Tuesday, January 7, 2025
Tuesday after Epiphany
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Weather
Justice shall flower in his days, and profound peace, till the moon be no more. May he rule from sea to sea.
On Monday night I carried in Margaret’s herbs along with her giant aloe vera and other plants, and the floor beneath the TV is covered in green. It’s beautiful. We dripped our faucets and will do so again, for the rest of the week. Even Austin is cold and windy, and the nights are on the edge of freezing.
I know, I know, Illinois and points north are reeling under this week’s storms. Snow and ice, temps near zero. A friend, blinded by a blizzard, stopped on her way home to Illinois before she barely got started, and spent a cozy night in a motel rather than in her car. In Texas we might be reeling later this winter, but so far we’re enjoying big blue skies and chilly but bracing temps. I love this time of year, no matter where I am.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people, and the hills justice.
Dad, John and I milked cows in January, as we did all year, and my fondest milking memories are of cold evenings after we were finished, when the barn felt like a winter refuge. It was insulated by a filled hayloft and twenty cows who breathed steam into the chilly air, chewed on hay, and stayed in their stanchions overnight because outside it was just so cold! The radio played Lowell Thomas’ news from around the world. The music was gentle, crooners singing Christmas carols or love songs with occasional orchestral interruptions.
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God.
Andi, Marc and Chris each had paper routes, and the News Gazette printed an evening edition every day except Christmas. Sometimes snow covered the bundles of papers after our delivery truck dropped them off in front of our house. We shook off the snow before we brought them inside and stuffed each paper into a bag to keep it dry while we delivered them. Margaret and I usually left the kids to it, but on windy, snowy, icy days we drove them around. Fun for them, and when we came home Margaret made hot chocolate.
Weekend papers were printed at midnight, and they had to be delivered in the mornings, by 8 a.m. Customers were patient, for a little while, but then the calls began coming into the News Gazette, and eventually to us if we’d missed someone, or thrown a paper on the garage roof … we didn’t like those calls. All three of our carriers were pretty good about getting up on those early mornings, at least after we roused them a time or two.
Yesterday Aki and I spent an hour or so working at Austin Disaster Relief Network’s  thrift store, as we often do on Mondays. Lots of folks are clearing out their homes for a new year, and the store was packed with unpriced clothes and furniture, books and dishes. I filled three racks with clothes out of several boxes, hangers already in place. When the doors opened to bring in another donation, which happened several times during our volunteer hour, the cold air blew in. It was freezing.
Brisk!
Christian choruses played on the radio behind me. I thought of our milk barn, and of our floor full of newspapers, and I felt happy.
In Austin the folks who ask for money on street corners don’t ever stop. But it’s cold right now! We keep a few $5 bills in our glove compartment to share with them sometimes. Today was one of those times.
Thank you! God bless you!
But it was too cold to say much. His cheeks were rosy. He carried his sign up and down the row of stopped cars before the light changed. I felt warm in the car, but when I shook his hand, it was ice cold.
This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
(1 John 4, Psalm 72, Luke 4, Mark 6)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
#
