Hi!

It’s me again!

I’m excited today and wanted to tell you why.

I have a friend who loves to read.  She’s one of those who has a night stand stacked high with books.  She is smart enough to be able to read three or four at a time and remember what she’s read.  I enjoy reading but these days, for some reason, I have a hard time sitting still and focusing long enough to get through a book.  In actual fact I have started three books in the last few months and they have sat, half read, waiting.  I did just finish one, on the plane the other day.  It was good and I enjoyed it.

This friend of mine likes fiction and devotionals and the ones full of travel information and those that point her towards God and the most important God book of all, His words in print.  She once told me she liked to read anything worthwhile and she continues to remind me that life is short and we shouldn’t feel obligated to finish a book , if it becomes a chore.

It was a few weeks ago that we both realized there was a new book on the stands.

You may have heard me mention in past posts that I hesitate to use the phrase,

my favorite (colour, friend, food, book, author).  

 There is another phrase I am learning, the hard way, to use less.

I always.  You always.  Yes, that last one has gotten me into lots of pickles, backed me into a whole slew of corners over the years.  That’s a different story for another day.

But back to my favorite

 It just seems, when I say it, something happens to freedom and there is a sort of constriction, a closing of doors, lessening of willingness for something new, turning away from what could be.

Now, I would not call myself, well read.  I tend to read books that have been recommended by people I trust.  It’s a huge responsibility to recommend a book.  I mean, it takes hours to make your way through the labyrinth of a story.

To be clear, ideas from ‘excellent’ writers may inspire and motivate me, but they might leave you yawning and bleary eyed.

I want to say that this book, the new one on the stands, is written by my very FAVORITE author.  I say it casually and with an open attitude but I am pretty sure she is at number one on my list of writers.  There are 10 books in the series, with a smattering of extras off to the side.  I can’t remember another series of books that has consistently brought tears followed by laughter.  There was a time, it was years ago now, that I was away at a retreat with my husband’s firm.  There I was sitting on the beach with the first book in the series propped on my lap.  I wondered, as I wiped the tears from my eyes with the tissue I had somehow thought to put in my beach bag, followed by my loud burst of laughter, if perhaps there were people sitting nearby who might be wishing I would compose myself a bit better.  I sometimes care a lot about such things, but this book, these books, are so good I just don’t mind what They think.

A few days after my friend and I chatted about the newest installment of our dear friends in a tiny town somewhere to the south, we got together along with a few others.  She took a package out of her bag and said “I have something for you”.    I knew immediately what it was and must tell you, I think I squealed out loud (as only I can do.  Remember, I was the gal who was reprimanded on more than one occasion for being heard All The Way down the hall, when I was just a lamb).  “I am lending it to you”, she clarified.  That was fine with me.  I suggested she might like to read it first but because she is just that kind of friend, she said I should go ahead.

Two months have flown by.  This treasure has sat next to the window in my bedroom and I have looked at it every day, thinking I so wanted to dig in.  You see, I have a few obsessive issues and one of them is that I must be disciplined.  I had a couple of books on the go and although I longed to start on this beauty, I insisted I would finish the Not So Great book I was reading, first.  Yes, my friends words kept popping into my head, about not reading a book, just because.  Actually there is another reason I waited.  I love the anticipation of something good.  I love surprises (as long as they are good and don’t hurt).  This book was a surprise.  The author, at the end of #9 said The End.  It was a  farewell to our friends in our favorite small town.  It made me sad.  Now, with a revival of the story, a continuation of the journey to wisdom for our friend Father Tim and his loved ones, I am looking forward to traveling to that place and being part of their lives again.  However, once I read it, it will be over.  There may not be another.  Looking at that book, all wrapped up and waiting, makes me smile.

But today is the day.  My chores are half finished and my commitments are in the works of being taken care of.  I have a couple of errands to do and then, a little later, I am going to open the front cover and turn past the foreward.

I have taken it out of its wrapping.  The title is inviting and the jacket is beautiful.

The jacket is so beautiful in fact, that I have removed it like my dad taught me.  We don’t want it to get ripped or tattered so we set it aside while we read the book.  When we are finished we put the jacket back.

