Thursday, August 31, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
It’s only a paper moon
Jesus said to his disciples, “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. At an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
Around noon in Marble Falls, our helpers Lily and Edith helped us get our Texas drivers’ licenses. Edith said, “Now you’ll start talking with that Texas accent.” We made the hour drive home, stopping at Opie’s BBQ for lunch, talking all the way, and we had no trouble understanding each other.
Today’s we’ll spend with Jasper, who still speaks, at age four, with a language all his own. He uses bigger words every time, though, and he climbs a few more numbers up the math ladder. He’s easily up to ten. And I think it’s a rather large leap into eleven through nineteen, after which it kind of relapses into easy 10’s. I’m glad we get to watch him climb.
Much of my next surgical procedure is now scheduled, but an echocardiogram 30 days after the valve replacement is running up against my vacation plans with Marc and Margaret. Perhaps I can have the echo done in Urbana, where I think I’ll be by then. I hope so. Waiting to hear what the doctor is thinking. Maybe today I’ll get a call.
The Cubs have won two out of three games for several series in a row, and are moving up in the National League Central standings. They have a new pitcher, Jordan Wicks, who reminds me of a friend of mine in Alabama. His debut on Saturday made history, and he pitches again in Cincinnati tomorrow, during the day game of a doubleheader.
I notice my anxiety or nervousness about the Cubs runs through me until I hear the result of a game. If they win, I relax and am happy. If they lose, I get a little depressed and feel dark inside.
Ugh. This will be how I respond to the Illini football team, whose first game is Saturday, September 2, and the Bears, who start their season on Sunday, September 19. This will be part of my agony and ecstasy, until God climbs out of where I’ve hidden him, and gives me rest. All of us deserve to win, every time, and we do. The rest is detritus from the fall of man.
A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Have compassion on your servants, satisfy us at daybreak with your unfailing love.
It was a long day, and my devotion feels more like a letter sent home to Mom and Dad when I was in college or in the Moonies, sharing the surfaces. There are things that matter to me, maybe a bit to them, to you, but mostly I think I’m filling the envelope with a couple of pages, and a kiss at the bottom, and a signature. I love you, Mom and Dad. But really, I just don’t have much to say.
Margaret and I did drive across the street last night to an open, elevated view of our Austin landscape. Looking east, the moon rose above the horizon at 105 degrees on the compass, precisely at 8:06 pm. Our phone found 105 degrees, and there it was, the last Super Blue Moon till 2037, rising up over the lights and houses and lives of all of us. TimeandDate.com told us all we needed to know about the moon in zipcode 78759, and I knew that just like us, every person in all the world could see what they needed to know to watch that Big Red Moon come up in their own part of the sky. God lets the moon rise on the just and the unjust. We just would like to know when and where.
Margaret sang “It’s Only a Paper Moon” to me, and she sounded just like Ella Fitzgerald. We both felt loved and loving. Our 44th anniversary was Aug 19, but Aug 30 is when we celebrated. Quietly, with the windows down and the AC off. 92 degrees, with that big beautiful moon for our only company.
May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us and establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.
Of course there is always plenty to say. Novelists often run up against writer’s block, and I guess I do too. But writing a devotion is a little different, because when I sit still and listen to God whispering in my mind (kind of), then that’s what I write. In this letter I wrote what was on top of my mind to get a little below all that, and there was God, whispering. At least that’s one way to say it.
Another way is to recognize God in my everyday life, and celebrate that with you. Those stories about the Texas DPS, Opie’s, Jasper, the doctors, I am sure there are more of those to share.
But I think I’ve placed priority on sharing something wise, and that becomes an idol quicker than you can say lickety-split. God’s value system precludes idols. Get them out of here. Breathe deep, trust Me, don’t be in such a hurry. And you must not worry about being clever or profound or even wise. That’s up to me. Didn’t I tell you I’d give you the words?
Henri Nouwen said something simple and sweet, and wise about all of this:
It is really important that there is a moment in your life that you are alone with God. Some days it can be five minutes. It can be ten minutes. But is it anywhere? Is there any place in your busy day that you stop, and you say, “Here I am, this needy, lonely, anguished, confused person in front of you. And I want to hear again that you love me. Otherwise, I may lose it.” And if I lose it, then I will go all over the place. “You are my Shepherd. And there’s nothing I shall want (though I want all those things!), but you are my Shepherd. So I want to claim that truth. And the truth is that in the deepest sense, all that I need is given to me.”                 Henri Nouwen
 (1 Thessalonians 3, Psalm 90, Matthew 24)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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