Friday, February 16, 2024 (Lent Day 3)
I'm pondering the goodness of God toward someone as unworthy as I. What comfort we find in his kindness and mercy.
The dogs are ready to go at 6:00 a.m. - "yip, yip" accompanied by a prancing Bailey - so, a walk it is!
I write a few book reviews. 20 or 30 more reviews are waiting to be written. This book is a winner so I start here. I recommend it as a step-by-step manual for entrepreneurs figuring out business basics, a creating marketable culture, and defining their online presence.
In the afternoon, the Bandung book group meets to discuss a story of Syrian refugees.
My grandparents and their kids (including Mom) were war refugees in Europe so this book feels personal. I remember their stories. What is similar between them and many of today's refugees? The fear, the displacement, the desire to settle their family is the same.
What is very different? Unlike some migrants or refugees today, Grandma and Mom's generation had an attitude of appreciation and gratitude rather than entitlement. They set out to improve the place where they landed and determined to work hard. They understood that their own immigrant community needed to help each other invest. When they could put a down payment on a home, it was a badge of honor to pay off their mortgage before spending a dime on extras.
The entire family - parents and kids and sometimes grandparents - got jobs and pooled their incomes. They were so frugal that the word only begins to describe their lifestyles. They were determined to fit into the new culture and, poor though they were, they refused handouts. They never had instant benefits or the lifestyle of locals who had worked hard. Instead, they took whatever menial jobs they could, gardened, and ate home-cooked meals while they got on their feet.
Grandma had lots of stories. She told us about the night when she and her children were part of a refugee train going through an area known for guerrilla attacks on the railroad. She prayed and saw an angel flying outside her window all night long - and the train passed unharmed. She not only believed in miracles: she experienced them. Days like today, I miss her still.
Mom and I talk as we do each morning, continents and an ocean apart.
DrW and I meet on the walk and do a few loops. On the final round, she spots a young man looking for something at the roadside. He's stumbled and lost a lens from his glasses. We search the grass and undergrowth with him, but it's nowhere to be found.
After a few minutes, I pray aloud: "God, you know where it is. Help us to find it." The dogs and I cut through the hedge to the water runoff ditch, to search from the other side. There it is, hidden even when the young man sees where I'm pointing.
"Put your hand down now," I tell him. He lands on the lens. All three of us happily continue our walks. Thank you, God.
Mid morning, I feel I should call my WPPR friends. What a divine treat to reconnect without the back-and-forth scheduling we usually need. They answer from around the world - hurrah! and we catch up.
W gets a first-class upgrade as a Delta million-miler on the flight from Austin to Seattle. "Nice, but maybe not worth an extra $600," is his verdict.
He stopped in Austin on either side of a theology commission session in Missouri. In Austin, he checked things off our daughter's "Dad's-help" list.
A few times over the course of the day, I fill my thermos with hot tea and drink from a glass teacup bought in Turkey last year. The shape is perfect in my hand and for my mouth.
From my vantage at the dining table, the room feels cozy and subdued. Gold and cream, pale pinks and blues, olive green, chocolate brown, and black = a strange combination?
One throw pillow has most of the colors, which pulls it all together.
This beautiful pastel portrait has moved around the house: it's been upstairs and downstairs, in one room and in another. I liked it the minute it was spotted in a close-out sale at an art galley.
However, no matter where we set it, we had to go right up to it to see any details. We put non-glare glass on it as any reflected light made the face disappear. It finally found a place on the easel in a corner of the living room, lit by a Turkish mosaic lamp.
Outside, a mass of dark clouds comes churning down the mountains. Thunder begins to rumble. Heavy raindrops slap the leaves and bend the branches. Last week, a footballer died from a direct lightning strike while playing a game in town. So we don't mess around when the weather comes in.
The dogs crowd into Bailey's medium-sized crate, appreciating the tight quarters as the storm shakes the ground. If I were afraid of the crashing, I'd be tempted to crawl in with them: it's so close. Gypsy has to come inside for 2 hours: he is terrified by the nearby FLASH BANG! of lightning and thunder.
Sunday
Our tech person and W are traveling. We have a wonderful sub - but before she arrives, the worried worship team asks for my help. HA as though I know anything! We video-call W and he explains the basics of what to plug in and turn on. Which of course doesn't work because ... (I tried to follow directions quickly and completely. Oh well.) Ivo to the rescue!
Our topic from Acts 3 is divine healing and provision, in scripture and in the Church. We read a lot of passages and I speak and invite people to come forward.
Every week, we get spoiled by the Sunday flowers. If someone lands in hospital, is ill at home, or celebrating, we pass them along. Otherwise, this gift of God is appreciated by our guests and us. When a flower droops, it gets recut and rehydrated until no life is left.
I take an arrangement inside for the entry table, balancing it on an old clay pot. The pot has long since lost its base but the sides (30cm/1' tall) make a good stand.
The dogs are happy to see us and bounce around saying hello before eating their own lunch.
Read more:
*[Job said:] I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! Job 19: 25-27
*So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. Psalm 90:12
*If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. Romans 14:8
*Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. James 5:7
Moravian Prayers: Alpha and Omega, we recognize that all things come from you and will return to you. Help us to be careful that we live out our lives in a manner that is pleasing to you.
God, you are truly quite phenomenal! You are precious, and your patience and provisions are incomparable. Continue to deal bounteously with us; keep us faithful even as you are faithful. For Christ’s sake. Amen.
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