The Last Time

As I write this, the time is approaching midnight which begins Monday, April 16th. But for now, it's still Sunday, April 15th, and I'm writing about today. Today was a special day at my church, St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Illinois. Our pastor, William Weedon, received a call about two months ago to be the Director of Worship for the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Chaplain at the LCMS International Center. He accepted that call, and today was his last Sunday as our senior pastor. Unlike many of the members of our church, I am not one of the "natives."  I transferred my membership to St. Paul about five years ago.  Nevertheless, I am among the privileged who have heard the Word of God taught by someone who exudes pure joy each and every time he reminds us who we are:  People loved by God.

In our Bible study this morning I was thinking, "This is the last time we will gather to hear Pastor teach our Bible study." Is it proper to give a Pastor a standing ovation at the end of a Bible study? Proper or not, we did. He always packed 'em in. In today's study he talked about the rich man and Lazarus. His first question was "What do we know about the rich man?" Well, we know that he was in hell. We know that he was thirsty. We know that he still didn't "get it." We know that he still wanted to be served. None of those were the answer he was looking for; a common occurrence.  After finally realizing we weren't going to deliver the goods, Pastor exclaimed, "HE WAS ALONE!"  And then he said this:  "Unbelievers are damned alone.  Christians are saved together."

After the study it was up the stairs to the Divine Service.  I must confess, throughout the service, I kept returning to the thought, "That's the last time..."


That's the last time I'll hear him say "Please stand" after the ringing of the bell;
That's the last time I'll hear him say "...and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins...";
That's the last time I'll hear his homily as my pastor;
That's the last time he will bring the Sacrament to me as my pastor;
And finally this: "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."

Peace.

The last time?  No.  Thanks be to God there will never be a last time.  Nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  We are saved together.

"A Litter of Puppies Aint So Bad"

Last weekend after having Easter dinner with my brother and his family, I extended my weekend travel another hour further south to my parents' home in Missouri. I had pre-arranged a vacation day for myself for Monday, because I knew the pace of Sunday would wear.me.out.  So a relaxing evening down at the lake and sleeping in on a work day sounded like a nice remedy. Little did I know, my grandson and two of my great-nieces had additional plans for me. They wanted to spend the night at Great-Grandma's and Great-Grandpa's too. I'd say that's quite a testimony for my octogenarian folks, and it is ... but the urchins had ulterior motives. Yes, children do that. Not only do my parents have electrifying personalities, they also have seven puppies at their house; and everybody knows kids and puppies go together just like peas and carrots.  So who could say "no" to three children who couldn't wait to get their paws on those pups?

We arrived too late in the evening to get to see the six-week old babies who live in their home-made dog house (built by my father) out on the deck. Monday morning came soon enough, though, and I'm happy to report that I did get to sleep in as planned. Dad has a routine of taking mama dog across the spillway on his golf cart so she can run on the dam every morning. It's there they she takes care of her morning constitutional, and then they return to the house where she is awarded a treat. I explained to the kids that they would have to wait for their Great-Grandpa's permission before they could go out on the deck for their first visit with the puppies. Well, I might as well have been talking to a brick wall. They waited for about five minutes and couldn't stand it any longer. I can't say that I blame them. Those little rascals are so darned cute. After wading through a herd of seven happy puppies and lovin' on each one of them, my brother's youngest granddaughter came back into the kitchen to report that "a litter of puppies aint so bad."

The highlight of the day was when they all received their first vaccinations and were ready to be adopted. After making sure that her parents were on board, S received one for her upcoming birthday. My son had also reserved one of them to train for duck hunting, and my grandson was more than happy to take one of the bigger bruisers home with him. I learned yesterday that things are going well so far at my son's house. The puppy seems very content in his new home. There's no doubt he won't be starved for attention.

Before I sign off, I'm excited to report a new addition at my house too.  No, not a puppy. A horse. No, not a real horse; a decorative, primitive rocking horse. A $5 flea market find this afternoon.  Score!  Next blog post will be complete with before and after photos of it so you can be excited with me.

Happy trails!

