The Hooray Chapter

I’m including this gorgeous picture of Brian's--a Tucson sunset because I forgot to do so last week—it has nothing whatsoever to do with the subject of my blog, but isn’t it beautiful?.                                               

 And yes, the colors really were that vivid.

Hooray or hurrah or yippee—Dean and I have finally reached the last chapter in J.I. Packer’s book BELIEVING GOD. Not done yet but will be by next week. What a tussle, but so very rewarding because it has really made us stretch our gray matter.  I can already see I need to check it out of our church library next year and read it again—Yikes!

Packer calls his last chapter, "The Adequacy of God" and focuses on that wonderful 8^th chapter of Romans. He prefaces it with Luther’s statement about the book of Romans, being “the clearest gospel of all.” Then Packer alludes to Romans 8 as a sort of microcosm of the Gospel

Case in point: the chapter starts out with “there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” and ends with “[nothing]… can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”  In between we find such precious nuggets as “All things work together for good to those who love God…”(verse 28) and “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (verse 31b). And because of Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection, we finite, puny human beings can call the Creator of the Universe, "Abba, Father" (verse 15)--remember, Abba in Hebrew is like saying Daddy in American. I think that’s a pretty awesome privilege!

I’ve recently enjoyed participating in the Beth Moore DVD/Bible study titled “The Inheritance.” God is so gracious and kind to us, His adopted children. The 8^th chapter of Romans is a great picture of our inheritance through Jesus. If you feel like you need some spiritual rejuvenation, sort of like a “battery jump” for your spirit, go to Romans 8. You will either realize again what you have been given in Christ, or you will realize what you need—which is a personal relationship with the Great I AM.

I would love to dialogue with any readers interested in discussing this topic. In the meantime have a great weekend (if you read this when I post it).

Tucson Rendezvous

This blog post should have been written last weekend but my brain was apparently in relax mode until the middle of this past week (and I'm still late). At any rate, the annual Diehl Reunion in Tucson was a fantastic get-together, as usual. The one grandchild in the group helped make the time just that much more enjoyable. 

Ryder is such a cuddly sweetie and has learned to pose perfectly because his daddy takes so many pix of him (for which we are grateful, Todd).

The family’s propensity to “pig out” was no different this year and we enjoyed eating all the yummy offerings whether they were from Diehl or Tucson relatives. Here’s a sample of one of Brenda’s spreads.

The house’s caretaker took Dean’s hint and found a pool table which he refurbished. Did a fine job and the table was enjoyed by several. (picture) However, I didn’t see any games of“Farmer Pool” this year. What happened, Wendi and Jeff?

The swimming pool also got daily usage although  I can tell you personally that 72 degree water does not comfortable make! It's a toss-up on the best way to acclimate oneself to a less than tepid temperature in a swimming pool—sudden immersion of the entire body or immersion by degrees. The shrieks of shock are approximately the same amount of decibels.At any rate, the male “children” had a good time as evidenced by the human cannonball aka Todd. 

The group enjoyed shopping trips of various sorts and Dean and Brian made a trip to Mt.Lemmon where Brian got some gorgeous shots of scenery. It was wonderful to see Aunt Dorothy, Uncle J, Brenda, Rick, Andrew and Emily as well as visiting again with Dorothy’s friend, Debra Ann.

All things in this life do come to an end, whether good or bad and happily, every one arrived back home safely. Dean and I had special reason to give thanks for a safe trip as a large sandstorm came through on I- 10 about 20 minutes ahead of us causing a 19 vehicle pileup extending to both sides of the freeway, killing 3 people and severely injuring several others.   

Here’s an aerial picture taken by Brian about an hour later as he flew from Tucson to Phoenix and as the storm churned on. Thank You, Lord for our guardian angels.

The Joys of Aging

Actually there are some joys in aging (just to let any youngsters out there realize the fact). But at times you have to look sort of hard. Those of us who fit the Senior Citizen category can look back at wise choices and not-so-wise choices and know that we have learned from that circumstance and can go on from there with confidence. And of course, you have to have a certain amount of years under your belt to have and enjoy grandchildren (or great-nieces and nephews).

However, dealing with aging bodies that you had thought were relatively fit is an unwelcome surprise. Case in point:  last Monday I was finishing my third set of strength training exercises when I heard a pop and immediately felt an excruciating pain in my calf. These were not new exercises to me and I had warmed up in the same fashion as other times I had done these routines. How could my body sabotage me like that?

