Weather

There's a saying in Illinois, though I've heard it about other parts of the country as well, that if you don't like the weather just wait 10 minutes and it will change. Hmmpf. I'm not buying it or all of it. They forgot to say that if you don't like it that it might just get worse!

We have snow on the ground. Tonight we are suppose to get freezing rain. They are anticipating about an inch of ice on the ground in the morning. Hello. I can't skate. When I go to the skating rink, I'm lucky to make a couple laps while holding the wall.

Illinois does have seasons. On an intellectual side, that appeals to me. On a more rational side, I would love to skip winter. I was talking to a neighbor and she agreed that it seems like the last couple of years we've gotten more and more snow earlier and earlier.

The way it's headed, it could very well be a white Christmas. While it makes everything look clean and pristine for about 30 minutes, snow is highly over rated for those of us who are adults. If I have to have a white Christmas, I just wish it was a white, sandy beach type of Christmas!




PS. I should mention that I get claustrophobic when I think I can't get out and about even if I wouldn't normally be going out and about.

1st Snow

This is what I woke up to. I suppose if I paid any attention to the weather on the news I would have known it was coming.

While it is very pretty, snow always makes me feel melancholy and antsy. I hate the thought of being snowed in. I think it is probably that I am snowed in with just myself and the cats.

Though, so far it doesn't look too bad out. The main road looks pretty clear and I've cleared my drive way. I think I'm going to dash to the store for a bit. And then I have to be at B&N at 2:00. Hopefully, the weather won't get worse before then.

I did use the opportunity to take a picture of the tree. I've just placed an email photo order at Walgreens for a pictures of trees in the summer, trees in the fall, and this one of a tree in winter. I am going to send them to my Compassion International children.

Hope you are having a great Sunday.

Trading -- Hope Chronicles 35

It seems like it has been a long time in coming, but it appears that we are finally trading winter for spring. That feels like hope to me! So, I thought I would share a few pictures from this winter and my outing today into spring!

The playground down the road is silent and lifeless during the winter.

Today, the playground was teeming with life and a pick up basketball game.

There are no flowers in the winter. Well, this is my yard. With a friend's help, I had flowers for the first time last year. I'll have to see what I can muster this year.

But I found these beauties dancing in the slight breeze while on my walk.

These have been my valiant allies when I shoveled what seemed to be our every 7 to 10 day snow storms. While I welcomed their comfort and warmth, it is time to retire them to the basement for a season.

My toes are excited to trade them for these pretty pink sandals. Alas, they are not suitable for days at work, but I suspect I'll make good use of them in the off hours! I felt pretty and fun in them today at church!

As much as I am enjoying the change in seasons, I am also aware of restlessness in my heart. As all Christians are continually being transformed to be more like Jesus, I pray the same is true of my heart. Though it has meant some tears the last month or two, I hope it means that spring and new growth are abiding there as well.

What is your best picture of spring? Post it and leave me a comment and I will come see!

Redeem -- Hope Chronicles 26

I love words. I love stringing them together to create meaning. I love beautifully crafted sentences that make me pause and read them again. For good or evil, words also have power. I try -- though I don't always succeed -- to be careful with my words.

Perhaps it is my love affair with words that makes my heart trill over the opening of the book of John. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." Jesus is the Word. God spoke and the world was created. I love that.

Our language (individually and as a culture) show us what is important to us. Did you know that the Eskimos have 32 different words for our single word "snow"? Thirty-two! I can only think of a handful of words that have to do with snow: snow, flurries, sleet, freezing rain, blizzard. Four to five words (depending on how you count "freezing rain") compared to thirty-two. That speaks volumes as to the centrality and importance of snow to the Eskimos.

I'm always fascinated to learn the original Greek or Hebrew word for something. As with the Eskimos, sometimes there are multiple words for something we lump into one word. What is it that makes English or American culture just lump things together or always look for the short cut. Here's my anguished prediction, in a matter of years, we are going to completely de-evolve into just using letters as if we were texting -- bff, lol, dml, and xyz!

This week God has had me thinking about the word "redeem." From a purely cultural/secular standpoint, what do you most readily think of redeeming. Coupons was what I first came up with. And what do they usually have written on them. "Not redeemable for cash" or "No cash value." In other words, it is only good for this one particular item on this particular time and probably you have to buy two or more . . . .

But that is so far from God's perspective on redemption. Christians may know this, but does it ever impact our view or use of the word "redeem"?

I looked up redeem on the internet. Here is some of what I found:

• to exchange for money or goods
• to discharge or fulfill (as in a pledge)
• to make up for; to make amends
• to obtain the release or restoration of, as from captivity, by paying a ransom.
• to deliver from sin and its consequences by means of a sacrifice offered for the sinner.

The last two -- release from captivity and deliver via a means of sacrifice for a sinner -- both closely fit the Christian concept of redemption. We are released from the captivity of sin. Jesus was the sacrifice on our behalf.

I don't know the Greek or Hebrew for it. But I think even those two definitions are somewhat lacking. Yes, there is a release paid for by a sacrifice. But more than that, I think it is a making whole of something that was splintered and fragmented. Our relationship with God was splintered and fragmented. Jesus brings us back into a "whole" relationship with God.

To be truthful, it is probably a "becoming" because we probably couldn't handle being thrust directly into God's presence at this moment. But is a "becoming" with the assurance of the the final end.

So, I have two questions to ponder. First, am I leading a "whole/redeemed" life? Second, am I helping those around me to lead that kind of life?

One of my favorite quotes from CS Lewis is this:

"It is a serious thing to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship or else a horror and a corruption such as you meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long, we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of those overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealing with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people."

We can have hope because we are redeemed and whole. May we be mindful to help those around us to that redeemed and whole place safe in God's hands.