Devotion for the Week of May 12, 2008

“Survival of the Fittest”

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

We have a beloved dog named Sam who will turn 14 at the end of this month. That’s around 84 in people years and poor Sam is showing his age. According to one pessimistic vet he was supposed to have died over two years ago, but he’s still here. He is deaf, too skinny, severely balding, missing numerous teeth, likes to sleep for most of the day, and walks with bad limps on both back legs and one front leg. And, he has attitude!

In his younger days he loved to chase the squirrels that run around in our back yard. A couple times he came within inches of getting one. He gave up the chase a couple years ago and just watches with a look of bored tolerance as they run around frolicking in our back yard.

While most people hate squirrels, I have pampered them. I bought them their own squirrel food and set it out regularly. We have the largest, laziest squirrels I have ever seen. I knew I had taken the pampering thing too far when one day I looked out and a squirrel was laying on its back on the pillow of our hammock, just chillin.’ There was iced lemonade in a glass with a cute umbrella straw on the table beside it, and I believe it was reading a miniature copy of Pride & Prejudice!

A couple Saturdays ago we had to rush Sam to the Emergency Vet. He had fallen over on his side, and when we stood him back up, he fell again. Of course, as it is with some “emergencies,” by the time we got him to the vet he was back to normal. The doctor prescribed a pain medication and sent us on our way.

We have kept a closer eye on Sam since the vet visit, so you can imagine our concern when we looked for him one afternoon and couldn’t find him anywhere. After several minutes, my daughter and I found him in the back yard. At first we thought he was just sniffing around, but when we looked closer, he had a squirrel in his mouth! I won’t go into the gorry details of those next minutes…let’s just say pandemonium broke out. There was a lot of screaming, shoes were thrown in an attempt to get Sam to drop the squirrel, we yelled for help from my husband who was on a conference call for work, and when Sam finally gave it up, I nearly became sick to my stomach. So much for “survival of the fittest.”

Sam defied human “logic” (and that squirrel’s “logic,” too!) when he managed to finally get it. So it is with God. As He proclaims in His word, “…my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” His thoughts and ways defy human “logic.”

Human “logic” proclaims “survival of the fittest” as a way to be successful in life. God’s way proclaims “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first”(Matthew 19:30), and “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

Human “logic” tells us we have the right to control our lives and live as we please. God’s thoughts say “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15).

Human “logic” (particularly American logic) says we are to spend our lives accumulating stuff, while God’s way says “…the righteous give without sparing” (Proverbs 21:26b).

Human “logic” says there are many ways to God and we can believe whatever we want to believe. God says “It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead…Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:10b, 12) and “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life…Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:16, 18).

Human “logic” says there is no God. God’s thoughts say “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”" (Psalm 14:1b).

What are you setting your wisdom by? What rules do you use to guide how you live your life?…The world’s “logic” or God’s higher ways and thoughts? Just as that squirrel falsely relied on “survival of the fittest,” so too, we can falsely rely on faulty human logic. The result will be just as tragic.

Father,

We thank You for Your Truth , for Your thoughts and ways, that You have given through Your Word, the Bible. Give us the humbleness and wisdom to read it, send Your Holy Spirit to allow it to speak to us, and give us the courage to follow Your perfect ways. Let us not lean on our own understanding and logic, but on Your Truth.

In Your son’s precious name, Jesus, Amen.

“Glorious One”

It was a GREAT morning of praising and worshiping God at church today. Not only did we sing my two favorites, “Amazing Grace” and “Might to Save” (See videos in April 28, 2008 post), but I now have another fun praise song! It is “Glorious One” by Steve Fee. Crank it loud and praise Jesus for who He is…The “Glorious One!”

New Neighbors!…Again.

Apparently the mortgage crisis has hit the bird housing market as well. It seems our lovely chickadee couple and their darling sextuplets have fled in the middle of the night to avoid foreclosure. (Is anyone safe from these unscrupulous mortgage lending practices?) I believe we have identified the culprit.

A few weeks ago my husband witnessed a wren checking out the place. First, it sat on the railing by the bird house, assessing it. It made its way to the roof, and then tried to take a peek inside the house from the perch. Momma chickadee ran it off in a fuss. Suspiciously, there are now five white and brown speckled eggs in the nest inside…the very number wrens lay. Hmmm…makes you wonder who was holding the chickadees’ mortgage!

