The Hawk and the Sparrow

After church today I stood in the parking lot watching a red tail hawk on the hunt.  I don't know if it's the one that lives in our yard - could be since it's only about 2 blocks away.  All at once after flying in his lazy-seeming circles, he swooped with razor precision down to the prey he spied! It was majestic!  We marveled at the beauty of this creature God made!



Jesus talked about birds - the ones in the field and the air and especially the sparrow. 

The sparrow is no red tail hawk!  I doubt many would ever stand and marvel at a sparrow, but Jesus did - so it must warrant doing!  He said, Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care. (Matt. 10:29)

Just the fact that Jesus chose to single out the sparrow from all the other thousands of types of birds tells us something important!  If what Jesus said is true, and I'm pretty doggone sure it is - THEN the implications for you and me are pretty impressive!  If God can take time out of His "day" to notice the goings-on of sparrows, then that means even the least of us are under His watch and care ALL THE TIME, EVERYWHERE!  That's awesome for sure!

 

Today I wouldn't have stood marveling for quite a few minutes if a sparrow had been flitting around here and there.  I stood and marveled as the hawk soared and swooped!  In retrospect I am so thankful that I don't have to be a hawk doing spectacular stunts in the sky to get God's eye on me!  I have His Word, His promise that assures me He cares totally even for the tiny sparrow.  Because His eye is on the sparrow, I know...I know...I know (Can't you just hear the rolling, throaty contralto tones of Ethel Waters?!) He cares for me ... for you!!! or, as she sings, He watches we! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAmSTWcja0M

 

Now THAT's something to stand and marvel about - that God's eye is on the sparrow and on me and you - on we!

Love is Down and Dirty!

I just saw this picture on Facebook.  I don't know how it got on my feed as I don't know the person who posted it.  I do know a person who liked it.  I was astonished!

It's just so wrong!  We see a person in need. The question about worthy is the one we ask in our heads. We MUST stop; we HAVE to stop!  We cannot love UNLESS we stop and DO something!  Loving is what we do in our hearts!  We put hands and feet on the feeling!  We do it anyway because we MUST!

Perhaps the picture means that we shouldn't evaluate whether we love by the worthiness of the one we need to love - OK, I'll give you that!  But I crawled up on my soapbox because it is so typical to use our evaluation of "worthy" as an excuse!  It's really all the more reason to love well!

The story Jesus told about the man beaten and left for dead by a gang of thieves - that's what it's all about.  The men who asked the worthy question in their heads crossed the road and passed by not getting their hands dirty and not even letting the blood and pain bother their eyes!  The man who stopped, gave first aid, and took the injured man to a safe place where he continued to provide care into an uncertain future, he didn't ask any questions.  He got down and dirty, crawled right into the mess, and showed what love looks like! 

DUH! I get the strong impression that's exactly what we are supposed to do: get down and dirty, crawl right into the mess, demo what love looks like!

Batter Up!

It's spring or almost spring! That means May flowers, spring showers, and baseball among other signs of spring! That is especially true in Pittsburgh when the Pirates are really on their game!

One essential of playing baseball is the batter.  Without someone up at bat, there isn't much of a game. Actually there is NO game at all!

I'm not planning to play baseball any time soon, but I find myself up at bat all too often!  There are many variations on this theme: there are two kinds of people in this world - the batters/players and the bench warmers!  I don't care who you are or what you do; you are one or the other!

It's the people who aren't afraid to get in the game, to take their turn at bat, to play their position who make a difference in the game of life!

Once a lady in Pittsburgh (native Pittsburgher) said to me, O, I know all about you Southern girls!  You just take to your bed for three days when you get a little headache.  Now, mind you:  She hardly knew me and SHE CERTAINLY DID NOT KNOW ME!!! 

Well, after I picked my jaw up off the floor, I looked her straight in the eye and said, O, you must not know there is more than one kind of Southern gal - There's the Southern Belle and then there's the Steel Magnolia!!!

It is so interesting from a people-observation perspective and also so sad from a Christian world-and-life-view that there are actually Christians who find being a bench sitter good enough, thank you very much!  I don't think so!  The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 3:17:  ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  My Jesus and His name deserve MUCH more than warming a bench!  ONLY my best will do, and that's my best in EVERYTHING!

Now, bench warming is much less risky!  Chances are that bench warming will net you FAR less criticism on a grand scale, but it also won't get you to 1st base!  It won't even get you up to bat!

I don't care where you live and walk; it's a choice: Batter Up! or warm the bench!  There isn't much wear and tear to bench warming.  Batting, pitching, catching, running the bases and the field cost: time and energy and can tug on your heart big time! BUT that's where the game of life is played - IN THE GAME - NOT on the bench!  Being a player participating in the game may be messy and challenging, but it's worth it every time!  Especially because that's the ONLY way to do EVERYTHING in the name of the Lord Jesus to hold Him up before the watching world! Just sayin'!

