Love Notes

A ticklish breeze,

Smoothing strands of hair across my cheek

With cool caresses

Leaves the sweet reminder,

I love you.

A fiery orb,

Blazing through the banks of valiant cloud

In brilliant color

Swells the joyous chorus,

I love you.

An unexpected blessing,

Dancing past the rut of daily living

With laughing grace

Bursts in with the message,

I love you.

Two smiling eyes,

Looking into mine, accepting, caring,

Without condemning

Reflect the tender heart-cry,

I love you.

A quiet thought,

Flooding every crevice of my soul

With perfect peace,

Thrills me with assurance,

I love you.

"How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand" (Psalm 139:17, 18).

Who Am I?

"Who am I?"

The question enters,

Lingers,

Drills into my soul,

Cries out for an answer.

I stare at the mirror.

Somewhere,

Inside the reflection,

"Me" hides.

Who am I?

What defines me?

Emotions? Please God, no.

Fluctuating in form and size

Like clouds darting across life's sky;

Not to be trusted.

Thoughts?

Battling inside me,

Sensible one day, ridiculous the next.

Desires?

Unruly, impatient,

Struggling beneath the hands of will and reason.

My past?

A herd of memories,

Some pleasant,

Others, looming shadows.

Panic grips me.

Everything inside, stained with self,

Shrugs.

If this is me…

I can't bear the thought.

I look away.

My heart jumps--He is here,

Smiling,

Hands outstretched,

Hope in His eyes.

And then I know.

The question releases its choking grip.

Sweet freedom!

A lightness floods me

Like sunshine filling a dark valley.

He defines me.

Everything I am not,

Unselfishness incarnate,

Made sin for me--

That I might be made all that He is.

The mirror forgotten,

I slip my hand in His,

Overjoyed.

"For to me to live is Christ."

Ulovane

Today my mom, Kyle, and I, along with a few other people, got to be guinea pigs for a student field guide at Ulovane (pronounced Oo-lo-vah-nee) Training Center. For her exam she had to take a bunch of people on a game drive. We totally don't mind being guinea pigs, especially when it's all free! So here are some Africany photos from today.

A few giraffe were feeding in the bush, but this guy kindly posed in the road. Interesting fact: when giraffes walk, they move both legs on one side at the same time (so they'll put back and front right leg forward, and then back and front left, unlike most animals which would put back left and front right forward, and vice versa).

The guinea pigs, and the student at the wheel. Oh, and the guy in the left corner is the "examiner."

Playing with my pano settings during their "coffee break."

An elly sighting! I love the flowers.

I actually took this photo when Ashlie and I went for a walk this afternoon here on the farm. These flowers are everywhere! It looks like a purple carpet in some places.

It's days like this where I'm amazed at God's mind. From the lumbering elephant all the way down to the teeny flower, He thought them all up. Somehow spending time in nature makes me realize even more that the God who fashioned everything down to the minutest details is Someone I can trust implicitly.



Random Friday Musings

Fridays for me often used to be the kind of day where you feel, as Aunty Meryl would say, like you're running around in square circles. By the time the sun rolls over the horizon you just want to flop on the couch and sleep. But ever since I decided to work Sundays and make Friday my "day off," I've been enjoying Fridays a whole lot more.

Today felt so relaxed I almost couldn't believe it was Friday. Of course I did the usual chores and cleaning, but even those were enjoyable since I didn't have to rush. I also spent a couple hours preparing to teach Sabbath School tomorrow. I love teaching first graders! You don't have to think up clever discussion questions or devise speeches. Most of the preparation encompasses cutting stuff out and thinking up illustrations. My teaching aids for tomorrow include a pile of paper hearts, a glove, a pen, a camera, and a sheet of stickers. Fun!

Seeing as I got all of that done before lunch, I decided to spend the afternoon whipping up some kind of dessert for tomorrow. Lately I've been so busy there haven't been  many spare moments left for cooking. (With the exception of applesauce-making, which must be done, busy or not, otherwise certain members of this family would probably stage a revolt.) It's rather sad, since I just love experimenting in the kitchen. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed getting sticky and making a mess in there (yes, I cleaned it up)! Hopefully the end result is going to taste as good as it looks.

My family can be pretty crazy sometimes. I actually have a page in OneNote dedicated to the funny things they say. Today they provided me with quite a few laughs, and I thought I'd share one or two conversations here on the off-chance that someone else will find them amusing as well.

Conversation 1. Setting: Cousin Ashlie's room. I'm straightening her hair. Small cousin Ryan pokes his head inside, observes for a moment, and then remarks:

"Ashlie, your hair's smoking! *pause* You need to take it to a health expo." 

