Up the Sunbeam

-- Drummer boy left early for church this morning. He had to be there by 8:30  to practice with the worship band in preparation for the service the rest of us would attend later . He walked to the car and I stood in my pajamas at the open door, watching him go. He noticed me lingering there, hesitated and said, "What are you doing?" "Just feeling the fresh air," I said, drinking in the beauty of just-sprinkled flowers sparkling in the early rays of golden light. He smiled a knowing smile (he knows his momma does odd things like that), told me he loved me and proceeded to get in the car. I kept standing there even after I'd watched him drive around the bend toward the pale remnants of a tangerine sunrise. I made a point to notice how cool the gentle breeze felt on my face, how crisp and clear the air smelled, and how deep the purple of agapanthus flowers appeared against countless shades of green. It was a new morning, one I'd never seen before, the

"Now the crowd that was with him  when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word." John 12:17 NIV1984 Two Sundays ago , I wrote of what was then an unfolding story , just three days old, that had thousands of people riveted to a "secret" group on facebook as we prayed for the life of Stephen Shaffer. What you didn't know then was that between Saturday night when I wrote that post and Sunday morning when I hit PUBLISH, Stephen had taken a turn for the worse. It was with trembling fingers that I posted what I had written the night before, trusting that God was going to continue to hold Stephen together, even when it looked like he was falling apart. Oh how we prayed, and many of you joined in and prayed too! Hour by hour during that next week, we watched and prayed! Last Sunday , I struggled to capture, in the craziest mix of metaphors you've ever seen, the incredible ups and downs we had witnessed as God wor

-- Whitecaps. The splash of whitewater dots the lake surface, each wave advancing like a tiny storm all its own. Whitecaps on a deep blue mountain lake are what this past week reminds me of. It may not be stormy all around, but the water certainly is choppy! Last week I wrote of our friends, the Shaffer family, and their son, Stephen . They were hit with one mighty, overwhelming rogue wave that looked like something you'd see on an episode of Deadliest Catch. Since then, they have been riding a series of crazy and unpredictable whitecaps that just keep coming. It's hard to believe all that has transpired since the 4th of July. At the time I wrote last week's post, the facebook group, Pray for Stephen Shaffer , was barely over 1500--it now tops 13,000!!! Keep in mind, this is a "secret group" that people can't just look up and click 'Like' to join! Apparently God didn't keep the secret! =) This has been a truly turbulent r

-- Please bear with the length of this post--I promise you won't be sorry if you read to the end!! This is the TRUE story of God at work in ways I have never seen before even though I always knew He could! NEVER BE AFRAID TO TRUST GOD OR TO PRAY YOUR HEART OUT TO HIM!!! NEVER!!! After stuffing ourselves on the 4th of July feast Hero Husband made that featured both fried and BBQ chicken with all the fixin's, Drummer Boy, She So Sweet, and I headed over to our favorite spot to watch one of the many fireworks displays in our area. (Hero Husband loves Independence Day, but prefers to relax at home and let us have our firework fun.) We parked strategically to have an easy getaway afterward, gathered our chairs and my camera gear and had a pleasant walk to where we staked out our claim. Caution tape marked the line between the safe zone and the danger zone, and we set up our chairs about 40 yards deep in the safe zone. I tinkered awhile with camera settings, absent-min