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5 Friday Faves – Fall Colors, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, 9 Questions Before You Quit, Sherlock, and the Story of God for Postmoderns

October 16, 2015 admindeb Leave a comment

As I write I can hear Christmas music blasting as Dave rides his bike (on a trainer, in his office). We start listening to Christmas albums in October because we have so many favorites that it takes 3 months to savor them all. The days always seem to fly between now and the end of the year. Slow down! It’s Friday again, and here are my faves.

Fall Colors – My favorite season is Fall, and it is so stunning here in the US. We are just starting to see leaves changing color in Virginia, so I might have to showcase them another time. Here are a few images, and I would love to see some of yours.

Photo Credit: Bottom picture from North Georgia, Frances Moon

2. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts – Doughnut preferences are very personal. Since moving to Richmond, Westhampton Pastry Shoppe doughnuts (mentioned in another Friday Fave) are faves. However, that said, I have known and loved Krispy Kreme Doughnuts for almost 50 years. They are so scrumptious. To watch the cooking operation is fun as they bob through their deep fat-frying bath and then dip under the shower of sugar glaze. Krispy Kreme also has a knack for decorating for holidays through the year. Actually, I don’t eat doughnuts currently, because I can’t stop at a reasonable number…especially when they are hot glazed doughnuts from KK. Still, if I were eating them…it would be here.

3. 9 Questions Before You Quit – I have dear friends going through a downsizing in their organization. They are praying about their next steps regarding retirement or other work in their future. Dr. Chuck Lawless writes so empathetically about this type of situation in his article 9 Questions to Ask Before leaving a Ministry. His 9 Questions could really apply to any job, not just to one with a Christian organization. They are so insightful and thought-provoking. One question is: Do I feel both a “push” and a “pull”? “Responding to a push from one ministry without a pull toward another may lead to making a premature move.” Another is If I leave, what would be my honest reason for leaving? Deciding to leave, whether it’s taking retirement or seeking other work, is probably more complicated than we can articulate. Dr. Lawless encourages, “At least be honest with yourself when you’re making a life decision.”Photo Credit: MinistryBestPractices.com

4. Sherlock – BBC’s Sherlock is returning “soon-ish” for its fourth season! Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson are so amazing together. I’ve watched Seasons 1, 2, 3, (available through Amazon.com and other sellers) and am very excited for Season 4. The trailer teaser is out (see it below), but the “soon-ish” arrival of Sherlock won’t happen probably until early in 2016. It’s also a short season – one special and 3 episodes – and I don’t want to miss it. Along with Sherlock, I’m counting down to the 6th and final season of Downton Abbey – also coming to the US in January (No spoilers please!).Photo Credit: pbs.org

The trailer for Season 4 of Sherlock has been out since summer, but I just saw it this week. Sherlock returns…in January? February? What a tease!

5) The Story of God for Postmoderns – How would you answer the question, “What is the Bible all about?” If you were to prepare an answer of this question for a Post-modern, you might be disappointed. A true Post-modern is probably not going to ask you that question. However, what if our friends could get hold of the idea that the Bible is not just a grand story that Christians have concocted? The Bible, in truth, is a winsomely unified story God actually tells about Himself from the first page to the last. Dr. David Teague, in the article, The Biblical Metanarrative, lays out the clearest explanation I’ve ever read of the Story of God – of how the Bible is God’s own revelation of Himself to His people. Don’t miss this gem.

Photo Credit: Peanuts, ParkingSpace23.com

What were your discoveries this week? What were your favorites? I’d love to hear about them.

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Eid al-Adha – Feast of the Sacrifice – A Day of Prayers & Celebration Around the World

September 24, 2015 admindeb 1 Comment

Photo Credit: blogs.sacbee.com

“My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. – Genesis 22:7-8

…Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.” – Genesis 22:13-14

عيد أضحى مبارك كل عام وانتم بخير
“Happy Eid Adha or Eid Mubarak!”

For Muslims, Eid al-Adha (“Feast of the Sacrifice”) is a holy day of similar importance as Easter and Christmas are to believing Christians. It is the day each year that they remember and celebrate God’s provision of a sacrificial animal for obedient Abraham. Abraham submitted himself to God’s instructions on that day centuries ago, and God provided.

