Robed

Psalm 93

There is something magical about a wedding dress. Don one and an already beautiful woman becomes radiant. Without any effort on her part all eyes naturally turn to admire the sight.
Thus  shall I turn my eyes to my Lord.

Greek Letters

Revelation 1:1-8

8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. 

Alpha, beta, gamma- some of my new friends in secondary school. I loved their rounded shape. They made it  easy to differentiate between the vertex and the size of the angle at a vertex of a polygon. I knew where I was going from A to B and what I would find when I got there.
God is there always, not only from A to B but A to Z and helps us to know what to expect.

To Test

Psalm 26

² Prove me, O Lord, and try me;
   test my heart and mind. 

Noami recently asked me if I thought God tests us. The question brought to mind a sermon preched by Dick Johnson. Dick Johnson was the priest at St Mary's Cypress, the first time we arrived in Houston. Though Dick is no longer a priest he preached some of the sermons which I find most memorable. 
Dick drew a verbal picture of an ancient metalworker heating his material in the great heat and with great skill forging an object of great wealth, beauty, or use, or even all three. The smith knew his metal, the heat revealed its compounds to his skilled eye and hand. His experience guided him him his use of that which was clasped in his tools. with skill he hammered and tapped,  manipulating the hot metal into that which he desired. 
In reality though a metal is tested to find its precious metal content. Great heat is used. Sometimes life is easy, everything goes to my plan. Sometimes it is more difficult. I would class moving across the Atlantic four times in this category; new house, new home, whatever the language. Burying a child too, an experience which we share with Dick.   Do they reveal the devotion of our heart and mind to God?

Getting back to normal

John 13:20-35

³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

Do you know that I am a Christian by the way that I love you?

Guiding light.

Luke 2:67-80

Windermere has an unhealthy fascination with our next door neighbours rabbit. he dug under the hedge and the protecting fence. We knew he was there by the barking. it was after 11pm. All lights were off in the neighbour's house. I donned wellington boots and coat, grabbed the torch. Right at the back end of our garden is a little dap where I can climb over the fence. With the aid of the torch I negotiated the derelict decking, climbed the bank and made my way next door. I could not have done it without the light.

Rain glorious rain

Psalm 29

Today it is raining. Yesterday it was raining. I think it was raining the day before that. The village is under a centimetre of mud. The sky is grey and the ground is slime. Not beautiful but God made it and I thank him for that.

Hurricane Katrina

Psalm 55

⁸ I would hurry to my place of shelter,
    far from the tempest and storm.’

The people of New Orleans left their city and headed west. The same with those who lived in Houston. They were scared of the the consequences of staying. The storm was being monitored. We kept at least one hurricane watch web-page open. Hurrying though was not an option. We tried to buy petrol but we could only move across I10, joining it was not an option. The freeways were completely blocked. Joining the freeways was impossible. The traffic was static. Nobody was going anywhere. Seventeen people died on the blocked roads. There was not fuel and no water. It was taking 19 hours to do what would normally take 90 minutes.
The storm came to New Orleans, but not to Houston. There were people left behind in New Orleans who suffered much. There are many for whom life has not returned to normal, even seven years later.

Lord be with us in the storms of life.