don't save

“Don't save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion! ~Anonymous~

I remember reading about a woman who died, and how her family found all the beautiful things that they had given her, through the years, for gifts. The nightgowns, lingerie, and other lovely clothing items were still in the tissue, in which they had been wrapped. They had never been worn. Evidently, she was saving her beautiful gifts for another, perhaps special, day. She never got to enjoy wearing them.

In my life, I don’t have trouble with clothing, but I do tend to save our wedding china and crystal for more special days, and I definitely waste a lot of “everyday” occasions, while waiting for a “special” day.

I bought some food at the grocery store this past week, and at the time I thought “Loyd and I won’t be able to eat all this,” but I still bought it all. Yesterday, we had a snow day…something we rarely have in East Texas. I got all that food out…cooked it…called MeMaw, and invited the family, and we gathered and had an impromptu feast. What a treat it was, and how glad I am that we took the effort.

We took the time to celebrate being alive, and enjoyed having the blessing of each other. The snow made it more than an ordinary day, but we made it an extraordinary occasion. One I will always remember.

g

truth

So much of life is confusing. Truth, on this earth, seems to be elusive…a lot of “she said, he said”. We can look the situations of life head-on, in the eye (as it were), and still completely miss the truth. We are so finite, so constricted, so tunnel-visioned. Much of our “truth” is based on our experience…a view of life from where we stand… and it seems we grope in the dark to touch whatever we can find that seems true and steady based on our truth. It’s precarious, at best…like stretching really far to catch a butterfly while standing on a wobbly rocking chair…

We are thinking about I Corinthians, at Java’s, right now. 4:5 says:

“So don't get ahead of the Master and jump to conclusions with your judgments before all the evidence is in. When he comes, he will bring out in the open and place in evidence all kinds of things we never even dreamed of—inner motives and purposes and prayers. Only then will any one of us get to hear the "Well done!" of God.”

God knows the truth. He has known, since the beginning of time, the truth of each of our lives….the thoughts, the motives, the beginnings and the endings, even the prayers we don’t realize we utter. I can trust him to lead me into all truth, but it often means clinging to him, taking one step after another into the darkness, knowing he is taking me where I need to go…to the eternal truth of him.