Monday Monday~

 Good Monday Morning! This is the last Monday in June and it will be July 4th before we know it! With all the hoopla and celebrations going on this week, it appears that we will most likely just be staying close to home with no major activities. Our extended family has other things going on and can't travel up here. My sister Doris is having cataract surgery this week! Her first one...and then will have the other one done in a few weeks, so traveling is not really in her best interest right now. (Praying for her now, because I think it's actually happening today!) And our DIL Rose actually has to work on Saturday the 4th (Home Depot!), so we can't plan anything without her! So I think we will just enjoy a quiet 4th of July here at home and probably go watch the fireworks from a good vantage point that evening. We'll save all the traditional home-made ice-cream making fun for some other time when we can all be together to enjoy it.  We could go participate in our town celebration throughout the day, but it will most likely be too hot and too crowded for us old folks, so we will stay home and keep cool.

Today we are under a heat advisory, and it's already been too hot to stay outside for more than a few minutes anyway, and it doesn't look any cooler throughout the week, so I will take the "advice" and stay indoors where it is cool. (Praise God for air conditioning!)

It was extremely hot and very dry yesterday afternoon, so I went outside and watered my poor plants, and then later the skies looked like this:

And lo! and Behold! We actually got a nice thunderstorm that lasted for about 20 minutes, which was a surprise! Maybe going outside and watering things was the thing to do! The "heavens" looked down and had pity on me and decided to give us some reprieve!  Thank You, Lord! We'll take whatever rain we can get!!

It's been "good weather" for staying inside and reading and watching TV.  I've been "binge reading" these Rhys Bowen novels, which could be considered  kind of historical fiction mysteries. They are what I consider relaxation reading, and although they are not what I would consider to be of much "spiritual value", thankfully "the good" in the heroine wins out over the "evil" in those around her, so there's that redeeming value. This author has a LOT of books to choose from at our public library, and several different series as well as some good stand alone novels. 

The other thing I enjoyed was watching this little mini-series "Seeking Persephone". The only thing was that due to the intense British accents, I needed to use "close-captioning" to understand what they were saying. LOL.  It was a good story, and even my hubby watched it with me, which is unusual. Normally he considers these "chick flicks" and has no interest in watching. LOL.

I am sorry I haven't been around much in blogland lately. It was another busy weekend, with the memorial service for our dear friend Opal on Saturday morning. There was a packed church, with family and friends attending from all over the country, literally. One of the highlights of the service was a video of Opal and a couple of our other choir members singing with her, "He Could Have Called Ten Thousand Angels". That was one of Opal's traditional songs to sing at Easter, and the other one was "O  Holy Night" at Christmas.  The video was done last year at Easter, when she had come back to church after recovering from a stroke, and she was still able to sing. I remember then that there was not a dry eye in the church, and yesterday, watching that recording, was another tear jerking moment.  My "infected tear ducts" have certainly had a workout these past few weeks. Thankfully they are getting better with the help of the 10 days worth of strong antibiotics.  

Have you ever noticed this verse in the Bible before?

Internet photo

I have seen it before, but thought it was mostly a symbolic kind of thing, not an actual "bottle".  But in our new Ladies' Bible Study that we will be resuming in September, "Jesus and Women in the First Century and Now", by Kristi McLelland, we learned that the tear bottle is an actual item that "in the ancient Near East, Jewish women collected their tears in a tear jar and poured them out to God in worship as a sign of faith, embodying God's message in Psalm 56:8 where He says He keeps our tears in a bottle." (Jesus and Women, page 6, Kristi McLelland, Lifeway Publishing)

Can you imagine literally putting all of your tears into a bottle, and that God is aware of every tear that falls? I've tried to figure out just how one could physically put their tears in a bottle in the first place...there have been times in my life when my bottle would be overflowing and have to be emptied frequently and refilled...or would I have several bottles to use instead of just one? Seriously, I'm not sure how they physically did this, but apparently they did...and God saw that and still today, He sees our sorrows and griefs, and He knows the depths of our pain...and He comforts us with His great love and compassion...and restores us and gives us the courage to keep moving forward beyond the grief and sorrow.  

