What I've Been Doing, Part 1

I'm having a bit of a problem uploading photos today. Hope this eventually works!! Very frustrating, to say the least.

Oh my - 10 days without blogging. Yikes! And I'm not even in the States playing with my grandkids. I think I need to post a whole lot of photos, not just the ones I was originally going to post. Oh well - we'll see what happens.

I've been busy. Busy working on this room. I totally rearranged it, except for the desk. I'm going to keep this desk so I can look out the window at the trees and sky and birds and clouds. Don't want to look at the wall. Don't want to look at the rest of the room. I want to look 'free'!!

I left the shkaf where it is - it's too heavy to even consider moving unless I totally empty it and have Mel move it in pieces. So, it stays where it's at. However, I did clean it out again. Seems like I'm always cleaning it out.

Well "always" is too broad of a term. It's more like "whenever we get ready to go home, I clean out the shkaf" in this room. I seldom put anything in the cupboards and on the shelves any more, so I don't know why it always needs to be cleaned - but there you have it.

But I moved the bed, and I moved the table, and I moved the empty and full of winter clothes now suitcases and I moved the empty boxes. And I threw away 2 full boxes of old video cassettes that we don't watch anymore, but kept another box full of ones we might watch again. The throw-aways were recorded off of tv - Columbo, Murder She Wrote and Diagnosis Murder. Kind of sad to see them go - but I needed the room!

We are downsizing. The greater team is downsizing. We are letting the office lease go. That means that all of Mel's books, and anything else we have downstairs in that room, need to come up here and go into storage here.

Ei Yi Yi. We do NOT live in a large flat to start with, so I needed to make room. I'm going to have to go through boxes and shelves of books next and get rid of books. Many books. Books that are so-so but I might read them again will go. I'm not sure where they will go, but they are going. Probably in bags out by the dumpster to someone can haul them off and sell them as used books in the market. That's fine with me. I will tear apart any that I don't want sold (we've been given a few books that are questionable - and I've bought a few that looked good, but when I started reading them, I ended up knowing that I won't share them with anyone, so into the trash they will go. Unfortunately, sometimes I just set them aside later to rip them apart and they end up getting shuffled back into the mix....) So, I need to go through at least 2 boxes of books and a whole bookcase and discard with a fury. Then, I'll have room for Mel's books - seminary books, theology books, study books, just for fun books that he has.

We like books.
haha

So, it took me at least 3 days to get the room where I have it now. And it will take a few more days for me to get inspired to do the books next. But in the process, I also weeded out old papers. I killed the shredder by plugging it into an extension cord without a transformer. Whew! The room stank for days! It sure did work really fast until I got it unplugged, however - like a chainsaw roaring away over there on the table! Poor thing. But I killed it in the process. 220v does not do good things to 110v electrical appliances and machines. So, all of the stuff I weeded out I had to shred by hand. Some I just tore into pieces, but names, addresses, dollar amounts, receipts no longer needed, etc. all got cut into tiny pieces and thrown out. Of course, two bags out in the dumpster were very appealing to someone who tore them open, rummaged through them and then left them for the garbage men to scatter all over the place when the dumpster emptied into the garbage truck. :( sigh. Looking out there and seeing that bright neon pink paper in the middle of scattered tiny pieces and knowing it was mine was not encouraging, but embarrassing. Should have taken a photo but didn't think of it, so here's a photo of what's out there right now (not ours!).
On Monday this week, Mel and I went over to Nova Linea. As you can see from this photo, we've had some dark, gray clouds recently and a couple of very heavy rainstorms. There was a little lightning and thunder, but not much. Mostly heavy rains. We really needed that rain, tho - it's been very dry. Fortunately, the temps also dropped, way down into the low '60's. Unheard of for summer here! :) I'm glad they dropped. It's been wonderful.

Along with other things, I bought a new fountain at Nova Linea. It's not as pretty as my blue jug fountain, but it has a light! and that is something I was trying to figure out - how to get a light to shine down into the pond so I can see the fish some day when I get fish again.

