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Tomorrow morning I am heading to quite possibly the most serene place on planet Earth, The Abbey of Gesthemani in Trappist, KY. The dear brothers there open their retreat house so that the world worn and weary can find rest, and simply listen to the voice of God for awhile.
Last year was my first retreat at the Abbey and I look forward to once again sit in the balcony watching the evening sun filter in through stained glass windows as I listen to the monks chant the Psalms below. I am going to pray, read, rest, write and….
Eat bourbon fudge.
Did I mention the brothers make bourbon fudge?
I look forward to sharing photos of the beautiful scenery with you as well as the insights I gain from my time of focused communion with God when I return. In the meantime, check out the Abbey’s website
Blessings!
Sherri
As a child in the mountains of North Carolina the beautiful woods all around my home were my playground. I ran barefoot and free all summer long collecting rocks I found down by the creek, lying flat on my stomach to search for a four leaf clover or flipping over on my back to look for shapes in the clouds. When night fell, barefoot stiil, I would chase fireflies in the otherwise absolute dark with a blanket of countless stars overhead. There were no city lights to pollute the view or break the blackness but I was completely without fear because I knew every inch of that place, even at night. I loved the land and it loved me right back.
One of my favorite things to do during the long, carefree days of summer was to go to the back of our yard where the grass ended and the trees began, to find the wild honeysuckle growing there. I would pluck one of the small white blooms and expertly pinch off the end. Then, I would slowly pull the stem from the flower, bringing with it one small, crystal drop of perfection. Placed carefully on the tip of my tounge, it rewarded me with the most wonderful, intense sweetness, a heady taste of Heaven itself. Read the rest of this entry »
Last night after dinner, Jeremiah turned to me and said, “Can we go back outside when we are finished eating our brownies?”
“Mmmm…I don’t think so, sweetie,” I replied. “I’m afraid you aren’t going to have time to play.”
“Oh, we aren’t going to play,” he said mater of factly. “We are going to do dangerous tricks.”
Well, now. That just about says it all.
The afternoon before, I looked outside to spot him attempting to catch a honey bee by hand.
“Miah, stop that!” I shouted out the window. “You are going to get stung! Let those honey bees do their job. Get away from them!”
Later that evening, he walked into the house proudly holding a live honey bee he had managed to catch by its wings. “I did it!” he said. “I caught one! Honey bees don’t sting me.”
Also this week….
We caught Claudine standing on the see-saw, one foot perched on each side as she wobbeled back and forth to keep her balance.
Simultaneously, Jeremiah was spotted standing approximately 15 feet up, on the outer edge of the utmost part of the playset in the backyard, arms across his chest and feet planted shoulder width apart, just spying on the twins next door to see what they were doing.
“He looks just like Peter Pan,” my astonished husband said.
All five children are fearless in the water. The three little ones are learning to swim and know just enough to be dangerous. I would tell you all about what that is like but, I think I am too tired attempting to keep them all alive for another day.
I keep falling asleep as I write this post…
Occasionally, one of my children will begin to worry about something. He or she will come to me, brow furrowed and voice laden with stress and say,
“What if?”
“What if Daddy loses his job and we have no place to live?” or….
“What if you get cancer, Mommy?” or…..
“What if a bad guy comes into the house at night?”
“What if…”
“What if…”
“What if….”
I look at them, rub their little heads and pull them close. Then, I say…
“Why don’t you let me take care of that? It is not your job.”
Recently, we made an offer on an almost 100 year old house. It was not a decision we made flippantly. We prayed about it and thought about it. We did our homework and talked about it endlessly, but when all was said and done, we really felt it was God’s plan for us to pursue it even if His purpose in it was less about moving and more about teaching us something along the way.
Even so, it is tempting to look to Heaven and say, “What if…”
“What if the wiring is all bad…”
“What if the seller won’t accept a reasonable offer?”
“What if our current home does not sell?”
And God is pulling us close to softly say, “Why don’t you let me take care of that? If you are genuinely seeking me, I’ll never lead you astray and if in your weakness you make a mistake, I will cover you.”
It is that assurance that frees us to live without fear. He never promised life would be problem free but He calls us to transcendence because the “what ifs” are no match for Him.
“Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me. Surely, I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” Psalm 131: 1 -2
There were so many times in our long adoption journey that I felt like the prophet Elijah in I Kings 18 as he prayed for rain after years of drought.
Praying, looking for deliverance. Praying, looking for deliverance…. Over and over again.
I have a friend who is in that situation now. She has been awaiting the completion of the adoption of her three precious children for even longer than we did. It has been a long, ardouous labor of love. Only love would enable her to keep on hoping and working. Only love would cause her to pray and look for deliverance over and over again.
I am sure that if she read the story in 1 Kings 18 today about Eljah praying for rain, she could certainly relate.
For years, not one drop of rain had fallen on Israel. Each day, another stream trickled to a stop and another crop whithered into nothingness. The ground hardened, cracked and eventually turned to dust but the time had come for it all to end and Elijah went to Ahab, a faithless, evil king and said, “Go up, eat and drink: for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” (I Kings 18:41)
Ahab must have taken one look at the stark, barren sky and thought, “There that crazy prophet goes again…”
Elijah left him and took a walk and then a climb, up Mnt. Carmel.
I can see him there….
