Up the Sunbeam

-- "Here then is my charge: First, supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings should be made on behalf of all men: for kings and rulers in positions of responsibility, so that our common life may be lived in peace and quiet, with a proper sense of God and of our responsibility to him for what we do with our lives."  1 Timothy 2:1-2 PHILLIPS Gracious Heavenly Father, How we thank You that You hear us when we pray, and that You care about the lives we live. My heart cries out to You for this nation I love so dearly. My ancestors have lived and loved and fought and died here for 400 years and I don't want our generation to be the one that lets it all unravel. We are at a momentous time in our history, and I pray, for the sake of all who have bled and died for the freedom of this land and for these people, that we who live here now would make choices and live lives that please You. Help us to do all we should do and be all we should be. Help us to inn...

"For He . . . is not a God of confusion and disorder  but of peace and order." 1 Corinthians 14:33a AMP My dining room is overrun with boxes. I find myself flashing back to the height of my work as an office supervisor with Census 2010. I can hear again the dull roar of whirring printers, dozens of voices, a crazy array of telephone ring tones and people scrambling to find which phone to answer. In that mad rush to count our county's million or so residents ( 1,049,025 to be exact)  on a single day in the decennial year 2010, we had every inch of our office, the entire 4th floor of the office building, literally stacked floor-to-ceiling with boxes.  It was the only way we could organize our efforts to facilitate and manage all the binders, supplies and papers going out and coming back in, forms to be evaluated, sorted, data-entered, quality-checked, returned for corrections, shipped to headquarters, you name it, we had a box for it. Everything had to b...

-- Are we THERE yet? The universal refrain of children on their way somewhere far away. Mile after mile, the wheels turn and turn and turn, but to them the destination still seems so far off. Yes Lord. Some days it feels a little like that. For now anyway, we live in the uncharted territory between the excitement of getting on the road and the thrill of getting to our destination. There's no telling what lies between. In the ordinariness of daily days (even good days), there is a slow grind of feeling never quite on top of everything, and knowing there's still a long way to go, a person can get a little weary sometimes. Obstacles, real and perceived, from outside sources and from within, can make it feel like you're getting nowhere fast. You can start fussing and worrying over bumps in the road you didn't anticipate, the funky looks you get from other travelers, and a thousand little burrs under your saddle that chafe and rub your nerves to an exaggerated frazzl...

-- "Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,    your lightning lit up the world;    the earth trembled and quaked."   Psalm 77:18 NIV That sounds terrifying!!  With a storm like that I think I would want to run for cover and find a place to get out of the wild winds!  Run!  Escape!  Get away!!! The very next words are these: "Your path led through the sea,    your way through the mighty waters,    though your footprints were not seen."   Psalm 77:19 NIV The storm the psalmist was describing in verse 18 was the storm God stirred up to open the Red Sea to deliver His people to freedom!  In spite of all that blustering going on, when the people of God saw His storm blowing up a rescue for them, they must have jumped for joy and leaped into action, flags flying, banners raised, excited to walk through on dry ground, following those unseen footprints!!   What about the pursuing Egy...

-- Listen! Can you hear them? Can you hear the echoes of that very first Thanksgiving feast? In the hustle bustle of the kitchen with clanking pans and sizzling turkeys, listen close and you'll hear the distant sounds of women cooking over open fires, turning the spit for hours as the meat grew more fragrant and delicious by each turn. I wonder if they had any idea that we would still be following their lead and continuing their tradition 388 years later. Their hearts must have been so full as they reflected on all God had brought them through. They must have been keenly aware of missing people from home, and of the loss of friends and family who had started out with them, but who had not survived this far. They must have held each other that much more closely in this celebration of harvest and life, hope and freedom, all out of their gratitude to Almighty God who held them together. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tracing . . . tracing . . . tracing . . . generation upon g...

-- Words are such small containers for the profound thoughts that come today in remembrance. Whether by choice or by necessity, those who have answered the call of a country's battle cry and a desperate world in trouble are to be honored above all. They who . . . -- do what must be done, --- sacrifice their own comfort, ---- t heir right to their own path, ----- their own dreams, ------ time with their own families . . . they stand head and shoulders above the rest of us on whose behalf they fight. They sacrifice their own way so we can . . . -- do what we want to do, --- live with the comforts of home, ---- pursue our own path, ----- dream our own dreams ------ love our families up close without interruption . . . we look up to them as the best among us. There is not a reward we could ever bestow on all the brave men and women who fight for our freedom that would be great enough--that's not why they fight anyway. The very best way we can reward them is by showin...

In th e 19 6 4 movie "Lady in a Cage," Olivia DeHavilland plays a handicapped woman being held prisoner in a c age hoisted high off the ground, like an oversized bird cage. It 's hard not to cheer out loud when her captors meet a violent end as her overwhelming desire for freedom drives her to unthinkable lengths to gain her release. God never intended for us to be caged. He put an ache for freedom in our hearts, and yet because of our first-parents, Adam and Eve, we were born in captivity. From conception we were in the grip of a master we had no strength to overcome on our own. We were locked up, locked in, locked out--we were prisoners to a brutish thug who possesses no mercy--we were slaves to sin. "Jesus replied, 'I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.'" John 8:34 NIV Like the Lady in the Cage, we were immobilized by our brokenness and confined to a life of constant dying. We were compelled to miss every mark we aime...

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...