Youth is renewed

G.K. Chesterton's idea about God's creativity has captured my imagination. Creation is God's repeated action of goodness. It is a routine God has in order to bless us. Chesterton compares God to children when they find a particular game or joke that they like they say, "do it again," until the grown up is exhausted of it. He goes on to say that perhaps it is because "grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God made every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we...Heaven may encore...."

Now standing in a pile of yellow, brown, orange crumpled leaves, I look up and see all of the sky. I hear the gees squawk and feel the gusting of the chilly air. The clap of the falling leaves make me think that God is encoring. The turning of the seasons never grows monotonous for me. Sometimes I need reminding that patterns and routines can be enjoyed. God invites us into routines as we live in relationship with Him and sometimes it may seem sort of chaotic and other times may seem very monotonous. Yet, God is always creating and re-creating us from the inside out. It is his routine to create and bless and He never gets tired of it.

Weariness and aging happens as we turn away from God's creating and recreating in us. We turn grumpy and resentful when we do not ask for God's energy and vitality for our day to day living. If we do not invite God, we will "turn old" before our time.

God offers us a renewed, energy giving, life sustaining source that is never exhausted:
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live.
So that your youth is renewed like the eagles. (Psalm 103:1-5)

Morning and Evening Prayer (John Ballie)

The prayers below are just a sampling from John Baillie (A Diary of Private Prayer). They have touched my heart and I would like to share them with you.

Morning Prayer
"O God my creator and redeemer, I may not go forth today except You accompany me with your blessing. Let not the vigor and freshness of the morning, or the glow of good health, or the present prosperity of my undertakings, deceive me into a false reliance upon my own strength. All the good gifts have come to me from you. They were yours to give and they are yours also to curtail. They are not mine to keep; I do but hold them in trust; and only in continued dependence upon you, the giver, can they be worthily enjoyed.

Let me then put back into Your hand all that you have given me, rededicating to your service all the powers of my mind and body, all my worldly goods, all my influence with others. All these, O Father, are Yours to use as you will. All these are Yours, O Christ. Al these are Yours, O Holy Spirit. Speak in my words today, think in my thoughts today and work in all my deeds. And seeing that it is Your gracious will to make even of such weak human instruments in the fulfillment of Your mighty purpose in the world, let my life today be the channel through which some little portion of your divine love and pity may reach the lives that are nearest to my own.

In Your solemn presence, O God, I remember all my friends and neighbors, my fellow townsfolk, and especially the poor within our gates beseeching You that You would give me grace, so fare as in me lies, to serve them in Your name. Amen.


Evening Prayer
"O Thou who art from everlasting to everlasting, I would turn my thoughts to Thee as the hours of darkness and of sleep begin. O Son of my soul, I rejoice to know that all night I shall be under the unsleeping eye of One who dwells in eternal light.

To thy care, O Father, I would now commend my body and my soul. All day Thou has watched over me and Thy companionship has filled my heart with peace. Let me not go through any part of this night unaccompanied by Thee.

Give me sound and refreshing sleep.
Give me safety from all perils.
Give me in my sleep freedom from restless dreams.
Give me control of my thoughts, if I should lie awake.
Give me wisdom to remember that the night was made for sleeping, and not for the harbouring of anxious or fretful or shameful thoughts.
Give me grace, if as I lie abed I think at all, to think upon Thee.

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

To Thy care also, O Father, I would commend my friends, beseeching Thee to keep them safe in soul and body, and to be present to their hearts to-night as a spirit of power and of joy and of restfulness. I pray also for the wider circle of all my associates, my fellow workers, my fellow townsmen and all strangers within our gates; and the great world of men without, to me foreign and unknown, but dear to Thee; through Jesus Christ our common Lord. Amen."

A prayer that I clipped and saved from somewhere!?

