It is March and it is raining, which means flooded rivers and the returns of some of my favorite species of birds.
This morning, I had to drive the truck "Larry" in to town in order to get enough gas that I could drive to work. So I pull into our little local gas station (he offers a 3 cent discount if you pay cash...) and the owner is coming out to replace the receipt tape in the pump so we passed the time of day, while he helped me (the vent in my gas tank was being mean and only allowing me to put about 2cents worth of gas in at a time.) and so I shared with him that I was excited that my favorite birds were back...which are the Sandhill Cranes (of course). I loved hearing and seeing them at Timber-lee and the spring I was in the LCM program there was actually a pair that were nesting out by the bridge farthest from family camp. I loved taking the children out to see them, especially since there was a Canadian Goose sitting on a nest on the other side of the bridge.
I kind of wanted to laugh, for Jerry's (the owner) comment was that they ate the baby trout that were being repopulated in the streams and lakes and then he started talking about how some land north of us had certain hunting/fishing restrictions on it because the people wanted to protect certain species of animals...
This was my thought....Let them eat the fish! That's what they do! It's there way! I'd rather see the sandhill cranes than worry about the quality of the fishing waters around us. As for hunting, I eat wild meat, but I don't hunt it....so I don't really care. I highly doubt (when I have my english cottage in the country and if I have any property) that I will allow hunting on my property. It has been a bit of a bane of my existence, the rash of deer hunters the few days before Thanksgiving...
I started to read 1st Samuel, after finishing Ruth. I was a bad girl and didn't read yesterday, and in a way I can feel the results of it today. Anyway, after reading Esther, Ruth and the beginning of 1st Samuel (Particularly the calling of Samuel by God) I'm picking up a bit of a pattern. Esther faced the King, even though it could have meant her death, to save her people. Ruth turned her back entirely on her people and family to return with Naomi, her husband's mother, and Samuel, given over to the Lord by his mother, was called by the Lord to serve his purposes.
In light of this, and in light of reading "Hinds' Feet on High Places" I know that I am headed in a good and right direction. I went on Amazon today and purchased C.S. Lewis' "Surprised by Joy" today. I had gotten it from the library and while I had thoroughly enjoyed the portion I had read, I wasn't able to finish it before I had to send it back. And from what I have read thus far, it is a book that I want to own for myself. I also want to re-read "Hinds' Feet.." because I read it at work I feel I missed a good portion of important details.
It is raining, hard at times and then it lessens up again...as I look out at the leaden sky it makes me think (as rain generally does nowadays) of Natalie Portman's character in "V for Vendetta" and the scene where she is standing on the room with her arms outstretched her face up to the pouring rain...and the phrase that she utters is one that is repeated just about everytime it rains "God is in the Rain."
So, as I look at the swollen rivers, carrying their burdens or rain and melting snow I see the power of God manifested. He is the one who created our earth, and who (to quote Chris Rice) "tilt it at our perfect 23."
So bring on the rain! Bring on the changing of the seasons! Bring on the Sandhill Cranes! Bring on the SPRING!
Saw an old guy today
Staring long at a chess game
Looked like it was half-played
Then his tear splashed between
The bishop and the king...oh
He turned his face to mine
I saw the Question in his eyes
I shrugged him half a smile and walked away
It made me sad, and it made me think
And now it makes me sing what I believe
It was love that set this fragile planet rolling
Tilting at our perfect twenty-three
Molecules and men infused with holy
Finding our way around the galaxy
And Paradise has up and flown away for now
But hope still breathes and truth is always true
And just when we think it's almost over
Love has the final move
Love has the final move
Heard a young girl sing a song
To her daughter in her pale arms
Walkin' through a rainstorm
"Because you're here my little girl
It's gonna be a better world"...oh
She turned her face to mine
I saw the Answer in her eyes
I shrugged her half a smile and walked away
It made me smile, and it made me think
And now it makes me sing what I believe
It was love that set our fragile planet rolling
Tilting at our perfect twenty-three
Molecules and men infused with holy
Finding our way around the galaxy
And Paradise has up and flown away for now
But hope still breathes and truth is always true
And just when we think it's almost over
Love has the final move
Love has the final move
(Something right went very wrong
But love has been here all along)
~Chris Rice "The Final Move"
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