Guided by Foreign Tongues

I set out to find a special cloth I needed, armed only with my cell phone. First I did a google search on my phone for the required item, then searched stores in the area that would sell it. When the address of the store popped up in the window, I clicked on it, and then hit the navigate key. The phone,all by itself, showed a map of the area, found my current location, and began talking me through the route I needed to travel. It told me how many miles away I was and how long it would take me to get there.
"I love this phone," I said out loud.
Fifteen minutes later, my phone was directing me through a rather run down, dangerous looking neighborhood. Disguised speed bumps every few feet would suddenly catapult me and my phone ten feet off our seats and then crash back down with a vertebrae crunching bang.
"Where are you taking me?!" I screamed at my phone.
Then, the phone proclaimed we had found our destination, and turned me onto a road in a county park.
"This is not the fabric store!" I screeched at my phone, "This is a park!"
I noticed people sitting in the autumn sunshine with picnic baskets. They were lying back on the succulent grass, leaning on one shoulder and smiling at each other.
"Arrived at destination," said my phone.
"Wrong!" I yelled, and the picnickers glanced my way.
Furious over the wasted time, I grumbled, "I hate my phone", and looked for the address again. I repeated the process and slammed the phone back on my dashboard.
"Get it right this time or we are making a stop at Verizon and trading you in," I threatened.
The phone sighed.
"Are you sure about this?" it asked me, "It is a beautiful day of a waning year. There is peace and beauty here and it is free."
I shook the phone and looked over my list of applications. Was there one labeled "Counselor and advisor", maybe "Life planning"? Nope.
This time the phone took me to the fabric store, but I could tell it was not happy about it.

By now I had been out for three hours on errands. I had missed lunch. I pulled into a fast food drive-through, feeling weary.
"Hello!" said Carl at the window, "Would you like any sauce for your fries?"
"No thanks," I said.
"I know," he nodded, "Who needs sauce? You just love the taste of fries!"
"Yes, even though they are really bad for me. I do love them."
"Me too....well actually I don't. Unless I dip them in Singapore sauce."
"What's that?" I asked.
"Oh this stuff," he said, pulling out a packet. I don't think I am remembering what it was called correctly, but in essence, it was sweet and sour sauce.
"But it's not good for you either," he went on, "Listen to the list of ingredients...corn starch is first."
"So it's sugar."
"Yep, almost all sugar! And second ingredient is soy." He leaned closer to me, on the window edge and said in a conspiratorial voice, "You know, soy is not good for you either."
"I have heard that," I said, "How do you know that?" (It seemed odd to me that a teenage boy who worked at a fast food drive through would know about nutrition...or care.)
"I have a friend who's mom is a health freak. She says soy the way they make it in China is good, but not the way we do it here in America."
"Is fresh soy ok?" I asked.
"No, that's the worst. In China they put it in big vats and process it for two years. Then all the bad stuff is gone, but we don't do that."
"So how about if I get soy from a Chinese restaurant?"
"You can't get the Chinese soy here. You have to go to China."
By now, the other employees were tapping him on the shoulder and shoving my bag of food at him. He opened the bag and dropped the Singapore sauce in.
"Wait!" he cried, "What did I just do! You don't want that! It's bad for you!" He opened my bag and pulled the Singapore sauce back out.
I thanked him for chatting with me, and traveled on.

First my phone decides that my destination for the day should not have been errands but a beautiful park, and next I am lectured by a fast food worker on proper nutrition. It reminded me of Isaiah berating his people, who were turning to false Gods and foreign nations for wisdom. Isaiah begged them not to listen to the lies of those who did not know God, not to be lured by the pagan nations. And yet, God knew they would not listen, and so tells them, "Very well...my message will come to you through those foreign lips."
He is always speaking, even when we don't open the Bible, He finds a way, desperate for our attention.
This is a strange day, I mused.

Proverbs 23:33

³³ Your eyes will see strange sights,
   and your mind will imagine confusing things.

Isaiah 28: 11-12, 23-29

¹¹ Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues
   God will speak to this people,
¹² to whom he said,
   “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;
and, “This is the place of repose”²³ Listen and hear my voice;
   pay attention and hear what I say.
²⁴ When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?
   Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?
²⁵ When he has leveled the surface,
   does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?
Does he not plant wheat in its place,
   barley in its plot,
   and spelt in its field?
²⁶ His God instructs him
   and teaches him the right way.
 ²⁷ Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,
   nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin;
caraway is beaten out with a rod,
   and cumin with a stick.
²⁸ Grain must be ground to make bread;
   so one does not go on threshing it forever.
The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it,
   but one does not use horses to grind grain.
²⁹ All this also comes from the LORD Almighty,
   whose plan is wonderful,
   whose wisdom is magnificent.

Filled with Hope

The first day of art class is always the best. The kids enter the room filled with all the enthusiasm a summer's rest provides. They sit down bright eyed and expectant, eagerly awaiting all the pearls of wisdom that will fall from my lips. We all review the rules that will keep the class peaceful and productive. They quietly and respectfully listen, and the promise of the universe lies at our fingers.

Then class starts....