Mel helped me fill it with filtered water and in the process we discovered that the room is not level. Really? A room not level? Here in Ukraine? Wow. I'm shocked. Not. No, not shocked, just very sarcastic. :P How did we find this out, you ask? Well, we were filling it to the top so that the water would be deep enough for the fountain to circulate the pond water, not just the fountain bowl water - and the close side is apparently about an inch lower than the far side. Good grief. Water everywhere cuz we were watching the far side, not the near side. :) (Sounds like a comic strip or something.) I plan to get a couple guppies or maybe 3 or 4 goldfish to put in it on Friday or Saturday. Right now the water is sitting, recycling through the fountain and de-gassing or whatever it does while it conditions for fish. I'm hoping that whatever was left on the sides of the pond and on the rocks of the algea and stuff that fish need will "come back to life" and grow again and make it ready faster than if it was all brand new or freshly scrubbed (I didn't scrub any of it for that reason). We'll see.

And what else have I been doing? Well, that's for another post!

On Learning

Mel just finished reading a book called An Introduction to the Old Testament Template, by Landa Cope. He told me yesterday, while we were out walking, that he'd started reading it before we went to the States, but just couldn't get into it. He decided to start it again. This morning he interrupted me while I was reading and asked if he could read aloud a long paragraph to me. He said he thought I'd like it. Sure, I responded - go for it (I like it when Mel reads to me :) ).

He was right. I did like it. So, here it is for you, too! (He has some problems with the book over all, said he needs to think more about it before he can give a recommendation on it yet, one way or the other.)

pg 124
A NOTE TO ALL BELIEVERS:
Do you love learning? God does! Are you interested in everything? God is! If we are to model Jesus to those around us, part of that modeling will be His passion to know His Father in every area of life. One of the most tragic effects of the split gospel is the loss of interest in most of life. Often it seems that the only thing a believer can talk about is church, prayer, heaven, and hell. Not that those are not important. They are! But, were Jesus here, He would be ecstatic to be in the first generation to actually see through the Hubble telescope a star being born, or dying. His Father created that and He would worship Him in all that the heavens are still teaching us. He would stand in awe at the way His Father created the DNA of the human species. He would ponder the fact that every cell can reproduce every other human cell and what that says about the nature and character of God. Jesus would love the idea of going to other planets and discovering more of what the Father has made. He would be reading, listening, eager about what is going on in His Father's cosmos and He would be excited about what we are learning and how God wants to use that insight.

God has made us with the capacity to learn - or refuse to learn, to know - or to refuse to know. From Genesis to Revelation God portrays Himself as the Lord of knowledge, revealed in all the truths of the universe. Choose to think like God! Choose to be interested. Model Jesus' love of learning and you will make those around you hungry for more.

Children love learning unless they are taught to be afraid of it. All it takes to learn is willingness to admit you don't know. That is the humility of a child. Children naturally ask questions. They have to be taught to feel foolish about the eagerness to know things. God loves questions and calls us to "ask, seek, knock" ...and become like children again.

Oh! How my heart resonates with this! I don't know what else she has written in this book, but this section alone is worth the price of the book for me. :)

Bits n Pieces

Beautiful blue skies this afternoon. Absolutely beautiful. That clear medium blue that indicates 'cold' and 'dry'. There were some white puffy clouds floating by, accenting that beautiful clear blue. Mel and I went to the store and I enjoyed just looking up as we walked. {happy sigh}

*~*~*~*~*~*
I read a short story by Louis L'Amour today while waiting for the laundry to finish washing. "The Sixth Shotgun" - a nice read, very Western. But it made me sad in a couple of ways.

First - I love Westerns, probably always will, but the older I get the more the violence bothers me. I love the code of the West, cowboys, the good guy wins, and so forth - but, well, there it is.

Second - America is no longer the place it was even 5 years ago. It makes me so sad to think that my grandchild will never know the West as I knew it growing up. Freedom unimagined in most places - lost now with a plethora of laws, taxes, people moving in, culture and attitudes changing so fast it is frightening. In many ways I'm glad my grandparents did not live to see this happen. I know that it is very stressful for my parents - they go so far as to refuse to watch the news any more, or even read the paper. It's just too much to handle.

Change is not always for the better.

