Tears and Hope

I have been thinking much about time and loved ones recently. Memories of loved ones are crowding my mind as I remember the time that I spent with them. I have come to discover how much their personality's have shaped my own. I have discovered how much I miss the presence of their laughter and humor in the day to day of my life. Things are just never the same.

Mary and Martha's lives changed when they knew Lazarus lay sick and dying. Their dear brother was suffering and they wanted Jesus to heal him, but he was away. Their hearts were breaking. Memories swept through their minds as they wept. Thoughts of memories never to be surely flashed by as well. Lazarus died as his family wept for him and for themselves. Their hearts broke.

Jesus knew that Lazarus had died and he knew what he was going to do about it. He went to the grave 4 days after Lazarus had been there. Jesus wept with Lazarus' family and then preceded to tell Lazarus to come out.

Lazarus lived again, yet his life was changed.

Mary and Martha would never be the same.

Those who witnessed it were changed and made choices because of it. Some placed their faith in Jesus, others reported his deed to the Pharisees who in turn met with the Sanhedrin. A plot to kill Jesus had begun.

Lazarus lived, but Jesus would die. Jesus would overcome death, rising on the 3rd day, so that each and everyone of us would live again and things would never be the same again.


We so want our loved ones not to suffer, but yet we don't want to part with them either. It is a strange mix of emotions as you sit and weep for a loved one as they pass from this earthly world. We long for them to be their old self, yet it can never happen in this world. As much as we want it, things will never be the same and we can only hope.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain...

Revelation 21:4

Mummy Iris is home

It seems it has been a long time since I posted last. Much has happened in our lives since then. That night, of my last post, the call came that Mummy Iris had stopped breathing and they had taken measures to get her to the hospital. When we arrived, Mummy Iris was unresponsive, and we lost her by noon the next day. From there, we found ourselves making arrangements to take her back to Tennessee, to the county in which she was born, and bury her next to her husband.

We took her back to a little town in west Tennessee. I had not been to this part of Tennessee since I was a child, not much older than BubbaLou. I had gone when my Granddaddy passed away. I remembered the funeral home, and I remembered the cemetery once I saw it. Mummy Iris and Big Daddy have a beautiful view on top of a hill looking down into a valley and onto several other hills. It was BubbaLou's first time to visit this cemetery which held so many of her ancestors.

My BubbaLou, she has a kind heart, and it did nothing less than show what it is during this trip. We were looking at grave stones as we were walking up to check the spot where Mummy Iris was to be buried. We wanted to make sure they were placing her beside my Big Daddy. BubbaLou got to reading small grave stones. Some were marked just "Baby." There were no names, just two little stones. She noticed this and it wore on her.

A little later, as we were coming down the hill, we pointed out the stones of Mums siblings, though born before her, they never lived but a few days. There names were on their stones. BubbaLou looked around and found some stray silk flowers that had been blown around. She picked them up and poked them in the ground in front of the stones of her baby great aunt and uncle. She looked at me and asked if she could run back up the hill and place some flowers on those of the unnamed babies. Of course I said yes, and she ran up the hill to do this. She came down, and saw another stone that had weathered so much you couldn't read it. She looked around for more stray flowers and poked them in the ground in front of the stone.

I have to tell you that my eyes were full of tears, and my heart full of love for this little girl who showed so much love to those who have gone on to heaven before her. She would have made Mummy Iris so very proud. Decorating graves was very important to her. She felt is was very important to treat those graves with respect and love.

After we went to check out the grave site, cousin Carl drove us out to pick buttercups on cousin Laverne's orders. BubbaLou is a flower picker, and she picked her little heart out.

Look at us, said the violets blooming at her feet, all last winter we slept in the seeming death but at the right time God awakened us, and here we are to comfort you.

~Edward Payson Rod

Heavenly Music

Music in church has always meant a great deal to me over the years. I have very fond memories of being a member of the children's and youth choir at church. I still remember songs and even scripture from the songs that we sang. I have very warm and fuzzy memories of friends and teachers from my music experience at church.

I was never a soloist, nor, was I good at music at any individual level. The most humiliating moment in my life happened at a piano recital when I attempted to play "Open Arms" by Journey. If you were there, you know the horror. If you missed it, count your self spared from the piano horror of a lifetime! I took for six years, and I am terrible. I just wasn't talented. It came so easy to so many of my friends, but not for me. I really was able to play "Open Arms" because I had practiced it for so long. I had to play something a hundred times when my friends could sit down and do it probably ten times. Some of them could just do it right the first time they read the music. Not me. Imagine how my parents felt when I had to practice "Chariots of Fire." It started off with about a hundred d's.

