You mean I can relax?

Sitting on the deck in the cool morning air of a quiet Pacific Northwest morning, I hear a light tapping on the inside window and turn to see our youngest and her 6-month old peering out to say good morning.  That is to say, the 6-month old wanted to say good morning; mommy wanted a hand off and go back to bed for an hour or so.

Of course, for a first-time mother, it’s still kind of new, this hand off thing, even if it’s to her own mother who raised three children.  Immediately after the pass, mommy was still admonishing me to let her know right away if Sweet One starts crying because she might need to be fed, and oh, she might have pooped and need a diaper change, and….

Honey, go to bed.  Right now.  I’ve got this. 

 So while I was enjoying that grandmother thing, it occurs to me that this is exactly what my Father is telling me. 

Gardener’s Soufflé (in December!)

I’m writing this on my patio while eating some leftover pizza (in December!) after a particularly good turn at composting this morning. Based on some reading and good advice from one of my sons-in-law, I am trying the layering technique: 

I used my phone for these snapshots, which will probably not wind up on Instagram as that service seems to be for photos of more socially acceptable topics than what I use in my compost layering, thanks to my neighbor’s horse down the street.  I even scheduled a time to show up.

Incidentally, while warming up the pizza, I noticed my phone was no longer in my jacket’s pocket.  Considering what I had just been working with, this could potentially be mildly unpleasant.  So I took Bob’s phone outside to call mine, and I followed the ring tone, (conjuring up images of Jurassic Park 3-The Lost World…)

Yes, there it was, thankfully not

Your place, or mine?

Which was kind of the question God was asking here—who’s place is this anyway??

“This message was given concerning the Ammonites. This is what the LORD says: ‘Are there no descendants of Israel to inherit the land of Gad? Why are you, who worship Molech, living in its towns?’”

The short version is that the Ammonites were the bad guys, and

“And if you’ll look at the weather map…”

As the old saying goes, if you don’t like the weather in Missouri, just give it five minutes and it’ll change.  Of a certainty, the weather is not certain. 

Well, duh.  Living right on the edge of Dorothy and Toto territory, meteorological displays of fury can blow up without much warning, although the science has certainly improved through the years, thankfully, since wind is cause for both fascination and fear in this part of the USA.

Visiting family in Oklahoma one year, I was impressed with the state-of-the-art tornado tracking system during one particular storm.  (Why is it that the place on the globe with the most twisters also has some of the worst dirt for basements??  Few homes have them in that area!)  So we sat in the living room, somewhat intently watching the radar as it revealed—street by city street!—the path of

Just a thought…

Borrowing a category title from blogger Wally Fry, here is my thought for this our 240^th celebration of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”:

“Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the LIFE. No one can come to the Father except through me.’”

“So if the Son sets you free, you are truly FREE.” 

“…he described the HAPPINESS of those who are declared righteous without working for it…”

SOOoooo000oo grateful to be a born citizen of the USA!  But even more so to be a born-again citizen of Heaven!!

Enjoy the picnic and fireworks.

John 14:6; 8:36; Romans 4:6  Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.  (emphasis mine)