GPS

A couple of months ago I received a shower invitation from the daughter of a dear friend. I had already knitted a lovely baby afghan so all I needed to do is circle the date on my calendar. The day arrived and I headed out to the shower.
Now I know that I should have looked up the address before I left but I was running late and still had to get a gift bag on the way. Anyway, I was confident that I could find it. How hard could that be?
The first clue of impending problems was that the street was not on the map. Yes, I love maps . I wonder really how often they update GPS systems anyway. Probably not any better than maps.
The next idea I had after I had purchased my gift bag was to try the Real Estate office on the strip mall where I was. No such luck. They were not open yet. Next I called my friend's cell phone but only got
"Leave a message and I will call you right back".
I sure hope so I mumbled to myself.
So I circled the block where I thought the street was located, mystified.
'It has to be here somewhere ', I said to myself, hoping to cheer myself up.
I tried the number given to RSVP but got the same frustrating message
" Leave your number and we will call you right back"
HA!
Around the next block. Then I saw a kid holding a arrow sign and wiggling it back and forth to direct people to a new subdivision. Interesting, I thought but only if it were a possible job for Micah.
Over another block and I was now sweating and have to turn on the AC.
In the next block I saw the mail man and pulled up and stopped. I showed him the address and he gave me precise directions.
The funny thing was that as I turned headed in the direction he had given me, I saw the kid with the arrow again pointing to the turn I needed to make! Go figure! Why had I ignored that the last time?
In light of the Christmas season, I thought about the wise men who were invited to a baby shower of sorts too. They grabbed their maps, and gifts and set out. We are not told if they got lost in the desert but we are told that God sent and star in the form of a pointing arrow - a 'star with a tail as big as a kite.'
Unlike me, they arrived long after the birth of the baby. Come to think of it,though, if God has not sent along the mailman and the arrow sign, I might still be out there wandering myself.

Comforter

It is that cozy time of year. In a effort to control the heat bill we have moved upstairs to our guest room and turned the heater down. We have our family room and office up here too so we can be toasty for less.
We add to our wardrobe slippers, sweatshirts and I add a cozy blanket or comforter depending which Jon hogs first. Then I can happily read, watch TV or knit or two of the above mentioned at the same time.
I think that that is one thing I love about winter, being cozy. In the summer, you can take it all off and still be hot. No cozy garments or lap blankets then.
To be honest, this last year I have tried to get off my hormones and since I failed and have resumed them, I have chosen a lower dose and somehow, my body temperature has been permanently altered. I just seem to be hotter than normal, all the time. Now if I could just time the hot flashes for when I am the coldest, I would be happy. ( As an aside, I tried to decrease the hormones I was taking in the dead of summer last year, when it was 110. Fool!)
Anyway, the theme of this was comforters and being cozy. Did you know that God provides each of his children a comforter their rebirth? Jesus said that when He went back to heaven He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to be with us forever. We would never be alone again. That is about as cozy and comfortable as you can get! Don’t you love that????

Writer

Since I was a young woman I have wanted to be a published writer. They say that one requirement is to read, read, read. And I have done that. I guess this blog is my foray into the writing world and it is free publishing.
I would love to write the great American novel but in reading other novels, I wonder if I have it in me to have maintain all the characters in an intricate plot. Another thing I would love to write is a devotional, as I do here, to encourage others in the challenges of life by the way God encourages me.
But perhaps I will end up writing an autobiography. That is something I know about.
God writes biographies too. The Bible is full of history, which is His Story. Scriptures are mostly written of the past, except the book of Revelation. But God has authored a biography or each of us.
David put is this way:
Every day of your life was written in a book before one came to be.
That means that he knows the end of my book , of Jon’s book, the last page, the last day. Each chapter that we have already lived tells of his unfailing love and his great blessings and eternal promises lived out in our lives.
Yet, there are chapters yet unlived by us, though God has already written them. One of them includes cancer. God says he has a plan to give us hope and a future.
Jon hopes that is as a very short chapter followed by many other ‘fun ones’.

ABCD....