I steer clear of most musical endeavors now. I can download my iPod and sing and dance in private or in front of BubbaLou. She just tells me to be quiet! The only place I sing with other people, is at church, in the congregation, as I worship my God. This is still where I have warm fuzzies, singing to God at church. I am just grateful that I can just show up and let those who are actually talented lead the way.

It is in church, where so many wonderfully talented musicians have touched my life. Ministers of music and choir teachers have always held a special place in my heart. They taught me songs about my Jesus, they showed me how to sing with the body of Christ, they carried me through times when I was very sad or very glad. What an awesome place they have in the body of Christ. They touch people who they know and who they have never met. They bring everyone who is present before the throne of God in worship. They instill hope and passion into our faith through song.

It is because they touch us in such ways, they probably don't even realize the impact they have on our lives. The impact that God purposed them to have. We don't ever realize what we really mean to people we don't even know. It boggles my mind when I think about it, the way our lives touch others, however briefly, seeds are planted, and impressions are made.

Our church's minister of music, Simeon Nix, just followed a new call to heaven. This coming just three months after our pastor and his son followed their call to heaven. We have heavy hearts, but they are still uplifted and full of hope and purpose, because we know, that someday, we will see them again and hear them all sing again, but for now, they want us to keep singing.

When we loose one of these wonderful people on Earth, we can at least look forward to their music in heaven. Their earthly music lifted to God is only a foreshadowing of that music they will make in heaven. I can only imagine how wonderful it will be.

Lifesong

by Casting Crowns

Empty Hands held high

Such Small sacrifice

If not joined with my life

I sing in vain tonight

May the words I say

And the things I do

Make my lifesong sing

Bring a smile to you

Let my lifesong sing to You

Let my lifesong sing to You

I want to sign your nameto the end of this day

Knowing that my heart was true

Let my lifesong sing to You

LORD, I give my life

A Living sacrifice

To reach a world in need

To be your hands and feet

So may the words I say

And the things I do

Make my lifesong sing

Bring a smile to You

Hallelujah, Hallelujah,

Let my lifesong sing to You

The Great Summer Lightening Show of 2008

God does amazing things with his world! I remember how much I loved the land in Tennessee. I loved the trees, the hills, the mountains, the way the clover grew, and the way the leaves would turn colors in the fall. I don't have any great memories of the sky.

Here in Florida, the sky is where it is at! The ground is really not much to look at; flat and dry, sandy, with a scrubby trees that really don't change into pretty colors. The palms are nice, but really, even that is planned and landscaped for it to look like the postcards.

God puts on light shows in the sky. We can see the stars(at least where we live), and the rainbows are amazing! We saw double rainbows just the other night. I don't ever think I saw a double rainbow while I lived in Tennessee. The lightening shows are also mesmerizing. They are just so vivid and alive when a bolt crackles in 15 different directions throughout the sky.

You just sit back in awe as you watch it as you are leaving Busch Gardens. Then you go into your house and find that your power is out and a tree is down in the backyard. Then the power stays out for 12 hours and most everything in your fridge has to go in the garbage the next day. Of course your cable, phone, and Internet are also out, even after the electricity comes back on at 2am in the morning. Four days later, when you finally get that cable, Internet, and phone back up, you find that the lightening got your Ethernet port, so you still have no Internet. Obviously, other people have had this happen, so there is a nifty little converter to USB!

But the show was something else, the storm clouds were layered in different shades of gray and black, gorgeous! And the rain! Oh, how we needed the rain! We really needed a soaking for the 4th of July! All those fireworks are just brush fires waiting to happen!

Did I mention that my septic tank backed up and we had to get it pumped today? It was way over due anyway. I think God just wanted us to get it pumped out, we sorta procrastinate!

God has a way of pulling all things together for good!

Puppy Issues

It is that time of the year! Pirate time. Gaperilla brought the pirates to the Tampa Bay Area and the pirates in turn, brought their fleas...and left them. We are currently experiencing the Flea Invasion of '08. They even had a parade across the pup's belly. I think I even heard a few, "Arrrgh's, " hmmm.... maybe that was the dog.

While I was off having tons of fun at work, trapped on Davis Island by the Gasperilla marathon and the time clock, Popsaroo and BubbaLou found their way to the flea market to pick up a flea pill. This is a sort of magic pill that kills all the fleas in 24 hours. It wears off after that short span of time and then your back-up long-term flea medicine better be working.

Of course, Popsaroo and BubbaLou had a high time at the flea market. She saw a puppy, she met the puppy, and the puppy licked her finger. BubbaLou was in love with the puppy and wanted to bring it home. Yeah, right. Dream on kid. Popsaroo had the power of NO in him that day. So off they went to the car, puppyless.

Guess who cried, uncontrollably? Guess who called me at work, to tell me about BubbaLou crying uncontrollably and actually handed the phone off in the expectation that I do something?