"O Lord my God, to you and your service I devote myself, body, soul and spirit. Fill my memory with the record of your might works; enlighten my understanding with the light of your Holy Spirit; and may all the desires of my heart and will center in what you would have me do. Make me an instrument of your salvation for the people entrusted to my care, and let me by my life and speaking set forth your true and living Word. Be always with me in carrying out the duties of my salvation; in praises heighten my love and gratitude, in speaking of You give me readiness of thought and expression, and grant that, by the clearness and brightness of your holy Word, all the world may be drawn to your blessed kingdom. All this I ask for the sake of your Son my Savior Jesus Christ. Amen"

Enjoying the evening breeze

I enjoy imagining life as it was in the garden of Eden. The intricate beauty of butterflies, hydrangeas, and elephants would have been wondrously new. The creating God was delighted that all created things were good and served good purposes. I wonder also if the prophet Isaiah’s vision of the lamb and lion laying down together occurred in those beginning days as well. How I would love to see rottweilers and yorkies play together! Imagining a chihuahua and a pit bull mix playing in the grass together brings delight to my heart. How I would love it if the squirrels and the birds could graciously co-exist without there being any bullying!

It seems like this is the way that God intended life to be. Everything and everyone receiving their very life-breath from God. Everyone enjoying their evening stroll with God through the garden in the early evening. This is the kind of life for which all of us were made.

This doesn’t seem to be the reality for most people, even those who claim to be Christian. God delighted in His creation and set out one simple restriction for the humans that would inhabit the garden. The simple restriction was to enjoy all of the other fruits, just not that one. Soon enough, as Genesis 3 depicts, humans doubted God’s goodness and faithfulness to them. Both the man and woman ate the fruit from that one tree. They turned from God and hid from his presence. God had promised them that the consequence of eating that particular fruit was death. That very day, they suffered the loss of their relationship with God. They were now running and hiding from God and not fit to walk and talk with God in the cool evening.

Human beings were once alive to God. They were created to be responsive to and interactive with him. Adam and Eve lived in a conversational relationship with their Creator, daily renewed. When they mistrusted God and disobeyed him, that cut them off from the realm of the Spirit. Thus they became dead in relation to it… (Willard, Hearing God, 150)

Scripture describes two types of life: physical life and spiritual life. Obviously, Adam and Eve did not suffer physical death that day. They doubted, ate the fruit, and spiritual death was the result just as God had promised. Evidence of their spiritual death is that they could not bear to see their creator, they knew what they had done, and were ashamed.
Genesis 3:8: “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him ‘where are you?’” Even in their sin, God was seeking them. “When we were dispersed like scattered sheep, and lost in the labyrinth of the world, Christ gathered us together again, that he might bring us back to himself.” (Calvin, The Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life, p. 17)


Moreover, God has continued through all times and places to seek human beings. As is most convincingly clear in the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He declared that this was the main reason for his life: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) Jesus’ kind of life, the life that we are all welcomed into as we put our confidence in him, is an interactive, conversational and vibrant life. Daily renewed by us and by God. So perfectly set before us in scripture: Psalm 27:13 “I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,” and Psalm 90:14: “satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” and Lamentations 3:22: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercy never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

The writers of scripture emphasis that each and every day there is interaction with God. The spiritual life that God restores to people is a day to day dynamic relationship. It cannot be reduced to what Dallas Willard calls vampire Christianity that is satisfied with a little bit of Jesus’ blood to cover sin and yet leaves people unchanged. There is no mention of such a thing in scripture. Salvation is a life and salvation is a living, breathing, day to day exchange with God. The evening breeze comes to us and because of Jesus, we are no longer hiding from our God, but we now come out into His light and find that our spirit life has been restored to us. We can enjoy the evening breeze, the morning chill, and the warmth of the noonday sun with our loving God.

Honoring Father

I have spent a good portion of my life not very grateful for my father. Although, I do believe that I forgave him for all of disappointment that he caused me as a young woman. I remember him laying there in the hospital, hooked up to a breathing machine, asking for forgiveness for being a lousy father. At that time, I told him that I was working on it. I was working on it then and am still working on it.

These old photos that I have scanned over the last few months have allowed me to have my father's face a little more accessible then before. Looking at his smile brightens my day. I no longer hold stuff against him. Now, I am working on "honoring" him.