*~*~*~*~*~*
Mel put on some Garth Brooks for me this morning while I was reading, just to make the ambience complete, I think. I've always liked a lot of his music, although I am so far behind the times that I have no clue what he's done, if anything, in the past 5 or 6 years. Same with Clint Black and others.

Such is life.

Again - I like the music, but sometimes (a LOT of times!) the words to the songs really bother me. Drunkeness, adultry, murder and so forth are accepted. I guess, though, from what I read about other forms of music nowadays, Country Western is pretty mild.

*~*~*~*~*~*
I guess I'm in a somewhat somber and reflective mood tonight. Thinking about how much the world has changed in such a short time. From what I've read about history, I don't think the world has ever changed this fast, so completely, everywhere at once, ever in before.

I remember being in Alaska and having the knowledge that I could be truly alone there. That was an intriguing thought. Now, even in the wilds of Alaska, or down in Antarctica, or the desert canyons of the American southwest - you can get a cell phone call, or connect to the internet. You can never be truly 'away from it all' any more. Now I realize that satelite coverage is not complete or totally dependable in every place on earth - but even so, there really is no place without technology possible with a bit of planning.

I remember being in Alaska and knowing how far away my family was. Phone calls were expensive and letters took a week or so to arrive. Now - I sit on my chair in the office room of our flat here in Ukraine and watch and listen to my grandson play in his livingroom half a world away, real time. He can't see or hear me - yet - because they are still on dial-up access and two way video cuts them off.

A hundred and 50 years ago, people left their homes in covered wagons and headed West and were often never heard of again. Now, I can talk to my family in the States as I ride the train across Ukraine - if I want to.

Is it really good for us to always be accessable to everyone?

*~*~*~*~*~*
Most of these kinds of advances are nice. Most of them. Then there are other advances.

Like the 'advances' of putting a computer chip in your child so you can make sure that if they are abducted, they can be found quickly. A computer chip, identification chip, in your child??

Advances like doctors here who advise women to abort perfectly healthy babies, telling them that there are major problems showing up on their ultra-sounds - because the doctor wants to sell the healthy tissue for stem cell research.

(As a side note while thinking of doctors and babies - I do NOT understand why doctors and women bombard their tiny developing babies with concentrated sound waves, sometimes several times over the course of a pregnancy! We wonder why there is so much Autism and Aspbergers, ADD and ADHD and other problems with our children now. How can anyone truly say it is "safe" to do that to developing babies? They thought it was safe to give babies oxygen when I was born and I, plus a host of other people in my age bracket, almost lost my sight due to that practice - it took time for the bad effects to show up. Yet - here in Ukraine it is not uncommon to have many ultra-sounds during a healthy pregnancy. I do not understand this practice at all. Why is it so important to see the unborn child in a normal, healthy pregnancy? Humanity made it all the way into the 1970s without every doctor needing to see every baby before it was born. Obviously this is one of my pet peeves. I thank God that my kids have 'clean genes' - no illegal drugs by either their mama or papa, and none of them underwent fetal sound wave bombardment. Good grief - what kind of genetic damage may be being done, all those little genes being developed in their correct order in the DNA, getting blasted by waves of sound, possbly damaged or misplaced - it could take years to discover the damage ...)

*~*~*~*~*~*
Wow. I guess I'm in a mood tonight.

Pursuing the Road

After reading The Hobbit again earlier this year, and after watching The Lord of the Rings series again this fall, I wanted to actually read again how the series was written by J. R. R. Tolkien. I don't have the books here, so I borrowed them.

I also looked Tolkien up on the internet and read several articles about him. Was he a true Believer? Some indicate yes and some are not so clear. He was Catholic, a very devout Catholic, and as with everyone else who has lived and died, we will know for sure when we get to heaven.

As I am with music, only more so, I am not a big poetry fan. In fact, if there is poetry in a story I skip it 99.9% of the time. Poetry drives me nuts. Just say what you want to say! Don't beat around the bush getting to the main point! And why make it so complicated? I don't get it.