We have not met the newest neighbors…haven’t even seen them around. It will be interesting to see just how long they will stay. Instead of putting forth the effort to make them a cake…I think I’ll just take them store bought cookies.

Devotion for the Week of May 5, 2008

“Sea Glass”

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him,who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Romans 8:28-29

I found a piece of frosted green sea glass while walking along the beach last summer. Not having seen nor heard of sea glass before, I stopped long enough to admire it, but then tossed it into the baggie along with all the sea shells my daughters had collected. We brought the baggie home and it was put on the top shelf of a closet, to sit with the other baggies of sea shells from past trips to the beach, treasured momentos excitedly collected during our walks…taken home, put on the shelf, and forgotten.

A few months later I read the book, Sea Glass, by Anita Shreve. It is a tragic, yet hopeful story of a woman whose life didn’t turn out the way she hoped or planned…Does it ever? Set in a coastal New Hampshire town at the beginning of the Great Depression, the characters each struggle with circumstances and emotional and physical trials that mold and shape them. Throughout her struggles, the main character, Honora, walks along the beach outside of her home and collects sea glass, beautiful pieces in greens, blues, and other colors, which she then displays on platters.

Sea glass is formed from bottles, jars, and other glass what-nots that have been tossed into the ocean…discarded. The pounding of the waves and the rocks and sand all work together over years, and sometimes even decades, to break the glass into pieces, and then to begin the transformation. Where once they were discarded and broken, they become valuable, collected works of nature’s art that are smooth and frosted and beautiful.

I have since come to think of the pain, trials, and challenges that life brings as little and big pieces of jagged glass… unwanted, broken, sharp…with the ability to cut deep…to draw blood. The waves, rocks, and sand? That is God, as He takes those shards of our lives and transforms their power over us. It can take years, and yes, sometimes even decades, to turn them into something treasured, something valuable, something beautiful…IF we let Him.

When is the transformation complete? It is when the edges have been smoothed and no longer have the ability to cut. It is when their appearance becomes frosted and we see them in a different light…not for the pain they caused, but for their ability to transform us into the person God intended us to be-resting freely in His love and peace. And they become priceless gifts when we use them to reach out to others facing their own shards of glass…to care for them, to encourage them, to love them.

One of the main features of sea glass is that through the transformation process they become covered with tiny pores. If closely looked at under a microscope, they are shaped like the letter “c”. God can and will cover our own transformed sea glass with His own marking… “C”hrist. My piece of frosted green sea glass is no longer forgotten in the darkness of a closet. It sits in the center of my dresser, a reminder of God’s faithfulness, and God’s perfect and transforming Love. Trust God with YOUR jagged pieces of glass. He WILL transform them into something beautiful, for His glory.

Lord,

I praise You for Your transforming love. I give You all of my jagged pieces and ask that You transform them into something beautiful that will bring glory to You. Thank you for Your faithfulness.

In Your son, Jesus’, precious name, Amen.

Favorite Books

*Update:

Apparently I have shy bloggers…that’s ok!  I guess I’ll just have to read some more Jane!

I have told my husband that if I die before he does, I want to be buried in the cheapest coffin there is wearing a t-shirt with one of my life’s mottos: “Life’s too short for cheap chocolate and bad books!”

I think Jane Austen says it well in a quote from Pride & Prejudice, “There is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!” (Surprisingly, it was said by Miss Caroline Bingley. It may be the only sensible thing she ever said!)

I started reading a book yesterday, but it has turned out to be a bad one, and now I am looking for a new book to read. So, it’s your turn. Please comment back and tell me your favorite books and why you like them so much…perhaps they’ll become one of mine!

Here are a few of mine:

Olivia and Jai and Shalimar by Rebecca Ryman…set in colonial India during the British Raj….beautiful descriptions of the settings, interesting historical contexts, and well-developed, interesting characters…a nice mix of plot and wonderful romance.

A Touch of Betrayal, Sunrise Song, A Kiss of Adventure, and A Whisper of Danger by Catherine Palmer…contemporary action adventure and romance. Fun reads!

Many other Catherine Palmer books, particularly her regency fiction…good historical details and interesting characters.

The Rogue’s Redemption by Ruth Axtell Morren…regency Christian fiction well done. I couldn’t put it down!