Eid al-Adha actually falls during the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. For those who are able and can afford to make the “hajj”, they will celebrate this day as part of their journey in Saudi Arabia.

We spent many years in North Africa and observed our friends and neighbors celebration of Eid al-Adha. Sometimes we were included but usually our friends spent the primary activities of the Eid (prayers, slaughter of an animal, and feasting through the day) together as family. We would be invited over the next days to enjoy the bounty of food that continued through the 3-day celebration.

The memories of those days remain with me. In the days before the feast, sheep markets popped up everywhere.

As neighbors bought their sheep, the bleating of these animals would spread through the city. Then in the early morning of the Eid, the streets filled with families making their way to the mosque for prayers. Children in new clothes would join their parents, boys with their dads, and girls with their moms, in their designated areas of the mosque. These chanted prayers would fill the air.

Our experience of the killing of the sheep was that butchers would come to where the sheep were – on roofs of apartment buildings or in alleyways beside them, or in the courtyard of villas. There was a prayer over the animal, and the butcher quickly killed the sheep and prepared the body for the grilling that would come later in the day. Sometimes, the animal was carved up and divided to be shared with other family members and with the poor.

There were three distinct smells on that day – the smell of blood, the smell of hair burning (as the sheep heads were burned on an open fire), and the smell of grilled meat. That last smell makes up for the earlier ones. I have seen satellite views online of the predominantly Muslim world on Eid al-Adha where there’s actually a visible cover of smoke. Not sure if it was true or not, but there is so much burning on this day.

Anyway, to my Muslim friends, I greet you on this feast day. Safe travels and sweet times together with those you love. May you know the provision of God for all you need in this life and the next.

We share the same Father Abraham. I shared, from the Torah/Bible, some of the account of his experience with the Lord that day. [In the Quran, the account is found in sura 37.] For us as believing Christians, the Biblical account was a foreshadowing of another Sacrifice, another provision of God.Photo Credit: Domenichino, en.wikipedia.org

“It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” [John the Baptist, speaking – John 1:27]

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” – John 1:29

There are others, both religious and irreligious, who find these stories of blood and killing/dying repulsive and off-putting. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, He covered them with the skins of animals, when they hid from God in their no longer innocent nakedness (Genesis 3:21). Our rebellion, our human condition really, requires a provision from a holy God. This is not such a popular view these days…but it is what comes to mind for me on this day.

I am grateful for those things we share with our Muslim friends. Deep relationships and conversations. Sweet memories and making more.

We also celebrate, in different ways, a God who provides. Thanks be to God for His indescribable, unspeakable, all surpassing, exceedingly great gift. (2 Corinthians 9:14)

The Frame: Eid Al-Adha, Feast of the Sacrifice – Photos from around the world

Behold the Lamb of God – John Piper

Perfected for All Time by a Single Offering – John Piper

An Uncle Like Abraham – Do You Have One? Would You Be One?

All Good Gifts, Beauty of God's Creation, Faithfulness, God, Seasons, Thanksgiving or Gratefulness, Transitions, Wednesday Worship, Worship

Worship Wednesday – Celebrating the God of Autumn & Every Season – with Nichole Nordeman

September 23, 2015 admindeb 2 Comments

“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, And day and night shall not cease.” – Genesis 8:22

“Yours is the day, Yours also is the night; You have prepared the light and the sun. You have established all the boundaries of the earth; You have made summer and winter.” – Psalm 74:16-17

Today I’m rejoicing in the cool morning air as we enter the Fall season. The trees here are still leafy green, but last week in another city, I saw the first frosting of yellow and orange on trees. Fall is my favorite season of the year.

For Worship Wednesday, I went looking for some of the old hymns on God’s creation and harvest time. Then, this song, Every Season, by Nichole Nordeman, popped up in my search. I’d never heard it before.

