Brought to my knees......

...not once but twice in less than 5 minutes!  Ahhh....maybe I've learned to keep my pins away from my cutting area....

SHEEP

Sheep.  Not a one of us need an official online dictionary definition of “sheep”. 

I love sheep.  It amazes me at the thickness of their coats.  It amazes me at the peacefulness of the sight of a pasture full of sheep grazing.  I love watching the baby lambs grazing by their mamas. 

I have a couple of books that I have read that tell interesting facts about sheep.  Did you know that sheep are not really smart?  Did you know that they have no natural defenses—no fangs or claws or such as that?  Did you know that they have no sense of direction?

This year I felt the calling to write our church’s Christmas program.  Uh huh.  Not my idea for sure.   I argued with the Lord over it and He won.  At our church we have a boatload of kids to be in this program.  I’m talking a boatload. And that is a HUGE blessing for our church!   I was indecisive about what role in the nativity part the youngest of the youngsters would be.  Somehow the idea came to make them animals.  As I was talking to one of the mothers about costumes and making them all sheep, she made the statement, “If they wander a little on stage, that’s probably all right because that’s what sheep do.”  Little did she know that her statement would prompt me into a blog entry.  She is so right.  Sheep wander.  That’s why they need a shepherd.  So yes, you guessed it, I was reminded of Psalm 23.  The Lord is MY shepherd.  It’s one of those Psalms that I learned as a child and somehow kept in my heart for all these years. 

I decided that I would share the 23^rd Psalm accompanied by some of my favorite photos.  While you read and look, think of yourself as the sheep because that’s really what we all are.  Doesn’t Psalm 100 say “we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture”?  And doesn’t the Word say “He is the good Shepherd”?  In fact the Word speaks of his shepherdship in so many places.  Bet the online dictionary doesn’t know the word, shepherdship.  I like it.  Makes the Lord sound just like the all important wonderful shepherd He is!

So....Psalm 23.....

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; 

he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul;

he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

And I say, "Amen."

TRUST

Trust  --  Firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.

“This is your pilot speaking.  We are experiencing some turbulance.  Please stay seated with your seat belts fastened.”

Not exactly what I want to hear when I’m only-God-knows how many thousands of feet in the air the airplane on which I am riding is flying.  As the plane seemed to lurch and thump, The Husband and I heard the pilot’s voice as he said those words on our first flight of the day on our recent trip to Montana.  As in the past when those words are spoken, my arm immediately goes into the arm of The Husband.  That connection somehow gives me a bit of comfort while my mind is also trying to remember the safety advice and demonstration that the flight attendant gave.  Oh course, I paid very little attention to that safety segment.  I was wishing I had listened a bit more so I took out the safety brochure from the seat pocket and tried to learn it quickly.  Just in case I had need of it.

It’s in those moments, the taking off moments, and the landing moments (are there many moments left?) that I especially think seriously about what is about to happen.  It was actually on this flight that I considered the fact that during the course of this trip, I was going to ride on four different planes “driven” by four different pilots.  I would have no idea if mine would be their first time to fly a plane with people on it or if they had piloted many times.   I rarely ever think of that concept.  I trust these men (usually) that I have not seen nor do I know.  They look like pilots, they dress like pilots and they smile like pilots so they must be pilots, right?  But...is that enough to give one confidence?  (Guess there's a sermon in THAT somewhere.)  I trust them because Delta trusts them.  (These days, is that a good reason?)  Nonetheless, I flew in planes piloted by these folks I don’t know.  Luckily, I arrived home safely.

We have trust in our cars like that most days.  I trust that when I get in my car that it is going to crank.  I had an appointment at Northside Atlanta a couple of weeks ago at 8:00 a.m. on a Monday morning for what I call my yearly “Marathon Mammogram”.  I say that because at the doctor’s where I go, you are asked to allow 2-3 hours as you get the results that day.  When I walked out of there 4.5 hours later (everything was fine) into the pouring rain, got in my car, cranked it, paid the maximum parking fee, and drove out into the road, I saw my “check engine” light on.  Aargh….a friend used to call that kind of day a “day with negative ions in the air”.   As soon as I saw that warning, I became afraid that my car was going to break down at a very inconvenient place and my trust became shaken. 

We put our trust in people who sometimes disappoint us.  We put our trust in ourselves and we sometimes disappoint us.  Amazing how we trust even wrong things at times.