Many of Georgette Heyer’s regency fiction books…some are good, others are bad…just a couple I liked, Sprig Muslin and Venetia.

I know you are lurking! (I see daily stats!) So please comment back…I get bored talking to my self!

“Mighty to Save”~Hillsong

Because it’s fun to try out my new blogging skills…here’s another praise song! It references the verse for this week’s devotion. Also, we sang it in church yesterday and it is one of my favorites.

“Amazing Grace”~Chris Tomlin’s Version

This is a beautiful version of Amazing Grace by Chris Tomlin. It is from the awesome movie Amazing Grace.

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Devotion for the Week of April 28, 2008

“God’s Songs”

“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17

I have a terrible singing voice. I mean it is bad. It is so bad that I feel sorry for anyone who has to listen to me singing. When my oldest daughter was born, my ineptitude at singing weighed heavier on me. Not only did I sing poorly, but I knew hardly any lullabies or children’s songs. Wanting to be the “perfect” mommy, I rocked and sang to my daughter anyway. Luckily, she was born shortly after Christmas, and so I sang the few children’s songs I knew, and lots of Christmas carols. I also sang the hymns I had learned growing up in church. My daughter didn’t seem to mind my poor singing voice. In fact, as she got older, I remember pushing her in a cart through Target while she sang boldly with her precious (and much prettier) voice the great hymn, “Amazing Grace.”

My youngest daughter was born shortly after Christmas, as well. I eagerly rocked and sang to her, too. There were the usual children’s songs (by now I had added to my repertoire), Christmas carols, and, of course, the beloved hymns. One night, shortly after she had turned one, I was rocking and lovingly singing to her with my monotone, cracking voice. It must have been particularly bad that night. My darling daughter put both hands over her ears to block out the sound. She did that several times over the course of that year, covering her ears as I sang lullabies to her.

What was my response to my daughter when she covered her ears? I can’t deny that my feelings weren’t hurt a bit. At the same time, I had great compassion for her. I knew how bad my singing was. I laughed softly to myself at my adorable daughter and thought, “if she only knew how much love was contained in her mommy’s poor singing voice!” I kept singing anyway.

It makes me wonder. How often do I cover my ears with my hands to block out the songs that my loving Father in Heaven sings over me? How often do I reject His perfect love and compassion? How often do I reject His delight in me? How do I reject His love, compassion, and delight in me? It is when I question His love for me or I think that I have to be “good enough” and so try to earn what He freely gives. It is when I blame God and am angry and bitter at what God allows in my life, instead of trusting in His goodness and His promise to never leave me nor forsake me. It is when I see myself as anything other than a beloved and treasured child of God. It saddens me to know that I have rejected such wonderful, loving, perfect gifts from such a wonderful, loving, perfect Father. How many gifts of God’s songs have you rejected?

I believe it makes God sad, too, when we reject His songs that He sings over us, but I know in His merciful, perfect love He keeps singing over each one of us anyway. As a loving mother holds and sings tender words of love over her child, so our God, our Abba, our Daddy, wants to hold you in His loving arms and sing over you. Put your hands down, uncover your ears, close your eyes, and listen with your heart to the song of Love He sings over you.

Father,

Thank You for the lavish love You have poured over me. Forgive me for those times I have rejected the miraculous gift of Your love. Hold me in Your loving arms, Lord, and sing over me. Let Your love wash over me.

In Your son, Jesus,’ precious name, Amen.

“Desperate Housewives”

I have a wonderful friend named Nathalie who is from France and lived across the street. We passed many mornings and afternoons talking of important and not so important nothings over cups of tea. During one of those times, the t.v. show, “Desperate Housewives,” was brought up. I don’t watch the show, but Nathalie and her friends back in France do. I laughed and told her that I hoped that they didn’t think Americans were really like that. “Aren’t they?,” she asked, or something along that line. I laughed again and proceeded to try to convince her that it was not so. (I don’t think I was successful!) I mean, really!…We don’t have affairs and divorce, attempted suicides, addictions, and all the other drama in my suburban neighborhood! But thanks to t.v., people across the world think it’s true.

