1) Thankful for the dawn that comes whether sleep has been present or not.
2) Thankful for a friend solving the mystery of the sewing machine and broken needle after broken needle.
3) Thankful for a fun afternoon quilting with eldeset beside me sewing on his own sewing machine which he had built out of duplo. (no details missing and even had made it the other way round as he is left handed)
4) Thankful for the wonderful curry made by Mark this evening, letting me quilt away.
This evening bedtime has been less than a smooth process but eventually eldest shared that he was sad about Noah and Elisabeth; his sister and brother we never got to hold.
Just as he was concerned that Jonathan would not be born he now has lots of doubts that this little one is going to be as the time gets closer to her actual due date. He has been asking why did Noah and Elisabeths’ cells not form properly and can we be sure this little one will be healthy.
So in an attempt to help him journey through these fears we talked about how they are with God now and that we would be able to see them again when we go to be with God at which his face lit up. Along with talking we have encouraged him to draw pictures so he is busy drawing pictures of them happily playing in God’s house which needs no bedrooms as God does not sleep and on a boat. And apparently God is circular as He has no legs so has no ‘straight parts’ and Jesus does have ‘straight parts’ as He has legs like us and he is not sure how to include the Holy Spirit who is everywhere so how does one draw Him into a picture.
So friends we would ask if you would cover both our boys in prayer as we draw closer to our due date and especially for our eldest who has not forgotten Noah and Elisabeth and has all sorts of questions and sadness and fears mixed in with the excitement of having a sister due. The other day he told me that God was good to him as He had given him a new brother and sister even though he never got to hold his first two siblings.
2 Sam 6:1-8
David returning the ark of God back to Jerusalem.
Uzzah touched it to stabilse it when the oxen who were pulling the cart stumbled. On an inital reading this seems a logical thing to do as one would not want the ark to fall and then we are told that God’s wrath burned aganist Uzzah for what is termed an ‘irreverant act.’ It seems a unfair to see how God could justify striking Uzzah down at this point.
To be honest I still have many questions in regard to this but the one that stands out as applicable in light of reading this early in the morning with the boys up and on the go and little time for a proper study of the context is that we need to think carefully through the acts we do in the apparent name of God and ensure that we are following His voice and not simply setting God up in our own boxes with our ideas of what is right and just and reverant. And to remember who He is and who we are in His presence.
1. Thankful for a fun afternoon shoveling compost with no. 1. in the church yard.
2. Thankful for no. 2.’s enjoyment of walking to church, especially waste paper bins in the shape of owls…
3. Thankful for pancake breakfasts
4. Thankful to look back on the visible evidence of answers to prayer
Ps 33:5
The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.
Matt 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
We are called to God’s hand and feet in the world. To be vessels of His righteousness and justice. To show His love to all. Let us therefore be people who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who seek to bring God’s righteousness and justice to people and to be filled therefore by Him.
1) Thankful for lovely fabric arriving in the post this morning.
2) Thankful for a wonderful Sabbath dinner this evening, cooked superbly as ever by Mark.
3) Thankful for some level of cleaning happening today.
4) Thankful for breeze this evening, making the upstairs rooms pleasant.
2 Sam 1 when David returns to his people after the deaths of Saul and Jonathan
“David took up this lament concerning Saul and his son Jonathan and he ordered that the people of Judah be taught this lament of the bow.”
We have removed ourselves so often from the rawness of death and hidden our grief. I remember after Mum died a sense (wrongly) that I needed to have it all together as I was Christian and therefore should not mourn or weep. The Bible has plenty of lament throughout its words. Lament and mourning is not something God expects us to walk away from when we follow Him. We can pour out our hearts to Him, to recall those we have lost, to lament deeply with a sure foudnation of our faith. God will not dissolve because of our tears. He collects them.
I am thankful for my time at Regent where lament is a very tangible part of the community there. Lament is held alongside celebration. There is room for the tension of both joy and weeping side by side. There I learnt that the gospel is truly big enough for both our joy and weeping and that those two things are things a community cna do side by side as one community, as one body.
1) Thankful for a retreat day and the blessing of the Radcliffe’s summer house.
2) Thankful for a quick catch up with a dear friend 8hrs ahead of me.
3) Thankful for the sunshine, the butterflies, and the squirrel in the garden as I read and talked with God.
4) Thankful for Mark who made today possible.
Psalm 92:1-5
It is good to praise the Lord
and make music to your name, O Most High,
proclaiming your love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
and the melody of the harp.
For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;
I sing for joy at what your hands have done.
How great are your works, Lord,
how profound your thoughts!
1) Thankful for the boys’ patience this morning when we had to wait almost an hour past my alloted time at the surgery for me to get an injection.
2) Thankful for the hilarity and amusement a sainsburys delievery can bring two small boys in the evening when it showed up early and arrived just before their bedtime. And for thier eagerness to help put it all away.
3) Thankful for Mark being around this afternoon and making dinner so I could rest.
4) Thankful for encouraging words that remind us we are doing the right thing right now.
Joshua's Tree 