The Snares in our Life

Proverbs 3:25-26
"Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared."

The other morning I padded out to my cold deck in my bare feet, eager to see the subtle color changes in my backyard.  Within three steps I found my face fully encased in a large sticky spider web.  My eyelashes instantly seemed to be glued shut, and without my vision I was even more grossed out by the sensations of the web around my entire face.  Fear quickly began to grow because I had no idea where the creator of the web, the artful orb-weaving spider, was lurking. As I jumped around pulling sticky webbing out of my lashes, I stepped on a cold, dense, squishy thing that gave way under my foot. My senses were on full-alert now, because I knew instantly the pest under my foot was a slug. I gasped in horror and danced around the deck like a crazy woman, sliding my foot along to rid it from slime and slug-parts.  I then walked around the wet yard scraping my foot along the grass like I was skating on a ice-covered pond. The word "gross" really doesn't go far enough in situations such as these, nor do the words "wretchedness," "torture," "torment," or "freakish misery". I ran from the yard to the shower and scrubbed my skin and  hair until there was no hint of outside pests or even natural oil left on my body. I then went out and salted the remainder of the slug and a couple of its evil friends.

Life can be like that sometimes.  We can be cruising along with every good intent, then we're struck by a temptation or calamity that we have to deal with, and deal with now! How nice it would be to have a warning that we were about to encounter something awful. I'm just saying...

But God tells us that we should have no fear of sudden disaster. He obviously knows we will encounter them, after all we do live in a fallen world. He tells us to have confidence in Him, that he will keep our foot from being snared, because once those feet go walking towards trouble, the rest of our body comes as a package deal and before we know it, we're stuck.  God is the creator of all things and therefore can and will provide a way to get through, over, or around, anything that threatens to pull us away from His loving arms.

How easy it is for me to forget these things. My natural temperament is peppered by fear. "What ifs" prowl around my head just looking for a place to pounce. But God gently reminds me to "Be still as know that I am God", and when I really do this, I rest and am at peace. Praise the Lord for He is good.

Fall Blessings

I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O Lord!

Psalm 92: 4-5.

As long as I can remember fall has been my favorite season. My eyes are drawn to the warm colors of gold, orange, reds and browns, so it’s no real surprise that the colors of my home have naturally gravitated to these. Lately my eyes have been riveted to Pottery Barn’s fall catalog because the vignettes of life on those pages look, well...homey. Its pages brim with peaceful earthiness, rustic charm and a touch of whimsy. Sometimes I want to jump into those pages and assume the life of a fall Pottery Barn woman...coming into my door with arms laden of fresh-picked herbs, a bottle of homemade wine has just been opened and about eight of my dearest friends are admiring my table setting and sipping appreciatively.  Pottery Barn women would seem to entertain a great deal (which I would like to, but for some reason don't), and work from home (which I would, but I can't figure out what I want to be when I grow up). Yes, fall is a magical time, and I would assume even more so for Potter Barn women.

My daughter says fall brings with her urges to buy something in bulk, reminiscent I suppose of our fall school-shopping expeditions. I, on the other hand, feel a yearning to make soup and knead bread, shop for colorful squashes, make applesauce, and eat pork chops with my fingers. My eyes are scanning for each day’s color changes and my skin awakens to the crispness of the fall air. One of my favorite fall thrills is watching leaves flitter downward from the trees and then dance enthusiastically upward for a festive and elegant waltz after a car zooms over its carpet. Fall also brings dew-bejeweled spider webs that are stretching over expanses of air like a spidery art show. The one stretching from the rain-gutter to my grill, takes “best-of-show” in my book

I know the beguiling magic of fall has long been with me because when I was a little girl of eight or nine, I wrote the following poem and a year later submitted it to a grange national newsletter where it was published, much to my youthful glee:

Fall

Orange, green, red, brown,
Fall is the time the colored leaves fall down.
They titter and tatter up in the trees,
Then swoosh comes a big hard breeze
Then, down, down, down, goes my beautiful leaves.

I was chatting with a Starbucks barista the other day after buying my first pumpkin latte of the season. We were agreeing over the deliciousness of fall and she was bubbling over with the anticipation of fall and winter holidays. How much easier it is to say good-bye to warm weather and summer flowers when the beauty of fall is so prevalent and the family feasts of winter holiday celebrations beckon us forward. How blessed we are as a nation. How blessed we are to live here in the midst of so much beauty, treasure and bounty. I’m humbled to be the hands and feet of our Lord, and pray for eyes to see his blessings, hands to serve others and feet to walk with those who need a friend. Help me Lord to serve; I have more than I need. Help me to realize that when I'm reading the Pottery Barn fall catalog.

Here are a few of my blessings around our home: