Sisters

Smiling still.. .

Life's Highway Markers

Years ago, when my sister and her husband lived in Watertown, MA., I regularly drove there. Leaving on a Thursday or Friday, driving back into Madison on Sunday when everyone was tucked away silently in bed. After the first few times, the drive had become habitual, calculated down to the minute.

Now, I'm not one for knowing street names and highway route numbers from memory. Those kind of things tend to get all jumbled about inside my mind. I'm all about landmarks. A PNC bank on the left? Check. A CVS? Check - Check. A row of bushes. I'll take even that. So after a year or so of driving back and forth to Watertown, I became an expert of things in between 07940 and 02477. My sister and her family have since moved to Michigan and weekend trips now entail a plane ride. So I have forgotten what a "longer" drive on the highway feels like.

Last Sunday, my parents and I set off for Martha's Vineyard before the sun had risen. In the early morning hours, as we sped past highway markers and each town introduced itself with a giant green exit sign, a reoccurring thought of mine appeared - yet again.

It has always amazed me, when I actually really truly think about the numbers - how many people there are on the earth - millions upon millions. All leading their own lives simultaneously ____

As we passed town after town, the fog that clung to the hills slowly lifted, and you could see people starting out their days. Each of them with different jobs and daily struggles, different hopes and aspirations for the future. What is amazing to think about is how God has created each and every one of us. And loves each and every one of us. All the millions upon millions. He knows the number of hairs on our heads. And when on one sinner repents as Luke 15 says, there is rejoicing in heaven. With all the people who inhabit this planet, God knows each one of us. He knit [us] together in [our] mothers' wombs.


At the same time that we consider the vast number of people living here, we are faced with life's brevity. With the millions of us on the planet, can the loss of one - change much? Anyone who has lost someone special in their lives knows the answer to the question. It can change everything. A few years back, one of my closest teaching friends, lost her husband suddenly, without warning. As a friend and I visited her, she spoke words I will never forget. "What makes this so hard, is that everyone's lives around me keep moving on." Like the highway markers, they become a blur at a certain speed - they continue, and don't stop. All she wanted was to be able to press pause - have all the motion stop around her.

Life is a gift we have been given. Our lives are not our own - we are here to be "God's hands and feet". With this gift, we must capture each opportunity we are given. And not take for granted anything - anyone - anywhere.

Your Love

"Invade my heart"

Jeremiah 31:3

The Lord appeared to us in the past saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness."

The Pink Purse

I have had the pleasure [and the challenge] of teaching preschool age children this summer. It is not the usual classroom setting I am used to - these miniature versions of mom and dad stay in their seats for five minutes max. And there is more talk of the bathroom than I am sure there is at the local corner pub.

These children are of the age where, if they are potty trained, they still need help buttoning back up their pants and jean skirts and turning the sink on and off. They may even break into tears halfway into class - if a thought of mommy runs through through their minds*. They can't really carry more than three papers of artwork and are fascinated by any sparkly bracelets that adorn your wrists. They are not bound by the adult boundaries that we have set.
They will climb into your lap and hug you at random times
just because.. .

Sophia was one of the oldest girls in our art class this week. At age six, she slipped by the age limit of 3-5, with the understanding she would act as a "guardian" of sorts for her younger brother. (* above) Sophia is the definition of precocious. She is a 35 year old woman stuck in a 5 year old girl's body.


Yesterday she walked in with big black sunglasses on, a pink purse in hand, 7 or 8 fluorescent colored bracelets on each arm and a bright colorful sun dress. "I am a new person today, the old Sophia is gone!" she quipped in a sassy new voice.

Needing to quickly get to bottom of this I responded, "Well, I quite liked the old Sophia. What happened?"

"People didn't like me at school."

I certainly knew this not to be true, as she was the center of attention at Creative Kids. Her voice could be heard above the rest - Always helping out and making others laugh. This was not a girl in need of friends.

"I like you and I know Miss Lisa, Miss Caroline, Mommy and Daddy like you!"

"Hannah Montana had a secret identity, so I was thinking..." -- AHha!

It's all about that blonde-haired, brunette haired, can't decide the dye for the day Montana - the cause of all undecided little girl craziness.

Another young girl walked up to me moments later and asked, "What is she saying?" She could not understand Sophia's new cool girl talk. And with the honesty of only a child - she said,
"I don't like the new Sophia!"

It starts so young but we do it in our adult lives as well - don't we? I know I do. It's all that we hear on television and read in magazines. Some of my favorite trashy magazines - where you can see celebs - how they look and what they wear. It's all about bigger and better, fancier and cooler.
How silly is it when you sit down and think about it?

Faking who you really are doesn't give anyone pleasure. We are always left feeling as if we don't measure up. And in reality, we are hiding the true inner and outer beauty of what God has created in us. When we accept ourselves - all our strengths and weaknesses - however superficial or monumental they are - only then can we truly be happy. It is in Christ that we are new creation. We don't need secret identities. 2 Corinthians 5:17 reads, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

I smiled as I watched Sophia and her brother walking out, their arms overflowing with the artwork from the day. The sunglasses and bracelets were gone... and clutched in Christopher's small fist was the handle of the pink purse.

Cart

Cart - The Film from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Take My Life

My prayer tonight .. . "Please take from me my life, when I don't have the strength to give it away to you, Jesus."

Psalm 46:10 echoes in my mind_

Be Still and KNOW that I am God.

To the Door Delivery

Today was one of those days.
The kind you want to pull the cover up over your head, before you even fully open your eyes.
.. . One of those days.

I knew I couldn't stay in bed - as much as I may have wanted to. At least for another hour or two. But no. I was not in the mood to seek out an adventure. And I knew if I set off on a hike, I, very possibly, may end up at that fork in the road in a puddle of my own tears.

So, I decided as beautiful a day it was, today was an inside day.

Still, half in my pajamas, I scurried about the apartment, clearing piles of bills, dusting [which is usually unheard of] and organizing the tower of shoeboxes in my closet.

At one point, I came downstairs, and as I quickly passed by the kitchen window something caught my eye. Not just one - but two baby deer - about three feet away.

Never in my life have I been that close.

As I stood there, a movement from the left.. . A third???

For the next thirty minutes, I watched, as these three creatures devoured any green blade, leaf, bit of vegetation they found - moving from the back and then on to the front of my apartment complex. I could have stood there all day just watching - living vicariously in their peaceful world.

What is it? Not just deer.. All animals. There is something so captivating. People flock to zoos - and from the youngest age cry out for their parents to buy them a dog. There are entire television channels devoted to them. Why do we crave to be close to animals? Why can we not stop watching them? Right now as I write this in my notebook, my own fat cat - who at one point momentarily scared the deer away - is belly up beside me on the couch.

A few times, I made eye contact with one of the fawn. Looking into its eyes, you can't help but wonder what is going through its mind. All that ties and binds us up - the creatures that surround us _ they are beyond it. Just like the banner verse - Matthew 6 - reads. They have not a single worry.

In that, we wish we could be like them.

In the most basic sense, animals are a reflection of God. How can anyone look at the beauty of nature and doubt for even one

milli-second that God exists?

He has planted Himself in everything around us. And even on the days when I want to hide under the covers, He delivers Himself right to my doorstep.

My Solid Ground