I Think I'm Done For Awhile

Nothing much to report with my life right now, but in case you haven't noticed yet, I have a hard time making up my mind.  Recently, I started gravitating back to a home decor style that must be in my  heart of hearts -- country, primitive, rustic, shabby, whatever you want to call it.  Maybe it was all that country living I did when I was a little girl. You know: "You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl." I've always missed living in the country since we moved off of the one-acre plot of land on my grandfather's farm. I was twelve years old then, and I remember on the night before we moved to the "big city" (it really wasn't big at all), I went off to sit in my empty bedroom where I had a good cry. These days, I would chalk part of that up to being a moody twelve year-old, but there's no getting around the fact that I knew I was going to miss the home where I had lived since I was a baby. And let's face it, being twelve is a difficult age for a girl.  Well enough about that.  The point is, here I am with another blog design. Good thing I haven't made it to the blog big leagues, or my followers' heads would be spinning from the various "looks" I've used here. I only have to apologize to a couple of you for the whiplash, and I hope you'll forgive me. I took photographs of some of the decorations I have around the house and made the blog title banner using "Paint" on my computer.  A couple of the photos are a little distorted, but oh well. I tried a different banner maker, but I found it too confusing. I also found a few cute fonts that I thought fit the bill, and here we are. So this is it for now -- unless, of course, I see a little tweaking that needs to be done. Thanks for checking in.

10,000 Eggs

If you hide them, they will come. And so they did to a farmer's pasture just outside the Southern Illinois burg that my son, daughter-in-law and their four children now call home. Oakdale boasted a population of 221 according to the 2010 census, but you wouldn't have guessed that today when this otherwise quiet village gave way to a little noise as the townsfolk celebrated their 19th Annual Eggstravaganza. The town was teaming with people who turned out on this glorious last day of March to soak up some sun and, more importantly, watch their children have a grand time. In town, the streets were blocked for vendors to set up their tents to sell food and crafts. There was a bonnet contest and egg toss in the morning, and then trains, trails, ponies, and more. But just up the road and at the top of the hill, we were greeted by a Steel Magnolias-Style Easter Bunny who welcomed the kids to the biggest event of the day -- the egg hunt.  Here's a look:

On The Way

Anticipation

An Important Conversation

And They're Off!

Searching

Success!

Texas

Reunion - Mom and Lupe

Once again, this vacation had it all -- Love of Friends and Family, The Beauty and Benefits of Nature, Wonderful Food, and Rest.

Making More Memories

Dad with Some Hungry Companions

Polly's Hibiscus Flower

Sugar Cane Field

A Yummy Mexican Repast

My Sis

God's Will

Confession time.  I have been teary-eyed (okay, sometimes it's actually outright bawling) since this morning when our pastor announced that he has received a call to the LCMS International Center to serve as Director of Worship and as the Synod's International Center Chaplain. So what's the big deal?  It's only a call! There's really no way I can explain except to say that a "call" in the Christian church, be it Lutheran (like my pastor and me) or otherwise, is -- or at least should be -- considered a very VERY big deal.  A call in the Christian faith is a call by God to serve Him in service to others. These called servants are entrusted to teach the truth of God's Law and Gospel, and these calls have been going on since Biblical times. So we pray fervently that after Pastor W has prayerfully considered this call, his response will conform to the will of God.

More confessing: I don't want him to accept the call. It's because I want God's my will to be done. No, I want my God's will to be done. The fact of the matter is that I do want God's will to be done, but I selfishly want it to conform to my will. Why? Because I am a human, and, therefore, I am a sinner. One significant commonality among sinners is this: We are all afraid of God's will.  Okay, well, maybe not all the time, but, you know, when it really counts for something. We act as if God doesn't know how to carry out His own plan -- as if He doesn't know what's best for every little step we take, no matter how insignificant those steps may seem in the here and now. We often forget how precious we are to Him; that He knew us from the beginning.

I recall the day a little more than 30 years ago when my twin nieces were born. They were more than two months early. While my sister-in-law was still in labor, the decision was made to quickly transport her via ambulance from the little hospital that served their community to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis where the babies would have at better chance of survival. Barnes was, and still is, one of the leading hospitals in the nation. Back then, the chances for their survival using state-of-the art medicine and equipment was 50/50. Parents, think about that for a moment. Consider someone telling you that ONLY if you take your child from Point A to Point B, his life or death is still going to hinge on a coin-toss. After the twins were born, the doctor told my brother and sister-in-law that if they could survive the first 72 hours of life, their chances would get a little better. I already had a child of my own.  He was 18 months old at the time, and I knew how empty my life would feel if he were taken from me. So I also knew how desperately my brother and sister-in-law prayed for their little babies. My brother confessed later that when he prayed The Lord's Prayer, as he reached the words "Thy will be done," he hesitated. He didn't know if God's will would be life or death for his children.  God's will was for those two little blessings to survive and be a blessing to many many other people.  And they have ... and they are.