In a piece on American Songwriter, she talked about this song and its meaning:

“It speaks to the consistency of how present God is in our lives despite the seasons we go through. It’s a reminder that God is the God of all seasons and that we can depend on that, regardless of the climate of our lives. Many years ago I was a church pianist and played for a lot of weddings. I played at a friend’s wedding and, a few years later, was asked to play at the same friend’s memorial service after she died of cancer. God is a God of weddings and funerals. We can’t let circumstances indicate how present God is in our lives.”

It is so easy for us to marvel at God’s creation and forget He is IN His creation. To focus on our circumstances and forget that He is also IN our circumstances.

As I revel in the beginning of Autumn where we are, I will worship the God of this season, and of all seasons.Photo Credit: YouTube.com

Worship with me:

Every evening sky, an invitation
To trace the patterned stars
And early in July, a celebration
For freedom that is ours
And I notice You
In children’s games
In those who watch them from the shade
Every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder
You are summer

And even when the trees have just surrendered
To the harvest time
Forfeiting their leaves in late September
And sending us inside
Still I notice You when change begins
And I am braced for colder winds
I will offer thanks for what has been and was to come
You are autumn

And everything in time and under heaven
Finally falls asleep
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation
Shivers underneath
And still I notice You
When branches crack
And in my breath on frosted glass
Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter
You are winter

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced
Teaching us to breathe
What was frozen through is newly purposed
Turning all things green
So it is with You
And how You make me new
With every season’s change
And so it will be
As You are re-creating me
Summer, autumn, winter, spring

Songs with Harvest Theme

Thanksgiving & Thankfulness – Hymns and Gospel Songs from the Cyber Hymnal

YouTube Video – Every Season by Nichole Nordeman

Story Behind the Song – Every Season by Nichole Nordeman

Lyrics to Every Season by Nichole Nordeman

Nichole Nordeman Website

All Good Gifts, Beauty of God's Creation, Fall, Food & Drink, Friends, Glory of God, Seasons, Thanksgiving or Gratefulness

The First Flush of Fall – in Words & Pictures

September 22, 2015 admindeb 2 Comments

Photo Credit: Frances Moon

Last night was the first night in months that I didn’t turn the fan on before going to sleep. It was cool enough without. Instead of the quilt folded at the bottom of the bed, I pulled it up and around me. As lovely as summer was, it is gone, and Fall is rounding the bend.

For almost two decades we lived in North Africa where only two seasons cycled – summer and a blend of spring/winter – hot then a coolish warm; months of dusty dry and then weeks of soaking rain. Over the years, we could distinguish greater nuances in the seasons there, but there was nothing like the Fall we have here. As beautiful as life was there, I missed Fall the most.

As Fall arrives afresh, I look forward to all its glory and spendor. It’s a season that shouts praise to the Creator God. The words and pictures below depict just some of what I love about Fall.

The changing colors of leaves and the Fall flowers and produce.Photo Credit: Apples by Helen Phillips

American football.

The Country Fairs with all the carnival food, the handmade crafts, the smells of the animals, and the rides and fun times together.

The Fall weather and all it brings with it .

Finally all the cozy yumminess of Fall – MomMom’s pumpkin pie and pumpkin everything else; the glow and wonder of fire pits and fireplaces; sunny afternoon walks together with family and quiet evenings with friends. What are your favorite experiences of Fall?

2014 October Erica & Justin's wedding & Trip to Georgia 437

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A Grateful Heart Day – Thankful for Those Who Just Show Up – and for a God Who Never Leaves

September 15, 2015 admindeb 2 Comments

I’ve been writing all my life. Keeping a journal has been a source of joy and sanity for many of those years. Once when we were overseas, I was encouraged to keep a Joy List – a list of the simple things that just gave me joy. It’s still a joy to add to that list as I experience more of God’s kindnesses in His creation – people and places, stuff and such.

This is going to be quick. In a few minutes, I head to the airport to visit my Dad. He is such a delight to me…even with Alzheimer’s, he’s funny and thus far still loves life and family and food. He still prays which is a blessing to him, I’m sure, and to all of us.

Anyway, I want to come back to this topic another day. For now, for you who show up for each other, what a joy you are! How grateful I am for you – in my life and in the lives of those I love. You may think it a small thing, a usual thing, but it’s not.