Assist over the Line

Yesterday was this year's run of the Boston Marathon - calmer, less exciting than last year for sure which is a very good thing!  Some time after the winning runner crossed the finish line, another runner approached with flagging strength.  He collapsed just short of the goal!  The runner behind him didn't just push on by.  He stopped to help.  Soon four runners were carrying the fallen runner over the finish line.

I often feel like the fallen runner - biting the dust in a moment just short of the finish, totally running on fumes.  Who comes along behind makes all the difference!  Does he or she stop to give an assist over the line?  OR does he or she power on with his or her own agenda in view?

It's costly to stop!  None of the five runners completed the race according to the rules, but my view is that all won more than the first man to cross over.  They won on care points!

Many years ago (and perhaps many times since) another man fell in the dust. He too was picked up and carried by four friends who even took the roof off a house in the Middle East to assist him over the line.  They carried him down the street and up the stairs outside a house to the roof, removed enough roof tiles to lower their friend inside right in front of the One who could give their friend the greatest assist of all!  (Their story is recorded in Mark 2:1-12.)

The four friends made the difference in both circumstances!  Sitting here at my computer on a rainy Tuesday morning I'm wondering who I will encounter today who will need an assist over the line. I'm hoping I won't power on by but will know the need and stop to do what I can!

Two Little Stones

I saw something drop dead amazing today! 

I was driving along Liberty Avenue toward downtown Pittsburgh and came to a stoplight. It was red so I glanced over to the sidewalk where two workmen were breaking up part of the sidewalk. They caught my attention when I saw one pick up two pieces of broken concrete, walk over to the nearby fence and throw them over the fence onto the back of a truck parked in the lot. Then the other man slowly picked up two more pieces and did the same thing. I'm talking about slightly larger than palm-sized pieces.  Like I said, drop dead amazing! And, I'm just guessing but I bet they are paid pretty well - overpaid based on effort and performance!


Not that they would care but I couldn't help thinking:  Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men... (Colossians 3:23) 

And, then I have to ask myself, Self, when you pick up big rocks and carry them, who are you doing it for?

THAT's what makes all the difference!

Easter 2014 - Be an Easter Person in a Good Friday World

I know God's story is all about restoration, how He is working to redeem a people for Himself and to restore His broken creation of its former glory.  God made us to be in relationship with Him and with each other.  All that became horribly twisted and broken beyond repair - except by God's intervention - in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve CHOSE to walk another path away from God.

Today my husband preached an Easter message.  He didn't step away from his current series in the book of Joshua which has been the usual pattern through many years of ministry.  Instead he brought Easter to life in a sermon from Joshua 11 - 12.  Some people don't like the Old Testament especially all the battles and seeming destruction.  Not me!  Not that I like battles and destruction. I don't!  But I have learned in life that battles and destruction on many levels are part of the cycle of life and particularly part of God's redemptive plan.

I will be posting the sermon manuscript at www.arestorationchurch.org if you want to read more, but I am posting here the children's page I write each week to go along with the sermon.  I think you'll see what I mean!

By the way, Happy, Happy Easter!

 

 
Children’s Page

It’s Friday BUT Sunday’s Coming!

Joshua 11 – 12

It’s Sunday! It’s Easter Sunday! That’s a LONG way from Joshua chapters 11 & 12!  Just wait and see ‘cause they do relate!

In Joshua 11 there’s a king named Jabin. He’s been sitting around on his throne reading reports and hearing from messengers about all the battles General Joshua and his army have been fighting and winning!

NOW the army of Israel is marching north. They have finished their “southern campaign” and are headed toward Jabin and his little kingdom.  Jabin has heard some pretty scary stuff about the sun standing still for two days while God helped Israel win a big battle and about God throwing smart bombs made out of ice (big hailstones) straight out of heaven to kill the enemy soldiers.  Jabin decides it’s time to call his neighbor kings together and make a plan. So, all these big bad boys who are kings in the northern part of what is Israel today have a big pow-wow!  They put all their soldiers and weapons together in one humongous army. Israel’s army were all foot soldiers.  These bad kings all had lots of horses and chariots, lots and lots of them! It was really, really scary looking at all these wild soldiers.  Some of them were even giants!  They were totally bad and scary along with all their snorting war horses and battle chariots!

What these bad boy kings didn’t know just yet was that Israel had the most secret “weapon” of all! Israel had God on their side!  When they entered into Canaan Land, God promised to give them all the land where they put their feet.  God promised to give them victory!  These bad kings thought they had the upper hand because they had so many soldiers and so many horses and so many chariots.  Psalm 20:7 says, Some trust in horses, some in chariots, but we trust the Lord our God!  GOD was on Israel’s side!!!

