Canceled

Canceled.

There’s a word for the year.  Or, years!

In the latest of cancellations was my grandson’s first birthday party.  Before that, was my  granddaughter’s. If I were to add them all up this past year, it would be most of ours.  It’s not just the birthdays. It’s all sorts of events.  I mean, we’re all doing the same thing, right?  The bulk food is ordered and likely prepared.  The house is arranged.   Your hopes are high.  The anticipation hangs with the decorations. Everything seems on track.  Until it’s not.

Canceled.

You kind of still can’t believe it.  The odds.  The timing.  

In the scope of cancellations, I know a party is nothing.  Even a first birthday party.  Missed milestones are minor.  Worse things are canceled.  Many things are cut short. Dare I mention precious life.  It just feels like, zap.

You kind of still can’t believe it.  The odds.  The timing.

I’m attending too many funerals.  I think we all have.  I don’t know.  Maybe it’s an age thing. But, it’s canceling a lot for those who loved them most. We’ve never been given any promises in that regard.  Even still, prepared plans, anticipations, and arrangements can go abruptly off track.

I think it’s a little of misplaced hope that I have.  I just can’t keep putting it in places it was never meant to be. The possibility of what could have been derails my thoughts and steals my sensibilities.

Truth is, these things where I’m putting my hope are but a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves.  We’re told to hold tightly without wavering to the hope we have.  It’s not what’s in the present,  it’s what’s ahead of us.  Fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen.  God still has a promise for us.  He can be trusted.

My little Thomas Reid had his birthday cake prepared, baked, and iced.  Atop was centered a perfect little rainbow. I know what a rainbow means.   It’s always a good reminder.  You can cancel everything in the world.  Party or no party, God still has a promise.  You want to know what that promise is not?  You want to know what that promise will never be?

Canceled.

Hebrews 10 

2 Corinthians 4:18

Lost Diamond

I lost my diamond. 

I was so bummed.  I’d been so good for 35 years and then I look down for one unexpected moment and 4 upright prongs are holding nothing.  

Nothing!  

I mean, if I’d lost the gold band at least I had a chance with a metal detector.  How do you find a diamond?  To make matters worse, the greatest chance of finding it would be in the largest commercial-sized servings of rice that I was cooking.  That seemed the most logical place for it to have dropped.

Do you know what looking for a diamond in a vat of transparent rice is like?  It’s like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s like finding Waldo.

It’s like, hopeless.

Still, I searched high and low.  I scoured the house. I inspected nooks and crannies.    

Two years passed.  

The other day, I was deep cleaning the bottom vegetable drawer in the refrigerator and I hear scraping.  Every swipe.  Scrape.  I was curious.  I thought it was likely another piece of broken plastic from the vegetable bin.  I looked on the cleaning rag and thought what I saw was a lost jewel from play jewelry.  Yet, tucked away I never forgot I had a missing diamond.  It had been way too long to get my hopes up for this, though.

But, I looked at this gem.  It drew me closer in.  My nerves were activated.  I couldn’t immediately deduce with any amount of certainty.  

I ran it to my empty 4 prong setting, and oh, so hesitantly, dared to place it inside.

Just like the glass slipper - it fit!

I couldn’t believe my eyes. 

A drawer that I could have vacuumed debris.  A drawer that I could have pulled out and rinsed then dumped.  But, I didn’t.  

You can imagine my excitement. I told everybody.  I’m even telling you!   Such joy!

I was reading today a similar parable about a woman’s lost coin that was said to hold sentimental value.  And then it explained,  “like that of a wedding ring.” Once found, you can count on it - “That’s the kind of party God’s angels throw every time one lost soul turns to Him.”

I get it.  You just no longer care how long it was lost.  You’re so glad it’s found.

Luke 15:8-10

Pine Needle

Tree goals!

I have a new seedling with much promise. How many pine needles do you imagine my little young plant might need to grow so majestically?

I’m working to manage my hopes, but I am also encouraged that its shared soil has nourished this magnificent tree.  I wonder if this monstrosity began as a limp offshoot?

And then I think, haven’t we all?

Here is a tree in all of its full glory.  It almost demands your attention. I think about every single pine needle that contributed to its fullness and I wonder. 

What if displays like this are actually made to do just that!  Demand your attention.  Command your consideration.  And, then I think if this pine tree were a representation of one’s full life and every pine needle were to represent a manner in which God made Himself known to you by virtue of His workmanship, blessings, experiences, occurrences, sensations, surprises, phenomenons, relationships, what would this reveal?

There was a day that I came upon one of these on a walk.  It too was quite grand.  I was in the thick of placing oversized and zealous expectations on myself where they didn’t belong.  I stopped to look up and it seemed to me they were near the size of this tree.  

We’re all given a special gift according to the generosity of Christ.  I have tendencies to nudge and wedge my way in where I don’t belong with gifts I don’t have. I can be bent on making contributions that aren’t mine to make.  I walked away from that pine tree and stored a personal revelation.

“Settle down, Sparky!” 

In the life of God’s showpiece, I do have a part!  It might be an itty-bitty part.  It could be teeny-tiny.  My piece could be puny.  But, I have a part.  

My role is not likely the lead I try to usurp. But, I have a part.  I may be one line compared to a novel.  I may be one operational widget to the functioning of a machine.  I can contribute with my one line, my one small part, my one limited word in the scope of lines, parts and words.  I am responsible and accountable for using the gift God chooses in His generosity.  I am responsible to make a contribution.  

In God’s work of art, I am but a needle.

Ephesians 4:7

1 Corinthians 12:11

One Word

 One Word.

It’s a challenge.  

Literally.

What one word would you want to set your mind and focus on for a whole year?  Which word of all words might direct your heart in 2022?  What could possibly recenter you all day and all night when life’s navigational GPS has you all over the place?  I mean, that’s the idea behind a One Word challenge.  Is there such a word?

I’ve just never been one to establish New Year’s resolutions because I’ve never been one to volunteer myself for failure. Three years ago, the first One Word challenge was presented and I wasn’t going to accept that either. I mean, I don’t mind a good challenge, just not that one.      

This just seems to require something of me that I’ve yet to conquer in my whatever years.

It played out differently.  There was a niggling word that was undeniably present in thought and word that wouldn’t let go.  So, I chose it.  I mean, I think it chose me, but I went with it.  Unsure whether the next year would renew my steadfast commitment, another new word came a niggling.  I chose it, too.  Then this year’s word served to focus and refocus me.  And, what is now becoming an annual challenge, is once again before me.

I’m never certain of my commitment level from one year to the next.  You know, like a trend that might die out.  But, if that’s going to be true, I don’t think this is that year.

In the course of my writing, outside the safety of my journal, I dared to share a picture and song that reminded me how I needed to be.  Still!  This got me to thinking whether I should settle upon such a word for the upcoming year.

The next day, I’m leaving my gym and a sweet new member, whom I’ve yet to have the pleasure of knowing, hands me something before I leave.  It was a coloring book she had written and illustrated.  She just wanted to give me a copy. It was titled, Finding Stillness, by Twyla Stewart.  You could say, my attention was peaked.  But, for just cause, right?

No less than 48 hours came Christmas Day.  My daughter wrapped a gift she admitted picking for me last year but saved it until this year.  I opened it. It was a gold bracelet with a charm. Wouldn’t you know, it was engraved.   Be Still.   

I don’t know where you stand on a challenge such as this.  If it’s up to you, maybe there’s a niggling word around.  Though sometimes, I feel that maybe it’s not up to me.  This particular time I feel for this One Word challenge that it’s just meant to be.

Still.

Psalm 46:10