Pastor W's acceptance or non-acceptance of this call isn't a physical life or death situation like the one with my nieces. But consider what God, in his infinite wisdom, already knows. Perhaps one of His lamb's eternal life hinges on hearing the Gospel message, if only the right person for the job is there to deliver it. God will guide Pastor W to the place where he needs to be, and Pastor will continue preaching Law and Gospel out of love just as he has for years -- whether it is to the congregation at St. Paul in little bitty Hamel, or whether it is to others from around the globe at the LCMS International Center. I find it more than coincidental that today I stumbled upon the following which was included in Pastor's first blog post back in 2004:

God shows Abraham the stars to illustrate
his innumerable descendents.
By German painter Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872),
engraving, from "Bibel in Bildern" (1851-60)

Homily for Trinity 1 (2004)

“And Abraham believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” (Gen 15:6) When the Lord made the promise to him, Abram did not stumble in unbelief. He knew that God was not only powerful enough to carry through – even though Abram had not the first clue HOW He would do it – but that God was gracious, merciful to carry through and bring forth this Seed who would bring blessing to all nations.

And by the way, anyone who knows Pastor W, knows that while he was delivering that Homily, he was bouncing on his toes and waving his arms. Has he ever NOT been excited about delivering the Word and Sacrament to us?? I seriously can't imagine that. What a loving and faithful shepherd he is!  Please keep him in your prayers.

Restore Unto Me the Joy of Thy Salvation



Simeon's Moment
Painting by Ron DiCianni

Two weeks. Is it the blink of an eye or an eternity?  Well, it all depends on the context, doesn't it?  The last two weeks have been the blink of an eye when I consider how much I accomplished at the office but how little I accomplished at my house. So much to do, so little time.

On the other hand, those same two weeks felt like a very long time in the context of the disconnect I had experienced with my church family. God has promised us, "If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For when two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." - Matthew 18:19-20  Oh what a comfort to know that all we have to do is beckon, and God is there assuring us over and over and over again that He loves us and will always give us everything we need!  Lord have mercy on me, a poor, miserable sinner.  Try to imagine how it would feel if, after having received everything we needed from our parents, knew that we knew it all, bid them a dismissive goodbye and then heard the door shut behind us -- NEVER to be opened again. How would we handle it?  Would we become hardened in our hearts and pretend that we didn't feel abandoned, even though WE were the ones who walked away?  Would we want so desperately to be assured that we were welcome anytime but be afraid to confess that we actually need to be loved?  Could we even define "hope?"

There were legitimate reasons for my lack of attendance at church the last two Sundays, but those reasons didn't lessen the emptiness I was feeling from being away from that gathering. Yes, God has been with me, and no, I hadn't rejected Him ... well ... except in my sinful thoughts, words and deeds. Yes, I can and do still pray when I'm not in church. Yes, God still loves me when I am not able to be with the others who agree ("agree" - that is to say unity in Christ; that thing which makes us a Christian family). My pastor reminds us from time to time that we are cracked vessels.  When we believers gather together in God's house to confess our sins and receive absolution through His Word and Sacrament, we come away from His banquet table joyous -- we are vessels full to the brim. We may gather for a few minutes out in front of the church to visit with each other, but then as we turn to walk toward our cars, we begin to hear the notes of the music turn to a minor key. Within moments of leaving that unity, we, cracked vessels, begin to leak the joy of Christ's salvation. We begin feeling the bombardment of the "stuff" of our earthly lives, and we begin to pay more attention to that stuff and less attention to The One who gives us everything. EVERYTHING.  Call me a princess -- I want it ALL. I want to be full to the brim, always assured that I am a child of The Heavenly Father, and I am redeemed by His Son, Jesus Christ. I want to experience the same joy that Simeon experienced as he held the Christ Child and said, "Lord, Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy Word. For mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people."  I want to walk away from God's table knowing that I can pass from this earthly life at any moment with the pure joy of knowing that I will see Him in glory and live eternally just as He promises me ... week after week after week.