Saturday, February 1, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Small
I drove 1,179 miles since Wednesday morning and here I am in balmy Austin, where the temperature might be 77 on Sunday afternoon. At midnight I pick up Margaret at the airport, after her long day of waiting and flying, waiting and flying. We can enjoy the lovely days of winter in Texas together. Maybe tomorrow we’ll get a donut and coffee from the Krispy Kreme factory down the street. After we sleep late.
We have lots of projects ahead of us, including our taxes. We have people to see, to eat and pray with. We’re thinking how to be helpful to Aki and Andi after their baby boy is born. On Friday I took Miles to a birthday party and shopped for legos with Jasper. We had lunch at P Terry’s; Jasper had a hamburger with “just lettuce and MEAT!” He has followed his brother into a love of Coca-Cola when he can get it, and he got it at P Terry’s.
Very happy, sitting in the sun surrounded by Texans. A couple of grandparents at the next table talked about their large family; 53 of them all together, living near each other in Austin after trying other places in the wide wide world. Their grandkids range from age 31 to 5.
Perhaps we will make time to pick up the boys from school and take them home on Mondays and Fridays, after Andi begins her maternity leave. She won’t be teaching again until August. If we continue our Friday adventures we’ll see them Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. That sounds pretty good.
I wonder how Andi’s home schooling will go on Tuesday and Thursday, once the baby begins to take all her time. Will Aki pick up where she leaves off? He has several weeks of paternity leave. He’ll make a good teacher if that’s how it goes.
In our doings God accompanies us, and we know joy.
An artist makes art.
A mother nurtures.
A carpenter builds.
A gardener pays attention.
A grandparent plays.
A friend listens.
A poet dreams.
A dancer flies.
And God, God loves it all. – Clarence Heller
 We follow in the footsteps of faithful men and women since the beginning.
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command
By faith Abel brought an offering
By faith Enoch was taken up to God
By faith Noah built an ark
By faith Abraham left his home
By faith Sarah, Abraham’s wife, bore a child at age 90
By faith Abraham offered that child, Isaac, to God as a sacrifice
By faith Isaac blessed his sons Jacob and Esau
By faith Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons
By faith Joseph spoke about the exodus
By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months
By faith Moses chose to be mistreated along with the people of God
By faith Moses left Egypt and persevered, keeping the Passover
By faith the people with Moses passed through the Red Sea as on dry land
By faith the walls of Jericho fell
By faith the prostitute Rahab welcomed the spies and was not killed
And so much more in the history of the faithful ones. There is not time to tell of all of them. It is enough to know we walk in their footsteps, breathing the same air and worshipping the same God.
Driving through Dallas I clipped my left front tire on an entry ramp curb. I switched lanes an instant too late, confused by contradicting Google directions and highway signs. (Next time I follow the signs.) Since on my last trip I blew out a brand new tire on our brand new car hitting a curb, my shallowly planted confidence and peace fluttered away helplessly and I was left a panicky mess for a couple of hours. The tire didn’t blow. The dreaded warning lights didn’t light up the dashboard. But I resolved to find some kind of spare tire to keep behind the passenger seat for the next trip.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Hyper-aware of the thousands of cars and trucks swarming the highways of Dallas, I felt small. I thought how little I understood about how to make my way through the tangle of metal and concrete all around me. I was just a self-aware ant searching for the proper, personal hole in the ground where I could expect my family of ants to welcome me.
In time I remembered my faith. I called up my confidence in what I hope for and assurance of what I could not, for the life of me, see.
All these heroes died in faith. They did not receive what they had been promised but saw and greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth, for those who speak thus show that they are seeking a better homeland, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.
The day wore on. I listened to The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife (“this book is like a big, warm hug!”). Approaching Austin the western sky poured sunset colors over me, oranges and blues and reds and yellows, more beautiful than I could imagine. Soon after I pulled our car into a parking place right in front of our apartment, and I rested.
In the boat on the stormy sea, Jesus slept. With him in the boat, the disciples screamed in fear and he awoke. Jesus rebuked the wind, “Quiet, be still!” Then the wind ceased and there was great calm.
(Hebrews 11, Luke 1, John 3, Mark 4)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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