The Psalmist says  "You collected all my tears in your bottle", and "You have recorded each one in Your book."  Oh my, what a book that must be! But then He wipes away our tears and gives us fresh hope and renewed strength, and a brand new day to begin again.  

Earlier in that same Psalm King David says:

"3 Whenever I am afraid,
I will trust in You.
4 In God (I will praise His word),
In God I have put my trust;
I will not fear.
What can flesh do to me?"

And later in the book of Revelation...the very last book of the Bible, it says:

Revelation 21:4 NKJV

"4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

I don't know about you, but I look forward to that day...

Well, on a lighter note, I know you all look forward to some pictures of "King" Blackie...so here's some of the latest...

Blackie has gotten rather attached to our computers lately, I guess because he figures if he can get in the way of our doing our work on our computers, he will get more attention...so here he is snuggling up to my hubby's laptop...this was taken right before he pushed it off the little table and right into hubby's lap (thankfully...and not on the floor!)

And here he is laying on my desk, guarding my mouse and keyboard...I don't dare try to touch them or he will grab at my hand with his sharp little claws. He thinks it's a game...

He's daring me to even TRY to touch that mouse or keyboard! LOL.

Yes, "King Blackie" has certainly taken over our household and captured our hearts.  He's a rascal and a scamp, but he's managed to even get my hubby to feed him and cater to his desires.  It's still amazing to me how far this neighborhood stray cat has come in the past year! Perhaps God knew we would need a happy diversion from all the sorrows and sadness in the world today.  Yes, if God is keeping a record of our tears and writing them down in a book, then He certainly can send us some little joys along the way as well...and perhaps He's writing that down in "our book" as well.  I hope that someday we will see that our joys far outweighed our tears and we will say with King David in Psalms 30:11-12:

"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lordmy God, I will give thanks to You forever."

Amen.

I hope you have a joy-filled rest of your week, and that all your sorrows will be turned to joy.  Amen.

Monday Monday - Life Goes On

 Do you ever wake up with a song in your head?  For me it's normally something more from the spiritual/Christian hymn genre, but today this old Beatles song was bouncing around in my head:

Ob-la-di-Ob-la-da bra Life Goes On...

It's just a happy little tune...

Ob-la-di- Ob-la-da-life goes on-bra...la la how their Life goes on-

I guess being a Monday morning I think about how life goes on...

In this little happy ever after tune...it's a repetition of how life goes on...

and we may often feel like we are in the same kind of repetition...day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year...nothing really new under the sun...

3 

King Solomon talked about this in his book of Ecclesiastes, written thousands of years ago:

Ecclesiastes 1:3-5, 9-11

3 "What profit has a man from all his labor

In which he toils under the sun?

4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes;

But the earth abides forever.

5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down,

And hastens to the place where it arose.

9 That which has been is what will be,

That which is done is what will be done,

And there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which it may be said,

“See, this is new”?

It has already been in ancient times before us.

11 There is no remembrance of former things,

Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come

By those who will come after."

But alas, Solomon in all of his wisdom and grandeur just didn't grasp the wonder and beauty of how wonderful this life really is.  True, it can become mundane and wearisome as we go through the same old same old day after day, with nothing much new to look forward to...

Sadly, Solomon, with all of his wealth and power couldn't look into the future and see what God had planned...a greater One than he would arise, physically from his own lineage, but from the beginning of time He was foreordained to come and and sacrifice His own pure and sinless life so that one day, through Him, we could all look forward to eternal life, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ...Who gave us all hope of much better things to come:

Listen to what Jesus is saying to us in Revelation 21:5-7

5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

6 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son."

This good news gives hope to the hopeless and peace to those who may be in turmoil. This world is not our final home.  We have a wonderful new life awaiting us in heaven one day, when we believe in what Christ did for us on the cross.  