When Ruth was in kindergarten she learned to read with the animal alphabet.
A is for Ape
A is for Anteater
B is for bear
C is for cat
D is for dog
Etc.
This week we have had to re-evaluate the alphabet. Until now C was a safe letter, standing for
Candy - preferably fudge
Cat- Ruth’s Freebie is the more unique one I know.
Car- wish we had a Porsche in the garage.
Crochet - which I learned in Idaho but now love knitting better
Cards - I love snail mail
And so on.
Now C stands for the dreaded disease that my husband has.
It is a scary letter now and brings fears about the future.
But God was just as quick to bring new meaning to the letter C yesterday.
C- commitment- what God has with his children. Another word is covenant. And his covenant is everlasting, only possible because he is eternal and will never die.
He is committed to our well being and has promised to never leave us or forsake us.
He is called Immanuel- God with us. ( 24/7)
The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter( another C word!)
So I am singing a new alphabet.
A is for available
B is for being with us
C is for commitment
D is for dependable
E is for eternal
F is for faithful
I will have to work on the rest. In so doing I am reprogramming my mind with God’s word and that brings peace.

What does it weigh?

Check out this list of personal traumas:
imprisoned wrongly
beaten time without number
often in danger of death
five times beaten with a lash 39 times
three times beaten with rods
once stoned
three times shipwrecked
spent a day and a night in the open sea
hardship and labor time and again
hungry and thirsty
cold from exposure
The above list belongs to Paul. Yet he said that his momentary light afflictions were nothing compared to the eternal weight of glory that was being produced in his life by all this suffering.
Pondering that thought yesterday, God showed me a balance scale, like they used to weigh the miners gold in the 1850's in California. On one side were the words, cancer, retirement adjustments and financial uncertainty. On the other side were the words promises, blessings,salvation and eternity. The latter outweighed the former.
God, give me the eyes of faith that Paul had.

What a difference

What a difference a day makes
24 little hours

This weekend we celebrated 35 years of marriage. And yes, it does grow sweeter each year. We spent the time away in the Santa Cruz mountains at a retreat center. We indulged in what seemed the endless buffet, including my favorite of Salmon in a yummy sauce and miles of salads.
Then we were treated to a concert by the Burchfield brothers on classical guitar and Mallet Kat. Not sure what that is? Check it out on the net. It is indescribable.
Then , after a peaceful sleep, we had a nice breakfast and were able to visit with the performers. Then we had a leisurely drive home.
Monday was Jon's first day of retirement. Yeah.
He had visions of, well not sugar plums, but fun and frolic.
But just a few hours into the day, we discovered that he has Prostate Cancer! Now he has an answer to what he will be doing in his early days of retirement- being a patient patient( I hope).
The hope in all this is that none of this was a surprise to God. And He says that He has plan for us, to give us a hope and a future.
So I am hanging on to him for this wild ride. NO time for dancing lessons right now.

Dance lessons

Jon and I are going to take dancing lessons! There is a new dance that we need to learn ASAP. It is called the retirement dance. We hear that it is has the trickiest moves ,so we decided that lessons were in order.
We saw a couple of examples of how difficult it is recently.
First, I was driving somewhere and saw a couple on a bicycle built for two. Now that is quite a feat. Not to build it but to ride it. There can be no mid- course corrections by the passenger in the back or quick turn by the rider in the front. And the destination is not up for grabs. I even noticed with these experts, that they had headphones to communicate with each other which we have heard is vital for success.
I am afraid that I would not make a good candidate for that bicycle. I would want to stop at the Dollar Tree and Jon would keep pedaling. He might want to head to We Donuts and I would lean the other way. I saw, in this living illustration, that lessons were vital.
The second example we saw on TV. It was about a set of conjoined teenagers. They are bright, vivacious girls who are now 16. Each girl has a distinct personality. They too need lessons. One wants to go away to college and the other wants to stay home and go to JC. Watching their lives hit us hard as we contemplate this new chapter in our lives. What cooperation, what surrender of rights.
Then I thought about Paul’s statements -
It is no longer I but Christ who lives in me.
Consider others are more important then yourself.
Or Solomon -
Two are better than one for they have a good return for their labor. If one falls, the other can pick them up. Pity the one who had no one to lift him up
Or how about ‘No man or woman is an Island‘?
So we have seen that the key to the retirement dance is surrender to the needs of the other. and
Stay tuned to see if we can win the dance contest with our new step.

Count first

I find I have put myself in a triple knitting dilemma. UGH!
Number one relates to a baby afghan that I began. I had ‘free yarn’ from a friend that was a soft yellow. The problem began when I decided to use two kinds of yarn at once. I had purchased a skein of light mint to go with it. It was a new pattern and I was knitting away happily, when I discovered I did not have enough green to finish. So I made an evening run to get some more. The second error came when I did not take a sample, feeling confident there could only be one such choice in that brand. I grabbed my yarn, on sale no less and hurried home to continue my project. But, as you may have already guessed it was not the right color. Close but not close enough. So I had to set that aside for now, hoping to find the right color on the weekend.
In the meantime I began another baby afghan with more ‘free yarn’, blue this time and a skein of other blue I had purchased previously for this to make it warm. And yes, once again I ran out and when I went to get more, taking my sample, there was not any in either of the stores I went to. So it too is set aside for the time being.
Yes, I know, you are saying did you not learn from your last trauma?
Well, I guess not because, I got some more ’free yarn’ from another friend and began a cute scarf. I had two balls which should have been enough. But once again history repeated itself. Except this time I found more at the Dollar Store. And wisely I bought two more, instead of just one, in case. As it turns out, I will need both.
The moral of the story is to figure out what you need and buy it all at the same time. Funny that I know this but seem to have ignored it, as though Murray’s law would not apply to me THIS time.
Jesus too talked about counting before you begin a project. He gave the examples of a builder building a tower and not having enough materials or a King going out to war without having enough soldiers. He said that before you become his disciple, you need to count the cost. And while it will cost you all you have, even you very life, you will get more that you give. Remember that it cost Him more that you will even pay. He left His home in heaven where he was adored and honored, to come and be mistreated, rejected and crucified. But he counted the cost. He would rather go to hell for you than go to heaven without you. Ponder that for awhile.

In the closet

Buddy is a very smart dog as you may have guessed. Sometimes Jon and I think that he is too smart for his own good. See, he has this thing about peeking into the closet when I am in there changing my clothes. He is checking to see what I am putting on.
If I am putting on my sweats and sox and favorite sweater, he knows that I am not going anywhere. Why is that important to him? He has separation anxiety and hates to be left alone.
If, on the other hand, I am putting on my good jeans( and yes he knows which are which) he begins to slink off to the washroom where he knows he will be put when I leave. It is really pathetic to watch.
He really gets happy when I return and go into the closet and put on 'stay at home clothes'. He wags his tag and almost smiles.
Just as what I wear matters to Buddy, so it matters to God too.
In fact, He loves to change my clothes for me. To start with, He gives Jesus my sin and gives me Jesus' robe of sinlessness. Next he will give me the crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of despair.
The he calls me to clothe myself with with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
As parting word:
I say over and over to Buddy that he does not have to worry about my clothes, that I will always take care of him. And Jesus says that I do not have to worry about my clothes, for he will take care of me!

Can you hear me?

As I have already told you, Buddy has been showing signs of aging- including a considerable loss of hearing. We first noticed it when he did not freak out on Fourth of July. In the past we have had to drug him for several days. This year he did not seem to hear the bottle rockets or whistling Petes. Also he had not been hearing the door bell and seeming to be surprised when someone comes in . But he still can hear the word"treat"!
Well today we found a possible cause. At his routine check up, we learned that he has a big wax plug in one ear. So we came home with a liquid to flush his ear out and drops to soften the wax. Now maybe he can hear again . It is also possible that that may have contributed to his disorientation.
In retrospect this all seems too much of a coincidence. Just this morning I was reading in Hebrews and God was saying,
" Today , if you hear my voice, do not harden your heart"
I wonder if a failure to hear God could be the result of spiritual wax? I will have to ponder this.