Rose Shoots Cow Elk First Hour of Hunting Season!

This was one of those red-letter (or shall we say orange-letter) events in the life of the Lucas family--

when Rose bags a cow elk at 7:08 in the morning the first day of hunting season in the mountains!

She was as proud as a peacock with lots of orange feathers!

I expect more pictures later, but this is the one Jonathan texted me shortly after it happened! 

This event was in the middle of some rather lesser events--including a blown tire recently on Jonathan's way to work when he hit a metal cap of a pipe in a hole in the road, thanks to city utilities leaving several such metal things on the road in an area they were working in and close to Jonathan's job site.

 He had to call me to bring the spare which happened to be at home rather than in his truck. It took a few hours out of each of our day, and time spent calling city utilities and trying to get them to pay for a new tire, which required meeting the service rep and paperwork and so on.

 

 As Scott Hubbard of Desiring God wrote, "Many of the good works in front of you today will not feel magnificent. But...not one will go unnoticed or unrewarded — from the biggest sacrifice of your comfort to the smallest deed done in faith."

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/awaken-me-to-today

And as Marshall Segal wrote in Desiring God's "The Joy We Know Only in Suffering,"

"Real joy doesn’t have to be put-together and smiley... It is...often tear-stained and worn out, crawling after God with whatever strength and longing we can muster."
That phrase "crawling after God" intrigued me, maybe because there aren't very many events in my life like shooting an elk not just the first day of hunting season, but the first hour. 
Most of my days are humdrum.
Day in and day out, just doing the tasks that lie before me, plus dealing with the many ordinary frustrations of having my days very often rudely interrupted with everything from having to take a spare tire 50 minutes across town
to having to run out and chase stray animals back into their pens or pastures,
sometimes too distracted with the many things going on to really spend a long time focusing on God as I'd like.
But my heart "crawls after God,"
after the toils of the day,
after most of the family has finally taken their tons of hunting paraphernalia out and have disappeared hours away to the mountains,
and things are quiet.
My tired heart crawls after God--and finds Him!

Cousins, Company, and Carrots

A few weeks ago upon arriving back from our time in North Dakota, we had a nephew, a niece, and two friends here all at the same time! Almost every evening the children--oh, dear, I guess I should say young people--played games at the kitchen table.

This one was Snorta--which hides little farm animals inside little barns, and you have to remember which animal sound to say to whoever draws a matching card. Whoever gets the other person's animal sound right first gives all his/her cards to the other person. The point is to get rid of your pile of cards first!

Cousin Candace was such a treat to have in our home! She helped with a lot of sewing--skirts, nightgown, etc. 

Her bright smile and friendliness and helpfulness meant a lot to me. 

One afternoon before it was to possible frost, the children went out and pulled lots of our veggies--

beets, pumpkins, carrots.

The children planted rainbow carrots, and we got several colors! They are so good!

Rose is storing some dried camomile in a quart jar.

Here are a couple links to wonderful articles I've read recently.

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/obey-god-with-your-creativity

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/whatever-is-lovely

Even Church Steeples Need Anchors

A beautiful white steeple went up in Denver last weekend!

But we didn't just set it up there on the church roof and say, "Wheee! Done!"
What a lot of work went into getting that steeple up!
First we had to apply for permission from the local building department, because anything over a certain height has to be approved by the local building department.
We had to drive all the way to Texas to purchase and bring back the steeple. It had to be stored somewhere till it could be put up.

Jonathan had to contact an engineer, go into the engineer's office when he wouldn't return phone calls, set up an appointment to meet the engineer clear up in Denver inside the attic of the church a couple weeks ago, and then drive all the way up there to meet in the church attic.

Then Jonathan had to draw up the plans with all the details of how the steeple was going to be anchored, take it to the engineer, change certain details, get it approved and stamped.
Then that plan had to be submitted to the Building Dept by fax, and finally Pastor Walker could pick up the permit last week.
Finally, finally, finally we could take the steeple up to Denver, having made arrangements for several young men to be there to get the steeple up on the roof.

It was an exciting day.
Having a steeple up there on the roof was definitely going to make this building look more like a church!

I was the one who pulled the tape and red flag off the end and scrubbed off the dirt and fly specks that had accumulated over the last couple months while it sat out by our driveway. I was happy to do that and let the men carry that thing up on the roof!