Strange. Me - who likes to write in metaphors - complaining about poetry in that way. But I always disliked it in school, I really disliked reading it aloud (getting the cadence going - blah) and I confess, listening to poetry in Russian is like listening to the same sounds over and over and over and over again. (This is because the language is gender based and the words end with the same letters - adjectives and nouns - thus mya bolshaya beliya starshaya mashina - all ending with the ya or a sound is an example. Sigh. BORING. I know, I know - it's just me!)

So, when I got out The Fellowship of the Ring and started reading it I very quickly remembered that "Oh yes, there is a bunch of poetry in this series. Oh no." And I decided then and there that I would actually read it this time.

Wow! Read large sections of these books that I totally skipped last time I read the series? Yep. I actually remember sitting in the library in high school, turning the pages while skipping those sections.

Imagine my surprise when I found out I actually enjoyed parts of the poetry in The Fellowship of the Ring. Not all of it, granted, some of it just did not 'speak' to me at all, but some of it is very good (not the poetry itself maybe, but what it says).

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

~*~*~*~
Mel and I were talking yesterday and I'm not sure he understood exactly what I was talking about, but I'm going to try here and put it into better words. Sometimes it seems that I can write my thoughts a lot better than speak them aloud.

When I was young it seemed that the whole world was wide open to me. As a child I learned more and more, and the world grew bigger and the possibilities of the future seemed endless. As a young woman each stage was new and exciting. Graduation from high school, working a full-time job, traveling by myself or with friends - even all the way to Alaska, going to Bible college, getting married, having my first child, and so forth and so on. It was all new. Everything was a learning process that I loved.

And always, in the back of my mind was the idea that if 'this' or 'that' didn't work out the way I liked, well, I could always change something, tweak it, work on it until it was the way I wanted. Now I had no thought ever of giving up my husband! But, when we had conflicts or troubles we could work on them, I could change, he could change, we could change and grow together. Same with the kids. And if we didn't like where we were living, the jobs that we had - well, we could get new jobs or move or start over.

But something happened along the way.
I grew older.
And the possibilities for the future became less.
Not less in importance, but less in number.

Oh, Mel and I still have to work to stay happily married. With age comes new challenges - health, available energy and so on. But we have also come to a very comfortable place with each other in many ways. Does that mean we know all there is to know about each other? Absolutely not! It just means that we have to be careful not to take each other for granted and we need to look for those new little gems. To be frank, Mel often surprises me, even after almost 33 years of marriage. And I love him more every day. That is a gift from God!

We could decide that God is calling us to a new job and place to live. That is not as simple as it was even a few years ago, but it is still very do-able.

The greatest differences are in what I know I can possibly do as opposed to what I think I can possibly do. Or be. Or become.

I know I can possibly hike in Lost Creek Wilderness Area next time we are home. But is it possible to walk a whole trail and spend a night camping out? I don't know. I doubt it. Maybe that possibility is gone forever??

I know I can still learn and study. Is is possible to go back to college? Yes. But is it realistic to think that I could have a new career in something I am very interested in? Most likely not. Maybe that possibility is gone forever??

I love working with kids and I'm glad I had my own kids and I'm glad I taught Sunday School for so many years and am doing so again. But is it possible to have another child live with us again? Maybe. But oh it would be so very different now! My energy level is so much lower, my health not what it was 30 years ago, my desire to do so is gone (unless for some reason it was my own grandchild or niece or nephew and then family takes precedence over all sorts of things!). I now truly understand what people always say: It's great to be a grandparent because then you can send the kid home after awhile. :) :)

So, as I grow older I realize that my life does not have the possibilities it once had.

This is a bit scary. It is uncomfortable. Maybe this is why guys have "mid-life crisis?" Always before if something was a disappointment, then I could go on and try something else. But it is getting to the time of life when the end of that is coming into sight.

Something to think about. Something I have been thinking about.

I wish I had a thousand lives to live so I could do and go and be all that I have thought of and dreamed of doing and going and being.

~*~*~*~
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

(note that the first and last poems are not exactly alike. Tolkien wrote them both.)

~*~*~*~
And so, in many ways, Tolkien sums up better than I can:
Upon the hearth the fire is red,
Beneath the roof there is a bed,
But not yet weary are our feet,
Still round the corner we may meet:
A sudden tree or standing stone
That none have seen but we alone.

