For the Birds

I'm getting used to seeing some of Dean's hoarding manifestations, but yesterday I was still amused to see the little yogurt cup (the kind with a disposable lid you peel off) all rinsed out and in my dish drainer by the sink.

It was there by a couple of his plastic cups and lids he gets every day with his "Meals on Wheels". He saves everything from the paper sack that comes with it to the little Bible verse on a slip of paper that comes in the sack. It's a miracle he lets me throw away the empty milk cartons and aluminum trays the food comes on. It took a lot of persuasion and explanation, but he did make that concession. Fortunately, he doesn't know how many plastic cups and paper sacks I've thrown away when he isn't looking. I keep just enough of them around to make him feel comfortable, and for our house not to look like a hoarder's heaven.

But then, he saw me throw away some crumbs yesterday off the bread board and when he started to protest, I asked him what they were good for. Not expecting that he had such an immediate answer, he said, "To feed the birds!" Oh, well, they were already in the trash can. What can you say?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if every person on earth were valued that much? That all of us were deemed worth saving? But then, that is how God feels about each and every one of us. He's "not willing that any should perish." I'm thankful for such a loving, hoarder God, aren't you?

P.S. If you come to visit us with a water bottle or aluminum can, please take it home with you!!!

Julia's Lord

I have to share something about my granddaughter, Julia, age 2. She loves to sing, but there's one song that is evidently irritating to her ears. Every time we all start singing "Kum ba yah, my Lord, Kum ba yah", Julia protests vocally with "no, MY Lord". So her mother, my daughter, has wisely learned to accommodate her two-year-old request and correctly sing the next line "Kum ba yah, Julia's Lord, Kum ba yah." Only then will the determined girl join our singing.

If there's one thing that we want our children to remain possessive about, it's their Lord. Only when God is "all ours" can we share Him with others. Whenever I sing that song or any hymn about my Savior, I'm going to think of putting the emphasis on the "my" and then God and I will share a smile, thinking about a cute little girl, insisting on the right words to the song.

I let her pick this tomato from my garden. 

This was several hours later...I don't think it ever made it to the salad bowl. It's hers!!!

Vacation Bible School

I loved taking my granddaughter to Vacation Bible School tonight. She's just turning four this month, and it brought back so many memories of my daughter attending VBS in years past. She attended very young, because I always volunteered to help or teach a class. But her first Vacation Bible School that she attended by herself was in a very small town we lived in, called Roberts, Idaho.

It was hosted by a little non-denominational church there and I'll never forget how one of the adults came to me when I picked her up and said that she was the first one out of her seat to come to the front when they made a call for who wanted to be saved. It was a treasured memory I have kept all these years. My daughter's first public testimony of her faith. She had been through a lot in her short five years. And she didn't hesitate to answer God's call to be saved. I'd like to think that my training had laid some groundwork for the event.

We underestimate the power of God's working on very young souls. Parents should never miss an opportunity to bring their children to Jesus, both at home during family worships and at church. You never know when the message will hit home and cause them to connect with their Lord and Savior. The kind of connection that will sustain them for their whole lifetime.

Healer of Body and Soul

Finally I get something to help with the inflammation of my foot from the injury almost three months ago. Just a topical gel, but I hope it does the trick. The foot is still puffy and hurts after all this time. The bone has healed nicely they say, but I suppose there's more to a foot than bone.

This leads me to a paradox I've been thinking about for a few days. When your life gets messed up, just like my foot did, what part do you work on first? The outward behaviors, the addictions and displays of anger and depression, or the inward stress, unforgiving spirit, and heartache that eat away at our inner peace and happiness?

It almost seems to me that both have to find relief. And the only way that can be done is to turn it all over to the one who specializes in all the parts that make us who we are. That would be God. The Healer of Body AND Soul. He not only takes away our symptoms, but He cures the disease that gave us those symptoms.

We need doctors. We need pastors. But most of all, we need a Savior. And we must give Him everything, all the parts of us, or else it's all a waste.