While Jonathan figures out everything about bolts, fitting, measuring, etc, the men help lug junk that has collected over many years from the back church yard to load in our trailer that we'd hauled the steeple in. Samuel, Timmy, Hannah and I lugged load after load of stuff from the church attic storage room which had become a sort of catch-all and which the Walkers wanted to clear out. 

 Finally the steeple and ladders are ready.

So here they are starting to lift the steeple.

 Pastor Gutierrez, from the Lakewood Bible Missionary Church, had come to help. (He hopes to get a steeple on their church roof next year!) He is hauling up the heavy end of the steeple with Timmy in the middle and Jonathan at the other end,

 while Justin Stanton, Pastor Walker, and Samuel Morley reach to grab it as soon as it is up the ladders.

Up, up, up!

I had to get a picture from the other side of the parsonage yard, with the yellow leaves framing the scene.

The men took off their hats as Pastor Walker offered a prayer of dedication, and then Justin and Pastor Gutierrez left for their homes.

Jonathan had told me he thought this job would be done by noon.

Ha ha. Hee hee. Ho ho. 

We weren't out of there till nearly 5:30!

Measurements ended up being off, and there was an awful lot of work to do to anchor that steeple in the trusses and/or beams of the church attic.

It was beastly hot in there, despite the cool air outside. The boys and Jonathan came out with their shirts soaked in sweat.

But that steeple would blow over in no time at the first gale of wind that came along 

if it had not been firmly and securely anchored in the beams of the church attic.

On his knees, Jonathan climbs inside the steeple to get the bolts in place.

And on our knees we get into the Bible to learn what God has to say
so that our beliefs are firm and will not blow over at the first gale of questions, doubts, mockery and disagreements of others.

"The church is going to blow away before that steeple comes down!" Jonathan declared.

"Have a care where there is more sail than ballast." William Penn wrote, a quote in Fruits of Solitude.
Lord, teach us to so anchor our faith in Your Word and in Your Son Jesus Christ

that no stormy wind shall ever cause it to waver!

What Do Mopping Moms and the Protestant Reformation Have in Common?

This October is the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Each of these 30 days of October, I've gotten by email a brief biographical sketch of one of thirty leaders of the Reformation. (Two of the sketches were actually about women, including one lady named Wibrandis Rosenblatt who was the wife of four different reformers, but not at one time! One by one each husband died, and eventually she married again--four times! She was nicknamed the "Bride of the Reformation.")
Actually here is the link to signing up for these emails and to see a list of the reformers discussed:
 https://www.desiringgod.org/here-we-stand
These are eye-opening, engaging, awe-inspiring stories of the common, ordinary, yet heroic people who ended up being leaders in the Reformation, some of whom gave their very lives for the Word of God. 
But, as I asked, how are mopping moms related to the reformation?

In the same way as were boys behind the plow.
Plow boys, as William Tyndale called them, were the commonest, and least of society of his day,
just like moms who stay home and take care of families are pretty close to the least of today's society.
The basic theme of the Reformation was to get the Bible into the hands of the common people, the moms and the moppers,
the dads and the carpenters, the children and the poor and the least and the most unlikely, so they could read it for themselves rather than have it dictated to them from  church leaders who hid God's Word behind a foreign language and then used it only for their advantage
Here is one of the quotes in this 30-day series:
“As Hus read Scripture and watched the popes of his day abuse their power, he concluded that papal authority was not ultimate. He needed a sturdier foundation than was built from the straw and sticks of men’s opinion — no matter how highly regarded those men were. He built his life and ministry on the word of God.” 


It's easy to laud Luther now for nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the church,
 but in Luther's day he was Mr. Bad Guy.

The act we Protestants have lauded for 500 years as heroic was considered horrible, heinous, and hellish.
"Heresy! Heretic! The devil is really fighting!" was on the tongues of pope, priests, and people alike.


Now Luther who got into trouble with pope, priests, and peers alike is revered by the Protestant Church at large.
All because he was concerned, not about his good name, but about getting the truth of God's Word out to the common people to set them free from papal bondage.
Jesus chided the religious leaders of His day for decorating the graves of the prophets and claiming that they would not be involved in their murder like their forefathers had been, yet in fact, they were about to crucify the very Son of God.
It's so easy to look back in history and see with hindsight that indeed these reformers, however imperfect and uncouth in method, were right in their purposes and beliefs.