Exit Ryan, as he dashes, giggling, down the passage.

Conversation 2. Setting: The kitchen. Kyle has just poured us a glass of juice each.

Kyle: "There's tall and thin, and short and fat--which one do you want?"

Me (grinning mischievously): "Well the tall one's thin like me, but the fat one's short like me, so maybe I should take them both."

Kyle (raised eyebrows): "I'm afraid that would elicit an armed response."

~

And to top this Friday off, I even had time to write a blog post!

Life's Simple Pleasures, Part 2

Scribbling away in my journal the other day, I noticed that my "Life's Simple Pleasures" list has been growing. I had so much fun reading over it again and adding a bunch of new things to it that I thought I'd share some of them with you.

So here it is! More little things that make life happy, according to Melissa. ;-)

:-) Watching flames dance and snap :-) Sleeping in on rainy mornings :-) Receiving a long-awaited letter :-) The smell of freshly cut grass :-) Singing at the top of your lungs when no one can hear you :-) A little dog nudging its head under your arm :-) Chasing a chicken :-) That feeling you get, when something you've longed for starts to move from the misty realm of dreams into reality :-) Not being able to sleep because you're too excited :-) Knowing you did your best :-) Snail mail from a friend :-) Learning something new :-) Reading over old journal entries :-) Private jokes :-) Glimpsing a beautiful rainbow :-) Hanging out washing on a sunny day :-) Chocolate-covered raisins :-) Starting a new journal :-) Hitting on a totally original figure of speech that perfectly expresses your thought :-) Impromptu hugs from little children :-) An encouraging word from someone you love :-) Watching a child's animated face as they tell you a story :-) "Venting" to your best friend :-) Watching little birds with wagging tails catch worms on the lawn :-) Looking through old photos with a friend :-) The beautiful call of a zebra :-) Exploring :-) The smell of onions and herbs sizzling in a frying pan :-) Losing yourself in a good story :-) New clothes :-) Pretty writing paper :-) The sound of popcorn kernels exploding in a pot :-) The taste of warm, freshly salted popcorn :-) Actually, anything to do with popcorn :-) Pencil sketching :-) Journaling through your feelings :-) A field dotted with tiny, perfect wildflowers :-) The song of a sunbird

The Baffling Call of God

I read this today, from the devotional My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. It's just too good not to share!

God called Jesus Christ to what seemed unmitigated disaster. Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death; He led every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken. Jesus Christ's life was an absolute failure from every standpoint but God's. But what seemed failure from man's standpoint was a tremendous triumph from God's, because God's purpose is never man's purpose.

There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also. The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because His call is to be in comradeship with Himself for His own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what He is after. The things that happen do not happen by chance, they happen entirely in the decree of God. God is working out His purposes.

If we are in communion with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, we shall no longer try to find out what His purposes are. As we go on in the Christian life it gets simpler, because we are less inclined to say--Now why did God allow this and that? Behind the whole thing lies the compelling of God. "There's a divinity that shapes our ends." A Christian is one who trusts the wits and the wisdom of God, and not his own wits. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the leisureliness which ought to characterize the children of God.

Paint on My Hands

I just realized it's been more than two weeks since I posted something here. I'm not exactly sure where the time went, although I suspect it got sucked into the vortex that's been whirling by a lot more frequently.

At the moment I'm looking down at my hand. A smattering of paint decorates my palm. (Okay, so I looked before I started typing.) The skew white line looks a bit like an upside-down exclamation mark looking for its blobby point. I smile.

Paint on my hands makes me happy. Right now the splotches remind me of this afternoon. Ashlie and I spent some time painting the sign at the entrance to the yard. Goodness knows it needed some attention. A glance at the faded, peeling paint would make you think you were entering "Island" instead of "Island View." But freshly scraped, with two coats of paint, it's looking much more respectable.

There's just something so refreshing about the outdoors. Even something like slapping a coat of white paint onto a slab of cement can be a rejuvenating experience when you add the sporadic twitter of birds, afternoon sunshine, and a gentle breeze. Ah, life in the country!

So yeah, I really don't care about my splotchy hand. Being somewhat of an artist, I associate paint on my hands with creativity and fun. It evokes happy memories, and sometimes I'm even sorry when it dissolves away after a shift at the kitchen sink.

I didn't really have a purpose or conclusion in mind when I started rambling about paint. But as I sit here toying with thoughts and words, I remember Someone else who has marks on His hands. Unlike mine, His can never be washed away. They are there forever. And when He looks at them, they bring to His mind suffering, agony--and me.

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. ~Isaiah 49:15, 16

To think that the marks in the hands of the God of the universe remind Him of me!