"A long and healthy existence requires that we be grateful to God for who we are, and we cannot be thankful for who we are without being thankful for our parents, through whom our life came. They are part of our identity, and to reject and be angry with them is to reject and be angry with ourselves. To reject ourselves leads to sickness, dissolution, and death, spiritual and physical. We cannot reject ourselves and love God." (Dallas Willard in the Divine Conspiracy)

I see a lot of self rejection in the lives of foster kids that we bring into our home. One moment with one of them, (only under the direction of God) I said to this one: "I know you are not getting along with your parents right now, but they must not be all bad, cause you turned out a pretty cool kid!"

Family connections are so important to our identity. I am thankful for my parents. I honor them and thank God for their giving me my existance. I am blessed!

Perhaps the ultimate goodness of God is shown to us during those moments when we feel most rejected by our families. More than a few times, I have thought about God being a Father to the fatherless. This great promise is there in Psalm 27, v. 10 (NRSV): "If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up." It is only because of God's goodness to me in this way that, in turn, makes it possible for me to be thankful for and honor my father.

**In the picture, my sister Becky in the center around age 4 and me on the right around age 2. My father enjoyed a half gallon of ice cream with Kellog's 19 and milk poured over the top of them every night before bed. BTW, he also weighed around 100 pounds at 6'3" when he died in 1995.**

Psalm 27 in the Message

Light, space, zest - that's God!
So, with him on my side I'm fearless,
afraid of no one and nothing.

When vandal hordes ride down
ready to eat me alive,
Those bullies and toughs
fall flat on their faces.

When besieged,
I'm calm as a baby.
When all hell breaks loose,
I'm collected and cool.

I'm asking God for one thing,
only one thing:
to live with Him in His house
my whole life long.
I'll contemplate His beauty;
I'll study at his feet.

That's the only quiet, secure place
in a noisy world,
The perfect getaway,
far from the buzz of traffic.

God holds me head and shoulders
above all who try to pull me down.
I'm headed for his place to offer anthems
that will raise the roof!
Already I'm singing God-songs;
I'm making music to God.

Listen, God, I'm calling at the top of my lungs:
"Be good to me! Answer me!"
When my heart whispered, "seek God,"
my whole being replied
"I'm seeking him! Don't hide from me now."

You've always been right there for me;
don't turn your back on me now.
Don't throw me out, don't abandon me;
you've always kept the door open.
My father and mother walked out and left me,
but God took me in.

Point me down your highway, God;
direct me along a well-lighted street;
show my enemies whose side you're on.
Don't throw me to the dogs,
those liars who are out to get me,
filling the air with their threats.

I'm sure now I'll see God's goodness
in the exuberant earth.
Stay with God!
Take heart. Don't quit.
I'll say it again:
Stay with God.

Two Mourning Doves

(picture by Larry Thompson, 2007-2010,

from www.discoverlife.org)

The windows at my house are open a lot nowadays. I enjoy listening for the distinct and beautiful low "woo whoo" of the mourning dove. I cannot recognize any other bird call. To hear the birds, the TV and music have to be turned off. The inner clatter of worries have to be shushed. So much of that stems from worry and not trusting in the One created all the birds and stars and calls each of them by name. Some days I shush the inner clatter and turn off all other sounds but nature. This restores my soul.

In his article "Background Noise," Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. talks about how unsettling silence is in our culture. We insist on taking music to the beach with us. He gives the example of the music between innings at ball games becoming louder. We push out the bird noises because we are uncomfortable with silence. He states (rightly, I think) that silence is the natural context of our lives. "According to Genesis, God breaks the cosmic silence with a creative word, but he does this only during the days. At nightfall and on the Sabbath, God falls silent. Correspondingly, there is for us, the creatures of God, a natural rhythm not only of work and rest, but also of sound and silence."

He goes on to say: "Noisy souls, like boom boxes, drown out the cries of the gulls. It is the quiet soul that can receive the words, the tones, the timbre of another. A stilled soul can listen even to the silence of another." Having been written in 1995, it says "boom box" where today, perhaps i pod or cell phone would be today's equivalent. Yet, the truth remains, the world gets louder and louder. There are more images and decibles shoved at us all the time. Are we even able to see how this can cause "sensory-overload" and "soul-overload?"

