Singin' in the Rain

Like many of you, I spent many November days glumly staring out the window at dreary, rainy weather.  What a change from those balmy Indian Summer days!  Our leaves turn and fall sooner than most places and there's nothing like a hard rain to bring them down even quicker.  Add to that the blustery winds which have buffeted our little house on the prairie and you've got bare-naked trees in no time!  But as I watched the gray sheets of rain folding down out of the heavens, I realized what a blessings it is.  It's crucial that the trees have abundant rain just before resting for the winter.  It gives them such a good start in the spring.  It's not the beautiful bridal lace of snow that replenishes the water table.  No, it's the drab blue collar rains of November that fill our wells and irrigation ponds for the future growing season.

God knows what is necessary and He provides it in spite of our petulant wishes.  Now I can look outside and see the fresh, new green of a winter crop covering the potato fields like a Christmas chia pet.  Canadian Geese gather by the hundreds in shorn corn fields picking up leftovers, preparing to move on once waters are frozen.  Flocks of starlings happily dig for worms, thankful for a reprieve from early winter.  I'm certainly grateful to have mild weather while I'm hanging the outdoor Christmas lights!  What a blessing to be able to travel to the chiropractor, the store or the bank without anxiously watching the skies for a sudden blizzard!

"Truth springs from the earth, And righteousness looks down from heaven. Indeed, the LORD will give what is good, And our land will yield its produce."  Psalm 85:10-12 

Rest assured, winter will be along soon enough.  Once again I'll sit at the window mesmerized by the silent flakes making muffled marshmallows of every feature in the yard.  Then we'll cancel our travel plans for the day and settle in for winter's rest.  Until then, I'll anticipate lush gardens springing forth from this abundance of rain.  God is soooooooo good!!

"He sends forth springs in the valleys; They flow between the mountains; They give drink to every beast of the field; The wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; They lift up their voices among the branches.  He waters the mountains from His upper chambers; The earth is satisfied with the fruit of His works.  He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,  And vegetation for the labor of man,  So that he may bring forth food from the earth…”  Psalm 104:16ff

Love as always,  Elaine (singing His praises in the rain)

Not All Me

Throughout my adult life I continued to remind my dentists that I didn’t want to spend fortunes saving these teeth because, “Someday I want the teeth of my dreams!”  Early this year I finally got them.  I love how they look and “work” but now I’ve got a gum inflammation that defies any cure.  It seems I’ve got a sensitivity to the new metal plate.  How exasperating! 

I am reminded that this mortal shell is wearing out.  Bumps and bruises, cuts and scrapes have left their mark upon my aging body.  Almost perfect at birth, it’s been a downhill slide ever since then!  In addition, fifteen surgeries have scarred my flesh like a road map to the grave!  Over the years a parade of surgeons have removed a number of organs or parts thereof.  How much longer can this go on?

 “But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?"  How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.  When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.  But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.”      1 Cor. 15:35-38  

 “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”      1Co 15:42-50 

One of our older church ladies has just endured major abdominal surgery.  My heart goes out to her.  I’ve been under the knife so many times myself that I can well imagine how much pain she’s having.  It will be a long recovery for her.  But our hope is not centered on this long-suffering flesh…

“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"         1Co 15:51-55

Love as always,  Elaine (shedding this perishable a piece at a time)

Autumn Thanks

For me, autumn is a cozy time of year.  Our windows are no longer open to the sounds of birdsong.  Instead the winds blow a cold rain against the house and the birds huddle at the feeder.  The gardens are brown with frost and dark comes early.  The house is saturated with the scent of baking apples and soup simmering.  Soon it will be time to think about pumpkin pies and Christmas cookies.  I’ve already begun picking out Christmas songs for the choir to rehearse.

 

"You crown the year with Your bounty, and Your carts overflow with abundance.  The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness.  The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing."   Psalm 65:11-13

This season passes us so quickly that I'm always afraid I'll miss something.  What a shame it would be to neglect the beauty of the changing seasons – the grouse in the rushes and the geese on the wing.  The hills are as colorful as a bowl of Fruit Loops!  The last of the monarch butterflies dance over the milkweed pods flinging seeds into the air.  The wind rattles in the browning corn rows like the sound of a heavy rain.  And the smell!  Only God can make the dying season smell so delicious!

 

God's gifts of wonder arrive each day, whether we notice them or not.  But a grateful heart is a happy heart.  Please take time to look outside and see what He's brought you today! 

