Knowing Rocky's Gideons Bible

A few weeks ago our son-in-law found a dead raccoon in the woods at Fair Haven.  A bobcat had taken it.   Several weeks later as my lover and I were walking in the cool of the evening we came upon its remains.  I always marvel at a skeleton, one of the greatest metaphors for the real reality.  A marking of passing away, an exact record of being and non-being.  The profoundness of the creative process in life, the structure giving underlayment as you will, the guideline for the artist in the studio as he develops the human's outline.  It also stirs in me something of Eden, of The Almighty, of the final tolling of my own bell, what will go on and what will be left here.  Bones tend to be as eternal as life here on earth can muster but even ours will eventually turn to dust.  Dust to dust.  Ashes to ashes.  But The King Eternal has provided for a way to be neither and it is my hope for you and for Rocky Raccoon found in his Gideon’s Bible.   

 

You Shoulda Been There is an Invitation

If a picture is worth a thousand words then being present is worth a library full.  Yesterday Betty and I took an evening hike into woods naming sacred spaces as we stopped in them, a meaningful habit we have taken up.  At twilight, we returned, and exiting the forest we sat beside the Tennessee with our feet in the river watching the night come on.  We both were leaning on one another, two old souls propping each other up.  This picture is where we were but what was really happening was The Ancient of Days was drawing another one to a close and allowing us to watch.  Half our walk with God is just showing up. 

God Knows The Difference Between a Tortoise and a Turtle

The other day Betty and I were walking beside our mountain when we came upon a full-grown tortoise, the kind we have all seen.  I commented to Betty that I wondered why you never saw a baby turtle?  Two days later walking along the road above our home I came upon a baby snapping turtle.  I was so overwhelmed with thanksgiving.  He was all snapper from his pointed snout and long tail to the jagged flange of the back of his shell.  I smiled at the Kindness and Wit of God.  Two days before He saw me see a tortoise but heard me say “baby turtle”.   So here was my first baby turtle.  The little runt was on the road, the lake being 500 yards south of him and he was still headed north.  I picked him up, took him back to the river, and setting him down next to it, I waited to see what he would do.  After lying still for a few seconds he dived into the shallow water and immediately buried himself in the mud—already brilliant in his instincts.  God is good.  I have since asked to see a baby tortoise.    

 

Breaking the Bronco (Leviathan) Worship Service

I had two difficult problems.  I needed to remove the two blades from my lawnmower to have them sharpened.  The first problem was how to raise the mower so I could get under it.  I used the fulcrum and lever action of a 2/4 and a block of wood to lift the front of the mower up and set it on two other blocks of wood.  There is great meaning in using ancient tools to increase the efficiency of a 63-year-old body.  Now I had the mower up and with a socket and ratchet, I pulled with all my power to break the nut loose.  Couldn’t do it.  I had a one-foot pipe and slide the rachet into it and tried and tried but still couldn’t do it.  I laid in the grass cursed with weakness.  I drove to the hardware store and bought a 3-foot steel pipe.  Returned and once again crawled under the mower, set my socket, slide the ratchet into the pipe, slide my hand to the end of the pipe, and pulled, pulled very hard; SNAP, the bolt loosened.  I was hopeful.  I slide in the other side, repeated the process—SNAP!  Off it came.  I removed the bolt and blade and rolled over on my back and looked up at heaven.  For several minutes I laid there in a sincere worship service.  With all the things God had to figure out, the sun's distance from the earth, how to get the watermelon taste into the watermelon, kissing, how did He ever think of the lever and fulcrum?  “Oh, how I love Jesus, oh how I love Jesus, oh how I love Jesus, because He first invented the lever and fulcrum.”  This is an absolutely true story. 

The mower is named Bronco

 

Rosalee

We have a neighbor at Fair Haven who has devoted a great deal of her life fostering beauty in the form of orchids.  She has a small greenhouse cluttered with ancient technologies that creates the best environment for her flowers along with hundreds of plants and all the paraphernalia that goes along with it.  It is a true artist’s studio, looks a lot like her.  She is a river dweller, been here all her life, weather-worn wrinkled bronze like the finest leather, slim and spry, strongly Christian, with dancing eyes that sparkle over her beloved orchids.  I find great meaning in her greenhouse and her, even though both are almost complete strangers to me.  She has invited us to visit her studio anytime and yesterday we did again.  She is almost never there but it is filled to overflowing with the most exquisite beauty.  Just a ramshackle little hut hidden in the corner cove of the river, a place for God to rest and enjoy His creations, Rosalee and her orchids.