Breath

Meet my new granddaughter, Elouise Fern!  This pic is from the precious moments as I held her close and listened carefully to her breath.  Imagine learning to breathe!  For all those months in her mother, and now breathing air!  What a joy to feel her breathe - sometimes slow and sometimes fast... as all newborns do.  Praise God for life - what a gift life is!  As listen I am thinking that Breath = life.

I've sat at the bedside of the dying, with their labored, tired breaths, waiting as breath slows and becomes erratic... and stops.  Such experiences makes this opportunity to hold a newborn baby and listen to her breathe even more special, even holy.

We are told in John 20, that Jesus met his disciples in the Upper Room where they were hiding and "breathed on them".  Then he told them to receive the Holy Spirit.  Breath, wind, spirit...

In Genesis 2, God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of the first man -

In Genesis 1 - we see the Spirit of God as the wind hovering over the chaos before creation.

The Holy Spirit lives within us, enabling us to live the abundant life - the life of embodying Love - being love for others.  Breathing in and out - learning to love as effortlessly as we breathe.
Breath, Life, Love.

Falling to the ground

Have you ever received news so devastating that you felt it in your body and fell to the ground?  When my first husband died suddenly of a heart attack, I told my sons, and then called my parents, dreading to have to tell them.  My  sister, Laura, answered the phone and I told her that Doug was dead, expected her to break the news to my parents.  When she heard the news, she collapsed into a heap on the floor, dropping the phone, and mother had to pick up the phone.  This news was so shocking as to be felt in the body.

This was the kind of news Nehemiah received while in exile.  He had asked about Jerusalem and was told that the walls were in ruins and the people were not protected.  Here is how he told the story in Nehemiah 1:4, "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept.  For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven."

The hope here is in that last little phrase... "And prayed before the God of heaven."  When we are devastated, undone by something we cannot accept, we feel it in our body - everything in us cries, "NO, this cannot be!"  And we know in our gut that we cannot change it on our own.  Nehemiah, overcome with grief, cried out to Yahweh.

The Psalmist in Psalm 121 says, "I lift up my eyes to the hills - from where will my help come?  My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."

A couple of weeks ago, I placed ashes on foreheads with these words, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."  Somber words to pronounce over folks you love.  Then I added a line, "Trust in God's grace!"  Cry out to God, especially for what we cannot do ourselves!

I am Thankful

I am thankful this morning for cooler temperatures and homemade sourdough bread just pulled from the oven, still warm.
I am thankful for good health and family, for work to do today, and neighbors walking by with pit bulls and brivado.  I am thankful for what is and what will be, for hope rising and joy bubbling.

Philippians 4:6 "Don't be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks."

What are you thankful for?

glass half full...or empty?

I remember a day, years ago, when all five of my sons were still kids at home.  On this particular day, it was overcast and foggy.  The air felt like 99.9% humidity, not the weather that inspires smiles and praise, for sure.  As I got the family ready for school, I was thinking about the horrible weather.  I was a school teacher at the time and I thought how miserable the children would be cooped up inside all day.  I fixed breakfast, yearning for a bright sunny day, anticipating my hair frizzing.  Helping my youngest son, Timmy, into his coat, I dreaded getting wet on our way out to the car.  When I was almost to the car, I realized Timmy had stopped.  I looked back to find this 5 year old, standing with hands stretched out, palms upward and his radiant, smiling face to sky to embrace the moisture.  He said, awestruck and filled with obvious delight, "Mom, it feels like the rainforest!"

"Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious, - the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse."  -Philippians 4:8

My hair did frizz a little that day, but I didn't care; I could see my son's expression in my mind and I smiled all day!  Meditate on the good, the beautiful!

After my husband and I had started a new diet, we went to eat at the Palace Cafe in Opelousas, La.  We carefully scoured the menu for something to order on our diet.  When the waitress put our plates down in from of us, Chris pointed to my plate and said, "Are you going to eat that?"