“May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you.  Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us.  God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.”  Psalm 67:5-7

 

Love as always,  Elaine (peel, chop and stir)

Blown Away

As I turned over the calendar page to October, God closed the door on summer and its balmy breezes.  Gray, blustery days sent wet leaves through the air.  Will there be any left on the trees for autumn color?  We sleep with all the windows closed for the first time since early spring.  I do miss the sound of birds.  But they are scrambling, too, feasting at the feeders as they prepare for migration.  I’ve already heard complaints about the chilling air.  There are some people who are never pleased with the weather -- too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry!  I try to remember that what may be inconvenient to me is just what’s needed somewhere else.  On our trip to Tarifa, Spain, we passed acres and acres of wind turbines taking advantage of the constant strong winds along the coast in order to provide power to millions.

These seasonal breezes mean different things to many people.  To a sailor, it can mean a lovely tour around the lake.  But the same breezes could become an obstacle to him on his return to the marina.  The same brisk wind could distress a farmer in dry times as he watches his topsoil picked up and carried away.  On the other hand, a youngster cheers the wind with a shout when it lifts up his kite, bearing it aloft.  His mother smiles to see her sheets snapping in the breeze.  She anticipates the pleasure of fresh beds tonight.

Through scripture, God sometimes uses the wind to teach us life lessons.  We might be responsible for our unanswered prayers due to our ambivalence:

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.   But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  James 1:5-6 

But in the book of Job, God reminds us that His decisions concerning weather are motivated by our need for correction or the needs of the earth or to show His lovingkindness to man:

Job 37:13  "Whether for correction, or for His world, Or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen.  (NASB)

Next time, instead of complaining about the weather, let’s remember it as a sign of God’s constant care and watchfulness because:

He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  Matthew 5:45.

Love as always, Elaine (rather windblown)

You Missed September

I wrote this way back in 2002, but September is still the most beautiful month to my way of thinking.  Hope you enjoy this look back…

Once again, you missed September in upstate New York!  The pungent, citrus smell of goldenrod lifts on the mild winds, mixed with the damp, earthy smell of freshly dug potatoes.  Canadian geese awaken us each morning and are the last wild sounds of evening's onset.  The light is softer as the sun dips towards the horizon to shorten the days. 

Our female pheasant appeared once more, out of the shelter of heavy brush, to feed on our birdseed.  All through the month, we were delighted to observe a doe and her two youngsters stepping out each afternoon to feed in the field next to us.  After the farmers cut it for hay, the new green grass was just too tempting for her!  We had seen the spotted fawns just a few times during summer, but now they are nearly grown up.  Soon she'll leave them to start a new family for the spring.  

The salmon run has the fishermen vying for choice positions in the Salmon River but who has time to fish?  Leaves are turning colors but dropping almost as fast as they turn.  The dry summer will make for a quick autumn, I'm afraid.  We still haven't had a frost -- testimony to a long hot summer.  Maybe that means a mild winter?  I'm still picking tomatoes and fighting off the frustrated potato bugs.  Once the potato plants are killed before the harvest, the bugs march across the street to my tiny garden and eat everything that begins with P or rhymes with "potato"!

 Birds are a real barometer of the seasons.  The huge flocks of grackles, blackbirds and cowbirds no longer come to us for seed.  Goldfinches are losing their brilliant mating colors and beginning to all look alike.  The bluebirds visit us as a family unit now, having raised two broods in our yard.  The dying cat tails are alive with song sparrows too numerous to count!  Chickadees and blue jays are leaving the trees again to feed at our feeder and the white breasted nuthatch has returned for the winter.  Soon I'll have to hang out my homemade suet for the woodpeckers.  The hummingbirds must be gone for good -- I've not seen one in so long.

 My flower gardens continually change, too.  Black-eyed Susans, daisies and sunflowers have gone to seed to be replaced by nasturtiums blazing like the sun.  Zinnias tempt the last of the butterflies and the purple asters are full of bees.  Dainty cosmos wave above sweet white alyssum.  Soon I'll have spring bulbs to plant.  A garden is always a work in progress.  In this way, I suppose we are like a garden to God.  Different seasons bring different fruit and some times are just "dry" times in our lives.  May you be fruitful for Him no matter what the season!

  “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My Word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”  Isaiah 55:10-11

Love as always,  Elaine (planting in hope)

A Safe Haven

R and I have had many surprising visitors to our backyard feeders.  In the spring we have a big influx of many different birds headed for their northern breeding grounds.  This summer we enjoyed repeat visits from two hen turkeys and their large brood of young.  It was fun to mark their growth week by week, but sad to find their numbers dwindling.  The wilderness is not a safe place for most wildlife.  In the fall, migrating species pass this way and stop for a few days, eating and resting before moving on south. 

On a beautiful mild fall day R and I were sitting on the swing in the breezeway admiring the colors of the tree line across the field when a female ring-necked pheasant darted into the tall weeds that edge our backyard.  Since the field has been planted with corn, that edge of weeds isn't very deep and I didn't know where she'd go from there.  We were really surprised to find that she had an eye on our bird feeder on the back patio!  She cautiously worked her way across the open yard to the feeder while R and I very quietly and carefully, moved to a better vantage point. 

