Life Is Not Always A Picnic

As a shutterbug, I really enjoy the beauty and wonder of a sunrise or a sunset.  This is a photo I took of a sunrise.  If I had to give a name to this picture it might be, “life is hard, but God is good.”  Life is not always a picnic, a vacation, or a time of celebration.  Sometimes life is hard and we can’t see much beyond today.  But God is good, God is faithful.  The writer of Lamentations reminds us that it’s because of God’s great and awesome love for us that we are not consumed.  God’s compassion never fails, but is new every morning.  Doubt, the anxieties and hardships of life, and even our sins need not consume us.  For as surely as the sun rises in the east every morning, so does God’s love and compassion towards us.   

Butterfly People

On Saturday, I captured this photo of a beautiful tiger swallowtail butterfly in our backyard.  The metamorphosis a caterpillar goes through to become a beautiful butterfly is, no doubt, the reason the butterfly symbolizes resurrection, hope and new life.  Recently I heard about and then read some amazing stories about butterfly people.  It seems that when the tornado hit Joplin, MO on the 22^nd of May, some of the surviving children said they were helped and kept safe from harm by the butterfly people.  I guess if you were a small child describing an angel with wings, what better description than calling them butterfly people.  Were there angels in Joplin, Mo the night the tornado hit?  Yes, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them did have wings.  We are all called to be butterfly people, messengers of God, showing God’s love and compassion to others.  Where is God in the midst of life’s storms?  God is present working through the butterfly people, and yes some do have wings.  The rest of us are still earthbound, at least for a little while longer.  

Better Than PB&J

This spring and summer it's been a pleasure watching Baltimore orioles visit our birdfeeder especially designed for their nectar loving appetite.  They love the grape jelly we put out for them, and they even prefer it over orange slices.  A few weeks ago house finches started showing up at our regular birdfeeder, which is about twelve feet from the oriole feeder.  The funny thing is that one of the female house finch started going to the oriole feeder and sampling the grape jelly.  She must have seen the orioles feeding from it and thought she’d give it a try.  Evidently she likes it because she keeps coming back for more.  The orioles aren’t too thrilled about her eating from their feeder and they chase her away when they catch her at their favorite café.  The above picture captures our grape jelly loving finch, a Baltimore oriole, and just below the feeder flying right towards the camera is a grey catbird.  The Psalmist encourages us with these words, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  Maybe as others see us tasting of God’s goodness in all the different circumstances of life, like the house finch, they will want to join the buffet.    

Controlled Flooding

For the past seven years our family has camped at Lewis and Clark Reservoir near Yankton, SD.  This weekend we had the added bonus of not only boating on the lake in the cool water, (with nearly 100 degree days it felt good) but also driving to Gavins Point Dam to see the spectacular release of water from the dam.  The park lady told us that they were releasing 164 thousand cubic feet of water per second.  To get an idea of how much water that is, I read that Yankton's Memorial Park has an Olympic-sized swimming pool, which holds about 600,000 gallons of water. At 150 thousand cubic feet per second the water rushing out of Gavins Point Dam would take just half-a-second to fill it.  It’s a pretty awesome sight, but not so much for the folks downstream.  Their fields, homes and towns are flooded because of it.   Ironic isn’t it, dams were built for flood control and yet it’s the release of this vast amount of water that is causing the flooding.  Maybe the lesson to be learned here is that we really can't control mother-nature or always outguess what she’s going to do in a given year.  Floods happen.  The prophet Isaiah promises that a time is coming when those who are thirsty will be flooded with God’s spirit.  I’m thinking that through Jesus Christ the vast eternal reservoir of God’s goodness and grace is being released upon humanity.  It’s enough to fill every person, and to wash away all of our doubts and fears.  So may the flood gates of God’s mercies be opened wide enough until every soul is swept away in the unconditional love of God.      

No Crystal Ball

In our backyard we have what is called a gazing ball or reflecting ball.  As you can see from the photo, it does a fairly good job of reflecting its surroundings.  It’s not a crystal ball that one can gaze into and predict or see the future.  Unfortunately some use the scriptures in this way.  The most recent example of this is the guy who predicted that the rapture would take place last May.  It didn’t.  He also thinks the scriptures predict that the end of the world will happen in October.  I think one of the main functions of the scriptures is to show us what God is like.  The scriptures tell us the good news of God’s unending, relentless love.  A love that will never fail, but wins  in the end as God makes all things new.  God doesn’t give us all the details as to how God’s going to pull it off, nor does God give us the dates as to when it will happen.  However, God does ask us to have faith in him for all of our days, the good days as well as the bad ones.  I think that being a follower of Christ is being like a reflecting ball.   Reflecting the graces of God in all of life’s circumstances and the surroundings we find ourselves in.  Admittedly, that’s a lot harder to do then simply predicting gloom and doom.  To reflect the life of God’s Spirit, we must allow our hearts to continue to be close to God’s heart.  Amazingly, as we continue to gaze upon the goodness of God, the hope that reverberates throughout the scriptures steals its way into our hearts.  In Christ we have something far greater than a crystal ball.

Fireworks and watermelon

What isn’t there to like about the 4^th of July?  A day off from work with pay:)  Fireworks.  Watermelon, corn on the cob and grilled hamburgers or in my case, smoked babyback ribs.  With all the festivities it’s easy to forget that a lot of people paid the ultimate price for us to have this holiday and the freedoms we enjoy and often take for granted.  Like they say, freedom is never really free!  I am grateful for the men and women both past and present who have risked their lives, to secure and keep the freedoms and liberties we have as a nation.  In our pledge of allegiance we promise to be one nation, indivisible, with justice and liberty for all.  However, when we look at the political landscape (especially as we approach an election year) it seems that there is a lot that divides us.  Just as watermelon on the 4^th of July and apple pie are a slice of Americana, my hope and prayer is that as a nation we may continue to be a beacon of hope and opportunity, where justice and liberty for all is not just a pledge, but remains as an enduring slice of Americana as well. 

God Is Wild About Us!

Last week we had Vacation Bible School at our church.  The theme was; “God is wild about us.”  One of the things I did was I took pictures of the children, so they’d have a keepsake to remember their week of VBS.  The picture with this posting is of my granddaughter Grace.  Grace is 3 ½ and she likes to wiggle, so the first picture I took of her wasn’t so good, she couldn’t stand still, her arms were everywhere and she wouldn’t look at the camera.  So the next night of VBS we did a redo and Grace, graced us with less wiggles and more cooperation and the picture turned out much better.  It looks more like the beautiful, fun loving little girl, her grandfather is wild about.  The theme of VBS was right on, and I’m convinced that God IS wild about us.  God is so wild about us that the final portrait of our lives will have no trace of the errors and blunders we have made.  What will be there for all to see and admire is the working and wonder of God’s love and grace made visible in and through our lives.  The good news of the Gospel is not just that God offers us a redo and lots of them, but that God’s love is powerful enough to perfect and capture the right image of us.