 I have already read the first sentence

“His wife was determined to march him to the country club this Saturday evening.  Worse, he’d have to stuff himself into his old tux like sausage into a casing.”

I am already smiling.

A good book is a sweet thing.  I will likely read it cover to cover in just a few hours.  Yes it is fiction and yes it is full of all kinds of wisdom.  I don’t know the author but I think she and I would have much to chat about if given the opportunity to visit over a cup of something.  Jan Karon puts everyday words together to say beautiful things.    her books are as beautiful on the inside as they look on the outside.  This makes me happy.

It happened again.

There I was sitting under the shade of an umbrella, on the other side of the pool.  It was the perfect place for relaxing and reading.  There was a group of ladies on the far side, sitting in chairs that had been lined up for easier chit chat and laughing and visiting.  I could not help but overhear some of their conversation since just as I do when I am with friends, the voices were sometimes raised and laughter rang out to my side of the deck.  They were from somewhere in the midwestern USA and had come for a few days together.  I watched them out of the corner of my eye.    Suddenly, before you could say desert sun,   they had moved to the pool steps in front of me and continued their conversation right under my nose.   It became impossible to read.  My eyes were glued to the pages but my ears heard all that was being said.  They talked and I longed to jump in.  Maybe I should have.

I didn’t

I listened and bit my tongue and thought so many thoughts.

There were seven of them and they were talking about “spirituality”.  One had grown up in a denomination where she may have heard a few things about Jesus and another said she was sure she had been someone very different in her past life and another spoke knowingly about how Christians really truly believe that Jesus lived and was God and another said that she didn’t buy it and really as long as you think good things and want to be a good person, that is spiritual enough.  Yet another said she didn’t believe in God at all, because how could God let such bad things happen in the World and these were all angles and arguments that I have heard before and I sat there and listened and thought

about

Ecclesiastes 3:11  (Living New Testament)  Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

No matter where I go or the setting I find myself in, there is so often talk of God.

My boy got married a week ago.  He married the girl that God hand picked for him.  I listened to these seven ladies talk

about chance and luck and the uncertainties of their lives.   Worrying about children and  wondering about the meaning of life.  They talked all around the subject of the creator of their souls and could not find their way to the center of the target.  The bulls eye.  The axis.  The pivot.  The CornerStone.  We could have had ourselves a big old evangelistic meeting then and there

if I had spoken up.

I didn’t and I thought about my boy and about his brother and his sister who stood and encouraged him just last weekend.  I thought about the blessing of that evening 6 days ago and I was sad for these girls and so thankful on behalf of the children who married each other next to a mountain.

The girls will need to hear the message about

Jesus love for them

from someone other than me, because I won’t see them again in this life.  I don’t know their names but God does.  I missed a chance to tell them the truth and I wonder, if Billy Graham had been sitting there, or Elizabeth Elliot or Corrie Ten Boom or…

God knows these seven ladies because He made them.    I will pray that He will make Himself known to them.  Perhaps that was the purpose of plunking them down right in front of me.  To remind me

yet again

 that I can neither save souls or make people want a saved soul.  That is God’s job.  I can though, ask, that He clear their cloudy vision and give them eyes to see.  Even if they are people who splash very briefly into my space, I can ask on their behalf.

I will and He will hear me.

Something else was revealed to me in this wedding week.  It’s about friends and acquaintances and God’s gift of provision.

Thirty Two years ago I married a boy and came to a strange land.  I have sometimes likened myself to Abraham’s Sarai because she did not know where she was going and who she would meet when she finally arrived.  I prayed a prayer when I got to my new home and asked that God would give me ONE friend.  Just one.  I didn’t need more.  One would be enough.  Just someone to confide in and share my heart with.  Just a girl, like myself, who loved Jesus and needed a friend.

As I mentioned at that wedding last week, I am often reminded of Paul’s words in Ephesians 3:20   Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,  

He brought people into my life and some of them He later removed.  There were friends who were dear for a short while and some who became dearer over time.  Friendships change and sometimes the ones we hold onto so very tightly end up being pried out of our grip.

You see,

being dependent upon people comes easy to me.   Relying upon God is much more of a struggle.

