Thanks

 

I want to thank you all for your kind comments on my previous post.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? 

These are the words of Jesus recorded in the Bible, the book of Matthew 5:43-46a.

Do you believe them?

Little Blog

 

Everyday words go into the air and find you in a small village or a big town or over the sea. What do you see here? What is Dandelion Tea to you?

I Don't Know Anything, but I Know This.

 

Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, 

and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

He will send out his angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.

In the same way, when you see all these things, recognize that he is near—at the door.

Matthew 24:29-33

Well, I did it.

 

I read my entire blog. It's almost 1000 posts. Took me a while.

I was surprised by some of the old stories I still liked. 

Others I wish I could redo, but won't.

These stood out to me:

Forgiveness Salad

Hikaru the Time Traveler

The Hebrew Boys

Waves

 

It's cold...

 

...but it's warm.

The Basement Stairs

These were my childhood basement stairs.

I bounded up them many times. Why? The boogieman, of course. I remember being scared in that house, but not always. Sometimes the dog seemed scared. Whatever was there, if there was anything, is long gone. I have a feeling one of us had been there before me. You know, one of us who casts things out in the Name of Jesus. 

What was I doing in the basement all those years ago? 

Washing my early 1980's Jordache jeans, of course. 

I had one pair.

I was also sharpening pencils. 

This pre-dated our 1973 arrival. 

I have no idea how old it is now.

This is our old house from the road. It looks like Southfork, doesn't it? 

It's not that huge at all. The trees, however, are 100 feet tall. 

Pretty sure you could climb them to Heaven.

Going Home

 

Almost Heaven,

West Virginia,

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River.

Life is old there,

Older than the trees,

Misty taste of moonshine blowing on the breeze.

Is that what it says? 

Michigan doesn't have a song, 

so I borrowed this one from John Denver.

Take me home, country roads, to the place where I belong...

We moved from the lake when I was almost fourteen. I have wondered 

over the 42 years since what life would have been like if we'd stayed.

Educated in a small town 

Taught the fear of Jesus in a small town 

Used to daydream in that small town 

Another boring romantic, that's me...

John Cougar Mellencamp

My tiny elementary school, my grandma and grandpa's red barn, the Dairy Queen where our bus stopped on the last day of school, the timeless General Store and the Big Boy restaurant in Port Huron had been there this whole time waiting for me. On moving day I twisted my ankle jumping out of the van and didn't get to go back into the house. I never got to say good-bye, until now. I was like Mater in Cars.

"Bye!"

Somehow I know now it was the right time to leave back then, 

just like it was time to return when I did. For a moment.