Today, I didn't even play i-tunes. I didn't listen to the radio or cds. I enjoyed the music that God provided through the chirping birds and the fish jumping in the lake. Basil, the sweetest dog in the world, also spoke to me. She groans very loudly when she lays down. The other sounds I heard were leaves dropping from trees, the wind blowing the trees, the click of keys on the keyboard, and my own breathing. All of these sounds are gifts like grace.

"To be a faithful creature of God is to learn something of God's rhythm of silence and sound and silence, to respect and trust it, and then to imitate God by speaking and listening from the context that is as old as the world."

WOO WHOO! Can you hear the mourning doves?

Peace

Peace is a condition of the transformed soul. God offers us this condition. We accept it or invite it into our lives in a similar way that we accept grace into our lives when we first believe. These are such good gifts from God. I never again want to live a day or a minute without this "awareness of God's abundant goodness."

On www.biblegateway.com I searched for the word peace. It produced 247 occurrences in the Old and New Testaments. I have been reading them slowly during moments when I have to wait somewhere and have a few minutes to spare. I have committed some to memory and have used others as prayer in the car. I am hoping that as I do this, these scriptures and the reality that they speak of will grow in my mind and heart so that I may increasingly live in the condition of peace.

An interesting things is happening as I have been trying this: I have become more aware of the "armies that encamp against" (Psalm 27:3) my peace. I am more aware of my weak spots. It is pretty obvious that there are a lot of spots where the condition of peace has not been invited.

Among the many scriptures on peace, here are a few that caught my attention.

Psalm 4:8 "I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Psalm 29:11 "The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace."

Psalm 119:165 "Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble."

Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."

Isaiah 32:17 "The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effects of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever."

Isaiah 54:10 "The the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you."

John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

John 20:21 "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."

Romans 14:17 "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit."

Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Ephesians 2:17 "He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near."

1 Thessalonians 5:23 "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Jude 1:2 "Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance."

Revelation 1:5 "Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before the throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth."

Happy meditating, my friends!

Three thoughts on transformation

Beautiful calla lilies grow everywhere in the Bay area of California. Having had a failed attemptt at growing these beauties in a pot years back, I was stunned that they cover the place. This is what my friend Laura called the "trinity of calla lilies" in the garden at Mission Santa Clara.

To go along with these three beauties, I am picking three beautiful experiences of transformation from my Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation week retreat.

1. Words, especially God's word, have the ability to wallpaper our mind. Have you ever taken down wallpaper? It is not for light weights or for those who do not have huge motivation to have it done. This is not the kind of job you invite your friends over to help with...it may be worse than asking them to help you move...it is not the way to make and keep friends. Words stick to us and if we are seriously intending to learn the way of Jesus, we will ask for his help in stripping the wall paper of our minds that may include many ugly and even stinky things like shame, self-doubt, or even twisted thoughts about God. Speaking from personal experience, I have very recently allowed such stinky thoughts as "God is punishing me"...."God is forcing me to do this" (among the very stinky wall paper thoughts that had hung in there for most of my life) to be stripped away. These thought are now so far from my mind that I can hardly even retrieve them here to write them. This stripping is all God's doing and it is accomplished by the power of His word. (Yet, you and I do have to be open to it and willing to follow His lead in doing it) His word is what transforms our minds. Now, I like to imagine the wallpaper of my mind being very flowery and with lots of bright colors, maybe even tie-dyed with the beautiful things of God: love, joy, peace, hope, etc...

2. There was an elderly gentleman in the airport talking on a cell phone. From what I can gather, he was talking to a significant other perhaps wife. He talked about the week he had spent with his son and their family. With tears in his eyes and a catch in his throat, he said that his son had not spent more than a few minutes with the rest of the family all week. He then talked about his grandchildren and that spending so much time with them make him "re-think his whole life." The sweet delight of those children seemed to bring this man to openness...perhaps, even transformation, if he so chooses.