I am reminded of a childhood book I used to read to The Girl when she was small.  We read a lot of books at our house.  The Bernstein Bears series were some of the favorites.  If you’re not familiar, they are a family of bears--Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Brother Bear, and Sister Bear.  Sort of reminds one of my family descriptions on this blog, doesn’t it?  These books taught lessons to children and in this particular one, it teaches about trust.  If I can vaguely remember, Brother Bear and Sister Bear are playing in the living room in a fashion that is not accepted in the Bear treehouse.  In their antics, they knock over a lamp and break it.  Of course, they don’t want to admit their mistake to Mama Bear—it was her favorite lamp.  One line that I remember from the book that eventually Mama Bear says to them is “It’s hard to put trust back together once it’s broken.”  I say to that, “Amen”.   By the end of that story, one learns that rebuilding trust is not an impossible task.

So with all of this writing, I am coming to what is most important and a trust that will never let me down.  That is trust I have in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He has never messed up yet.  He trusts me certainly more than I seem to do Him some days.  I often forget He is the one who sees the future and knows the best for me.  I can trust Him to always lead me in the right direction.  I can trust Him to never leave me, even when I seem to take Him for granted.  I can trust Him with my family, with my friends, with my problems, with my life.  And most of all I can always trust Him to love me more than I deserve.

Remember that when your plane of life experiences turbulance, put your arm in the arm of your Heavenly Father.  He can calm the turbulance in your life.

That’s real trust.

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.”   Proverbs 3:4, 5

VACATION

Well, The Husband and I have returned from our annual vacation.  Well, annual some years.  Luckily, this was one of those annual years.  We were gone for a week...actually eight days with two of them being travel days.  We flew in and out of Great Falls, Montana....flying in via Salt Lake City (and a run literally from one gate of arrival to another of departure--whew) and flying out via Minneapolis/St. Paul (with time for a Burger King lunch in between).

This country of ours has many beautiful sights.  The sights we saw were without a doubt "God made" rather than the bright lights of "man-made".  Before heading out, we visited the local Walmart to purchase our traditional vacation snacks.  One must prioritize...

We headed out bright and early on our first morning there in route to Glacier National Park.  Yes, we left the hotel before daylight and the only good thing about that was that I was able to capture this Montana sunrise.

 There were wildfires in Idaho and the wind was blowing so the mountains and sky were not as clear as we would have hoped but beautiful all the same.

Glacier National Park was beautiful, too, and we drove 18 miles to Logan Pass on "The Road to the Sun".  We would have driven straight across to the opposite side but the road was only open 18 miles worth so we had to turn around and come back.   At Logan Pass, we saw these sights:

Yes, the photo with the two wood "poles" show that they are ready for snow.  They put the poles so the snowplows will know where to come to scrap the roads when the time comes.  I can't imagine that much snow.

We then drove around the south edge of the park to the west entrance and drove the 12 miles into the park on the 12 miles of road that was open.  Then we turned around and came back.  West Glacier was a whole different landscape.  It was flat-ter with lots of water.

 The Husband really enjoys looking for "game".  He spent a lot of time like this:

 And he was rewarded for his efforts....

There were warning signs...

The large "bull" elk with his harem were over this hill.  I did forget my fear for The Husband and spent a slight bit of time coveting the nice lens on the other guy's camera.  Maybe The Husband was there to take a closer look at the lens and not the elk?  Yeah. Right.

 We even saw a moose, even though it was a dead moose, we stopped, gave thanks it was not our rented car that hit it, and took a picture.  The husband enjoyed taking a much closer look than I did.

The flat ranch areas were mostly "open range".  I soon found out that meant that one tags their cows and just turn them loose outside the fences to gather and socialize.  Amazing.  Just in the road.  Standing in the road.

And then the ranchers "round 'em up" just like in the movies....

There were classic barns...

...ghost towns (Virginia City--wasn't that the Cartwright's hometown?)...

...fall leaves......

....and beautiful scenery.

We ate lunch one day at Wisdom, Montana.  Population:  100....

....and reminisced about a prior trip when we stayed in the hotel in Cooke City that Frommer's called "the poshest in town"....

I lost my desire to ride in a hot air balloon by traveling the road through Beartooth Pass.  It should have been named "Fear Highway".  You can see the road just curves around the side of the mountains and there are no trees.  It was SCARY.  I have decided I don't care for heights.

I was sooo happy to see this:

I always love the artistic photos....

...and the turkeys and birds.

One of my very favorites (yes there was a deer in the distance)....

And yes, two of us went on the trip...

So that's it in a nutshell....see you next time....