Once the pain had subsided enough for me to hobble over to the computer, I googled mid-calf pain and discovered that I had possibly torn a muscle. Well, that sounded really hunky-dory since we had a vacation planned for the next week. After icing and elevating the leg most of the day, I took one of Dean’s anti-inflammatory drugs  and slept great that night

Since then I have been able to walk pretty much pain-free except that I can’t get rid of a limp. Not sure whether I just want attention—don’t think so—or if my brain is telling my body that the correct balance needed to walk freely isn’t quite what it needs to be yet.

My friend told her husband (a high school coach) about my injury and he immediately had a name for the problem—sorry, I don’t have it, but probably couldn’t spell it anyway. He said old athletes often incur this injury and it was nothing particularly serious—I should be back to 100% in about three weeks.

Old athletes, huh? So now I’m an old jock. Who’d a thunk it?

Adoption

This subject could be titled “Salad Bowl Discourse #3 as it is a gift (shame! Shame!) that I have taken for granted until I read J.I. Packer’s chapter on “Sons of God” in his book, KNOWING GOD. (Yes, Dean and I are still inching our way through the book, but it really IS worth the journey.)

In our 21^st century culture we view adoption as a wonderful way to unite a baby or young child without parents with a childless couple or parents who unselfishly open their family to nurture additional children.

However, during the Roman era of world dominance which held sway during the time the New Testament was written, adoption generally dealt with bringing a young adult male into the family to carry on the family name in a worthy fashion and to inherit the family wealth.

As a child I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior (in the Baptist vernacular) and because of that decision, I grew up taking for granted that I was a child of God. That phrase “taking it for granted” is the bad guy here because as I read Packer’s thoughts on what it means to be adopted into God’s family, I realized I understood  only a tiny morsel of what that privilege meant.

Adoption into God’s family gives us eternal benefits starting with forgiveness. John 3:16 tell us God loved us so much He sent Jesus to take care of our sin debt by dying in our place. (Pat’s paraphrase) That’s just for starts. Also, in this awesome package of Godly adoption we get faith, hope, peace and other great helps for our sojourn on planet Earth.

Then there’s this inheritance factor. When I think about being a co-heir with Jesus, my Lord, it almost feels heretical—but that’s what the Bible tells me in Galations 4:7. When I try to imagine what heaven is like, my brain gets even more tangled up than when I look at the stars on a clear night and think about the galaxies beyond my sight. Yet that’s what I, as a child adopted into God’s family, will inherit.

I have been blessed with a great flesh and blood family here on Earth, but now that I’ve removed Adoption out of my spiritual salad bowl, I truly marvel at what a family I’m a part of—God, the Father and Jesus, the Son. Wow!

Purely Personal

This blog post will be a travelogue of sorts re: our Ft. Worth trip. The first picture is the sun shining through a hole in a stormy cloudscape which reminded me of a spotlight. If you look carefully, you can see two or three. Pretty eerie. This was taken between Silver Zone ad Wendover.  

The 2^nd day’s travel ranged from Laramie, WY to Dumas, TX—a long day made even more miserable by the rain and fog we traveled through. Thanks to the fog, we missed seeing the beautiful scenery over the summit between Laramie and Cheyenne. However, we didn't deal with flood waters as Boulder did.

Day 3 put us in at Jeff’s house about an hour before he got home, but that was OK. The next day was B Day—birthday time. No particular celebration this year but we did take Jeff to a new restaurant to him (and of course, to us). Then we bought 3 different LARGE slices of cake at his favorite bakery and topped that off with some ice cream at Braun’s.  (Can you se the "42" candles?)

 

Sunday was church at Hope and lunch with our friends, the Andersons. Jeff’s DVD player inside of a hand-me-down TV had die and since I use a DVD for  an exercise guide and Dean loves to watch the tube, we made a trek to Radio Shack for those items so the old folks wouldn’t feel deprived

 

Jeff took Monday off so he could help us get started on the two major goals: Inserting a new side door for his garage and putting up  pegboard for his kitchen renovation so that shelves could be put up and cabinets constructed.

We bought a door at a recycled items place which we are pleased with (unfortunately ran out of time before it could be put in place).  

I spent a chunk of time Monday ridding a copper light shade of many years of grime. We decided to turn it inside out so the copper is visible

My next project was washing the glass crystals of two chandeliers Jeff was given by a friend who is remodelling an old house. (Too bad we didn't have time to get this up to show off the light against the crystals.)

Friday was another “vacation” day (not really) for Jeff and he constructed cabinets for the kitchen that day. We moved furniture around so that his living room and dining room no longer contain quite so much kitchen utensils.

