Stillness

The deer visited this week.

It's always a special moment when I get a glimpse of their camouflaged bodies making their way through our backyard. 

It's a reminder of my daddy. A reminder of how he loved watching deer. Yes, as a hunter, but even more as an admirer.

What I realized this week is that the deer are additionally a reminder to me to be still. To pause. To fully absorb, if even only for a moment, the moment in which I find myself. Observing their every inch. Soaking in each twitch of their tail and turn of their ear as if it were the very last time I would ever lay eyes on them.

Perhaps this was what they also provided for my daddy. 

Today, I wake with an even greater clarity of this need for stillness. 

Today, my heart aches for mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, students, a community, a country, where everything changed in a moment.

I know this feeling personally.

I understand the thoughts that replay over and over and over in your head considering all the possible alternatives that might have allowed for a different outcome.
I know the questions being asked.
The chaos of emotions.
I know the physical ache that there is no remedy for.
The thoughts of how to move on.....how to even force that next breath.
I understand feelings of hopelessness.
And just when the darkness seems it will swallow all, there is a flicker.
A reminder of something more.
A light that will never go out.
Constant.
A Healer of all hurt.
A Redeemer of all broken.
True Justice. True Love. True Peace.
The One and Only cure for evil.
My Jesus.

And so, I pray.

Why Pray?

Romans 8:25-26 "But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."

Hauling-Out

 The children have been learning about pinnipeds in science...and I have been learning just as much right along side them. Pinnipeds are a group of animals that include true seals, sea lions, fur seals and walruses. 

From Wikipedia

There are many interesting characteristics and mannerisms to explore with these animals. Because of their structure, abilities and environment, these types of animals face a unique obstacle when trying to get on land from the water. To do so independently is almost impossible. So, they have to work together, as a team, pushing and pulling as a group to work their heavy, awkward bodies onto the land. This is called hauling-out.

I don't image the act of this being especially graceful or even pretty to watch, but nonetheless, effective. Without this teamwork, many would die. Many would never be able to breed or give birth. They would fall prey to underwater predators, trapped and unable to defend themselves.

Sometimes, this is exactly how it is in a large family too. As we work together as a team, it may not be graceful, it may even be flat out ugly sometimes, but when we push, lean and pull each other up, we can reach our goal. And while the process may sometimes be painful, the prize is always sweet.

Hauling-Out, 

To be a Violet

On the suggestion of a very sweet person, I've been reading the devotional by L.B. Cowan, Streams in the Desert. First let me say, I recommend it! Enlightening, encouraging and challenging! Well I wanted to share an entry that is particularly relevant to contentment. Bear with me, it's good...and simple enough to share with a child to help understand the concept of being content as God made you.

"A story is told of a king who went to his garden one morning, only to find everything withered and dying. He asked the oak tree that stood near the gate what the trouble was. The oak said it was tired of life and determined to die because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine tree. The pine was troubled because it could not bear grapes like the grapevine. The grapevine was determined to throw its life away because it could not stand erect and produce fruit as large as peaches. The geranium was fretting because it was not tall and fragrant like the lilac.
And so it went throughout the garden. Yet coming to a violet, the king found its face as bright and happy as ever and said, "Well, violet, I'm glad to find one brave little flower in the midst of this discouragement. You don't seem to be the least disheartened." The violet responded, "No, I'm not. I know I'm small, yet I thought if you wanted an oak or a pine or a peach tree or even a lilac, you would have planted one. Since I knew you wanted a violet, I'm determined to be the best little violet I can be."

People who are God's without reservation "have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." His will becomes their will, and they desire to do for Him whatever He desires them to do. They strip themselves of everything, and in their nakedness find everything restored a hundredfold."

Phillipians 4:11 "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."

To be a Violet.....