Sunday, June 13, 2021                       (today’s lectionary)
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Scattering seed … and then the harvest
I will take from the crest of the cedar, and plant it on the mountain heights. It shall become majestic, birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it. All the trees of the field shall that know that I, the Lord, bring low the high tree and lift high the lowly, wither up the green tree and make the withered one bloom.
Along with Chris and Melissa, the cousins were across the room playing the Daniel Tiger game. Miles and Aly won. Yesterday afternoon, after we rode the Cedar Rock RR all around the park, Jasper and I traversed the splash pad over and over, getting soaked. I loved it, Jasper was not so sure. Miles and Aly went down the water slide over and over and over, 88 times, Miles said. I went down once with Jasper, and tangled up my legs at the end. Jasper was OK, I was … not so sure.
But Margaret was not there.
Let me proclaim your kindness at dawn and your faithfulness throughout the night. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
She did sleep much better in her hospital room. She’s learning how to give herself shots, and she takes several walks a day. The doctors have nothing but praise for the way her “numbers” are coming down. Tonight will be her tenth night in the hospital. She’s getting to be a pro. Next week she will have surgery, we don’t yet know when.
Chris (our oldest son) spent the morning with her. They walked a little and talked a lot, about Chris’ childhood and education, and of course about Margaret’s hospitalizable situation. Doctors came in, aides came in, kitchen people came in, and eventually we left. Even in the atrium, a cardio-rehab therapist found us. Seemed like we were the only ones not rushing around. And really, there was plenty of time for Chris and his mom to share stories and conversation with each other.
We shall bear fruit even in our old age; vigorous and sturdy we shall be, declaring how just is the Lord, our rock, in whom there is no wrong.
Margaret, Chris and I missed seeing all the big emergency and construction machines in the big Touch-A-Truck event yesterday. It was hot, but Jack and Aly, Miles and Jasper climbed in truck cabs, army tanks and ambulances. We got a picture of Aly holding a bazooka almost as big as she was. Leave it to a Texas army base to provide a bazooka for the kids touch-a-truck. She loved it.
It’s just a couple days Chris and Melissa will be here. Fill them up. Margaret reminded Chris how sensitive and easy-going he was as a kid. And as a student. As a youth minister. As a husband and father. He smiled. She’s right, of course.
We are always courageous, although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Margaret was not with us this afternoon, but so much was she with us in spirit. Everyone in our family felt her presence. She has done deep work with so many people, and none of them more than our family. Her family. The family that loves her.
Jack spent the night at our apartment with me. Margaret was not there. But her spirit was. So we rested well in the Austin apartment that she found online, made happen in person, and continues to inhabit every way except in person.
Jesus said, this is how it is with the kingdom of God. It is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land, and then sleep and rise night and day. Through it all the seed will sprout and grow, he knows not how.
(Ezekiel 17, Psalm 92, 2 Corinthians 5, Mark 4)
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