“Trees have only one leg,” Dad!*

An old student with a great soul is a dear friend of our family.  A couple of years ago, he read a blog of mine, “Well Done Thy Good and Faithful Tree,”** about a great red oak that had fallen here at Fair Haven.  He decided he would like to make a table for us out of the tree.  Last year, he came and cut the tree into sections to season and get ready to be milled.  This weekend, he came and milled it.  It was a great pleasure watching a man, a timber framer by trade, harvest a massive tree and carefully, with sincerity, turn it into a stack of boards; a deeply meaningful spiritual experience.  Age upon age, ring stacked on ring, now being exposed, laid open, revealing the aged beauty of creation.  

Now, with skill, perseverance, and trade, he will create a table of it.  As true an image of God as I see these days.  Image living, Maclin Williamson. 

*Maclin's son Lee, named after me, said that to him.

Maclin setting up to mill the log.
**  https://aaronleebenson.blogspot.com/2024/09/well-done-thy-good-and-faithful-tree.html

In My Experience

No one lives or writes in a vacuum.  One writes from within their present reality, forged from past experiences, molded and shaped in ways that create the current experience.  From these experiences, he writes.  But there is also an overarching, encompassing foundation to his understanding of his life’s meaning.  “All things work together for (his) good,” regardless of whether he has the stamina to rise to believe this.  Sometimes his need for strength to believe is his greatest weakness.  In this experience, he finds it nearly impossible to write and focuses instead on staring into vast beauty, where he always finds God and His good working for him.   

 

Beautiful Feet

 "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!"  I have received good news!

Smoke On The Water*

Sunshine, dawn, rain, blue skies, forests, rivers, pelicans, fire, coffee, music, The Word, time, lover, knowing, being, present consciousness; “We must be in heaven, man!”1  No, but it is a glimpse.  “The best of life on earth is a glimpse of Heaven; the worst a glimpse of Hell.  For Christians, the present life is the closest they will get to hell.  For unbelievers, it is the closest they will come to Heaven. 2

1 Wavy Gravy MC at Woodstock

2 Randy Alcorn, Heaven

*Smoke on the water, God and Deep Purple

 

Indigo

Indigo is my favorite color.  It is the first color of assurance that morning will soon be broken.  

 

The Kindest Surprise

Nothing prepared me for being saved.  Nothing in my imagination was as wonderful as the life that was given to me has panned out to be.  I was wholly unprepared for God’s glory, His gift to me of His eyes and ears, His senses, His feelings, which He gave me to experience Him, life, marriage, love, work, parenthood, and the good works He has prepared for me to do.  I was made alive, so alive that it shocked me how dead I was before.  This good life is his gift to me, so that I am not boasting, but only giving credit to whom all credit belongs.  I am never prepared for this. It is the greatest and kindest surprise of my life.     

At Thanksgiving we have a tablecloth we bring 
out and everyone writes what they were most thankful for
this past year.

 

A Quiet Irony.

I have spent a lifetime collecting stuff.  Now I spend much of my life taking care of the stuff I have collected.  However, I collected most of my belongings when I was young, and now that I am older, I am less able to take care of the things I collected when I was young.  So I have found that I have used up most of myself taking care of the stuff I collected, and now I am having to pay others (doctors) to take care of me because I am too old to take care of myself, so that I can take care of my stuff.

There is a good reason Jesus never owned a home.  Owning a home is a full-time job, and he already has a full-time job, saving me from me.