Thursday Thankfulness~Watch and Listen...and Be Ready!

Can you imagine my delight when I came out of the house and found this beautiful Monarch Butterfly resting on the bushes! 

Isn't she lovely in her beautiful gown?

It looks like her petticoat is showing out from under the gorgeous orange, black and white wings, which would remind one of a stained glass window!

I wonder if she is making a stop here in my yard on her way south for the winter?

I don't know much about their migration, but the link I posted above may give more information if you are interested.

I feel honored and blessed to have this lovely visitor in my garden, no matter where she's going or coming from.  I'm just happy I happened to walk outside just at that moment and had my phone camera in hand ready to capture these photos.  Otherwise, this special moment in time would have been lost!

You know, watching for special moments is just as important as listening for them.  We need to keep our eyes and ears open for the blessings that are all around us, waiting to be discovered.

This kind of reminds me of the story of the "Wise and Foolish Virgins", which Jesus taught His disciples regarding being prepared for His return someday...

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, Matthew 25:1-13

1“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 

2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 

3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 

4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 

5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ 

7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 

8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 

9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ 

10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 

12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."

With the way things are going in our world today, the return of Christ may be more imminent than ever before in history.  I would think it would behoove us to be like the wise "virgins" in this parable above, and have our lamps trimmed and ready, with plenty of oil...because we "do not know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming..."    

I remember this song from way back in the late 1980's  (1989   1970's  (actually 1969 was when it was published.exactly), and it had quite an impact on me then, as it still does today.  For a little better understanding, might be good to read Matthew chapter 24 first.

Not meaning to leave you with something that may seem a little depressing, but it doesn't have to be! For those of us who know Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, there is nothing to fear or regret.  We will be ready for His return, no matter when it takes place...or even if He calls us home to heaven sooner...we'll be ready.

Here's what Jesus says at the end of the Book of Revelation:

Revelation 22:16-21

"16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."

The important question to ask is this:  Are you ready?  My prayer is that each and everyone of us can say with full assurance, YES, I am ready...   and if not, it's not too late to ask Jesus to come into your heart today...then there will be no regrets!    Be Ready!!  Amen.

Getting My Lamps Trimmed and Ready

I will try to keep touching base with you during the next couple of weeks as I am able.  We are busily packing, packing, packing, preparing for our big move.  Once we actually get moved into our new home I will need to select a new header picture for this blog, "Closed Doors, Open Windows", since the original header will no longer be my view out my kitchen windows...

This will be one of my views at our new home.  I wish this was out my kitchen window, but unfortunately the kitchen is in the front of the house, looking toward the street. And this view is on the back side of the house.  However, I do plan to set up my computer in a special area beside a window looking out to this view...so that is probably what you will be seeing quite often...and we do plan to clear a little of the underbrush out of the way so we have a better view...but first things first...

There are two large oak trees out front that I will be able to see from the kitchen window...Hubby was talking to our realtor (below) while I was busy taking pictures of the scenery.  I did make one unpleasant discovery the other day when we were there...apparently there is a yellow jacket nest in the ground up close to the house.  I unknowingly stepped right into it, and many angry bees came swirling up to chase me away...and one actually zapped me on my ring finger. I had to take off my wedding rings quickly before my finger swelled up too much.  I was not a happy camper!  When we got back to the realtor's office we found a tea bag and wet it and put it on there to draw out the pain from the sting rather quickly.  Good secret to know! Wet chewing tobacco works as well...but no one that we knew was chewing any...LOL.  Anyway...that is one thing on the list to be sure gets taken care of before we move into the house. I don't want anyone else to go through that pain. Some people are very allergic and it could be a bad thing. 

Just so you know, the house we are buying is actually a manufactured home...a double wide. That is what is most affordable and available in this community, and the one we found is newer than most of the others we looked at...and is beside that pond...which made it very desirable property for me.  Yesterday morning hubby and I were having a little bit of a "buyer's/seller's remorse" moment...kind of a panic attack about all the details we are having to deal with, and we needed some reassurance that we are doing the right thing.  First we called one of our friends from our church there and bounced some things off of him, and he gave us some wise advice. Then we called a company that does repairs on manufactured homes and asked some questions that we have about some repairs that need to be made, and he gave us some comforting answers, which relieved our fears and helped us to realize that we are still on the right track and it's going to be okay. 