If you are interested, here is a great message from our pastor yesterday, taken from John 6:28-60, "the True Bread of Heaven".  Also, you can sing along with our choir as we sang "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me".

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee

Let the water and the blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed

Be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure.

Could my tears forever flow, could my zeal no languor know

These for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and Thou alone.

In my hand no price I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling.

While I draw this fleeting breath, when my eyes shall close in death

When I rise to worlds unknown and behold Thee on Thy throne

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee."

On a more back to what's going right now train of thought...guess who showed up here yesterday after not coming around for a few weeks:

Yep, the Sand Hill Crane Family!  And "Colt", the "baby" is above on the right...yes, he's pretty much as big as his parents now, and the only way I can tell them apart is he still doesn't quite have his red topknot on his head.

They were hungry, so I threw them out some bird seed.   They poked around in the butterfly garden for a few minutes, and actually examined the eggs in this nest:

Yes, those are the abandoned eggs from the bluebird nest. I finally took them out of the birdhouse and laid them in the garden.  

And here are what's left of the previous nest's eggs that were abandoned...the two little ones are now bleached white from the sun, and it looks like something has pecked  a little bit at the shell on one.

It's sad that these were all left behind, but there was a reason...they apparently either were never fertilized or it was just too hot to develop.  Either way, life goes on...the bluebirds will come back again next year and start a new family. Hopefully it will be earlier in the summer and they will be able to survive.

But back to the cranes...they were also thirsty, and helped themselves to water in the birdbath in the Secret Garden:

It's not as dirty as it looks...it's rain water and some leaves and debris from the over hanging holly tree...they actually may have been eating the little berries that fell in the water.  Either way, they were refreshed and finally went on their way. 

And so, ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bra...la di la and life goes on...

Such a dichotomy...

Dichotomy: "a division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups. "

Tonight as I was sitting on my back patio enjoying the cool "spring" breeze, I was listening to the cheerful sounds of birds chirping back and forth to one another as they "chip, chip, chip" away towards the bird feeders for their evening meal.  There was a rustle of falling leaves wending their way down through the trees to land softly on the ground (and my patio), and the swooshing sound of the doves as they came in for a landing. I also heard the sudden "Who who cooks for you?" hooting of our resident Barred Owl, alerting his mate to be aware that a human being was in the neighborhood, prying on their evening activities. (That would be me).  All in all, it was a very serene, pleasant, happy experience...a perfect way to unwind from a busy day.

In the background of all this bliss and peace, I had left the patio door open, with the intention of allowing the fresh air to circulate through my stuffy, much too warm house.  My husband was inside the house watching the evening news.  He purposely turned up the volume, thinking that I should hear what was being reported.  That is when this word, "dichotomy", came into my mind.  The news that was blaring forth from the television was all about war, anarchy, turmoil, and chaos all around the world...primarily in Libya tonight, but that is only the tip of the iceberg of what is happening in all corners of the globe. I wanted to jump up and slam that glass door shut, with the intention of stopping the unwanted noise of world strife from bombarding my peaceful surroundings.  I could feel the anxiety welling up within my body and the stress began to steal away my calm and created such tension in my neck and shoulders that I had to get up and start walking around to work it out of my system.

"Dichotomy"..."a division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups. " That is what I experienced tonight.  In my own strength, I am unable to deal with these contradictions of spirit and peace.  I cannot rectify the wrongs of this world.  All I can do is pray for peace...and pray for the Lord's soon return...

"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.  There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.  Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said to me, 'Write, for these words are true and faithful.'  And He said to me, 'It is done! I Am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.  He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.'"  Revelation 21:4-7

"He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely I Am coming quickly.' Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."  Revelation 22:20-21

Ah, my sense of peace and calm has been restored...God is in control in all things.  Even in the midst of the dichotomy between heaven and earth...God's Word brings peace and healing...and HOPE.  Amen.