Because He loves me and wants what’s best and worshiping people isn’t that

He begins the business of prying my fingers open and that is usually painful.    He reminds me that although like minded friends are a gift, He has other people, sometimes strangers, for me to interact with who could benefit from a smile and a kind word.  They may have insight for me.

I listened to those seven by the pool, their chatter and their discussion.  They were friends and yet I wonder if, when they each get back to their own homes, their lives will be the richer for spending those days together.

I stood up in front of that relatively smallish group of wedding guests.   I talked about the boy who had just gotten married and about the girl that I have prayed about for longer than she has been alive.  I looked at those people sitting in chairs watching and smiling and I needed them to hear me.  Not just my voice, the words.  I spoke of learning to be a mother and wise counsel and making mistakes and growing in understanding of what makes life worth living.  I talked about gratitude and not because life is perfect.  Far from it.  But in it’s imperfection there is beauty in relationships and friendships.  Some old and some new.

As I prepared my speech for that evening I thought about the people who would be sitting there under the stars.  Unfortunately not everybody I call friend, was there.

I reflected upon the people who have impacted my life.

I am sitting here now, alone in this desert place and my suitcase is packed and I am going home.  Friends and family await me and I am blessed.

There are friends who make me laugh and friends who exhort me and others who mirror Jesus mercy and those who reflect beauty in their simplicity of living and those who challenge me and some who weep with me and some I see often and a few I see much less.  My life is full of amazing friendships because of the people that God has placed strategically in my way.

I came to a place far from home, a lot of years ago, dragging my heals and God has blessed me abundantly.  He continues to teach me about leaning in on Him and listening when He talks.

Romans 12:10 says

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor!

Ninety Three years is a lot.  It is 33945 days and 814680 hours.  

Ninety Three is the number of years my mother, nano, has lived.  The number of years that God has given her strength and courage and determination and a will to live that remains strong even now.  She is sleeping, I would guess although I am not with her tonight.  

This, the eve of her birthday, is the first one I have missed in many years.  I would like to be there, in her town and even in that little cot in her little room, waiting for morning so we could celebrate birth day together.  

It can’t be, this year.  Maybe next.  We all know that every day of every year that we are allowed by our Heavenly Father, to breathe and be, is a gift.  Maybe when a person gets to be in the middle  

I mean the middle of their allotted years

here

before we leave this world,

we become more aware of just how precious life is.  

Maybe more thankful.  Maybe Not.  

We worry and our worry is contagious sometimes and it makes other people worry and it breeds more worry and before we know what has happened, we are old and we have a line between our eyebrows that came from frowning and fretting and fearing and then we begin to look back.  We wonder how it could have gone by so fast and wouldn’t it be nice to go to those other days that are just a distant bit of memory but of course we can’t because life is like that and once you live the minutes they are forever

gone.  

There is lots of bad stuff mind you, to worry about if you are so inclined.  It’s hard not to, but it really is a waste of the hours that have been gifted to us.  

Paul was a pretty determined guy himself and once he realized that God had plans for him, he got to the business of doing what those plans demanded.  He told his friends in Corinth that they could get away from thinking things that were not what pleased God.

 He said

“…We Take Every Thought Captive and Make it obey Christ”.  (2 Cor. 10:5 Good News Translation)

 I think of his words, which are actually God’s words, often.  I have this tendency to fret and fear and then of course, frown.  I am thankful for the reminder that my view of life is up to me.  There’s another verse that I sort of like but then again sometimes I don’t care for it because I have a hard time living by it.  

This is how it goes  

Galatians 5:22…The fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness

Yikes!  It’s the JOY and the PEACE part that I have trouble with.  Well really I struggle with all of it.  I need to take my thoughts captive and determine that because of Who I am in Jesus and what He did for me, I should be full of JOY and know the best kind of PEACE..  

Well, Nano has had more than her fair share of things to worry about. To fret about.  She’s had quite a life.  Hard and Good.  Sweet and Bitter.   

She was little at a time when cars were a luxury and regular people still went out and about on horses and carts and when her family did get a car her father took the wheels off in the winter and they used a horse and sleigh to get around.  That’s a long time ago.  

