Instead He sends rainbows

My hometown near Binghamton is a small town and my folks don't quite have the stamina to kick up their heels like they used to. So our options for getting out and about are limited. That's how we ended up gambling and drinking at the race track.

Remember, I like to use exaggeration because it catches the reader's attention. So for all my horrified Christian friends,we didn't really gamble. We just picked our favorite horses in the program and pretended to lose our homes and livelihoods when our pseudo betting didn't pan out. Which was every time. We did have a small glass of wine to ease the discomfort of our bony butts getting pressure sores on the hard stadium seats.

Tioga Downs is a harness racing track and we were watching "pacers ". Pacers race in a modified trot where the legs on the same side of the body move forward together. It makes for an odd rocking motion of the horse. It is strange as the harness wont allow them to canter or gallop easily which is what a horse who wants to go fast would naturally want to break into. Pacing is like race walking. It is sort of like going your slowest gait but faster than all the others going their slowest gait. Pacing is a natural gait for some breeds and also for camels. There were no camels in the pacers we saw, which was too bad as watching race after race of pacing horses tends to get monotonous. Had they thrown in a pacing camel or better yet the less common pacing aardvark, I think even my dad might have stayed awake.

But I kept wondering how one goes about training a horse to go really fast in only second gear when he has 4 gears available. The horse is learning a very valuable spiritual lesson. How does one use unlimited power with restraint?

Amd of course I thought of God. He could force us to believe in Him, but He doesn't. He could punish us as we deserve for all our sins and transgressions, but instead He sent a substitute to die in our stead. He could destroy the world and start all over again since we have really been a disappointment from the get go but instead He sends rainbows.

There was one horse that won easily and we learned he was undefeated. This was his unprecedented 13th straight victory. This horse clearly understood that one can still win with restraint. That is God 's gamble as well. Psalm 78:38 NIV Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.

Psalm 76:10 NIV

Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise,
and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.

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Light and Strong

The trebuchet team snagged a carbon fiber hockey stick for our trebuchet arm. In the name of science, they attended the Charlotte Checkers hockey game, noted the moment a stick was cracked, and raced to the hockey team to beg them for the broken stick. I wasn't there, but I bet I know how the discussion went:
"Can we have your broken hockey stick?" Josh pleaded.
"Are you nuts! These sticks sell for $500 or more a piece."
"They don't do you any good broken."
"What do you want it for? Cracking it over your brother's head? We don't condone violence, ya know."  Here they chuckled and bashed each other good naturedly on the knee caps.
"We have made a trebuchet and the arm is oak....strong but heavy. We made the Science Olympiad State competition with our strong team performance, but we are still flinging only about a third as far as we need to fling to have a shot at medalling at States."

The hockey players looked at each other, their eyes glistening with tears. They knew about the desire to win, and they loved the concept of warfare, which of course the trebuchet was designed for in the Middle Ages. All you need to do is attend one minute of any hockey game to know that these folk understand combat.

"Well, all right, you can have the stick. Do you get extra points for bruising the other contestants?"
"No, it's not really like hockey in that respect."

They grinned and skated back on the ice, smacking and hurtling the other team members out of the way with their $500 carbon fiber sticks.
"Wow," said Josh, "If our hockey stick arm throws stuff that far, we are gonna win!"

We test the super light, super strong stick today. It is a stronger arm, though half the weight of our oak arm. I love the image of this strong arm that could possibly hurl things 60 meters. It reminds me of the strongest arm I know. That arm is invisible but it reaches down, and snatches the worst of us out of the grip of destruction and sets us down safely an eternity away from the ravages of sin, if we let it. It holds us lightly, but its reach is infinite, and its strength can never be broken.

"Do you think all this effort with the new arm will be worth it?" asked my team. One nodded, one shook his head.
I shrugged. I thought of that other arm, strong but gentle, and so light upon us, beckoning and withholding the full power of His strength, longing to pull us toward Him but letting us decide which direction we will head.


Psalm 79:11
¹¹ May the groans of the prisoners come before you;
   with your strong arm preserve those condemned to die.

2 Chronicles 15:
⁷ But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”

Engraved Names

Honeybun NA, NAJ.
This is our dog's official name now, according to AKC. She is a titled dog. We got the proof in the mail yesterday. We laughed at the simple, unobtrusive name, incongruously followed by titles. She doesn't act any differently. She sniffed her official notification, printed in fancy, framable letters. Big deal, so she jumps and navigates agility obstacles now beyond novice level. She isn't going to get sucked into this fame and fortune thing.
But we are.

"Mom," said Asherel, "We can get a medallion with her name and titles engraved on it."
"How much?"
"They start at $25."
"I don't think so," I said.

But while she wasn't looking, I read the fine print. The back of the medallion is left blank so the owner can engrave the dog's name and title on it...themselves....It isn't even engraved for $25!

This reminds me of the American Poetry Assoc... or some similarly named group contest that Matthias entered when he was a young boy. He wrote a lovely poem, which of course as his mom I cherished .  Lo and behold, he received an official paper with his name and poem on it, claiming he was one of their "winners" and his prize was publication in their book. We could order the book with all the "winners" poetry for just $150!  I am a rotten, cynical mother, so instead, I cut out his poem, and hung it on the refrigerator.

We are such a vain species. We so long for recognition. If we don't get it by doing good things, we seek after it by doing bad things. We hate to think we are just a nobody, a speck of dust floating by like all the other nameless specks of dust. I like to challenge myself to try to understand- "who am I when no one is looking...when no one knows what I am doing, thinking, being?"  I am not sure I can answer that question. Not fully. The closest I can get is to consider what brings me unquenchable joy. When I am in the presence of unquenchable joy, I am probably most who I am at the core. We all have different lists of what brings that overwhelming joy, but I think it is a good list to ponder.

Solomon is probably the most famous of these kinds of seekers. In the Bible book Ecclesiastes, he searches for the meaning of life, what gives him value, satisfaction, joy.  He admits it is not wealth, women, or wild living. He tried all those things, and ultimately realized they failed him. It is not fame- he was King! Still he was not convinced life was anything greater than a futile grasping of the wind.

I think this is why I like dogs so much. They are seemingly so content to be fed, loved, and eat an occasional dead squirrel or chase a ball. Their needs are so simple. They appear to find joy in simply being. How many of us can honestly say that? I know I can't.  I am not content to just be.... I want titles after my name that could be engraved on a silver medalion.

The funny thing is... I have that.

When the disciples returned from one of the missions Jesus had sent them on to proclaim His name, they are pretty full of themselves, because  "even the demons submit to us!" It is a heady thing, power. But Jesus quickly reminds them that is not what they should be rejoicing over. Instead, He tells them, their names are engraved by God Himself. Rejoice over that. My name is engraved in Heaven.

I threw away the AKC medallion offer. Honeybun still curled up at my feet that night and turned adoring eyes upon me. Her name was engraved on my heart, and that is all she cared about.

Luke 10: 17-20
 ¹⁷ The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
 ¹⁸ He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. ²⁰ However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Snares

I have another week left of my trial period with this iPod and so am challenging all my God given intellect to try to figure out how to move into the twentieth century. Or is it the 21 st? I can never remember.

Anyway, I listened to Asherel's great wisdom as she was born to this age of texting and techno. I was born to an age of watching the ocean and contemplating squirrels.

She insisted I needed a case for my iPod or awful things would transpire such as not color-coordinating my iPod to my outfit. Note the irony of this coming from the child I spent 2 months convincing she had to wear a dress to a formal wedding.

She wanted me to buy several cases so I was never in danger of clashing since everyone knows that you don't wear white before memorial day and your iPod and shoes should complement each other. However I nixed that and told her to find me something cheap and with a flap that would close to protect my screen. She came up with a zebra case which was cheap and of course matches all my outfits when I go on a safari.

Well as soon as the cheap case arrrived, with great excitement we put my ipod in it. I loved the way it securely snapped closed and found the zebra cover a unique additon to my eclectic wardrobe.

While the envy of every fashion conscious iPod user, every time I snapped the case closed, my iPod screen went black and I could not turn it back on. Asherel knew what to do to shock it back to life but clearly I had either a broken iPod or one who found zebra clothes odious.

But then I remembered the sweet words of my oldest son as he left the home of his youth to strike out on his own: "Never put a magnet near the hard drive, Mom".

Those tender parting words filled my heart and I realized I was putting the zebra case magnets, so efficient at snapping the case closed, next to the iPod hard drive!

I tore off the case realizing now why it had been so cheap. My iPod began working again and I was proud of my deductive skill in an area that I am sorely deficient.

My spiritual screen goes blank for seemingly no reason too at times. The reason is always that I take my eyes off of Jesus, the only source of true power in my life. The concerns and snares of the world are magnets that suck the energy right out of my own hard drive, and I become a blank useless screen, wearing pretty stripes, but of no use to anyone.

Proverbs 14:27
The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.


Nothing is impossible with God
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