The waitress quipped back at him, "Mind your own plate."

Ha!  We both laughed over this many times, and of course, I liked her immediately!

Seems like Jesus said something about people who try to take a splinter out of their brother's eye while they had a log in their own eye.  Was he saying, "Mind your own plate!"?  Perhaps.

In Romans 14:12 (the Message Bible), Paul says, "so tend your own knitting - You have your hands full just taking care of your own life."

We are too often critical of others when we should be tending to our own life.

"Mind your own plate!"

On the First Day

On the First Day

We packed their bags and sent them off
with a prayer and wave goodbye.
All our upbeat platitudes wafted after them
like sheets on the clothesline on a windy day...
"Have a good day!"
"Make new friends - there will be lots to do!"
"You will love it there!
"It's a big adjustment, but you can do it!"
"They'll have everything you need!"
"Don't worry about a thing!"

We found ourselves alone at the end of the drive.
Walking slowly back inside, Worries attacked us
with a vengeance...
"What if they don't like it?" "It will be all new to them!"
"What if they don't speak up to voice their needs?"
"Will they be met with acceptance and love...
and can strangers see what treasures they are?"

Call me over-anxious, over-protective, a worrier at best,
but it's not easy leaving parents at Assisted Living,
on the first day.

Waiting for a Moonbow

Waiting For A Moonbow

We planned our trip around this moment -
the chance to see the "only moonbow in the Western Hemisphere".
Walking by flashlight down to the Falls,
standing at the railing with other watchers
-a congregation assembled in hope and expectation ...
-the moon was just right two days after full...
-and the sky was clear of clouds.
Inky people-shapes gathered in the dark, -slowly, cautiously
-standing in the cold, collecting mist on hair and faces ...

The Falls impressed with constant motion downward,
-thundering spray, cascading white caps,
-glistening in moonlight,
-deafening power unleashed.
Caught up in mesmerizing contemplation
Praising God of power and beauty.

The elusive moonbow?
What did I see? a cloudy shape of bow emerged
and wavered in the mist -
-for one brief instant I glimpsed colors in the bow-cloud-
-or did I? with a blink of the eye, it was just a cloudy shape again.
What did I see?

Perhaps a moonbow wasn't really the object of my mid-night vigil.
Maybe, just maybe, I took my stand in the long line of watchers,
waiters, seekers
to marvel and wonder
to worship the Creator & Sustainer.

-Jean Sanders, at Cumberland Falls, KY. 5/24/16

Now, That's a Hug!

Have you ever been hugged by a child happy to see you? - one of those so-happy-to-see-you-I-can't-contain-myself hugs!  They come running, all smiles, calling your name, and almost knock you down no matter how you brace yourself for the impact.  Then, they wrap those little arms all around your neck and hold on tight as if to never let you go.  Now, that's a hug!

You never forget a hug like that.  It nourishes your very soul.  Another special "hugger" I remember is from an older person in my family.  Marcia would hug and hold!  She would hug you and not let go until she had blessed you with a prayer, thanking God for you.  When she would finally let me go, I would think, "Now, that's a hug!"

In Mark 11:22 (MSG),  we read, "Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you."

We are too quick to embrace the world - too hesitant to embrace this God-life.  As a result we live with half an embrace - without the power to really live, thwarting our chance to live out loud, with the freedom that is ours only in our Creator God!  The thing is we decieve ourselves thinking we can embrace both this God-life and this world-life.  It cannot be done.  You get all the confusion, all the pain, all the anxiety, without any of the peace, joy, love, patience that come from the Spirit.

I choose this God-life - may I learn to embrace it!  I know that if I really embrace it, I must let go of other things I might embrace.  I want to run toward this God-life with all my strength, energy, exuberance, and hold on tight for all the blessings God would give. 

Mark 11:22 (MSG) "Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything."  - Now, that's a hug!