Marilyn Gardner wrote on this topic in her blog, and I found it this morning while researching the phrase “just showing up”. She expressed it so well.

“The world is not changed through one momentous event, it is changed through the often boring, simple acts of obedience that I am daily called to. it is changed by showing up.” – Marilyn Gardner

I also want to recommend a book by Kara Tippetts entitled Just Show Up (see link below). She wrote this with a friend, Jill Lynn Buteyn, who, with others, “showed up” as Kara was living with cancer. She is with the Lord now but has left such a beautiful legacy in her life and writing.

“Today I want to show up. I want to be fully present. It’s in showing up that I learn more of the faithfulness of the God who shows up. ” – Marilyn Gardner

It’s About Showing Up – Communicating Across Boundaries – Marilyn Gardner

Just Show Up by Kara Tippetts and Jill Lynn Buteyn & Other Books by Kara

10 Biblical Proofs that God Will Never Leave You or Forsake You

Just Show Up – James Altucher

“Inspiration Is for Amateurs – The Rest of Us Just Show Up and Get to Work”

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Worship Wednesday – All Creatures of Our God and King – St. Francis of Assisi & the David Crowder Band

September 9, 2015 admindeb 2 Comments

Wild animals and all livestock, small scurrying animals and birds, kings of the earth and all people, rulers and judges of the earth, young men and young women, old men and children. Let them all praise the name of the Lord. For his name is very great; his glory towers over the earth and heaven! – Psalm 148:10-13

A friend of mine rescued a baby squirrel yesterday. It must have fallen from its nest in the tree above. Tender-hearted Sarah couldn’t just leave it there. After several hours and the baby was still not retrieved by its mother, Sarah tracked down a wildlife rescue agency (ARK of Virginia). She transported the little guy to the agency and left him in the capable hands of the caregivers there.Photo Credit: Sarah & Scott Goff

Our social media (Facebook and such) are full of stories of little critters, puppies and kittens, baby pigs and other adorable tinies.

This rescue affected me differently, maybe because I know Sarah. It’s not just about cute animal babies. A much larger story resonated for me in this. About honoring God in honoring His creation.

God made these creatures for our pleasure…and probably His as well. He tempers our hearts with His tenderness for them. The first work He ever gave us was to oversee His creation (Genesis 1:28).

We marvel at the world around us, and we delight in all the creatures – the animals in the wild or those not so wild living with us in our homes, and the humans we enjoy as family, friends, neighbors, both near and far away.

We may wonder at the beauty of creation, but we worship the beautiful Creator. Hopefully we never get that confused.

The Psalmist calls all of God’s creation to worship Him. That Psalm is reflected in the hymn All Creatures of our God and King, a poem first written by St. Francis of Assisi (1225). It was paraphrased for hymn-singing centuries later by William H. Draper, and we still sing it today.

Worship our Creator God, with me today, with David Crowder’s help:

All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing
Oh, praise Him
Alleluia
Thou burning sun with golden beam
Thou silver moon with softer gleam
Oh, praise Him
Oh, praise Him
Alleluia
Alleluia
Alleluia

Thou rushing wind that art so strong
Ye clouds that sail in heav’n along
Oh, praise Him
Alleluia
Thou rising moon in praise rejoice
Ye lights of evening find a voice
Oh, praise Him
Oh, praise Him
Alleluia
Alleluia
Alleluia

Let all things their creator bless
And worship Him in humbleness
Oh, praise Him
Alleluia
Praise, praise the Father praise the Son
And praise the Spirit three in one
Oh, praise Him
Oh, praise Him
Alleluia
Alleluia
Alleluia

Praise, praise the Father praise the Son
And praise the Spirit three in one
Oh, praise Him
Oh, praise Him
Alleluia
Alleluia
Alleluia

Lyrics to All Creatures of Our God and King

YouTube Video with Lyrics – All Creatures of Our God and King – David Crowder Band

Story Behind the Song All Creatures of Our God and King

YouTube Video – All Creatures of our God and King (Lasst uns Erfreuen) – Choir of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland

Psalm 148 – All Creatures of Our God and King – Sermon Exposition of the Psalm – Hold on to your hats!