Then to top it off, our friend that we spoke with earlier and his wife brought some other people from our church down to our current little town and we met them all for supper at a local restaurant in the middle of a major thunderstorm. We had such a marvelous time of fellowship...and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are doing the right thing in making this move. It's not about houses or land or ponds. It's about the people God is leading us to. That's what it is really all about.  God is so good. 

A funny little side note that I don't think our friends noticed (at least I hope not), when we were finished with our meal I got up to go to the restroom. When I came out, our group was already outside waiting for the rain to let up enough to run to their cars.  The restaurant has a front porch where people sit and wait for a table to become available, and it was quite packed.  We said good bye to our friends and then turned to walk across the porch to the parking lot on the other side where our car was parked.  I noticed that all the people sitting on the porch were smiling at me and seemed really friendly, although there wasn't anyone there that I knew.  As I hurried ahead of my hubby to get out of the rain, he called me and caught up with me and said, "You have TP hanging from the back of your clothes..."   Now please don't tell me that that has never happened to you before... and I won't tell you how many times that has happened to me before...but now I know why all those strangers on the porch were smiling so big at me as I paraded by.  All I can say is, my mama taught me to always put TP on the seat in a public restroom...and on a particularly humid evening it might have been wise to take a second look before leaving the room...but I don't plan to go back there again before we move and those people had a good laugh...so all's well that "ends" well! LOL.


Now, on to other more interesting things since you've had your laugh...

Today I decided to prepare our Hurricane Lamps for packing and moving. You may just call yours "oil lamps", but here in Florida we call them Hurricane lamps, because that is usually when we use them the most.  I have several oil lamps, and most of them still had some oil in them, which needed to be emptied. 

 The wicks needed to be trimmed and the burners cleaned and stored safely,

The  chimneys and fuel reservoirs also needed to be carefully washed

I love this dish soap wand for washing glasses and it certainly works well on the chimneys.  Don't ever try to wash the inside of a glass chimney with your bare hand.  It could easily break and cut your hand very badly...

I also have these candle sconces  that needed to be cleaned and packed. 

You may think these are out of style now and why do I still have these old fashioned things on my wall.  Well...turn the wooden sconce over and read what is written and you will understand why these are very special to me.  My Daddy actually made these sconces for me for my birthday many moons ago...

Some things just never go out of style in my book...

Washing and packing these oil lamps made me think about being prepared.  We are certainly getting prepared for our big move from our current home in a couple of weeks.  We are packing carefully because our things will actually have to be stored during the interim time between moves, and then moved again a few weeks later to our  new house.  I am not too excited about that fact and would much prefer to make one big move from here to there, but it just didn't quite work out that way. We are very thankful that our church is allowing us to stay in the empty parsonage during that time, which will be a huge help to us as we will be able to store our things with us there.

But back to the oil lamps and being prepared...I'm sure you've read the story about the ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. (see Matthew 25:1-13 for the complete story).  There were five wise virgins and five foolish virgins. The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps, and were prepared and ready when the bridegroom came to call them to the wedding feast.  The foolish took their lamps but didn't take any oil with them. 

In verse 6 it says:

"And at midnight a cry was heard: 

"Behold, the bridegroom is coming; Go out to meet him!"

And as we read the rest of the story, we see that the foolish virgins tried to talk the wise virgins into sharing their oil with them, but they said they could not as there would not be enough for all of them. The wise virgins went on to the wedding, but the foolish went out to try and buy some oil, and they missed their opportunity to go into the wedding. Verse 10 says, "and the door was shut."  When they came and knocked on the door, the bridegroom said "I do not know you." (verse 12).  The moral of the story is in verse 13:

"Watch therefore, for you do not know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."

We must always be prepared for the return of the Lord...we do not know when He is coming...could be today, tomorrow or next week.  Or our lives could be cut short by disease, accident, or disaster. No one knows, so we must be ready to meet the Lord at any time.  Have your lamps trimmed and burning bright...

Luke 12:35 says "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning." (New International Version)

So we are getting ready...ready for whatever the Lord has ahead for us. Stay tuned for more adventures!!