Four Weeks Ago

Cabbage and Lettuce

While we are still bringing last year's cabbages up from the cold room to enjoy...

... Dad is beginning this year's planting.

After just two days of sunshine, we spot lettuce sprouts through the moist cover!

A Roundabout Way II

Continuing the thought from a previous post, 

here are some more verses and an excerpt from another book.

"Then he led out his people like sheep 

and guided them in the wilderness like a flock." 

Psalm 78:52

"They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; 

he made water flow for them from the rock; 

he split the rock and the water gushed out." 

Isaiah 48:21

The wilderness of Sinai (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

"If we have indeed received the Lord Jesus Christ for our Lord and Master," said he, "we must be certain he is leading us in that road which will terminate in everlasting happiness, however rough some parts of it may appear to be.

"Why do we call ourselves his servants? Why do we profess to believe in his wisdom, his truth, his care, his love; and yet shrink from the very expressions of those towards ourselves? If we truly believed, we would lay ourselves in humility at his feet, and say, Lord we know that we cannot guide our own hearts and ways; we know that thou only canst sanctify and prepare us for thyself. Take our hearts, and in thy own wisdom mould them by what means thou wilt into thy glorious likeness; thou knowest all our temptations and weakness, order every circumstance in our lives, for our ultimate eternal happiness with thee - regard not our prayers but as they tend to those only valuable ends.

"Thus believing, we should look on every event as coming immediately from that wisdom which cannot err - from that love which is more deep - more tender than we can conceive. We should be ready to accept whatever he sent us, as best and kindest, though it should appear clothed in all that excites present anguish. Believing thus, we should experience his power to support, and even to enable us to rejoice in the most severe afflictions."

From Dunallan: or, Know What You Judge by Grace Kennedy

Pilot on Board

Journal entry from January 31st, 2017:

"Wow... how is the year already 1/12th past? This has been a hard month, our whole family agrees. Yet God has not let go of us. He has shown up in many ways and times. He is leading us.

Today I was pondering the application of the nautical/maritime signal flag "H." It also stands for "Pilot on Board." I liked that for my first initial. Jesus is my Pilot on board. But today I thought more about what that would really mean. 

Apply this spiritually:

- A pilot knows the only safe way through dangerous waters

- The captain and owner of the ship do not

- They have to call the pilot on board

- It takes acknowledging your own need and lack of knowledge, skill and ability to do the steering oneself

- You have to fully trust the pilot as you turn everything into their hands - your ship [life], goods, crew [family], etc.

Elsa designed and knit this flag/blanket for her Etsy shop.

A Roundabout Way

I am unsure if this excerpt will be clear without more context, but it comes from a fairy-tale I mentioned in an earlier post about George MacDonald. Whether or not it could be called a true allegory, it contains many "pictures" of the life of faith in God.

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So saying, the lady turned, and threw the little ball into the rose-fire.

"Oh, grandmother!" exclaimed Irene; "I thought you had spun it for me."

"So I did, my child. And you've got it."

"No; it's burnt in the fire."

The lady put her hand in the fire, brought out the ball, glimmering as before, and held it toward her. Irene stretched out her hand to take it, but the lady turned, and going to her cabinet, opened a drawer, and laid the ball in it.

"Have I done anything to vex you, grandmother?" said Irene pitifully.

"No, my darling. But you must understand that no one ever gives anything to another properly and really without keeping it. That ball is yours."

"Oh! I'm not to take it with me! You are going to keep it for me!"

"You are to take it with you. I've fastened the end of it to the ring on your finger."

Irene looked at the ring.

"I can't see it there, grandmother," she said.

"Feel—a little way from the ring—toward the cabinet," said the lady.

The Princess and the Goblin, by George MacDonald

"Oh! I do feel it!" exclaimed the princess. "But I can't see it," she added, looking close to her outstretched hand.

"No. The thread is too fine for you to see it. You can only feel it. Now you can fancy how much spinning that took, although it does seem such a little ball."

"But what use can I make of it, if it lies in your cabinet?" 

"That is what I will explain to you. It would be of no use to you—it wouldn't be yours at all if it did not lie in my cabinet. Now listen. If ever you find yourself in any danger—such, for example, as you were in this evening—you must take off your ring, and put it under the pillow of your bed. Then you must lay your forefinger, the same that wore the ring, upon the thread, and follow the thread wherever it leads you."

"Oh, how delightful! It will lead me to you, grandmother, I know!"

"Yes. But, remember, it may seem to you a very roundabout way indeed, and you must not doubt the thread. Of one thing you may be sure, that while you hold it, I hold it too."

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This reminds me of a few words from a song:

"When you can't see His hand, trust His heart."

And of the many verses that describe God leading His people, 

no matter how rough or long the way:

"So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness." 

Ezekiel 20:10

"You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; 

you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode." 

Exodus 15:13

Don't Wait Till You Break Your Neck!

After four years of illness and treatments, Elsa and I are still sharing the couch off and on throughout the day. And we are still learning what Joni Tada testifies to so beautifully:

"And somewhere in the ensuing years, I discovered that the weakness of those claustrophobic hours was the key to God's peace and power. My enforced stillness was God's way of conforming the inside to what had happened on the outside.

"Now, many years later, my bed is an altar of praise. It's the one spot on this harried planet where I always meet God in relaxed stillness. In fact, as soon as I wheel into my bedroom and see the bed covers pulled back my mind immediately responds, It's time to be still and know more about God. It's time to pray.

"It can be the same for you. When you find yourself in forced stillness--waiting in line, sitting by a hospital bed, or stuck in traffic--instead of fidgeting and fuming, use such moments to practice stillness before God.

"It's a crazy world and life speeds by at a blur, yet God is right in the middle of the craziness. And anywhere, at anytime, we may turn to Him, hear His voice, feel His hand, and catch the fragrance of heaven.

"You can be still and know that He is God. And you don't have to break your neck to find out."

Joni Eareckson Tada, from Holiness in Hidden Places

I may be tall... but not THAT tall! This is one way Elsa and I share the couch.

Another Shadow

This shadow is cast by my Wild Willie 'Pacific Bingo' oncidium orchid. 

Supposed to be one of the harder varieties to keep alive in a house, I am thrilled that it is reblooming in less than a year and growing new leaves for me!