b...

The past three days have been a blur of curling up on anything stationary and simple tasks, as my daughter shared her cold with me and I, being an overachiever, took it to the next level... A few things, however; did penetrate the fog 1. One should NEVER shop for cold medicine while sick - expectorant? decongestant? cough and cold? cold and flu? daytime? nighttime? extended release? capsules? brand name? generic? Tylenol? Aspirin? Augh....! There is no sight more pathetic than a glassy-eyed sick person in the medicine aisle. 2. Being sick seriously alters your perspective.  It was a beautiful fall weekend - like jeans and sweatshirts, every tree doing it's best to outshine the others- kind of perfect.  I saw these people enjoying the day, walking their dogs, raking leaves, cutting grass, standing around laughing and I, although watching it, couldn't comprehend it.  I felt so lousy it was hard to believe that people could have that much energy. ...

Just. so. hungry!   You’ve been there too haven’t you; when you feel your stomach is ready to devour itself just to be satisfied? When every other thing becomes less important as this gnawing hunger hijacks all other focus but itself.   It is one thing to have a taste for something but entirely different to be consumed by need. It’s the difference between resisting the dessert cart when you’ve just finished a satisfying meal and thinking “How quickly can they get food on the table?” after it’s been a long and stress filled day.   Jesus was hungry. In Matthew 4:2 we read “After fasting forty days and nights, He (Jesus) was hungry.” These were not the rumblings of a stomach between lunch and dinner; this was a hunger that was so complete His entire body had been weakened by lack of nourishment.   Satan then comes and says “ If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” (Matthew 4:3)   In other words, “You have the power and the...

I saw this billboard yesterday on I-55 and it got me to thinking... you too? What are your thoughts?

This weekend I was using a map - an honest to goodness, there's not enough room to open it in this front car seat space and good luck ever getting it refolded to any semblance of it's original neatness  kind of a map.  It was weird, but had a comforting familiarity about it that I don't have with my GPS. I plotted where we were and where we were headed; saw the various options and made choices. I had a pretty good overview of the whole drive albeit I did miss the "You are Here" pinpoint accuracy of the peg on the GPS road display... Springing off the page this morning was Psalm 139:3 "You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment You know where I am." There is a confidence in having a map and knowing how the road turns, of planning a way to get from Point A to B and having a rough idea of how long it will take to make the trip. God's done that for my life. It's also very reassuring to know exactly w...

* Opportunity may knock once, but temptation leans on the doorbell. *Every temptation is an opportunity to reject evil and get to know God better, or reject God and get to know evil better. *No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. I Corinthians 10:13 ESV

Seurat - He painted with dots. Its a mnemonic device I picked up so that, years after a college Art Appreciation class, I still remember at least one artist and his style! Georges Seurat is most well known for  A Sunday on La Grande Jatte which hangs in the Art Institute in Chicago. I've seen it in person. It's incredible! The painting is roughly six by ten feet, making the people nearly life sized; aand the entire painting is made up of zillions of dots. (okay, maybe not a zillion but you get the idea...) The official art term is pointillism , defined as "a technique of painting in which small distinct dots of pure color and applied in patterns to form an image. Close up it looks like this... Amazing... When all the points of color are put in their places it becomes more than just a myriad of random paint, it's transformed into an image. We've been discussing this concept in church recently.  Every one of us is like a bucket of paint and G...

He was "all that".  He was all her heart desired although she didn't know it until she got to know Him; and as she did she found that to know Him was to love Him. He had always loved her. He'd always been looking out for her and working things together for her good. He wasn't her first love and even when she realized she loved Him, still her eye and attention wandered to others... This grieved Him for He was jealous to be the only One in her heart but He never pouted, or gave up and stomped away.  Instead He continued to love; faithfully and lavishly in a thousand small ways until her eyes turned back to Him and only Him. Her heart than remembered that she was His and even more amazingly that He was hers! Time had and would continue to pass and things would, as things must do, change. Yet His love never did: His attentions never faltered and from that history she knew they never would. She had found that the One who had made her heart had fashioned it f...