Crowder Music

Photo Credit: Sheep Herd – bpnews.net

All Good Gifts, Beauty of God's Creation, Inspired, Stories, Vacations

Maymont – a 100-Acre Park with a Touch of Downton Abbey

August 27, 2015 admindeb 2 Comments

I visited a Gilded Age mansion this summer. Here, in Richmond, Virginia. Maymont is a 100-acre estate owned by James and Sallie Dooley. When they died, in the 1920’s, they bequeathed it to Richmond as a park and museum. Within six months, it was opened to the public to is easily enjoyed by all of us.

Until this summer, it was an unexplored treasure. My only visits to Maymont were for picnics on the grassy knoll in front of the mansion. That in itself is a relaxing, restoring experience, just basking in the lovely green sun and shade of the grounds.

This summer, I got to know Maymont as it should be known…through the happy association with a family, new to Richmond. Through a staycation, , and deliberate fascination, they have explored the area to really know their new city. I got to come along for some of those outings and this is my favorite so far.

The grounds were designed by Mrs. Dooley. There are several specialty gardens. Two in particular stand out: The Italian garden with its columned and stony walkways, roses, and waterfalls make it a familiar photo spot for engagement pictures.

Then down the stone steps of the Italian garden, and beside its waterfall, you will find the tucked-away Japanese Garden. Truly serene in its design and simplicity.

In previous visits to Maymont, just staying on the edge of the park, on that grassy knoll with friends and family, was sweet in itself. It is a lesson for me, though, how much we miss if we don’t dive deeper into the treasure of such a place.

Then we toured the Victorian country estate home of Mr. and Mrs. Dooley. Although much smaller in scale than the post-Edwardian home seen in the PBS series Downton Abbey, it reminded me of that era. To enter the Dooley mansion, you enter through the servants’ quarters below. The contrast of post-Civil War servants’ life and that of Mr. and Mrs. Dooley and their guests was remarkable. Yet in both, you see touches of beauty and utility, with glimpses into the loves and habits of these who shared life together. The furnishings are all original, the house left intact to the City of Richmond.

You just need to see it. I’ll share a few pictures, but the tour, with knowledgeable and accommodating guide, was fascinating.

Mr. Dooley’s Study

Mrs. Dooley’s Sitting Room

The Dining Areas of the Servants (l) and the Dooley’s (r)

Mrs. Dooley’s BedroomOne of the Servants’ quarters and work area

So there you go…just a taste of Maymont. Hope you can include this in your waning summer plans. Or a weekend in the Fall.

What a gift, among so many others, Mr. and Mrs. Dooley, true benefactors and patrons, gave to all who came after them.

The Maymont Estate

The Gilded Age in US History

Downton Abbey – PBS Masterpiece Theater

All Good Gifts, Attending or Focus, Beauty of God's Creation, Bookmarked Summer, Books, Conversations, Food & Drink, Friday Faves, Michael Jr, Parenting

5 Friday Faves – a Book, a Chip, a Comedian, a Restaurant, & a Blogger

August 14, 2015 admindeb 1 Comment

I have attending issues…hard for me to track solidly for a lot of time. So….I thought it would be fun just to throw up some favorites of mine for this Friday. Now, will this become a weekly offering? Maybe not…but maybe…we’ll see.

Also, I’m not really into favorites. Hard to pin down exactly what/who is my favorite in a given category. Like, I don’t do best friends – there are so many wonderful people out there who have been friends to me that how could I single one out. Nope, not going there.

For today, I have done the hard thing and picked a few favorites. As you’ll see, these are not earth-shattering or anything. Just don’t want you to miss them, in your own circle of life.

1. Favorite Book on Child-Rearing – Escaping the Endless Adolescence

Photo Credit: amazon.com

This book by a husband (professor) and wife (counselor) is amazing. The focus is on adolescence, as in figuring it out so your children don’t get stalled there into mid-life. The cool thing about this book, though, is that there is wisdom for parenting younger (even pre-school) children. Lots of great stories and wise counsel on how to parent budding adults (whatever their age). To engage in their world, to see their purpose, to show up. Yes!

