Waiting for the Storm

I'm spending Saturday evening at home, watching television, reading, trying hard not to think about work (although an embryonic children's message is at the back of my mind.) I secured a supply preacher for this weekend, so for the first Saturday this month, I did not have the Saturday evening service. (It is also the first Saturday in three weeks that I have not had a funeral.

We went to breakfast at one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants, The Birchwood Cafe. It's not in our neighborhood, sadly; it's in the Seward neighborhood. But it has all the great appeal of an establishment which is firmly a part of its community, dedicated to serve the community. Then, people from outside the community want to stop in too.

I'd like our church to be a little like that. Firmly established in our community, but welcoming to others who are drawn to our mission.

We returned to a Used and Rare Book Sale we visited last night. I pined after books by Helen Sewell (the original illustrator of the "Little House" books.) Just so you know, first editions in dust jackets run to about $700 (or so). After purchasing a dear book illustrated by her called Ten Saints, I have been looking out for her illustrations everywhere.

Otherwise, it's been kind of a lazy day. I've been thinking that I need to make some Significant Blog Posts. There are so many weighty subjects lately. I'm thinking about the local pastor outed by Lavender magazine. I jotted down some notes. But tonight I'm sitting here, trying to be relaxed, and succeeding a little.

I just finished reading a book, The Underneath, by Kathy Appelt. It's supposed to be a children's book. In some ways it felt like a children's book; in other ways, not so much. It's about the love between a dog and two kittens. And it's about evil. Maybe that's what made it seem not like a children's book. But children, sad to say, often know a lot about evil.

Anyway, there's this great quotation on page 201: "Purring is not so different from praying.....a cat's purr is one of the purest of all prayers, for in it lies a whole mixture of gratitude and longing, the twin ingredients of every prayer."

Also, we're sitting here waiting for a storm to come through. A pretty heavy storm headed through our city last night. No tornadoes, but heavy rain, flash flooding, high winds. We were out for that one.

We thought we'd stay home for this one.

Tomorrow we'll put our hand to the plow and not look back, even though looking back can be so sweet. And to be truthful, sometimes the future seems so scary, full of uncertainty.

But the truth is, God is here, right now -- and God is in the future, in that kingdom we long for, when we pray.

Tomorrow we'll put our hand to the plow and not look back.

But tonight, we're just waiting for the storm to come through.

....but now we're back

This morning we got up for a good breakfast (I had granola with strawberries) and one hour massages. The masseuse and I ended up talking about our dogs for the whole hour. She has an elderly husky who used to run like Scout still does.

Then we drove down to Colvill Park, where we counted at least 25 eagles sitting on the bare trees right over the river, little specks of brown and white. When I got out of the car to get a closer look, one of them decided to take a diving glide across the river. I wished I had binoculars or even a camera with a good zoom lens. We vowed to come back in the spring, and take time to drive down to Wabasha to the National Eagle Center there.

As we headed out of town, we made a stop at Pottery Place Antiques, where the collection of multi-colored glassware on the second floor is eye-catching. When we stopped on Sunday afternoon, I found a little treasure: a very old book, "Forglemmegei," which it turned out, means "Forget-me-Not" in Norwegian. There was a Bible verse for every day of the year (in Norwegian, of course), and 12 color pictures of flowers with Bible verses. It was lovely, bound in leather, and I had to have it.

We drove straight to Scout's dogsitter, where we discovered that she had not quite been a model dog: she ate a whole package of butterscotch chips that had been sitting on the counter. They seemed to take it in stride, though ("I guess we weren't supposed to make those cookies"). And she had been sick afterwards, ("but that's understandable, after eating all that sugar.") I like these people. If only I could roll with the punches like they do, I think I'd be a happier person.

Tonight I had an appointment to get a pedicure. I know, it's the middle of the winter here, but I've decided I need to take better care of my feet. The pedicurist showed me pictures of her dog (I had forgotten that we agreed to do that) and asked me questions about churches and whether I thought the end of the world was near. I said that no one knows whether the end of the world is near or not.

And I thought, if it is the end of the world, at least I saw the eagles.