Up the Sunbeam

-- Sometimes you look up and all you can see is a tangle of details and circumstances and you can't begin to see a way through.  Ever been there? Maybe for you it is the daily chaos of being a young mom with little ones, trying to cope with all the demands on your time and energy. Or maybe your tangle is the pit-in-your-stomach-producing thought of your finances in this very uncertain economy. Maybe you have big responsibilities at work and the expectations from above and the truth on the ground seem impossible to reconcile. Maybe for you it is the weight of your own potential and the feeling that you don't know how to put it all together or that your resources don't match your dreams. For Hezekiah, king of Judah, it was a threatening, taunting, mocking letter from Sennacharib, king of Assyria who was trying to undermine his leadership and take over Judah.  The threats were real, devastating attack was imminent and everything was at stake.  But Hezekiah, unli...

Here in Northern California we have a lot of turkey vu ltures--maybe you have them wher e you live too. I used to find them mildly irritating to watch because at times they give the impression of being incredibly clumsy. When they fly, they go along just fine flying gracefully, and then for no visible reason they look like they are losing their balance and teeter unsteadily until they regain control. I caught this one in flight over my back yard recently. After watching several turkey vultures for awhile that day, I decided I wanted to know why they had such an apparently hard time flying. The information I found put me in my place--I should have known God had a great design when He created this impressive bird. Turkey vultures are masters at conserving energy. They are among the most skilled gliders in North America. Turkey vultures wait until the morning air is warmed by the sun, then take off from a lofty perch. They circle upward, looking for thermals, or pockets of risi...