Next up: Bringing Up Bébé

2. Favorite Chip – Cape Cod Kettle Cooked Chips (Original – 40% Reduced Fat)

My husband calls this the best chip in the world. Not too salty. Light but, at the same time substantive, (kettle cooked). We have eaten our way through this summer and will again be swearing off chips, and other such delights, pretty soon (like very soon). So I don’t have a runner-up for this category. These chips. Enough said.

3. Favorite Comedian – Michael Jr.Photo Credit: Twitter.com/Michaeljrcomedy

I love Michael, Jr. Just heard him speak/perform/fill the screen at Global Leadership Summit. He is so funny. You can find him on YouTube and he does this weekly feature called Break Time, through his website and YouTube. He is a comedian and he’s a Christian. So funny. Thought-provoking, clean, and just….so funny.

After, Michael Jr., it would be Taylor Mason.Photo Credit: mlive.com

4. Favorite Date-night Place in Our City – Shyndigz

Shyndigz is a dessert restaurant. They do have a brunch restaurant opening soon, but for now, it’s cake, pie, and cookies. So good. My favorite is the Fresh Fruit Cake. You can’t go wrong bringing a special date here. Sweet atmosphere. With a favorite beverage. Inside or in the garden. Love this place. Richmond, Va. Do you have something like this where you live?

Favorite Date Night Place that my husband will actually share with me (he wants “real food” on a date night) – O’Charley’s

5. Favorite Young Blogger I’m Following – Angela at Chocolate Raspberry Cream Pie

Photo Credit: Twitter.com

Angela is a no-holds-barred kind of young writer. She is honest – seriously and humorously honest – about her life. And funny. I actually know her so I can say that her writing totally reflects her in-person satire and searching. She introduces her blog as “about faith, goal setting, living on purpose, and the things that make life a little sweeter”. Her writing is just that.

No other blogger in this genre – they’re all older and have been at it longer.

So there’s my Friday Faves for this week – we’ll see where life takes me for next week. How about you? Any favorites you’d like to share? In these categories or others? I would love to hear them. Have a lovely weekend – discovering or appreciating or revisiting some of your favorites.

All Good Gifts, Attending or Focus, Beauty of God's Creation, Bookmarked Summer, Books, Communication, Contentment, Courage, Faithfulness, God, Inspired, Lessons Learned, Redeeming & Restoring, Relationships, Walk with God

Waiting

August 8, 2015 admindeb 1 Comment

I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD. –Psalm 27:13-14

Waiting. Most of the time we take it as part and parcel of life. Waiting for the first tomatoes of summer. For the call to board the plane. For just the right moment when you pull the brownies out of the oven. For…and this is the best waiting of all… the phone call that the baby is on her way.

Other times waiting is hard. Like waiting for the diagnosis. For the announcement of whether or not you still have a job. Waiting for the “I love you” or “I forgive you” or “Everything’s going to be alright.” Or the non-communication screaming that maybe everything is not all right. Waiting is hard.

We fill our calendars with work and play, appointments and dates. We don’t want to lose a moment of life to the unplanned. On this summer Saturday, the fatigue of a full week caught up with me, and I lost a gorgeous afternoon to sleep and sleepy reflection.

That’s when the waiting surfaced in my thoughts.

I don’t know about you, but for me, when life gets quiet, the waiting gets the loudest. With it are the answers my brain creates in the face of non-answers. I was at a conference this week where Brené Brown talked about this very thing.

Brown said in the face of non-communication, or being disconnected, our brains are wired to come up with the conversation that we haven’t had…our version of what that conversation would be. How those conversations (in our heads) go depend on how waiting has taken its toll on us.

We wait on that phone call, text, or email…and the longer it takes to come, the more we think ill of what’s happening with that person or our relationship or our work situation. In the waiting, we may panic, or we decide proactively that it doesn’t matter, we don’t care, he/she/it is not worth it.