3. The "end game" for us and for church is to live everywhere in the power and character of Christ. I look around at the people that gathered with me hearing such fantastic messages and allow my imagination paint a picture of their life outside our two weeks a year together at retreat. I love imagining my friend the architect living in the power and character of Christ as he meets with his clients. I love imagining my friend who stays at home raising a 3 and 1 year old, she is chasing them, praying as she goes, training them in the things of toilets and respect for one another and all the while doing it in the power and character of Christ. I imagine my friend the judge putting on his robe and reciting scripture about being clothed with Christ and know how every single person that stands before him that day will be seen as they are: unceasing spiritual beings with an eternal destiny in God's great universe. I celebrate that I can share this journey in transformation with such beautiful people.

Growing Young by Rich Mullins

I've gone so far from my home
I've seen the world and I have known
So many secrets
I wish now I did not know
'Cause they have crept into my heart
They have left it cold and dark
And bleeding,
Bleeding and falling apart

And everybody used to tell me big boys don't cry
Well I've been around enough to know that that was the lie
That held back the tears in the eyes of a thousand prodigal sons
Well we are children no more, we have sinned and grown old
And our Father still waits and He watches down the road
To see the crying boys come running back to His arms
And be growing young
Growing young

I've seen silver turn to dross
Seen the very best there ever was
And I'll tell you, it ain't worth what it costs
And I remember my father's house
What I wouldn't give right now
Just to see him and hear him tell me that he loves me so much

And everybody used to tell me big boys don't cry
Well I've been around enough to know that that was the lie
That held back the tears in the eyes of a thousand prodigal sons
Well we are children no more, we have sinned and grown old
And our Father still waits and He watches down the road
To see the crying boys come running back to His arms

And when I thought that I was all alone
It was your voice I heard calling me back home
And I wonder now Lord
What it was that made me wait so long
And what kept You waiting for me all that time
Was Your love stronger than my foolish pride
Will You take me back now, take me back and let me be Your child

'Cause I've been broken now, I've been saved
I've learned to cry, and I've learned how to pray
And I'm learning

Your prison is also your paint box

Picture is Niagra Falls and of course it goes without saying that the picture never captures it...it is beauty, as it's best.

Here is a little "treasure" that I found in Frank Laubach's "Letters by a Modern Mystic." (BTW, if you do not know it, YOU MUST GET IT TODAY!!!) Almost every word in the entire book is "treasure" worthy. During his time as a missionary in the Philippines, he writes letters to his father about the experiment that he beings in 1930 of living moment-by-moment in conscious communion with God. This particular part of a letter was recalling an experience he had while looking at a sunset over the water with his dog "Tip." (page 50-51)

"I patted Tip's head as he nestled up under my arm, and told him: 'we are two tiny insects in the midst of this terrifying universe. I know a little more than you do, you nice black dog, but not much more. Compared with he gigantic Being who wheels these awful spheres of fire through the sky, I am as near nothing as you are. I know as little about God as you know about me, perhaps ten thousand times less. And perhaps you are wiser than I, for you are contented to be patted on the head and to hunt for fleas, while I am impatient to break loose into the universe. I thought, Tip, when I was younger, that Kant was wrong when he said that the three greatest moral demands are God, freedom, and immortality, but now I believe he was incredibly right. My soul at fourty-six demands immortality as much as it demands God. And it demands freedom from this prison we call the world and the flesh as much as it demands immortality.' Then out of the skies there came a silent voice, 'Your black clouds give the sun its chance. It is surprise, it is escape from darkness to like that makes life so rich. Your prison is also your paint box from which all the beauty you know is pouring. Lanao, where you now sit, is one of the most beautiful creations in all the reaches of space. And there you have the privilege of opening eyes to see beauty, which otherwise would not see. It is selfish of you to desire to escape, until you can take humanity with you. You are not Christlike until you demand that even after you die, your soul shall stay and help others come through to the larger life. I almost fear that my nightly visions, much as I love to give them to you, are making you more selfish, more hungry to get, less eager to give. The most beautiful thing in the universe for you is Lanao stretching around this lake at your fee, for it contains the beauty of immense need. You must awaken hunger there, for until they hunger they cannot be fed."

God's beauty is all around us and when we open our eyes and see what all is at our finger tips...wherever we sit, stand, work, sleep, eat, drive, shop, etc... is filled with beauty...even, or perhaps especially, in the people that God has put right here.