Once at the feeder, she seemed more at ease.  It's close to the house and out of the sun -- maybe she felt hidden there?  She spent about 20 minutes pecking sunflower seeds up out of the tall grass (it hasn't been cut in a while).  She was beautifully camouflaged for life in weedy fields.  Her coloring reminded me of a tortoise shell and she had such large, dark eyes.  I was thrilled when she finished eating because she stepped right up onto the patio and over to my makeshift birdbath for a long drink!  It's nothing but a large plastic plant saucer with a rock island in the middle of the water (for smaller birds), but it has drawn lots of attention during this hot, dry summer.

The pheasant tried to escape through my herb garden, but realized that wasn't very deep cover.  She was faced with a long run across the open yard!  I could see her steeling her resolve, take a long running start and mount on wings for a desperate flight to the weeds at the back of the yard.  She disappeared into the safety of blooming goldenrod and our drainage ditch.

The whole time I watched her, I thought, how sad that she doesn't realize that the seed and water have been put out just for her and any other birds who want it!  I pose no threat to her and have done all I can to protect and provide for her kind.  And how thrilled I am when they come and use what I've provided.

We are so much like that with all the blessings God has provided for us!  He has provided a safe haven in Christ with many good things laid out for us!  What better time to remember these than at harvest time?  But we come skulking and sneaking out of the world, afraid that He will punish us for making use of what He's intended for us all along!  His stores are not depleted one bit by our hunger and thirst!  Is He thrilled, like I am, when someone comes near to take advantage of His blessings?  Does His heart swell with joy to think that He has given rest and refreshment to some small, weary soul?  How long does it take us to learn that He has only our good at heart; that

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows.”  (James 1:17)?

Our pheasant visitor learned her lesson quickly, returning again to feed with all the little birds that discovered long ago this yard is a haven for them.  I pray that we might all recognize that about our Heavenly Father and step boldly forward to feed on the good things He has for us!

Love as always,  Elaine (scattering more seed)

The Cat's Meow

In the 41 years Rich and I have been married, we’ve had the privilege of sharing the lives of eight cats.  Just like people, they all looked different and each had distinct and differing personalities.  We enjoyed every one of them for their unique attributes and related to them in different ways. 

Muggles and Stinker, our first pair, were like Laurel and Hardy.  Their comical antics and accidents brought laughter to our work days but exasperation as we cleaned up their messes.  Dusty was the aloof and grumpy boarder we inherited from R’s parents.  Our boys were small and lively so she watched them suspiciously as she perched atop the tallest furniture she could leap onto.  DeeDee was the first cat our boys’ picked as their own.  An independent farm cat, DeeDee brought us “offerings” of every description; some of them still alive! 

Snuggles never lived up to her name.  She didn’t like being handled and was the dumbest animal we had experienced.  She obviously needed people to take care of her!  Chester moved into our hearts and into Snuggles’ nightmares to become the King of Cats.  He lived the longest of our pets and Rich and I hated to let him go, even when he became very ill.  Festus was the perfect solution to our wildlife problems.  A ferocious hunter, he was rough with humans and defended his territory with the courage of a tiger!  But he was so independent that we lost him way too soon.  Farah has the sweetest temperament of all -- devoted to her human “pride” and extremely dependent upon us, she follows us everywhere and cries when we leave the house.

I found myself thinking about my relationship with God while cleaning up one of Farah’s frequent messes.  I hope I’m not being irreverent when I imagine that He sees us as His “pets”.  We rarely admit it but, like housecats, we are completely dependent upon Him.  When we spend all our time in worldly pursuits does He wish we’d stop playing in the ‘litter box’ and just stick to our “business” out there?

2 Cor. 6:17 – 7:1  " ‘Therefore come out from them and be separate’, says the Lord.  ‘Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.  I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters’, says the Lord Almighty.  Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

Is He exasperated with us when we consume strange debris from the world and end up spiritually sick?  In His Word He provides the perfect food for us to grow as we ought –

 “…like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation”  1Peter 2:2   

 

When we run from Him and hide during the storms of our life, does He long to embrace and comfort us – to keep us close, knowing we’ll be safe with Him?

“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms”, Deut. 33:27.

 

Just like our pets, we need to learn to keep ourselves clean as we mature in Christ.  Maybe we can become God’s favorites, too?  I want my Heavenly Father to be as proud of me as He was of the saints of old,

“God is not ashamed to be called their God…”  Hebrews 11:16.

Love as always,  Elaine  (Time to bathe the cat, again!)