Elijah reaches the top and stops. The blistering sun beats down on his face as his eyes squint against its glare to stare at an expanse of couldless, blue sky. He reaches up to wipe away a bead of sweat that trickles into his eye. A dry cough catches in his throat, irritated by the dust that fills the still, dry air with his every movement. He surveys the barren landscape. Everything is baked to a crisp, dead and desecated by the relentless sun.
Elijah takes one last look at the horizon and then drops to the ground and bends forward until his face rests between his knees.
“Oh, God…let it rain. Let it rain. Let it rain….”
He stops praying and turns to the young man accompanying him. He tells him to look towards the sea for any sign of answered prayer but when the servant returns, his eyes are downcast.
“There is nothing,” he reports.
Elijah bows again, his face inches from the dusty earth and he implores the Creator, “Let it rain…”
Again, he rises and says to the young man, “Go again,” and again the servant returns with the same report. “There is nothing…”
Seven times the scenario is repeated, but the seventh time is just a little different. When the weary servant gazes out to the sea the seventh time, he is startled by the smallest change in the otherwise empty sky. He rushes back to Elijah with his report.
“There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand rising out of the sea!”
Elijah tells his servant, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.”
Just a tiny cloud, a small thing, but God often uses the small and the insignifigant.
The tiny cloud grows, and soon the sky darkens. Ahab jumps into his chariot as the black clouds swirl overhead in an attempt to outrace the heavy drops of rain that begin to pound the parched earth.
And Elijah….well, the Spirit of God falls the prophet and he does the most astonishing thing. He picks up the hem of his robe and runs. Scripture tells us that he ran ahead of the chariot all the way back to Jezreel. What a sight that must have been.
A prophet, robes girded up, running like the wind. Behind him is the king in his chariot, lashing the horses, pushing them to their limit; all of them driven along by the rain and wind, a torrential downpour…
that found its origins in a cloud the size of a man’s hand.
Small things. God often reveals himself in them, if only we are still enough to see Him and quiet enough to listen.
“Who has despised the day of small things?”
Zech. 4:10
Josh, over at Unbound inspired me with his list of things adults with kids ought to know how to do so, here is my list of 10 Things to Do WITH Your Kids This Summer. The catch is, that the parent must participate in the activity. That is when the magic comes in and the memories are made!
1. Make and eat sno-cones (If you can, splurge for the machine that plugs into the wall. It is a blast.)
2. Catch fireflies (or lightning bugs here in the Southern U.S.)
3. Go to the pool. Go to the pool. Go to the pool. (And when you get there moms, get your hair wet for cryin’ out loud.)
4. Wait until you neighbor puts the sprinkler out on the lawn and then ask permission to run through it with you kids fully clothed. We did this last year spontaneously on a walk during the time the temps here in Tennessee were in the upper 90’s and our air conditioning was broken. My kids will never, ever forget my willingness to be a fool for the sake of a good time shared.
5. Go to the park and swing on the “big swings” and pretend you are flying.
6. Drive through town with the windows down, waving and shouting “Good Morning” to everyone you meet. (We did this last week and a construction worker dropped his shovel. By the time we reached our destination, the kids were laughing too hard to deliver any more greetings.)
7. Buy those cheap Flavor-ice Popsicles and plop down in the shade with the munchkins to eat a few.
8. Throw a Frisbee.
9. Jump rope together. Try to find one of the long ones to share.
10. And my favorite…..Look for shapes in the clouds. We did this yesterday and it was pure magic. Finally, I looked at my eldest son and said, “Do you think God makes pictures in the clouds on purpose to see if anyone is paying attention?” “Yeah,” he said. “…like a miracle.”
Yep. Everyday.
Last night I was up late cornrowing my middle daughter’s hair. It is an activity usually reserved for Saturdays, but daily time spent in the pool had taken its toll and a style that started out incredibly cute a few days ago had gone south very quickly.
I am white, and new to this skill, so unfortuantely for my girl a process that would take a long time anyway takes even longer. Read the rest of this entry »
Two years ago, two of my friends were diagnosed with cancer within weeks of each other. One friend, a young mother of two, passed away last year just after Thanksgiving. The second friend, married 33 years and the mother of four adult children, has been near death for the past several weeks. The following is my journal entry from Sunday, June 10th, 2007.
6-10-07
Sunday morning; 6:50 am
Peggy must be close to death because she, her husband and children have been on my mind constantly. Soon, she will pass from death to victory and from a life honorably and lovingly lived to the reward Christ bestows on those who have been faithful and which now awaits her in Heaven. Read the rest of this entry »
It is a glorious day here in Tennessee. Jeremiah has been happily playing with G.I. Joes all morning up in the clubhouse of our playset and I stopped gardening for a moment to take him a smoothie and just hang out. I climbed up to hand him his drink to find him surrounded by naked G.I. Joes.
“Poor G.I. Joes,” I said. “Why are they all naked?”
“I like ‘em naked,” he replied with a mischievous grin.
“It just looks…I don’t know, wrong,” I said. Read the rest of this entry »
The performance hall was full. An expectant hush fell over the audience as the lights dimmed and the curtain opened. My 9 year old and 6 year old daughters sat on either side of me; the light from the stage illuminatined their sparkling eyes and expectant smiles as the first dancers twirled into place. I heard soft gasps as they held their breath, overcome by the beauty before them. It was their first time at the ballet annd for the briefest moment, suspended in time by the magic all around, I was not a 38 year old mother of five but the little girl sitting in the middle. Read the rest of this entry »
