Ed’s sons and his youngest daughter visited this last week. The oldest son Dan, who lives near Palm Springs, always wishes for a thunderstorm while he’s here. Texas is known for its wild and crazy weather. It can be in the 80s at noon and drop to freezing the same night. This extreme change of temperature creates severe thunderstorms with hail and gale-force winds and sometimes tornadoes. This year Dan got more than he bargained for. The day before the guys left for flights home the sky darkened as sinister storm clouds appeared. Then an ominous rumbling began with lightning and strong gusts of wind. A tornado hit a small community south of us, headed right for us and then veered away across the countryside, taking out some outbuildings on its way. No one was killed. Thank you, Lord!

A praise song we sing at church is titled, “You Are the Air I Breathe.” Maybe you’ve heard it. The lyrics remind us that God is everything to us. If he left us, we would be desperate for his return. We can’t live without him! Though God never leaves us, sometimes it can feel that way.  Sometimes in the midst of a hard trial, health or otherwise, it can be normal to feel alone in our pain. But we don’t ever have to feel God isn’t always there for us. With all our sins and other shortcomings Jesus took upon himself on the cross, he suffered that feeling of abandonment for us too.

Here she came, joyously romping over to us, carrying her Frisbee In her wide jaws, ready to play. My daughter and I were finishing up a walk when the large yellow lab spotted us. Ignoring her owner’s calls, tail wagging happily, she invited us to join in her game. Eileen took her up on it, wrestled the Frisbee from her mouth and sailed it back toward her owner. She sprang into action running right back to where he could grab her. He and two other large dogs with Frisbees in their mouths were on their way to play somewhere, but she couldn’t wait. She didn’t know us, had not seen us before, but wanted to include us in her play day. To her it didn’t matter what race we were or age or gender or what church we attended, she invited us to join her in a friendly game. Don’t you love dogs!

Going to bed without fear at night is not a question for me. What to have for breakfast or lunch or dinner is a matter of various food choices. On cold days there’s heat and when it’s hot the AC hums away. Nothing fancy, the ordinary comforts most of us take for granted. But with a rogue nation fueled by power and greed maliciously attacking the Ukraine, our peaceful existence in this world is not guaranteed. The media has been all but shut down in Russia. Not a surprise, journalists striving for the truth are usually the first to feel the iron fists of dictators. Keep them in your prayers. Along with all that we enjoy in this country, let’s not take our brave free press for granted. They help keep us free.

What Is Love?

What is love?  When I think of the word love, I think of adoration (toward God) and self-sacrifice or friendship (toward others). But the more I think about it and often write about it, I continue to ask myself, what is the definition of love? The Greek language has various names for different types of love, but do they truly define what love is. First Corinthians 13 comes to mind, but what we call the love chapter describes more than defines what love is. Why is it so difficult to define love? It’s because God is love and hard as we try, there aren’t enough words. The glorious almighty God is indescribable!

Peck, peck, PECK, the big black crow tried its hardest to break the ice on the birdbath, but to no avail. The ice was too thick. Isn’t it amazing the crow understood water was under the ice? God’s creatures astonish me sometimes, though I know God gave them more sense than we give them credit for. I’ve poured hot water on the birdbath to melt the ice, but the leery crows won’t return soon enough to get the water before it freezes again. They may be smart creatures, but they still don’t understand I came to help, not to hurt them. I pray I’m not like the crows, that I can feel free to come near to God any time. I can confess every problem I have and every sin, no matter what, knowing he loves and through Christ has already forgiven me and would never do me harm.

“Can I come over?” “Sure,” I texted back to my neighbor, wondering why she wanted to come over so late. As I turned my porch light on, here Sue came, food in hand. It was a fancy French dessert she had made and wanted to share, though she already had people at her house for dinner. “You have to eat it now!” she said as she hurried back to continue serving coffee and dessert to their guests. It’s the third food item she’s brought over this week. She and her husband both cook, and I’m beginning to wonder if they think I’m going without enough to eat. But then I realize she’s only doing what she believes good neighbors do, share with others. It may seem like a small thing, but, as Mother Teresa is quoted as saying: “We cannot all do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

For the last few years, to prepare my mind for the Easter season, I’ve given up something during the 40 days of Lent. I don’t need to; it’s not a tradition of my church. But that little sacrifice every day reminds me of the huge sacrifice our Savior and God went through for us. This year I couldn’t think of what to give up so I prayed about it. Almost immediately, this thought came, give up your coffee creamer. What! My favorite sweet, chemical-laced, flavored coffee creamer! But I need something to buffer the coffee for my stomach’s sake! Plain milk can do that quite well was my answer. What a small sacrifice to be concerned about. God must smile at me sometimes. I hope so anyway, and I did ask!

From the beginning of time, romantic stories of love have inspired books, plays, poems and even wars. Some say a mother’s self-sacrificing love for her child is as close to godly love as you can get. And, we all can agree God’s love is the greatest love. Sacrificial love for others led our Savior to die for everyone who has ever lived or will live, good, bad or indifferent. Jesus’ command is to love God and to love our neighbor. Jesus said when you take care of others, no matter who they are, you show love to him. When we share the love of God with our neighbor, we participate in the great circle of love God has ordained. God’s love to us to neighbor to Christ through the Holy Spirit back to God—the greatest love.

My son Steve lost a good friend this last week who he’s known from college. Shawn was only 50 years old and left a wife and three daughters. I knew him too, a nicer person you wouldn’t meet, one of the good guys. It reminded me of my son David’s early death and my father’s sudden death at age 49 from a heart complication, and the shock and trauma such unexpected death causes. As I relive those days and weeks of terrible grief, my heart goes out to their family. Because I know something of what they’re experiencing, I hurt deeply for them. Why were my son, dad and Shawn allowed to die so young? I don’t know, but I do know our Father redeems whatever we undergo in our lives. Such losses make us different people and more like Christ as we share with him in the suffering of others.