The sooner I can move the waiting on a person or life situation to a different object, that being God, the faster peace is restored in my thoughts. That’s what happened for me this afternoon….

In the midst of my struggle, with waiting on so many things…God broke through. He helped me rein in my stampeding thoughts, through the quiet of our back yard…and the writing of Andrew Murray.

“The only difference between nature and grace is this, that what the trees and the flowers do unconsciously, as they drink in the blessing of the light, is to be with us a voluntary and a loving acceptance. Faith, simple faith in God’s word and love, is to be the opening of the eyes, the opening of the heart, to receive and enjoy the unspeakable glory of His grace. And just as the trees, day by day, and month by month, stand and grow into beauty and fruitfulness, just welcoming whatever sunshine the sun may give, so it is the very highest exercise of our Christian life just to abide in the light of God, and let it, and let Him, fill us with the life and the brightness it brings.” – Andrew Murray, Waiting for God

“Let waiting be our work, as it is His. And, if His waiting is nothing but goodness and graciousness, let ours be nothing but a rejoicing in that goodness, and a confident expectancy of that grace. And, let every thought of waiting become to us the simple expression of unmingled and unutterable blessedness, because it brings us to a God who waits that He may make Himself known to us perfectly as the gracious One. My soul, wait thou only upon God!” Andrew Murray, Waiting for God

“Father, teach us all how to wait.” – Andrew Murray, Waiting for God

Teach me to wait on You, O God…and everything else will order itself in Your kind and loving hands. I determine to rest in You.

Goodreads Quotes from Andrew Murray’s Waiting for God

Waiting on God by Andrew Murray

The Waiting is the Hardest Part by David Mathis

5 reasons God Makes us Wait by Eric Speir

Waiting on God – How Do We Wait? – by Sylvia Gunter

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Metamorphosis – a Sacred Moment in the Monarch Butterfly Nursery – Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens

July 28, 2015 admindeb 2 Comments

As part of a “staycation”, some new-to-Richmond friends and I spent a morning last week at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. With three daughters-in-tow, we lingered at the Butterflies LIVE! exhibit. It’s an incredible indoor “habitat” for tropical butterflies.

If you have the patience to be still and butterfly-friendly, the butterflies may come close to you as you come close to them.

I’ve been several times and never tire of the marvel of these creatures. My daughter once said how curious it is with butterflies that as big as they are we are drawn to them where we would be repelled by insects of another kind, that large.

On this particular day, we saw something I had only read about in the past, and hadn’t really considered deeply until that moment. The metamorphosis of the butterfly.

One of the girls and I stood enrapt watching a caterpillar fix itself upside-down on the edge of the “Monarch nursery” (photo above, creature on right). It was a caterpillar moving and being all caterpillar-like…and then it wasn’t. I’m not really much of a naturalist. Yet, it was impossible to draw away from this seemingly sacred movement.

The caterpillar made these shuddering movements and its skin literally popped open slowly from the back of its head up its body until all that was left was the chrysalis. The skin fell off, and after a bit more shudders, the chrysalis went still. It would hang still like that for 10-14 days until the Monarch butterfly emerges.

As we stood there watching that process, literally transfixed, I couldn’t help being reminded of the Apostle Paul’s description of what happens when people become believers in Christ. He spoke from transforming experience of going from a murderous persecutor of the church to an all-out follower of Christ.

Believers may look the same on the outside – but a spiritual process occurs in the inside where we come alive, with new hearts because of Him. The wretched “old” is gone; all things have become new.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. – 2 Corinthians 5:17-18

Photo Credit: This one from LewisGinter.org

This was that sacred moment that day for me…in front of the Monarch Nursery, standing beside my new young friend.

Post-script: We left the Butterflies LIVE! exhibit shortly after and entered into the Garden proper to enjoy the flowers. There on one of the flower displays was a butterfly! My first thought was that it had escaped the exhibit! Sigh….

Butterflies LIVE! – Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

YouTube Video – Monarch Butterfly Metamorphosis time-lapse FYV 1080 HD

YouTube Video – Butterflies Live! at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Photo Credits: Mine except the one of the Monarch Butterfly