A different World.  

She lived through the depression and then World War II started and people had a few more things that made life easier

and then she met a man who lived in a far off province and the first time he saw her he told her friend that he was going to marry her

And That’s a long story and I will tell it to you sometime.  He did marry her and the dress she wore is still sitting safe in my sister’s house.  He took her to a tiny town in a very cold place since they got married in December and the town was in Saskatchewan.  They lived in a little room attached to the back of the church where her new husband, the preacher, had the job of shepherding a flock of human sheep.  They broke the ice in the water barrel to get their water and they heated it over a stove and they loved each other and they lived in that tiny place and

one time she needed a coat, badly and there was no money for a coat and they prayed and trusted that somehow there would be a way that she would get what she needed and

then there was a knock on the door and it was someone with money and they were bringing it because God had told them to do it and it was just enough and my mom got a coat for the winter.  

Miracles were what we heard about when we were coming up in that preacher’s house and not for one minute did any of us doubt that they were

Miracles

and we knew that God was all about Miracles and He loved us and we learned to trust Him

and

she was a good mother.  

When I was growing into the woman I am still becoming

in the home where my father was the preacher and my mother was his loving wife, there was no fighting or yelling or harsh words or unkind intent.  Those two, the preacher and the preacher’s wife, clearly lived the “taking your thoughts captive” verse and the “live with Joy” verse.  It was hard sometimes and even then,

in churches

people were kind one day and unkind the next.  Still, never did I hear the preachers wife say a bad thing about anybody and she baked and sewed and took care of us and we lived with not much but didn’t notice.  

She has been alone now for more than 26 years.  Not physically alone because she has had friends and family who love her, but alone in her heart because the one she lived with,

loved to serve and cared about most

went those many years ago, to his home with Jesus.  We didn’t ever feel sorry for him because we knew he wasn’t sorry to be there.  

It’s us, It’s her we weep for.  

She is 93 now and isn’t able to do those things that she loved to do, all those years.  She can’t sew her own clothes and bake up a storm and cook the most delicious turkey dinners, or drive her car for groceries, or get on a plane to visit me and mine. She can’t can peaches or freeze apple pies or take warm loaves to other preachers and their wives. 

Life has come almost full circle for Lena Isabel (Pritchard) House.

Not quite and

while her journey continues she is knitting babies hats and dishcloths and scarves when she is able and

talks on the phone to her friends who are far away and yet they still love her and are thankful to hear her voice and

she enjoys the little pleasures of

sun through the window and a car ride in the country and a cup of coffee at the greenhouse and there is to be another change soon and she is so brave and I watch her be brave and I wish she didn’t need to be

but she does and somehow over 93 years she has lived and loved and lost and rejoiced and wept many many many tears at goodbyes that she disliked and even now she will tell you

that

it’s hard to get old and she feels sorry for herself sometimes and who wouldn’t, I ask you?

Joy is a choice and she is choosing it as much and as often as she can muster the will

and she is doing her best to take her thoughts captive and it’s hard to

when you have lived for such a long time and have been through so much and you want to be a good steward of the time you have left and you are tired and you feel like it’s all just a whole lot of hard.

Happy Birthday to the mother God gave me.  

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare^[a] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jer. 29:11)  

And aren’t we all just so thankful that the verse doesn’t end with, Until you are 90 or 93 or, until I get tired of you or until I just don’t feel like it anymore. 

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

I love you Mom and you are in the best hands of all.

His name was Joshua and he found himself at the top of the roster.    He had been well trained, spent a lot of years as senior executive assistant to the boss.

Watching, listening, learning.

The master had been his mentor and it was his turn to take over.

The time was now.

God said so.

Without batting an eye or uttering one word about the unlikelihood of success, he started walking.  It sounds easy enough now, well over 2000 years later.

Big shoes to fill.

God’s promise of success came with step by step instructions.

Joshua, son of Nun was God’s chosen man to lead the people, many thousands of them, across the raging river, past their enemies and into the land God had promised to give them.  He listened and did exactly, precisely what God told him to do, beginning with stepping into that river.  You may know that they did in fact get to where they were going.  The endless supply of manna finally did end, thank goodness .  The land of milk and honey became their new home and they were thankful.  For a while anyway.