Feet

(Art: "Golden Rule" Mosaic by Jaro Nemcokat the UN Headquarters)

Here lately I have been doing a lot of imagining about the feet of Jesus. No really, it is true. I do not imagine Jesus really wearing shoes, not what we would consider shoe. He didn't own suped up tennies with a swoosh on them. There was no need for him to run. Notice that he is never in a hurry. He took his time with people: really listening, engaging them where they were, caring for their needs. He didn't rush conversations. He wasn't satisfied with small talk. Where he went, with whom he spoke he was really present. His "soul" was wherever his feet were. He wasn't half-paying-attention when people were talking to him. He wasn't planning his response.

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news ,who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'your God reigns.'"

This passage from Isaiah 52 is often quoted as referring to Jesus. Yet, what if it also referring to you and me....those who take up apprenticeship to Jesus. What if our feet are beautiful when we do as he did? What kind of presence do we have? What kind of tidings are we bringing?

It is my conviction that when we stand with those who suffer, we carry with us the same power Jesus had. He said that under that kind of anointing, with His sort of power all things were possible. "Release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free." (Luke 4:18) I may not be able to single handidly reverse the oppressive structures of racism or sexism. Yet, I can do my part. Praise God that I can do something. I can partner with Jesus as I go everywhere. I can discover my own hands and feet and voice and be very present with those who suffer the most in our world. "Those" people, by the way, are the ones with which Jesus most generally hung. We really are His hands and feet.

Got a billboard for the Blue Jay?

I love bird watching nowadays. Having favorite past times such as hiking, camping, and gardening, it actually surprises me that birds(until now)have not caught my attention. Now I love them!! Birds instantly make me happy. I enjoy watching them fly to the feeder, dance around and play with one another, scavenge for food. At any given time we may have up to 20 birds on our deck. (I have actually learned their names! thanks to my friend Tina and this great book "National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America.")Downy woodpeckers, titmice, cardinals, blue jays, carolina chicadees, juncos, american goldfinch, purple finch and red-bellied woodpeckers.

Birds and Blooms magazines were given to me by my friend Tina and I was so pleased with them I could not wait to look through them and read them. This photo was taken from their web site. The latest issue features David Shaw from Fairbanks, Alaska answering the question "why feed birds?" and his answer matches mine with a special twist I will tell you about after I quote him. "Conservationist are constantly trying to put the importance of wildlife, wilderness and nature into economic terms. As though the dollar value of a flock of shorebirds or the birds at my feeder is all that matters. This, I now realize, is utter nonsense. What makes birds valuable, what makes them worthy of our protection, is their inherent beauty. It is their beauty that enriches our lives, not their economic value. And this enrichment is priceless. In this age, the noise of televisions, computers, radios, the Internet and automobiles constantly surround us. Buried in this cacophony of multimedia, we are far removed from the natural world. Yet, part of me yearns for that connection."

Yes, this is the very reason that I have fallen in love with birds. Their beauty and play reminds me that life is beautiful. Beyond that, God created each of them and knows not just their generic name, but all of their individual names. For instance, we first started noticing that we had a blue jay and we loved to watch him. We thought that he was the only blue jay in our backyard until we had two, then three, and soon four on the railing and bird feeder. I was thinking about giving him a name when I thought "he" was the only one...maybe "BOB" the blue jay, or "Bartholomew" the blue jay. Notice the picture, if you cannot watch blue jays in person, that blue jays have a stripe around their necks and it seems to me that it would be a perfect little natural place to hang a name badge or billboard like they say around their necks so that we would know each of them by name. Now that we can count up to four, we figure that we really have a whole mess....but we will never know each of them by name. We will never know their individual names or the small differences between each one of them.

However, God does know them!!! And knowing that makes me so enormously pleased because I know and trust the words of Jesus as never before. I know that God cares for me, knows me, and is always wanting what is good for me. "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow or reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they...Therefore do not worry, saying 'what will we eat?' or 'what will we drink?' or 'what will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father know that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
(Matthew 6:26, 31-33)

Bird watching is a wonderful antidote to worry. Peaceful enjoyment!