Life at Sea

My life over the last few years has included an interesting chain of events that I could never have imagined. These years have been saturated with job loss, sickness, death, and financial distress. I have attended an unprecedented number of funerals, visited and prayed for countless loved ones with critical health situations, and am currently experiencing some wonky issues in my own body. Being one for neatness and order, I am astounded by the realization that despite the unceasing turbulence of late, I am more content than I have ever been. God's peace has constantly sustained me and I have discovered life at sea--

Away for terra firma, in the unfamiliar, with the uncertainty of the stormy sea dashing at will against my little boat, I have found that even there my saviour's love extends to me. I am at peace, resting in Him who has never failed me and continues to meet my every need.

" Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39

Labor

I remember the nights that I went into labor with both of my children. With my first, it started slowly with what felt like the Braxton-Hicks contractions that had become routine at the end of my pregnancy so I was a bit reserved in declaring it labor until I had exhausted most of the wee hours of the night enduring recurring intervals of intensifying pain. By the second baby, I knew the difference between those mild Braxtons and the serious business that would soon usher my newborn into the world. I was thus able to declare go-time much earlier.

As I examine the landscape of our time with the unrest in the Middle East and the sea surging in unusual places, while people misplace their hope in elected officials, and refuse to hear sound teaching, I can't help but think that it is time to make sure that I have my bag packed and ready by the door.

"Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away." Luke 21:29-33

Sci-Fi

I watched part of a documentary on PBS about hummingbirds the other day. Those tiny birds have always fascinated me and I wanted to learn more about them. Before seeing this film, I hadn't realized that there were so many different types of hummingbirds, some exclusive to certain regions of the planet, with subtle variations in color, body, and beak shape. The narrator explained these differences in each bird as the result of evolutionary processes by which the flowers, in an effort to survive, had enticed the birds to dine. The birds, in return had adapted the shape of their beaks to feed off of specific flowers. Michael Pollan presented the same argument in his documentary The Botany of Desire which aired several months ago. He blushingly admitted that, while he didn't believe that tulips had cognitive abilities, they had somehow communicated their desirability to the human race and we in turn, fell for them, and continue to cultivate them since our initial infatuation. Wow!

Is it really easier to believe that tulips and fuchsias, though lacking the abilities to either think or reason, can somehow hatch a scheme to gain advocacy with humans and the animal kingdom, than it is to see the evidence of a master plan repeated over and again throughout the known universe? Is there more comfort in supposing that we exist as the result of some happy accident that produced the perfect environmental requirements for our existence and can just as easily, and randomly, alter the physical environment to adversarial conditions that result in our demise? For me, the answer is a resounding, no.

"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." Luke 12:27