Tree and flower and leaf and grass,
Let them pass! Let them pass!
Hill and water under sky,
Pass them by! Pass them by!

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though we pass them by today
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.

Apple, thorn, and nut and sloe,
Let them go! Let them go!
Sand and stone and pool and dell,
Fare you well! Fare you well!

Home is behind, the world ahead
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadows to the edge of night
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead
We'll wander back to home and bed.

Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
Away shall fade! Away shall fade!
Fire and lamp, and meat and bread,
And then to bed! And then to bed!

~*~*~*~
I love my life. I love the way God has led me over the years. Oh, it has not always been easy - sometimes I have been very frustrated, or angry, or disappointed. But looking back on almost 55 years, well, I love my life and I'm glad it has been the way it's been.

But I also look forward to the future, when I am "young" again in my perfect body and perfect home, forever with my Lord and Savior.

Promise from Jesus Christ:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."
John 14:1-4

In Which I Begin to re-Ponder Discernment

I have mentioned before that we always ask visiting Americans what new books are available that would be beneficial to have in our library. This is a question for both fiction and non-fiction books. I confess, I am a 99% fiction reader. Mel is a +75% non-fiction reader.

I've known for years and years that if I want to buy Mel a present for his birthday or Christmas, there are two options: classical / good movie soundtrack music, or, a good book. I never remember what music he does or doesn't have, so I usually go for the book(s). (Of course, I've also bought him books he's already got, too, but that is ok - we just give it away to someone else and I go looking again.)

It used to be easier to buy him books because I could go to the bookstore and actually look at them and decide. He is fairly particular about what he reads and I hate spending money on a book that when I ask him how it was, he just shrugs his shoulders and says, "ok."

Realizing that Mel's birthday was coming up way too fast, I started shopping on the internet about 6 weeks ago. By accident, while reading someone's blog about something totally unrelated to finding a book for Mel, I clicked on to a web page and ended up at Tim Challies. It was interesting stuff. I forwarded the address on to Mel, figuring he would be more interested in it than I was.

A few days later Mel and I had a discussion about the spiritual gift of discernment, in the midst of a discussion about contemplation and contemplatives. As is my norm (anyone who knows me, knows this is true) - after the discussion I went looking for info on the internet. A person has to be pretty careful, looking for information like this on the internet. There is a ton of stinking garbage out there in the cyber world that tries to pass itself off as "good stuff." So not only did I type in 'discernment spiritual gift' but I also typed in 'reformed' hoping that would narrow it down a lot. I didn't want any New Age junk to wade through, or at least a lot LESS of it! Imagine my surprise when one of the first sites that came up was Tim Challies!

It was a review of his new book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment.

I read the review and decided then and there that I had found Mel's birthday present. However, since I was buying for him for me (heh heh), I thought he needed another book, too, just for him, so I looked around some more and found another one. They both arrived on Thursday or Friday - a couple days late, but within the birthday time limit.

I had to wait, however, to get my greedy little hands on it. He insisted that it was his birthday present and that he should read it first. (see me tapping my foot in impatience!) Fortunately he is a very fast reader and had it devoured before the end of the day. It has taken me a bit longer to get into it, but that's ok. With my eyes not as good as they used to be, I read slower and for shorter periods of time. I am enjoying this book. A lot. Very much. I'm only in the 3rd chapter and I'm already reading parts of it aloud to Mel. He is being very patient with me since he himself just read the book only a few hours ago! :):)

I will be writing more about this book and the whole subject of discernment. Oh my! It is amazing to me how excited this whole subject and the book have made me.

Sometimes I try to step outside myself and look back at myself and think about what I am seeing. Right now I see myself and say to myself, "Girl, sometimes you are just plain weird. A book on discernment has got you this excited? Weird, weird, weird!"

You just gotta love it.

...like the tossing sea

When we first came to Ukraine I boxed up and shipped several of my favorite books. Among them were two by M. M. Kaye, The Far Pavilions and Shadow of the Moon.

