After 20-some years of neglecting small group Bible studies while raising a busy family, I jumped in this year and joined one at our church. Studying and then discussing Galatians and James with a lively group of ladies was refreshing and inspiring! The study wrapped up last week, and it was strange having no more pages of questions to answer early this morning as I opened my Bible.
To compensate, I wrote this quirky, condensed summary of the 5-chapter Book of James. I hope it will make you smile & perhaps even inspire you to read or review this short, rich book for yourself!
I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord! 15 You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place, carefully, skillfully shaping me from nothing to something. 16 You saw who you created me to be before I became me! Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of days you planned for me were already recorded in your book. 17–18 Every single moment you are thinking of me! How precious and wonderful to consider that you cherish me constantly in your every thought! O God, your desires toward me are more than the grains of sand on every shore! When I awake each morning, you’re still with me…
I find myself wallowing in the memory of a handful of recent conversations about motherhood, watching children fly away, and stepping reluctantly into “The Afternoon of Life.”
(That’s a book, given to me by my daughter. I groaned when I saw it, but it’s actually just right for me…and funny, too.)
So, just now I scrawled out a poem — with sappy tears streaming down my face– and my 20-year old son comes in, unaware of my poignant tears, to get something from this room.
“Don’t mind me,” I say. “I’m just writing poetry that makes me cry.”
“Your OWN poetry is making you cry?”
“Yes. I’ll read it to you when I’m done.”
(Maybe. If you’re lucky.)
I’m Meant for Little Things
Big things? No, I’m meant for little things —
I’m the tapper of a traveling stream of a thousand text messages and heart emojis, a hundred “are you almost homes?” and “luv yous”
I’m the tiny-Lego-helmet-finder and the “Where’s my Wallet?” wizard
Big things? No, little things —
I’m the finger-mender of the glove that gets lost a day later at the hockey rink
An empty cupboard magician, a juggler of leftovers, and a make-do artist
I’m the queen of laundry
(my royal eyes have seen that same pair of underwear a hundred times)
Today we visited the childhood home of Maud Hart Lovelace, who wrote the Betsy-Tacy book series. Mankato Minnesota — July 2018
Inspired by the Betsy-Tacy tour and because I also felt this when visiting Walnut Grove years ago (even though I was dressed in calico and a sunbonnet.)
Does anyone else feel a bit of magic and melancholy when visiting the historic place of a favorite person? Comments welcome 🙂
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. --I John 4:10
Grownups sip coffee across tables, asking polite questions.
—
Children love without fear and believe what seems impossible.
Grownups love guardedly, and believe only what they see.
—
Children embrace life,
And grownups fear death.
—
“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” — Matthew 18:3-4
My Word Soup 