God's Glorious Gifts of Baptisms

Summer is hard on me; its heat and the extended daylight give me time to task meaningful work, but this in turn depletes me of energy that is no longer readily available or replenished as rapidly or fully as my body needs.  Summer is a sprinting marathon of activity.  The rewards are lots of blues and greens, colors, sunsets, and flowers, long hours freeing some up for resting, and a time for the balm of expectations of fall and the glorious warming fires of winter.  

One great gift of my now knowing meaning of summer is a regular baptism in the waters of our mighty Tennessee.  After a hard day of meaningful work, it is glorious to sink my body down in her cooling waters of gilead gently washing the pain and sweat away–a cleansing like no other, equal to the need of the hardness of summer on my poor, old soul.     

 

Blackberries, The Heavens, and The Fermi Paradox

My wife and I bike every day, and at the end of our route is a half-mile section of a wonderfully abundant blackberry patch.  We stop every time, picking handfuls to replenish our depleted energy.  For some unknown reason, I have begun to stare up into the heavens, into the blueness, into the clouds floating above, into the starry night sky, indigo and deep.  It also replenishes me in the same way the blackberries do.  I don’t know why, but both are deeply sacred experiences.  And another.  I have discovered the Fermi Paradox and have studied it in depth, and marvel at the simplicity of the answer to this “crisis of expectation over observation.”  This too is a sacred study for me and replenishes my faith, love, and worship of the Holy Trinity.  Oh, the joy of the nourishing of my soul.   

The blackberry patch that started it all.

      

 

An Exquisite Element

There is no greater element of art than line.  It seems so humble, hidden always from our consciousness, but think, all the wisdom of the western world is recorded with 26 letter lines and 9 number lines.  The first thing God did to tell me He Is, was write a line, I AM!  All works of art begin with lines defining the edge, and the best, all love letters are a long line of love telling.

Here is a picture of an exquisite line because of what it represents to me.  Every morning as I begin to pray, I light a stick of incense to acknowledge the Psalm, “Accept my prayer as incense offered to You.”  

 

To My Dad

I miss you.  The great void in my sky that your falling like a mighty oak left is still just as void and just as blue. Your presence with me was so great, like breath that I often breathed deeply…but without notice.  You molded and made me, always the example of right, and how to live right, that was both a blessing and a goad.  Now my old self even looks just like you, walks with your gait, thinks on life like you lived, Your God has become my God, and your home with him will eventually be mine.  Those soft and real memories made when my mind, heart, and soul were so sincerely absorbent are still so real to me, you living in front of me, like a best seller of the one thing I still have, the Christ in you you sowed into me.  Thanks, Dad. I miss you.  Until we meet again!!!

Dad on top of Big Rock Mountain, where he taught 
me to see God in everything.

Who We All See If We Have Eyes To See

My wife exclaimed, “Oh, I don’t look good in that picture!”  

I said, “There is never a time you don’t look good!  A picture is a fraction of a nanosecond, and we all see in high definition, 5-G, Technicolor, three-dimensional, blockbuster movie of life every waking moment of our lives.  In that you are always the star and Academy Award-winning best actress because that is who we all see!"

That is true, but the Star is really God, who made me write this blog to Him about how glorious our eyes and minds give us a constant movie of wonder.  That’s quite a parlor trick.   

 

Where The Wild Things Grow...WILDER

FAMILY REUNION 2026

We are a wild bunch!  We hike and bike, push and shove, hold, kiss, and love.  We bury our dead among us, we Doxology at every turn, we catch frogs to marvel at God, slalom at 73, pray fervently, dance with abandon, challenge each other, testify, cry bottles of tears, eat heartily, swim constantly, conquer our fears, cruise under Saturn and Venus, hold and kiss, wrestle and argue.  Where do the wild things grow…wilder?  Under the exuberant and physical joy of family reunions, all under the  Lordship of Christ! 

 

The Gift of Utter Failure

I became an artist out of sheer desire for meaning in life.  I had no clue how it and I were going to survive, but I knew it was my best bet to self being and I just gambled on it.  Looking back, it was evangelizing me.  It is that simple.  It was God in Christ in art and beauty that was bringing me to my senses to lead me out of the sty I had made my home.  They did all the rest and gave me a life I did not even have the vocabulary to give imagination to my mind and heart to what was happening to my life.  The life they gave me was abundant, easy, and hard-free, it was as if I was born with the animation to be an artist and all I had to do was continue to step into me.  It is a great mystery to be gifted yourself after such utter failure of trying your hardest to be yourself.    

Found this in the woods yesterday.  One of the gifts is 
getting my blind eyes to see.