The northern kings and their armies had never come up against the God of heaven and earth in a battle before.  They were fixin’ to find out WHO God is, and it wasn’t going to turn out very well for them.  In fact, it took a really long time – maybe as long as 7 years – but eventually Israel won every battle and conquered every city and destroyed every king and his kingdom.  God kept His promise!  God DID give them every piece of land where they put their feet!  God wasn’t worried.  He knew He would win in the end!  AND HE DID!  Joshua and his army won every battle and conquered every kingdom!  The Bible says that God handed all these big bad kings and their armies over to General Joshua and the Israelites! God and Israel won!

NOW we get to the Easter part!  On the day we call Good Friday – the day when Jesus died on the cross, it was a very sad day!  All Jesus’ friends were so sad and discouraged while they watched Jesus die.  It seemed like the world had come to an end!  All their hopes and dreams had blown up!  Jesus was supposed to be the one who came from heaven to make everything go right, and now He was dead!  It was very sad and very scary!

But like when the kings of the north started fighting General Joshua and Israel’s army, it wasn’t about how many soldiers or horses or battle chariots an army had.  The BIG question was: Is God on your side?  When God is on your side, then that’s all that really matters!  And God had a plan, and He was working His plan!

That’s the same way it was on that sad Friday when Jesus’ friends took his dead body down off the cross and buried Jesus’ body.  It seemed like everything was all busted – like nothing would ever be right again!  BUT, O joy!  God had a plan!  God was working His plan!

Jesus’ friends Nick and Joe buried Jesus in Joe’s brand new tomb carved into the limestone rock.  They rolled a gigantic stone over the door into the tomb and went away very sadly! That was Friday night!  Nothing moved; there was no sound all Friday night, all day Saturday and all Saturday night…………..THEN just before dawn on Sunday – even before there was any light – Shazam! There was LIGHT and THUNDER and an EARTHQUAKE and suddenly the stone rolled away and Jesus just came walking out of that tomb like He had never been dead! 

Who would have thought that as dead as Jesus was on Friday, that by Sunday morning very early Jesus would be alive, walking around?!

Remember that plan God has? Well, Jesus rising from the dead on that first Easter morning was the biggest part of God’s plan ever!  Jesus had to die so he could take the punishment you and I deserve for all the ways we have not obeyed God, but Jesus also had to come back to life to prove His power over death! AND He did!  EASTER is the BEST news ever!  Friday before Easter was a sad, sad day!  BUT Sunday was and is coming!  When it gets here, it will be the best day ever because Jesus IS alive forever! 

It is Easter morning!  Jesus is alive!  AND HE LOVES YOU!

 

 

News Flash! Care-Giving is Hard - Breakfast Menu!

I'm not much for breakfast except for several cups of coffee!  Growing up my dad believed in eggs (scrambled) and milk.  It's possible I was born hating both!  Caveat: I'm not the shiniest penny in the pocketbook apparently!  The number of mornings I sat (under duress) at the breakfast table long after everyone else was gone looking at cold scrambled eggs and warm milk. Both were much worse at those temperatures, but stubbornness won over smart! However, that's a tale for another day!  The point is I love bacon but not eggs!

There is a significant difference between the contribution of the pig and the chicken!  The hen is involved to lay an egg but continues to be capable of making that contribution to the menu day after day.  The pig is committed as the bacon comes at great cost to the pig!

In my family we are committed to taking care of my mother at home despite her increasing and pretty severe dementia!  She isn't easy to care for as she still knows enough to want to be in a different place in life!  I think that goes to the bone! 

I have four sibs.  One of them is a big pig in this process. Another is a smaller pig in the process. The other two are involved in the process, Then, there's me!  I care! I call! I pray! I send cards, but I am very far away!  Another sib is also pretty far away so we get to be "on-site" only occasionally. Both of us - actually all of us - have very busy other lives!

One sib has Mother in her home 24/7 almost (except for the weeks Mother goes to my brother's home for holidays, vacation times for my sister's family, and for a few miscellaneous reasons).  She has significant help in care-givers who come in every day. This sister has the best "set up" in her home to care for Mother. My sister has a self-contained apartment which was added to her home when she cared for her husband's parents until they went to heaven. But, it IS 24/7 being the pig on this breakfast menu. Then, there's me - almost not even a chicken in the process!

In many ways, care-giving for a disabled loved one is a pig job! It's very hard! There is a cost. It is a choice, but it's also being hands on 24/7!  Big time love fuels that commitment, but it doesn't mitigate the hard!

My brother too is amazing in that he takes almost every Tuesday to spend the day caring for Mother in my sister's home. He has a consulting business which requires his flying to Washington DC from Greenville SC for one client two days every week. He's definitely at least a little pig in this process!

It hurts my heart increasingly to be so far away!  I see the toll and the pain for the care-givers. I love Mother! I love them too!  It's not a "job" you don't take home! It's always there!

I know other care-givers who live the same committed life, and I marvel!  Here's to all the "pigs" who give care to a loved one with very special needs!  Here's to all the "hens", but the biggest shout-out goes to the "pigs"!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart especially to my sibs!