Fall Finale

While most trees are bare by now, our glowing Queen Elizabeth maple held off,
it's bottom branches flickering in the sun and welcoming us home
with one final glimpse of fall's fading glory.
My H got busy cutting back ferns and other perennials
filling the beds and underbrush under fallen leaves.
 I joined him for a bit to hold bags and took in some clippings to enjoy inside.

After getting groceries, doing laundry and baking (just because I could hardly wait)
 I enjoyed the glow of candle light
while looking through a magazine, introducing the next season.

Grandkids dropping by with hugs,
 jars of soup left in the fridge by a mom who still "waits up" for us,
yellow leaves, candles and cinnamon buns . . .
how could I have been sad to have our vacation come to an end?

One Light Still Shines

Thoughts about building my house on a rock resurfaced while I read the story of the Amish school house shooting from Charlie Robert's widow's perspective in the novel, One Light Still Shines.

Years now after the shooting, Marie Roberts Monville writes about her experience, beginning with her husband's suicidal call that shattered her beloved community and her life. Never having heard or even thought much about her part of the story, my heart has been greatly touched too see how God's love pierced the darkness in the midst of such evil. Mother of three young children, she writes, "At that moment everything I knew about my life changed . . . and I was faced with a choice - a crisis of belief." For Marie this crucial moment defined whether she would trust what she had always believed in to be true or succumb to the disaster threatening her own will to live.

It was in her decision to take her most terrible moment to "walk on water," trusting that God would meet her in the midst of this storm, that my eyes beheld the kind of foundation her house was built on. In this pivotal moment, even before knowing all of the details, Marie called out to God in the way she always had before, and she received a supernatural boldness she had never known. I cannot imagine the result of her life, had her relationship with God not been one in which He was the first One on the scene in any situation.

She writes, "I had no idea what was unfolding with Charlie, but in a moment of sacred stillness as the world raged around me, I vowed this would not be the day that my children looked back on in the belief that it had destroyed their lives . . . God filled me with an absolute assurance that we were going to be victorious."

The story of Marie Roberts Monville is one that does not take away the darkness of evil but one in which God shines a beacon of light into the darkness, giving hope and a future for any situation. God's whispers of His presence challenge us to look for what He will do. They are whispers I do not want to tune out as I come to grips with the fact that expectancy is a sign of faith, one that pleases our heavenly Father who loves to give good gifts.

The gifts of grace and forgiveness that this story encompass are far beyond what most of us could ever imagine. A true testimony of God's redemptive work in our sin-stained world and one of the best love stories I have read. Read it with a box of tissues beside you.

The Wise Man

 

Driving past this house last week, I was reminded of a song that we learned in Sunday School as children. Simple words about a wise man and a foolish man. Did we realize the lesson in those words?

As I'm reading my way through a little devotional, Jesus Calling, I was struck with a sentence proclaiming the same truth in another way, "Many people are so preoccupied with future plans . . . that they fail to see the choices they need to make today."

The correlation between Sarah Young's words and the song I was singing reminded me that the choices I make today are forming the foundation for how my house will stand or fall when the storms come. A sobering truth.

For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of His tabernacle and set me high upon a rock." Psalm 27:5

On the Lykken Trail

 

 

 

 

The climb was a bit steep for our prairie company but, in the end, so worth it!
Another memory stored up for us all.

In the Desert

Following several phone calls and/or emails with our Manitoba cousins, trying to find a suitable week for them to come for a visit, it finally came out that they would like to meet up on a vacation somewhere.

  

 So it was decided that we would introduce them to our favorite get-a-way place in California.

Packing up and going away for a bit has been a good thing.  

Alvina is more than a cousin-in-law to me.

 She is endearing, fun loving and one from whom I can learn a lot!

I have observed how she has chosen joy in spite of numerous hardships

 she has experienced in her life -

 a friend who finds ways to encourage 

and lives like a day without laughter is a waste.

 

We've had fun showing them around.

One day we drove out to Joshua Tree Park,

 
a perfect setting for a picnic

and an awe inspiring place.

At times the pathway led us through dusty, sandy areas and
 other times through sacred looking rock formations

always ready to show forth the beauty of life

even in a desolate looking spot.

We wanted to show them around and in so doing
 I ended up looking and finding beauty in the desert.

Known and Loved

To my dear friends in blogosphere . . .
Thank you for your understanding and encouragement in these past days.
There is healing that happens when we are able to express our feelings
and know that we are not alone.
I want you to know that your words have meant a lot to me and I have  felt your prayers.
For today I will continue in my reflective mood
by sharing the gist of one of my paper journal entries . . .

from Psalm 139
You have searched me,LORD,
and you know me.

² You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

³ You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

⁴ Before a word is on my tongue

you, Lord, know it completely.

⁵ You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

When it comes to the One who knows me completely, it is actually freeing to know that I cannot pretend to be something I am not. The fact is  -  He still loves me. In my anger, my disappointments and my shortcomings,  His love for me is saturated in grace. He knows how I am made and is able to see my shortcomings as the perfect condition in which He will show forth His power and glory.