But what would we have done with Mr. Luther, Heretic, had he been in our day?
Just wondering.

Better to Light a Candle Than Curse the Darkness--When God's Love Is Shed Abroad in Your Heart

"It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

This quote was in Timmy's grammar lesson one day, and I noticed it as I was checking his punctuation lesson.

This quote has always meant a lot to me, and it keeps meaning more and more.

Sometimes the only way to expel darkness is not to curse it, but to light a candle.
It's so tempting to curse the darkness--the darkness of injustice, unfairness, hypocrisy, and pain of whatever kind.
Maybe you are never tempted to curse darkness because you have never felt unbearable pain. 
When Corrie ten Boom was talking with a man unable to rid himself of his burden of hatred and bitterness toward the people who had dropped a bomb on his home and destroyed his family, she did not just preach to him to forgive them as he told her in black despair that so many other people had preached at him and counseled him.
She could understand already that he could not forgive. She had been in those same shoes at one time--when a guard who had forced her to walk naked past other guards on her way to prison was in one of her services and came up to ask her to forgive him.
She could not. All the bitter humiliation of those moments and those memories haunted her, and she could not forgive.
It was too much.
But in her raw pain, she made a choice--with all her lack of forgiveness she chose to reach out to shake his hand,
and that was when the love of God flooded her heart and forgiveness was suddenly there.
For this man, the pain, still so raw, was the same bitter anguish that Corrie knew.
And she understood that preaching about forgiveness was not what this man needed.
 There was too much pain and darkness.
So God gave her the wisdom to ask him, "How do we get rid of darkness from a room?"
Do we push it out with a broom? Do we flap a towel about and chase it out?
No, you just simply open the door and let the light in!
Corrie ten Boom told the man that if he could not forgive, he could choose to open his heart to God's love, just like he could open a door to bring light to a dark room, and God's love would simply chase the darkness and unforgiveness out!
That illustration helped the man understand, and while he could not forgive, he could at least open his heart to God's love.

And when He did, the love chased the hate out!
Yes, suddenly, he could finally forgive.
It was a sort of inverted order of what is usually preached. God's love first bringing healing to that deep, anguished, humiliating pain, and then the power to forgive came.
 This story came back to me again in the last couple days as I was battling searing pain over things that had been unbearable for me,
things that had left me totally humiliated, confused, sleepless, bursting into tears over and over, and I couldn't get rid of the pain of it all--
until I remembered this story today. It had helped me overcome another similar situation.
I hope that if a reader is struggling with something you can't overcome, that you will understand that God is not going to pound you over the head with some kind of concept, however spiritual and even Biblical, that doesn't work for you in the middle of your pain.
So the Bible is used to wallop you over the head.
Sometimes the pain is so great you can't forgive, and you can't function no matter how much of a Christian you profess to be.
That is when you need a different word picture, a story, if you will, rather than an abstract concept, however spiritual, of forgiveness.
You need, like I did, a word picture of darkness and a candle or a window.
 
Maybe you can't "get" how to forgive these people or give to God the hurtful situation, but you can "get" how to open a window or a door in a dark room, and let the sunshine in.
You can "get" asking God for His love.
And the amazing thing is that when you simply open your heart to God's love, light comes pouring into your darkness, and that love replaces all the hatred and bitterness, all the pain and frustration.
Suddenly, there is a bubbling joy, like I experienced today. I didn't know that days from the searing pain, the hills would be singing and the trees would be clapping their hands as I read in Isaiah 55 today.

Corrie ten Boom understood, as they teach at Caring for the Heart Ministries, that sometimes a person has to find healing for at least part of the pain in their lives and heart before they are able to forgive.
Sometimes the pain is just too deep, or too recent, or too raw.
Sometimes you have to help the person take their pain to Christ for healing before they can forgive.
Let us not be unaware of this need.
It is an incredible way to help someone be able to forgive--first ask Jesus to fill their hearts with His healing love that drives out the darkness and bitterness and unabated pain.
I know it was this way for me--over and over.  
That is what we take ourselves and others to Jesus for--for healing from the hurts that leave us crushed and broken, so that we can forgive and be healed ourselves even if the other person never understands or acknowledges where they were wrong or where they hurt you, however right they think they were.