God willing, we will get to go see Jeff for next year’s birthday (Dean drove the 1500 miles in relatively good condition), so we will see what changes evolve in the little Tudor style house on NW 19^th by next year.

Our trip back home started out with beautiful sunshine but by the time we reached Cheyenne, the typical Wyoming winds picked up. I love the sight of large wind turbines and these were guarding the horizon outside of Cheyenne. I knew we would seem more turbines between Laramie and Arlington and also on the Three sisters just before we reached Evanston, so thought it was probably silly to snap this picture. Good thing I followed my first intuition as all the other locations had gray skies and snow

We got home safely and I went out to see how “the tomato plant” had fared in our absence. Elko had had freezing temps, but despite that, the 8 blossoms that emerged after the August rain turned into 4 tomatoes! (They have white paper as a background, but may still not be visible.)  A pathetic yield if you're a gardener; an unexpected delight if you're not. I fall in the second category.

Let There Be Light

This blog posting was actually written  about a month ago but I felt such a great urge to share my “tomato story”, this one was pushed to the side.

I love nostalgia and delight often in the items our local paper chooses to print  in their weekly column called Rewrites. The item that caught my eye this morning (9/7) was an article written 125 years ago.

The date of September 3, 1888 was to mark the electrification of Elko. It would be interesting to research how the town folks readied themselves for this lighting up of their lives but it surely ranked up there with future events like the first radio set in town and then the first TV available. Or maybe by that time, new inventions were becoming blasé

I was raised on a farm in the Midwest but my memory as a child always included having electricity in our home—just not inside plumbing—but that’s another story. However, I have friends (yes, they’re still alive) who remember homes without electricity. That meant going to bed at the same time the chickens did or straining your eyes to read by an oil lamp (although I understand Aladdin lamps gave out very good illumination). Moving from that type of existence to electric lights had to have been a life changing experience—one that very few of us can even imagine. I suppose some Elko folk had gas lights so that adds another twist to the change-over to electrification.

A more recent “Rewrite” column mentioned that the last bastion of non-electrified Elko County was hooked into the grid in the 60’s in the settlement called Midas. The last time we were exploring ghost towns, Midas was our destination but there may still be some people in the are—we just didn’t see any sign of them.

If any of you have memories of your family or relatives living with gas light or oil lamps, please share, particularly if there was an air of excitement in a newly electrified home or place of business.

What a Difference A Rain Makes

The title is a “take off” on an old standard and probably makes little sense to any readers who have not lived in the Southwest desert areas. My experience with rain in northeastern Nevada is that it usually arrives in June, we then see little of it the rest of our short summer--and then it snows.

This years has been different with very cold temperatures in June  (I was bemoaning my non-garden in an earlier post) and little moisture. This post will chronicle the continuing saga of “the” tomato plant. Here it is pre-planting.  

As you may remember, “the” tomato plant started out as a “counter” plant bearing  one tomato about the size of a tennis ball and a  smaller one about the size of a golf ball. The larger tomato ripened and graced a Diehl salad one day. After having surmised that the freezing weather was over (by the end of June) I decided to plant "the" plant outside in hopes the golf-ball tomato would show its muscle and grow into something useful.

Three days later the July heatwave hit Elko and we had 7-10 days of temperatures at 101-105 or high 90’s. I finally checked the baby  fruit and discovered its little insides had totally cooked in the heat. Well, I did say it was a non-garden this year.

Have to admit I neglected the plant after that but then discovered that one branch of it seemed to be thriving.  Hoping I’m not sure what, I dumped a bucket of water on it periodically.

Now comes the irony. We had two rains last week and they could actually be measured. They even classified as rainstorms by Midwestern standards. One friend who lives near the foot of the Ruby Mountains (about 20 miles from Elko) said their rain gauge read 2.2 inches. Elko probably didn’t get that much but some storm drains here in town couldn’t handle the sudden rush of water.

 

At any rate, I checked “the” tomato plant  after the rains. Not only had it thrived on all that heavenly water, it now has 8-10 blossoms on it. (Sorry, they're hard to see because the picture was taken by a somewhat blind photographer, but they ARE there.)  

Poor things don’t realize those freezing temperatures are probably on the way again in 3-4 weeks (while I’m gone and can’t cover the plant). If it does live until I return, I will probably re- pot it and return it to the kitchen counter where it started. That way we may have two tomatoes/month through Christmas (or ten at the same time) and I can feel like I have afforded the plant a true "life cycle."