God chose the leader, for a huge job that in reality should have been impossible.

God said:  No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.  Joshua 1:5

Everybody arrived on the other side of the river

after passing through the river valley on dry ground, by the way

And then

one man from each tribe.  Twelve

chose one rock each to carry on their shoulders.  Twelve rocks, from the very spot where the priests had stood, holding the ark of the covenant.  God dwelling among them, while the nation passed by.

Those twelve placed their rocks, piled together, at the first stop in the new land.

A Memorial!  Remembered forever!    God’s commitment to His promise!

A Legacy!  For the generations to come.

He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”  Joshua 4:24

Her name is Catherine and I asked if I could talk about her, to you.  She has a house full of little ones.  Three girls and a boy.  The girls  run and play and learn and do all those things that school age girls do.  They keep Catherine busy and she does what mom’s do and is thankful to be able to.  The fourth child in Catherine’s Nest is a boy.  His name is Jared and he is 7.  Jared does not do the things most boys his age do.  He is “developmentally disabled and has autism” and has the “mentality and mischief of a 2 year old”.

I met Catherine four years ago.  She was often in the children’s class, helping.  When she did make an appearance around our core group table she shared insight and wisdom that God was teaching her.  She spoke quietly and with confidence.

Since that first wisdom sharing experience

I have spent many mornings around a Table of Learning with Catherine.   God decided to bless her with a life of joy and laughter and hardship and sadness and difficulty and fun and exhaustion

and

she continues to praise Him.  She doesn’t  talk about life in the face of adversity but she lives it every day.  I haven’t asked her but wouldn’t be surprised if there are mornings when her eyes open and she considers the hours ahead, wonders how she will accomplish what needs to be accomplished.

She chooses, every day, to put her feet in those shoes and do what needs to be done.  The job is big.  The rewards must at times seem meagre.

God spoke clearly to Catherine last spring.  I know this because she told me.

He suggested, Clearly

she, with those big shoes He asks her to wear, trust Him for the strength she would need to actually do some jumping,

right into a leadership position.  She thought about it for a minute or two.

Then, knowing full well it was Him who was asking and up to her to believe and step into the raging river of I trust I am hearing Him right

 she did what He said and

jumped.

Catherine will study and share each week.  As she does that sharing, she will learn and we who listen will learn and some days we/I will say, “Wow that was exactly what I needed to hear today”.   Maybe it will be something I know well and it isn’t new at all but it will still be good and I will grow

in Wisdom and knowledge.  Reading and studying God’s Living Word is like that.  When you read it, you can’t help but learn.  That’s why He gave it to us.

Just the other day Catherine talked about

Remembering.

Remembering the past.  Remembering in the present.  Remembering in the future.  Just as Joshua, Because God told him to, instructed the people to prepare a memorial for future generations.

 The Blessing.  Significant.  Sometimes, to dig it out of the past requires careful consideration.

Catherine presented a challenge.

What will you leave as a legacy for your children,  a memorial for the generations to come?

It was a good question.

I have been thinking about it a lot these past three days.  There may have been others sitting in that room who are pondering  tonight.

Joshua 1:8 says  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

It came to me tonight!

The Legacy I leave is actually not mine.

Really, what do I have to give that could last

forever?

Can’t think of anything!

Don’t look at me.

I am a sinner, loved.

A piece of clay, being formed into something beautiful.  It will take a lifetime.

Here is the offering to whomever might ask me for something to grab hold of on the journey.

“…This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

 My own parents had nothing of earthly value to leave behind and we didn’t question it, ever.  I know, have always known, am thankful to know, am blessed to have been introduced to the inheritance that transfers from this World to the life ever after.

It is An Education in what lasts.

My Dad is gone but his Bible is here, in my house.  The words in the margins and the note found among the pages were part of the gift left behind when he moved from this land to his forever, promised home.  I cherish it partly because it was his.  I cherish it also because it is true and tells me about my real inheritance.

The pearl of great price

The gift of great value

The treasure worth seeking

Life 

in and through

YAHWEH / JEHOVAH

God Himself.