Well, apparently, the show airs in Italy as well. After several years of a dry spell, the ice cream truck has started coming through the neighborhood again. My girls and many other neighborhood kids are beside themselves with excitement. Mine tear through the house screaming “the ice cream truck, the ice cream truck!” at the first sounds of the musicbox melodies. Usually I am a bit leary of the person in the truck. This year it is a young, Italian, “player” looking guy. And because he has seen “Desperate Housewives,” he is wearing a t-shirt with “sexmaniac” across the front, hoping to appeal to the American housewives. (On a side note-My husband has now banned me from going to the ice cream truck. He doesn’t have to worry, though. I go for the reserved Englishmen type. Unfortunately, he draws the line at wearing an ascot! )

I think I have been naive. In my neighborhood we have seen addictions and affairs, divorce and an attempted suicide by cop shooting, and now an ice cream truck driver advertising his wares. The thing is, when “Desperate Housewives” becomes a reality show…it’s not so entertaining.

Devotion for the Week of April 21, 2008

“Tulips”

“…The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b

One of my fondest childhood memories was a visit to the Keukenhoff tulip gardens in Holland. There my love for tulips was born. Every spring I eagerly await their appearance in all their elegant beauty. I love the solid colored ones for their simplicity. But, I have to confess; My very favorite tulips are the variegated ones, where two colors feather together in combinations of pinks and whites, peaches and whites, and yellow and reds. They are spectacular! Those are the ones that are put in the center of the arrangements I make to beautify my home. The solid ones are secondary, and used to “fill in” the gaps.

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The interesting thing about the variegated tulips is that the feathering of the colors is actually caused by a disease called tulip breaking potyvirus. (I’m not a horticulturist, so I pronounce that last word as “potty-virus.”) While those spectacular tulips may be beautiful on the outside, they are weak and dying on the inside.

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<In the early 1600’s tulipomania (tulip mania) broke out in the Netherlands, and elsewhere to a lesser degree. Charles MacKay, in his book titled Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of the Crowds describes a popular history view of the frenzy that followed:

“… the tulip annually increased in reputation, until it was deemed a proof of bad taste in any man of fortune to be without a collection of them…The rage for possessing them soon caught the middle classes of society, and merchants and shopkeepers, even of moderate means, began to vie with each other in the rarity of these flowers and the preposterous prices they paid for them. A trader at Harlaem was known to pay one-half of his fortune for a single root, not with the design of selling it again at a profit, but to keep in his own conservatory for the admiration of his acquaintance.”

The variegated varieties were the most coveted, commanding thousands of Dutch florins at a time when the average annual income was 150 florins. Land and homes, and even for some, everything they owned, were traded for these bulbs. Till finally, in 1637, people began to suspect that what they coveted and sold all for wasn’t as valuable as they thought.

The crash came abruptly. Fortunes were lost, people were ruined, and the Netherlands was thrown into an economic depression that lasted for several years following. That which was so coveted was, in the end, a diseased, weak and dying tulip, and it destroyed many in the end.

The traditional meaning of the tulip is “perfect love.” The variegated tulips, the diseased ones that were the most prized, have the meaning “beautiful eyes.” How appropriate that the tulip originated, not in Holland as is commonly believed, but in the Middle East. It was here, in the same region, that God, in His “perfect love” provided a Savior for each one of us in His only son, Jesus Christ, who was crucified, died, and rose again to pay the penalty for our sins.

Now when I look upon the variegated tulips in my flowerbeds and in my arrangements I will wonder, what varieties of “tulips” do I covet the most and spend my life pursuing? What is it that I see as beautiful in my eyes? What is it that I put in the center of my life? In the end, are my most prized “tulips” really just like the variegated real ones, beautiful on the outside, but diseased, weak and dying on the inside? Did I miss pursuing the truly beautiful “tulips,” the solid colored ones, expressions of love and caring for God and toward others?

A quote from Charles MacKay: “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one!”

Father,

I praise You for Your perfect love for me, shown through Your son, Jesus Christ. Thank You also for this gift of life. Give me the wisdom to spend it wisely, pursuing that which is truly beautiful in Your eyes. Help me to show Your love to others.

In Your son, Jesus’, precious name, Amen.

Link to the Keukenhof tulip gardens, Enjoy! http://www.keukenhof.nl/nm/250/Park-Photo-Galery.html

Sources: Wikipedia, http://www.andrewtobias.com/ExPopDel-5.html