She was still crying when we hung up, but I discovered something. It was almost 2pm and they had not eaten since breakfast! "Go feed the child!" I cried.

During this phone cry, they had left the flea market and were on their way to Universal Studios for a fun-filled adventure. The Mardigras parade and GOGO's concert were calling their names.

Popsaroo pulled off the interstate in Lakeland to stop at the handy Mickey D's when BubbaLou spotted the ROADHOUSE steak house. She heard the choirs singing and pointed Popsaroo in the direction of her favorite steak house. She said, " Popsaroo, you have to take me to Roadhouse because I have puppy issues!"

Being the softie that he is, he took her for a steak, she stuffed herself, and was then a stable member of society even with her puppy issues.

They had a great time at the parade and the concert. They found a place far enough back from the stage so it wasn't too loud for BubbaLou. While they waited, she befriended the "older than us" couple next to her and kept them entertained with stories of her pup, Thomas.

Some how, some way, BubbaLou thinks that if I see this puppy, I too will fall in love with it, and we will bring it home. She has made a date for us to go the flea market on Saturday. "Yeah, right, dream on BubbaLou, no more dogs!"

Ecc 9:7 Go ahead---eat your food and be happy... It's all right with God.

I miss my Santa

I have been missing my Santa this Christmas. It took me by surprise. Memories have flooded over me the last week and I realized that my Santa is gone. I have felt like the little girl that wrote Santa she would have a blue Christmas without him in the movie, The Year Without a Santa Claus. I have really identified with that tear that wells up in her eye and falls hitting the letter that she is writing to Santa as she sings I'll have a Blue Christmas without you.

My Santa loved Christmas. He would always be smiling and happy with a wonderful laugh when Christmas came around. I can never remember one Bah Humbug from my Santa.

My Santa and Mrs. Claus would always pick an angel off the Christmas tree at the mall. Santa would look for all sorts of things to place in the gift box; clothes, toys, books, always a Bible.

He loved to get ready for Christmas by trimming the tree. Some years we had artificial trees and other years we had real trees and my Santa always made it fun. He would string the lights ever so carefully and then let Mrs. Claus and me put on the ornaments. Then he would bring out the tinsel. You could not just throw tinsel on, it would be placed on one piece at a time. The tree would be beautiful and we had such good times trimming our tree. My Santa even brought home an ornament that you could plug in and it would chirp like a bird in the tree. It was almost a contest to see how long we could leave it on before it got on every one's nerves. Even when Christmas was over, he had nerves of steel and actually enjoyed taking the lights off the tree and placing them back in the cardboard box just like they came from the factory!

My Santa shaped Christmas for me, in ways I am only beginning to realize. My Santa spent hours teaching me how to wrap gifts as we watched Christmas shows on t.v. He was very meticulous on cutting and taping and placing bows and name tags. Mrs. Claus says they could actually go around the world and still look perfect. I love to be able to take the time to wrap a gift Santa's way. My favorite time to do it is while watching Christmas t.v. shows like Rudolph, all the Santa movies, and my Santa's favorite- Charlie Brown.

My Santa loved to spend time with friends and family. He would work on invitations for hours and invite the people that he worked with over every year for a huge breakfast. He loved it! He would send them home with recipes that he and Mrs. Claus had made for the occasion. He had a special spice tea recipe that he mixed every year. I think, maybe, I should try to find it.

Mr. and Mrs. Claus would always go to the Sunday School Christmas party and I would always tag along. Santa taught Sunday School for years and years. He loved being around the people in his class and always looked forward to spending holiday time with them. A white elephant gift was always involved and Santa could be very devious. I always had such a good time at these parties and I was often the only kid.

My Santa was from a huge family and they would always have a Christmas Eve party. We would travel to my grandmother's or aunt's house with the car packed with gifts and food. I could hardly wait to get there, and when we did, we would crowd into the house with children scampering around, excitement in their faces as they got to see their cousins and awaited the gift opening ceremony. The adults laughed and talked and enjoyed each other. It was always a joyous occasion with tons of food and gifts! It was hard to leave, but Santa had to get home with a full night ahead of him.

My Santa always left great gifts. He always picked out great gifts-he was Santa! He left my stocking filled with nuts, oranges, toys, and a huge peppermint stick. I love peppermint! I couldn't wait to break it with the hammer. Santa left me notes. I remember the note he left me when we had put maraschino cherries out for Rudolph. Rudolph loved them and they helped his nose glow!

Santa would take me to Christmas music at church. He sang in the choir for several years and later he did the sound. Most importantly, he told me about the true reason for Christmas. He told me about the baby Jesus, the Christ child born in Bethlehem. He showed me with his actions what Jesus' birthday was about. He worshiped the Christ child and lived his life spreading happiness and joy.

As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man.

Proverbs 27:19