"Jesus, I can't forgive, but I want to open my heart to Your love."
This prayer holds amazing, miracle-working power.
If we are in a dark situation, or a time of confusion, or a time of grief or loss,

or we don't understand, or we don't know what to do--

rather than curse the darkness, let us light a candle.

Pair of Doves Find Shelter by our Home

This afternoon Jonathan was at the bedroom window looking out and this is what he saw.

He came quickly to tell me. 

"It's like you and me!" he whispered in my ear. 

We tried to get pictures through the screen, which left the photos a bit blurry. And we had to move ever so quietly and slowly, because doves will fly away in a second if they are disturbed.

I remembered a poem I had written probably nearly 30 years ago, and went to look for it. Amazingly, I found it in one of my folders of poems. I gave it to Jonathan to read. That poem talked about one dove that I saw as a single, lonely young lady, but this time, we are a couple, and this time there were two doves. It just seemed like God sent those doves just for us with the same message of comfort for us today that I had needed 29 years ago. 

 

 God's  Feathers

I looked out from my window

  One rainy day and dreary,

Feeling that way,

Dreary as the day,

   And woebegone and weary.

My eyes caught sight of an evening bird,

    A mourning dove just sitting

Upon a line,

Feathery and fine,

     With raindrops 'round it hitting.

"Poor wet bird!" thought I, but she

    Seemed not to mind the weather.

All fluffed and fat,

Content she sat,

    All sheltered by her feathers!

"See, child," God said, "I gave this bird

     Feathers to keep her warm.

And if I so care

For birds do I dare

     Leave you alone in life's storm?"

"No, Lord!" said I, "I know You care,

     But in life's stormy weather

I've nowhere to fly,

And cannot stay dry

     Because I do not have feathers!"

"Then come unto Me, My child," said He,

     "My wings shall be your cover.

My feathers will

Keep you safe until

     Life's rain and storm is over!"

Black, Ooey, Gooey Mud on My Beautiful, Golden Dogs

These are what used to be fluffy, golden, beautiful, charming dogs.

I had gone outside late that afternoon, leaving behind the never-finished indoor work, to take the dogs for a walk and get some sunshine and outdoor exercise.

The indoor work will always be there when I get back--meals to cook, dishes to wash, cupboards to clean, laundry to sort, lessons to check, office work to do, mail to sort, basement to clean, stairs to vacuum--everything that stares me in the face on a daily basis.

With the heat of summer on its last legs, I had to go enjoy "October's Bright Blue Weather," and get a change of pace and fresh air.

And I took Puff and Lark with me.

Puff is my dog, and Lark is Crystal's. They are part English Cream Golden Retrievers.

They love going up the trail with me.

It's the trail where I sometimes take prayer walks. 

Not that, with dogs along, I get all that much praying done, but I never walk that trail without talking to Jesus.

 "Certain thoughts are prayers. These are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees," wrote Victor Hugo.

These are some quotes I found in a little book called Lifting You in Prayer.

 "We ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity,

speaking to Him frankly and plainly,

and imploring His assistance in our affairs, just as they happen."--Brother Lawrence
 

"The fewer the words

the better the prayer." --Martin Luther
I have been finding that. When I bring a request to the Lord, it just seems that a simple prayer is enough.
Because He is enough--without my belaboring a point.
And so I walk the path, reveling in the song of the nearby meadowlark, singing its heart out in these final warm days of early fall.
It's another reason to give thanks to the Lord. 

"Spirituality...is, quite simply, a way of life that reveals an awareness of the sacred and a relationship with the Holy One

in the midst of human frailty, brokenness, and limitations." -Edward C. Sellner
And so I walk the path--with the dogs who dipped in black, stinky mud up at the top of the trail.

They have no sense of propriety or decency.
Just dip in the mud, then fly up close to their mistress and promptly shake that mud all over her skirt!
Gotta love them, though! Back home, I took them to our nice, clean pond, and threw sticks and a ball far into the water for them to swim to fetch, to get them cleaned off.

They were very happy. And so was I. 

Nothing quite like throwing sticks for two or three energetic dogs who just love attention at the end of their mistress's walk--chock full of very simple prayers.

"It is the nature of grace always to fill spaces that have been left empty." Goethe
Jesus, whether I walk in my house or on the trail,
my heart and my prayer is always turning unto You.