In Honor of Your Birthday

I just want to say, Thank You, Mr. Milne,

for the delights you have provided our family

through the generations.

You gave us all those charming characters

that have inhabited our lives to be sure,

the delightful stories of their adventures,

and of course, Pooh Sticks.

"The Lord knows the way
through the wilderness,
All I have to do is follow".







How grateful I am to know my Shepherd,
that He knows each step of the path I must travel,
that He is trustworthy.

Today, and every day, actually, that is enough.

[lovely photo by Charlie Waite, BBC news]

Glorious...

A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
~Jeremiah 17.12








Is not this brief statement of fact immense? Here is a verse, 'read past' numerous times through the years, read past but never seen.

"The throne of God is the sanctuary of the soul.
There is no security for faith anywhere else."

Through history the sanctuary has been a place of asylum, of retreat, of refuge.
To think that we as fugitive pilgrims may flee from the enemy that pursues to the Very Throne established before Time.

No evil can overtake us, capture or detain us. Unless of course we fail to run for refuge to our ever-waiting Father and our God.

Knowing this "May the Lord of peace Himself grant you peace continually, whatever comes."

Selah!

[Google image]

They That Go Down To Sea in Ships...

We by tradition have not been a sea going clan. While there are those of us who love the sea, or water of any kind, still or flowing, while there are those in our ranks who enjoy 'messing about in boats', it has not been something engaged in as a profession.


It is one thing to watch sea epics, the heroics of Horatio Hornblower and the like. It is quite another thing to have a precious young member of the family deployed on a troupe ship in order to sail beyond our horizon.

That is the reality of this day and I find my heart filled with the pride of the honor of this young warrior and his willingness to serve our country. But also there is, in my very dusty humanity, the presence of anxious thoughts. There is also the overwhelming sadness that I know this going and the separation that is to follow brings to those I love.

This is not a new story, this going down to the sea in ships, leaving loved ones behind. It is as old as history itself. It just has a very different color to it when it become your story, our story.

So off our dear lad goes in this new year. With this will come new challenges for him and his young bride. There will be much to learn in the months ahead. My great comfort is in the certainty that both know their God, are secure in their love for each other, and in His sovereignty and care.

And we at home will follow these every day with our prayers, as they grow in this new season of their lives. We pray Mercy to cover, Everlasting Arms to hold, Grace to strengthen and comfort.

Holy Father, in Thy mercy

Hear our anxious prayer,

Keep our loved ones, now far absent,

'Neath Thy care.

Jesus, Savior, let Thy presence

Be their light and guide;

Keep, oh, keep them, in their weakness,

At Thy side.

When in sorrow, when in danger

When in loneliness,

In Thy love look down and comfort

Their distress.

May the joy of Thy salvation

Be their strength and stay,

May they love and may they praise Thee

Day by day.

Holy spirit, let Thy teaching

Sanctify their life;

Send Thy grace, that they may conquer

in the strife.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

God the One in Three,

Bless them, guide them, save them, keep them

Near to Thee. Amen

[Hymns Ancient and Modern #595]

The Journey Continues~

"Behold,

the Lord your God has set the land before you;

go up and possess it,

as the Lord God of your fathers has said to you;

fear not,

neither be dismayed...

The Lord your God Who goes before you,

He will fight for you...

in all the way you went

before you came to this place."

~from Deuteronomy 1.21-31

Another year is set before us 'to possess'.

What better place to begin than with gleaning from the Rules for the Road.

These words and rules, these directives from Almighty God Himself given which Moses set down for us in the book of Deuteronomy.

May we go on our way rejoicing knowing that our Leader has gone before us "to search out a place for us to pitch our tent."

[photo courtesy of BBC News]

Christmas Blessings

Wishing all a joyous Christmas as we remember our One Great Gift.


The breath-taking wonder of the God With Us - our Guide, our Shepherd, our Protector, our Love, all the days of our pilgrim journey.

Emptied of his Majesty,

Of HIS dazzling Glories shorn,

Beings Source begins to BE

And God himself is BORN!

...Knees and Hearts to Him we bow;

Of our Flesh, and of our Bone

JESUS is our Brother now,

And GOD is All our own!

~Charles Wesley

Remembering With Smiles and Joy

There were times you made me crazy and times I wanted to throttle you. You were a son, after all.

But those times can perhaps be compared to the pains of child birth, you remember they occurred but over time they recede and blur.
And over time, that which is joyous burbles to memory's surface and there remains.

Memories are personal things and private.
Some are to be shared, some to be kept near the heart. All to be treasured.

Remembered and shared this day:

• my delight in hearing your first sermon on the 23rd Psalm and this before you became 'family'
• the seriousness with which you proclaimed your marriage vows
• the awe with which you held your first born
• our quiet conversation in the snow under an Alaskan sky waiting for an Aurora Borealis light show (the show never came but the conversation is etched on the heart)
• the silly times when your quirky humor came out
• the time you brought down the house with your Belle of Belfast

We remember you this day with grateful hearts.

We think of you every day.

We miss you but we would not call you back from the unspeakable joys you now enjoy.

We do not grieve for you but for our loss of you and we grieve for ourselves being left behind.

Dale Alan Valovich

1956-2008