Soon pastel dust is slowly filling the air. The kids are so happy to be drawing and seeing each other again that they forget rule #1- no talking while I am talking, or I will lose my voice. Halfway through the class, I lose my voice, and the pictures of sunsets and silhouetted figures are beginning to emerge. The nervous newbies, who weren't sure they could draw, are no longer nervous. The class ends in a rush, and the happy young artists disperse like milkweed pods bursting open. One artist mentions she is a little sick of drawing sunsets.
"That's why I had you draw the person in front of it," I told her, "That was just for you."
"I know," she smiled, giving me a thumbs up, "And I have to show you something." The other kids are gone. She opens a sketchbook.
"See, I have been practicing blocking in my drawings, just like you told me."
I had been telling this particular, immensely talented artist to block in her drawings in this manner for years. it was like battling my teenage daughter over the dangers of too much computer time. There is good, and there is best. All my heartfelt instruction seemed to fall uselessly on deaf ears.

I stare at the young lady that had respectfully, but consistently defied my advice about blocking in the shapes before heading to details.
"And what did you decide?" I ask.
"It's easier," she agrees, "I love it."


She leaves class. I lie down and heave a deep sigh. Next, I need to convince her an artist should never get sick of sunsets, I think. No one should. I only rest a moment before scurrying off to vacuum before the rainbow pastel dust is ground permanently into my carpet.

Psalm 32:
⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
   I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

Isaiah 59:21
“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the LORD.

Death Adders and Fish Stories

Comer, Eveylyn and I sat on the bench facing the lake watching the fisherman.
"I have a fish story but no one believes it ," Comer said,
Well isn't that the nature of all fish stories, I thought.
"Oh tell it!" I said.
"Well, ok, but you aren't going to believe it."

It didn't matter anyway whether I believed it or not. What I did believe in was the healing caress of the sun as it bathed their old wrinkled faces, Evelyn's crinkled in a smile as she listened to Comer's story. She nestled her hand in the crook of his elbow, and then watched the Canada goose on the shore. She giggled when Comer acted out some of the funny parts. It was hard to believe that in an hour she would have to be returned to the Alzheimer unit.

"So the next day we checked the trap," continued Comer,"And there was a catfish as big as you! 95 pounds it weighed! We had to kill it with an ax."

This is actually not too unbelievable. There have been  documented catches of some catfish as big as 350 pounds. Most of these live downriver from nuclear plants.

"And did I tell you about gigging for bullfrogs?"
"Gigging?"
"Yes, didn't you ever gig for bullfrogs?"
"No....what would you do with them after you gigged them?"
"Eat them!"
"Raw?"
"Oh, no, we fried their legs."
"Did they taste like chicken?"  Evelyn giggled.
"OH better!"
I made a face. "Evelyn," I asked, "Did you ever eat bullfrog legs."
"No!" she cried.
"Yes you did!" said Comer.
Some memories I don't blame her for losing.

"Did I ever tell you about the death adders in Papua New Guinea?"
"I hope it didn't bite you."
"No, if it did I wouldn't be here. One bite and you are dead before you hit the ground."
"Well, ok, tell me."
"Well, I was there with the army, and a friend and I went out walking. But the friend had two cats. Strange cats with big heads from the area. He told me we were to always under all circumstances STAY BEHIND THE CATS. And if the cats stopped, we were to stop. And he told me don't you even think of moving if the cat stops. So we set out, and one cat stopped."
"Please tell me you stopped too," I begged.
"You bet I did! And then the other cat stopped. And then there was this ferocious scuffling and explosion of movement, and the cat comes trotting back with the death adder in its mouth."
"Was it dead?"
"Oh yes, the cats were experts in killing them. And then my friend must have seen what I was thinking because he said,'Now we go back step by step, slowly, no running, just like we came down here, following the cats."

I cannot help but remember the Bible account of the Israelites in the Wilderness following God, who came as a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night to lead them. Their survival depended on following that cloud. It was God who preserved them those 40 years, sending them water from rocks, and manna from heaven. Woe to any who decided to step away from the safety He provided as they went through that treacherous, barren land. And it is the same today, though perhaps He isn't leading with clouds and fire. I smiled to know that not only do we have His Bible, His Holy Spirit, and our own convicting conscience..... but sometimes He even sends cats.

We headed reluctantly back and passed miles and miles of peach trees all in bloom stretching to the horizon.
"I have never seen that!" I said, with delight. The lake is one we hike around in the fall, or kayak on in the summer, but I guess I had never seen it in the spring. Funny how sometimes those in the winter of life can bring a season us younger folk might otherwise have overlooked.

Later I recounted Comer's stories to Asherel, who laughed with me.  I thought of Comer looking so delighted when I said we would try to make Thursdays our outing day.
"It's easy to forget there is a beautiful world out there when I am in here," he said after we dropped Evelyn off, "Anything I have scheduled for Thursdays, anything, I will cancel when you call!"

I glanced heavenward, and echoed the sentiment to the leader by cloud and cat.

Nehemiah 9:18-20

¹⁸ even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.
 ¹⁹ “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. ²⁰ You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst.