June 2006 – Home Steeped Hope

Exhilarating about describes it.

I wanted so badly to sink into sleep again and reclaim the heart-stopping hopefulness—the wonder filled awe that has been so absent from my life of late. But toddler was singing her “mommy-hi-mommy” good morning song and so I inhaled, hoping the details would retain their clarity till I could revisit the dream. And before you clear your throat and laugh nervously, believe this: I rarely dream, and I even more rarely put any stock in dreams.

A bit of background. My spiritual life has been slowly going stagnant. Hurts to admit it. A person can definitely get too busy and I’ve felt far away from Him for a while now. Can’t blame anyone but myself either.

So back to my dream the other night.

In it, I and several strangers were racing along the top edge of a cliff, with a canyon on one side and a barren, dust-filled desert on the other. Strangely, the air was brisk and sweet and my heart was flying in anticipation. It was as if we knew a weird premonition of the “rapture”. Like our jeep full of people were hurrying to meet Jesus. The Bible says He will come like a thief in the night and we all need to be ready should the sky fall to pieces with His trumpet-shout. Praise filled my dream, and urgency, and like a drum beat in the background the refrain from Days of Elijah kept hammering in my awareness. “There’s no God like Jehovah, There’s no God like Jehovah…” if you’ve heard that song, you know what I mean. It’s about the coming of Christ…the Jubilee…and it’s a soul-soaring experience just hearing it. And I’ve only heard the last part of it twice, in the car, on the way to church. A partial for you:

Still we are the voice in the desert, crying, prepare ye the way of the Lord! (I just now went and found the lyrics online…hadn’t remembered the part about the desert!)

Behold He comes! Riding on the clouds!
Shining like the sun! At the trumpet call
Lift your voice! It’s the year of Jubilee!
And out of Zion‘s hill salvation comes! There’s no God like Jehovah!

So the feeling I was left with?

First, one of peace. When you are in a spiritual low as I’ve been…knowing God’s strength is there for my weakness/discouragement even when I’m trying to fly through life on nibbles from His word…it’s easy to imagine that my luke-warmness is absence of salvation. How could He put up with me and my Israelite-behavior? But my deadness fell off as I dreamed. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that exhilarated hope/assurance of Heaven. It took my breath away. Nothing mattered except Him. Shouldn’t life be that way? Nothing matters but Jesus. And that assurance is there for us believers, even when we doubt.

Second, life is a narrow highway world with a chasm of danger on one side and barrenness on the other…and we are speeding along, distracted, not realizing how it could all be over in a trumpet blast. How many miles, how much dust lies behind us…choking the people in our wake? Choking us, leaving us bone-dry and weary, when we’re supposed to be preparing the way of the Lord…

Spinning

Sometimes my girls beg me to play the Spinning Song by Ellmenreich on the piano…as I play, I go progressively faster and faster and they spin crazily behind me…to the cries of “One more time, please!” 5 yo even has a special dress she has to wear while spinning…it’s got the “perfect spinny skirt!”

Anyhow, that’s how I’ve been feeling the past two days…VBS is in full tilt and it’s all good! Getting so much done ahead of time really smoothed the way…I feel like for the actual 2 hrs of VBS each night that we get to coast…it’s the pre-planning, the hours ahead of time that rattle me a bit. Plus today was our annual homeschool mom’s luncheon and tea party, so I really wore my kids out by the time I finished dragging them all over the place–4 cities in a few hours time! Baby took her nap on my shoulder in Wal-mart. All 27 pounds of her! Picture me, tongue hanging out (91* outside) with hot, heavy toddler passed out in my arms…but we HAD to go to Wal-mart so my 8 yo could spend $16 of her “puppy dollars” on boxes of crayons for our VBS mission’s project. Puppy dollars translates to her “payment” from daddy for all the work she does with our litters of pups from the time they are born till they sell. She and 5 yo get a percentage of each pup we sell. They earn it!

Our VBS totals are hovering at 30–which is good, considering all the kids busy with ball games this time of year. We planned for 40, so we’re not understocked on supplies. For crafts tonight, the kids painted big vegetable cans white, then stamped them with black-painted square sponges to make a checkerboard pattern. Then they got sticky-backed foam letters to use for spelling out their name across the bottom of the can…last but not least, they planted petunias in them. Very cool! Also, they made candles by layering different colors of this really neat powdered wax in a baby food jar with a wick. Tie some raffia or twine around the jar threads and you have a really pretty candle! VBS snacks have been so cute so far…tonight they had “rock piles” (our pacesetter was David–ya know, the kid that faced down Goliath!), and last night they had blue frosted graham crackers that stood parallel to each other with gummy fish stuck to them and teddy grahams crossing through on “dry land”–yep, our pacesetter was Moses and the story–the parting of the Red Sea. I’ve been taking two of my girl’s friends along each night, and the four of them spend quite a bit of time raving about all the fun they are having! That spells success in my book! I’m so glad this week is finally here. All the hard work behind us, now we can just enjoy the ride!

Summer is 2 weeks away! Don’t know how you Californians are surviving! Saw on the news that you had some 111* days last weekend! Do us a favor, and keep it!

Have a great week!

Mary