Category Archives: Thankfulness

High Above

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Flying home toward Chicago is always a special treat, especially if the plane is routed over Lake Michigan on its way to O’Hare Airport. Night time is especially dramatic with the city looking like an endless sea of twinkling lights.

SkyscrapersLoop skyscrapers resemble Lego buildings, except that their silhouettes are all wonderfully familiar. Banking over them in an airplane is better entertainment than flying around Disneyland’s Matterhorn.

Being so far above all the action on the street gives the sensation of being removed from regular life, even though everyone on the plane is still part of it. I often think about God’s perspective from his heavenly throne room, and the Bible tells us exactly what that is. “This is what the Lord says: ‘Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool’.”

He also says, “God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! All the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand.”

In these word pictures God is trying to teach us that he is larger than life, and we are minuscule by comparison. But it’s not necessarily physical size he’s referring to. Instead he’s describing his superiority, power, and sovereignty.

Flying over Chicago, I marveled that I could see the entire city all at one time, but God can see all the cities, villages, and rural areas at once. Not only that, he can observe each person, each face, while I can’t even see one through my plane window. He knows each name and is able to see what each is doing. That even includes those hidden from view in the subway or in the deep sub-basements of Chicago’s skyscrapers.

Chicago

But there’s more. Scripture says God can also look inside each person from his high throne room, right into their minds. He can see their thoughts. This sounds intimidating until we learn of his intentions:

“No one can measure the depths of [the Lord’s] understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless… Don’t be afraid, for [he is] with you. Don’t be discouraged, for [he is] your God… [He is] the Lord, your Redeemer.”

Though God is far above us, he wants to be intimately near to us, close enough to “hold us up with his righteous right hand.” He wants to “…feed his flock like a shepherd.” He wants to “…carry the lambs in his arms.”  And those are just a few of the wonderful reasons why he’s watching us so carefully.

The LoopHe is very great, and I am exceedingly small. But because of his loving care, that’s just fine by me.

“The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9)

Scriptures from: Isaiah 40, 41, 66 and Luke 5

Creative Genius

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My grandson Micah recently turned 5, and like all 5-year-olds he’s a creative genius. For instance, last week as his daddy worked hard pressure-washing the driveway and house, Micah watched carefully. Within minutes of Adam rounding the corner toward the back yard, Micah was playing on the clean driveway, admiring its fresh, bright-white appearance.

Maybe it was the rejuvenated contrast of concrete and joints, but Micah quickly came up with a new idea. After running to a neighboring empty lot and uprooting a fistful of weeds, he planted them (dirt, roots, and all) in the driveway cracks. Though he’d never done that before, pressure-washing day seemed the perfect time to smear dirt into the clean concrete.

His wise father saw this but didn’t chide his son. Surely, though, he was disappointed. Couldn’t it have stayed clean for even an hour?

I asked Micah, “So, what’s that you’re doing there?”

“I’m planting a garden, and I’m going to jump over it.”

MicahWhen he was finished, he brought a big red bouncy ball from the garage and proceeded to jump high enough to clear the foot-tall plants. Back and forth he jumped, till he was flushed with the effort. We cheered him on, snapped photos, and praised his high energy.

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Occasionally the parenting years include work that must be re-done and messes that are completely unnecessary. Actually, not just occasionally. Often.

Raising kids is a ton of work and isn’t for the faint of heart. But the interesting thing is that when we feel “stretched to the breaking point,” we usually don’t break. Instead we discover there’s always a bit more stretch left.

Where does it come from? No doubt from God. More than likely it’s him showing up in response to our prayerful calls for help.

When God gives us a big assignment (such as raising children), he doesn’t do it without offering the tools to do it well. As young parents parent, he is parenting them. And no loving parent would ask his children to do something he knows they can’t do.

It’s also true that God-as-Parent wants to be in on every “stretchy” parenting project. He offers to give moms and dads “more stretch” whenever they need it and then hopes they’ll take advantage of his offer. When they ask, he delivers.

Micah NathanAs for Micah’s driveway garden, after he’d moved on to another project, Grandma Midgee plucked up his weeds, brushed away the dirt, and found that the bright-white driveway was none the worse for wear.

“The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are.” (Psalm 103:13-14)

Adventureland

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A year ago when I was visiting my Florida family, the grandchildren and I went on several little-kid adventures. Two blocks from their home was a multiple-acre property with a dilapidated old barn on it, along with scattered debris that all belonged in the trash but fascinated the children: a discarded tire, a deflated Mylar balloon and it’s dirty ribbon, a cracked bowl, a broken brick, etc.

We fantasized about each item and about the barn. We named the terrain as we walked along: Midgee Mountain (small hill), Skylar Pathway, Micah Rock Pit – our own Adventureland. It was the kind of fun kids hope goes on forever, a simple activity they wanted to repeat again and again.

Open field

But between then and now, the landscape has changed. Giant trees have been removed, the barn bulldozed away, and the land leveled. All the “treasures” are gone, making it just an empty, open field with no personality at all. But we went to Adventureland anyway.

This time, though, the kids did spot one exciting find: a yellow road sign that said, DEAD END. I told them that if I’d have come across it when I was young, I’d have taken it home and hung it on my bedroom wall. Linnea quickly discouraged such a possibility, but I had a twinge of wishing it would fit into my suitcase.

Dead EndIt’s funny how the passing of time brings new trends and fads. During my college years, I had a number of road signs in my room, each with its own unique story of acquisition. All my friends admired them. But these days, that kind of thing seems silly. Times have changed.

Thankfully, some things never change — like the things God puts into place. Take character qualities, for example: being kind, loyal, gentle, fair, and so many others. These never go out of style. That’s because they’re God’s ideas for how we should behave. He’s programmed all of us to be capable of them and to respond positively to others who demonstrate them toward us.

Jesus modeled every positive character trait known to man as he dealt with the people of his day. And when we’re willing to try, it brings satisfaction to him and to those around us, and even to ourselves. It’s not always easy to be cheerful, honest, grateful, dutiful, polite, and lots more, but even a little can mean a lot. Best of all, Scripture says that if we practice even one good character trait, it’ll lead to another… and another.

As for the road sign, maybe it’ll come into a new life with the owners of our old Adventureland.

“Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7)

Praising with Mary

Blood work done on March 10th brought the good news that my cancer is growing only slowly. The bottom line remains the same, but this report was the best we could hope for. And your prayers have a lot to do with it! Thank you!