I just finished rereading Shadow of the Moon for the 4th or 5th time in the past 20 years. The Far Pavilions is a very long book, but Shadow of the Moon is only 351 pages. I feel privileged to have one of the original copies, a Book Club Edition, printed in 1957. I'm not sure where I picked it up, but it previously belonged to someone named Kathryn Newkirk, had been read by people whose initials were E.D and N.C. (all written in pencil on the very front page), and later the book had been in a Kansas library sometime before it reached my hand (the library stamp is still in the front of the book).

Shadow of the Moon is a novel and a love story which tells part of the story of the Indian Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Because I am very interested in history, and because I have read about M. M. Kaye and her knowledge of this part of history, I find the book fascinating. The author was born in India and was the granddaughter, daughter, sister and eventually the wife of British men who all served in India, some of them during this mutiny.

I don't remember learning much in school about India and the history of India. Of course everyone my age - and I hope students still learn this! - learned that at one time "the sun never set on the British Empire" and that India had been under the political control of British rule for many years before she gained her independence. Both this story and The Far Pavilions trace part of the history of the British Raj in India, and try to give both sides of this very violent and bloody story.

I highly recommend both of these books. Even my son, Peter, enjoyed reading The Far Pavilions when he was in High School, although I have yet to convince my daughter, whose nose is always in a book, that she should read it, too! :):)

~*~*~*~
We have a visitor here in Kherson, a former team mate. Paul is here giving a series of lectures on Grace Based Preaching and Teaching, for our church leadership and any one else who is interested.

Yesterday morning, during the morning worship service at church, part of one of the Psalms was read and after reading along in my English Bible, Psalm 90 caught my attention. Especially these verses:
A prayer of Moses the man of God.
Lord, you have been our dwelling-place throughout all generations.
Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You turn men back to dust, saying,
"Return to dust, O sons of men."
For a thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.

You sweep men away in the sleep of death;
they are like the new grass of the morning—
though in the morning it springs up new,
by evening it is dry and withered.

We are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation.
You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.

All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.
The length of our days is seventy years —
or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass,
and we fly away.

Who knows the power of your anger?
For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due to you.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

This morning as he was teaching, some of the verses Paul took us to were Isaiah 57:20,21.
But the wicked are like the tossing sea,
which cannot rest,
whose waves cast up mire and mud.
"There is no peace,"
says my God,
"for the wicked."

~*~*~*~*~
As Paul read the verses from Isaiah, the words seemed to jump off the page at me. But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest and I immediately thought of what I had been reading in Shadow of the Moon. I also thought of the turmoil the world is in today. War in various countries around the world, many of them religious wars that have spilled over into the political realm.

M. M. Kaye brought out something that I had not known before. Simple words that are easily passed over and not noticed within the whole scope of the story: The last of the Europeans and Christians left alive in Delhi (p. 253) - and from this point she goes on to describe how they were all violently slaughtered by the raging mob. By far the largest part of the reason behind the mutiny and mass slaughter of so many people, both European and Indian, was due to religion. When all is said and done, when everything is brought down to its most central cause, the problem was the battle between light and dark, good and evil, Christian and non-Christian.

There is no peace in our world. The words of Isaiah are just as true today as they were when first written. Nothing has changed. Nothing that is, except the greatest event in history: the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Him and Him alone lies our peace. The battle will continue to rage - evil against good, the light against the darkness - until Christ returns.

~*~*~*~*~
So once again I am left with a feeling of having touched a minute part of the vastness of eternity. A feeling of connectedness to history, to those billions who have gone before me. I am struck by how small my world is, how little I know what has gone before. This story from India is just a drop in the bucket. It is recent history, yet I know so little about it. Ancient and previously unknown civilizations are rediscovered from time to time by archaeologist even now. People we have never had any clue about lived and died here on this earth. We tend to think that 'we' are the important ones, that no one before us was ever as smart, as well educated, as 'advanced' as we are, as important as we are. Yet - we know so little.

Truly we "are like the new grass of the morning - though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered."

Father God in heaven, "teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Help me to keep this life of mine, this time in history, the events around me, both far and near, all in their proper perspective. Help me to keep my eyes focused on You and Your sovereign plan.