I love Oswald

January 13th.
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ALONE WITH GOD?
"When He was alone the twelve . . . asked of Him . . ." Mark 4:10
His Solitude with Us. When God gets us alone by affliction, heartbreak, or temptation, by disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted affection, by a broken friendship, or by a new friendship - when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are dumbfounded, and cannot ask one question, then He begins to expound. Watch Jesus Christ's training of the twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were perplexed. They constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly expounded things to them; but they only understood after they had received the Holy Spirit (see John 14:26).
If you are going on with God, the only thing that is clear to you, and the only thing God intends to be clear, is the way He deals with your own soul. Your brother's sorrows and perplexities are an absolute confusion to you. We imagine we understand where the other person is, until God gives us a dose of the plague of our own hearts. There are whole tracts of stubbornness and ignorance to be revealed by the Holy Spirit in each one of us, and it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now, or are we taken up with little fussy notions, fussy comradeships in God's service, fussy ideas about our bodies? Jesus can expound nothing until we get through all the noisy questions of the head and are alone with Him.

More Snow

"OK, now it's getting ridiculous!" (see my face in previous post yesterday)

Our Place Today

Baby, it's cold outside and beautiful outside!

Christmas Awakenings

I woke up this morning with yet another "epiphany" (one of several this season) so I thought wow, I better get up and blog about these awakenings.
1) It must have been very dirty and smelly where Jesus was born, Joseph must have helped deliver him, and what was Mary able to pack and bring along on the back of a donkey to meet her and Jesus' personal needs? (just getting down to the details! and it must have been crude)
2)How is it that our 3 anchor pieces went together so quickly, smoothly, and look so darn wonderful??? Well, there have been people praying for us, that's how. No other explanation!
3)This family is going to save a black baby's life by adopting it into our clan. Not sure who. I am wondering how I got to be so old so fast, and I know it can't be me, but I could definitely "grandmother it". Don asked if I was prophesizing and I told him I don't know what to call it, but anyway, I feel God laying it on me.
4)The girl who plays the Griswald daughter in Christmas Vacation is the same person who plays the pregnant gal in Mixed Nuts. I put that together all by myself!!! Maybe it's not as deep as my other awakenings, but exciting all the same.
Merry Christmas Eve - hopefully off to have a special time with my kids and grandkids, slip sliding all the way, no doubt!

How Great is our God

I would be very surprised if anyone visits my blog anymore, since I have neglected to post anything for 2 months! geesh. I am up in the middle of the night - once again - so here I am. Dangerous, vulnerable, very irrational and blogging. Bad combination. I am still on a high from yesterday. What a day God blessed me with! From sleeping in to a sweet time with my hubby to spending time with my mom and listening to Emily and choir sing. Wrapping up the evening with dinner with the family. Oh, yes, and IM'ing with a dear friend Billie. I can hardly take it all in. The best was my mom sitting alongside me singing a Chris Tomlin song with me and crying with me and holding my hand. Never in a million years would I dream something so wonderful. How great is our God?! The lost years have been redeemed and now it's just overflowing.

This post is for Emily

These photos are for you, Emily. By the time you come to Iowa, it won't be like this anymore. I didn't know if everything stays green in Austin. The big maple tree in our yard is so pretty. So yellow. It's so warm and pretty out today - I wish it would last longer.
Our tree looks so yellow, but on the ground I am finding varigated colored leaves with orange and red in them. hmmmm. Proof that they blow in from all over this court and we get to rake them up!!! I love it now, but once they dry up, they're a nuisance!

Lily on Share Day

Wednesday was Lily's sharing day. Here she is showing Mrs. Fink her new puppy that she got for being brave and getting her flu shot. She is pinching the ear to make the dog bark. So darn cute!
Here she is doing the "Freeze Dance" with a scarf. The music really rocks and when it stops, the kids have to freeze in position. It's so fun to watch. (more fun to join in, believe me!)

This is the felt board where she got to dress the girl for the day. Notice she has a bandaid on her arm - probably just got her flu shot!!!