My Morning Walk to the Auto Shop, In Photos and Scripture

This morning I walked a mile down Eight Street to pick up my car from the shop.

And look! It's spring! Isn't April the most magical month?

Flowers were everywhere:

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. "But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith!" Luke 12:27

Look! Leaves!

And clover!




And the most perfect dandelion:

The trees were blossoming like they meant it:

"Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. "So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows." -Matthew 10:29-31

I think Anne of Green Gables might have called this the White Way of Delight:

And my heart was full.

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." Isaiah 55:12

God is good. May He fill you with joy, peace, and song today!

My Wonderful White Christmas, in Photos and Scripture

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

(John 1:5)

"Be still and know that I am God.  I will be exalted in the nations.  I will be exalted in the earth." 

(Psalm 46:10)

 

"Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you." 

(2 Thessalonians 3:16)

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." 

(Isaiah 55:12)

Merry Christmas, friends.  I hope yours was filled with peace, love, and joy.

(And snow!)

A Week of Beautiful Things

Hi friends!  This finds me at a wobbly table in a little food court area at LaGuardia Airport.  Sleepinginairports.net tells me that sleeping in LaGuardia is like sleeping in a dirty bus terminal, but as of 10:00pm it hasn’t been bad!  So far I’ve charged my phone, brushed my teeth, plucked my eyebrows, and lost my water bottle.  In the next few hours, I hope to eat a snack, find my water bottle, read a book, and write this post.

From where I sit, I see about a dozen other travelers scattered singly at tables for two or four.  Some are eating soup or sandwiches from Au Bon Pain (the only restaurant open all night), many are on laptops or phones, and a couple folks are just looking around listlessly. A few half-hearted Christmas garlands are hung from the ceiling, and light jazz is pumping through the loudspeaker.  This place will work just fine.  But let’s think of more beautiful things.

Beautiful Thing #1:  My friend got married. 

A few years ago, I went to a wedding where the bride and groom were in their mid to late thirties.  One of the first things the pastor said was, “Our God is an on-time God.”  Then he paused and let that idea sink in for a little while before continuing the message.  As I celebrated my friend’s marriage, that phrase came to mind.  My friend and her husband had trusted God for many years to provide for them.  And God wasn’t late, He didn’t forget about His kids, He wasn’t powerless to bring together the right people at the right time, and He wasn’t stingy with His blessings. 

So it was fun to celebrate God’s goodness, and spend some time with my friend, and visit NYC.  Woohoo!

Beautiful Thing #2:  I went traveling with my family.

Thanks to my brother’s love of travel deals, he heard of a good miles deal to Turks & Caicos islands.  So my family gathered up a bunch of frequent flyer miles and got ourselves some tickets to the Caribbean. 

My highlights included spending time together, snorkeling, sitting on the beach, and seeing two rainbows and four sunsets over the water.  (My two-year-old niece’s highlights were playing with her grandma and grandpa, playing with her stuffed cats, “washing” sand by throwing handfuls of it into a bucket of water, and destroying every sand castle we tried to help her build.)

I would definitely recommend Turks & Caicos to any of my travel-loving friends.  I’ve never seen such blue water, and it was clear all the way down.  I could tread water and see the ridges of the sand twenty feet below as distinctly as if I was looking through tap water.  Check the photos.

Beautiful Thing #3:  Is about to happen.  Snack time. :)

[Poem] Painting the Sky

The Painter sat on his stool, hands on his knees
Studying his concave canvas,
Like the blank walls of an amphitheater.

The first step was the simplest.
With wide strokes, he took the blue from robins' eggs
And painted the whole sky.

He flipped a switch.
Behind the canvas, a golden glow warmed the blue.

Now texture was needed, and he had just the thing:
An aerosol can of strawberry whipped cream!
His arm swept left to right and back again.
Now lines of sweet, pink fluff floated above the dark horizon.

Hmm, too puffy.
He smeared the foam with his fingers,
And the golden glow shone through the pink:
Tropical orange.  Delightful!

And the Painter was pleased with his streaky, foamy, glowing celebration of color.
But perhaps it would be too much for drivers,
Whose eyes were needed on the road and not the sky.

So he set a timer on the lamp behind the canvas:
Thirty minutes.
And the road stretched west into sea-foam blue fading gray,
And pink-peach clouds fading blue,
And gold-orange light sinking down,
And then only headlights remained.

Up, Up, and Away!

I went to the National Balloon Classic in Indianola last Wednesday for Glow Night with my wonderful family.  I had never been!  It was lovely!  The balloons all came meandering up through the sunset in the west and then tried to drop their beanbags on a target in front of a crowd.  Then they all re-inflated in the field at dusk and let us walk among them as they glowed.

I was hooked.  On Saturday morning, some friends and I woke up early and arrived at the balloon field at 5:15 a.m. for "Dawn Patrol."  As you can imagine, it's not safe for balloons to fly at night because they can't see the ground to land.  But they can launch in the dark and land after the sun rises.  We watched these four balloons for about a half hour.  Every so often, one of them would light up for a few seconds.  It was, again, lovely.

The sun rose and my friends and I enjoyed free coffee while we watched the rest of the morning events.  Three large tourism balloons inflated and took off with people who had bought flights.  Then the competition flights began, with the balloons flying from behind us toward the target on the field. 

 

Beautiful!