Author: connieplummer53

You and your kids just might enjoy this when the walls start closing in on your home/classroom.

Guess I’m not a good ‘just hang around’ person, yet the need to protect our fellow humans is strong. So we packed up our lunch of tomato sandwiches and Oreos, and headed to a nearby lake. We landed at a recreation area near the Strom Thurmond Dam Visitors Center. There were a few people here and there, but it was easy to maintain personal distance. After a ‘socially distant from others’ picnic, we walked around the recreation area.

Spring is peaking out everywhere! You can take a trip like this, maybe without even leaving your own backyard. Or there are plenty of public areas where you can enjoy the outdoors without bumping into anyone.

What do you need?

~ Your smart phone and the “Seek” app by iNaturalist

With this handy free app, you can identify many types of flowers, plants and insects. Voila! Science, Botany, Biology lessons…check! check! check!

Job 37:14 says to ‘stop and consider the wondrous works of God.’ There’s plenty of them out there if you look!

This morning began with a thick blanket of fog obliterating the view in every direction.  It felt a bit like maybe many of us are feeling during these early days of ‘social distancing’.  Not quite sure what is and isn’t permissible, plans canceled or at least postponed for the foreseeable future, normal rhythms out the window…just not able to have access to the usual line of sight that we possess on any given day for what comes next.  And while it may feel like rubbing our eyes will get rid of the foggy feeling, we aren’t supposed to touch our faces! 

Today is a great day to put this reminder out there.  2 Corinthians 5:7 nudges us to “walk by faith, not by sight”.  My favorite definition of the word ‘faith’ is to believe in something you can’t see because of something you can see. (Thanks, 252basics for that clarity.)

Believe with me that the world is still spinning on its axis, the sun is there beyond the fog, and God is firmly in control.   Have a great, however distanced, day…and wash your hands!

Just six years ago around this time of year, we were huddled around the fireplace for warmth, and cooking on the grill outside whatever couldn’t be rescued from our freezer as we enjoyed our four days without electricity due to the ice storm of ’14.  And news reports remind me that in ’73, before I became an Augustanite, there was a record snowstorm. 

In this season of unsettled weather, it’s 75 degrees and sunny, followed quickly by a front that moves through bringing rain and colder temperatures.  Pictured is a recent day my weather apps blew up my phone with warnings…Severe Storm Warning….Wind Advisory…Tornado Watch…and then, Tornado Warning!  

I’ve been caught in a tornado, and am well aware of the fury and strength it delivers.  The sound is unforgettable; the sound of a train, just like they say.  The ‘out of controlness’ of the situation with flying glass from windows blown out, and giant cement planters with trees rolling by like they are made of plastic, causes one to hunker down in the nearest corner and pray.  In the middle of the storm, there is no time to think, but plenty of time to feel…fear!  

As we move through our lives, the sun may be shining and we may be in the middle of a fair weather type of day.   But that person that you see in the grocery store, or the coffee shop, or even in front of you at the stop light may be in the middle of a storm you cannot see.  Be gentle.  Be kind.  While it may not be storming on you, the next person may be in the middle of an emotional, life altering, hunkering down tornado.  Here’s a PSA from Zechariah 7:9: …”show kindness and mercy to one another…”. Be kind!

Summer…the hotter the better…I am an avowed lover of all things summer! Once we’ve cleared the Christmas season, where cold weather is a fitting accompaniment to the snowy holiday songs, if there’s no hope of a lovely little snow day, then January and February stretch on and on in endless unpredictability; sunny and warm one day, cold and rainy the next.  So I’ve been known to look at the bare trees with a bit of a snarled lip.   The beautiful green leaves that soften the landscape for so many months are no where to be found… and I miss them.

This particular picture caused me to pause and think a bit more generously about wintertime.  As I stood in the middle of a beautifully wooded path near the river, I was struck by the lines of the bare trees around me.  Unseen when covered in their leaves, these branches…the support system for all things shady for much of the year.   Without their foliage, I can see the structure and lines, somewhat like  beautiful architecture against the cold blue sky.  

When life, with its hard places, strips away our own leaves, James 1:2-4 reminds us that that we can keep going;  “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”  

When you’re down to the bare branches, be grateful for what remains.  A strength and structure that supports you through good times and bad.  Good bones.

OK…love is NOT a cup of salted caramel Ghirardelli hot chocolate on a ridiculously cold day!  But I chose this picture because it sure can feel like love!  It brought me in from the cold wind, let me warm my hands around the steaming mug, was sweet to my taste buds, and filled me up with its smooth, comforting chocolatey goodness.  

Look today for the love around you! Maybe it’s romantic love, and maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s the love of a friend, a sister, a mother, a child…love is such a great gift we can give each other. Let that love warm you up, fill you up, and bring you in from the cold. Share it with someone. 1 John 4:7 says “…let us love one another, for love is from God…” 

Love well today… and every day! 

There’s just something about air travel that sends me ‘Picture This’ moments to consider.  Maybe it’s putting my life totally in the hands of someone I don’t know…sobering!  On my most recent adventure, I boarded a Delta flight in Atlanta, headed to Chicago. I mean… who doesn’t think January isn’t a great time to visit Chicago? Evidently I will go anywhere to hang out with my fella and enjoy the bright lights and good tastes of the city. 

Back to the flying lesson.  As we passed from the jetway to the aircraft, the door to the cockpit was open, and I am sure, not by accident.  Hanging just inside the cockpit was the captain’s coat and hat.  Inside his hat…snapshots of his two children.  I grabbed a quick pic because this shouted at me!  The man who was going to pilot this big ol’ jet through Atlanta air traffic, through turbulent January skies, and set it down in icy Chicago had reasons to do so with great care.  Not only did he have all the ‘souls aboard’ to warrant his best effort.  He had two very precious souls at home to get back to.  The pictures there for us to see as we came onboard spoke the words, “I’m your pilot, but I am also ‘Dad,’ and I will make sure we get where we are going, because we all have someone counting on us.”  

I am examining my ‘greater reason’ for how I spend each day.  Love seems like a good use of my time. A Christlike direction for caring for others comes from Philippians 2:3-4.  “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of other.”

What I hope to bring to this day?  Encouraging and caring for the people around me; to love them. They are gifts to me.  I want them to be able to count on me. 

You have someone counting on you, don’t you? 

According to Merriam-Webster, there are some different slants on the word ‘new’. 

The first…’having recently come into existence’.  Yep! That fits, since the new year is still just a few hours old.

And there’s…’being other than the former or old’.  Yes, again.  2019 is history, along with its wins and losses, its disappointments and surprises. 

But the definition that stands out the most in my mind is ‘unfamiliar’.   Twelve months, fifty-two  weeks, and 366 (this is Leap Year, you know!)  unfamiliar days ahead, with 8,760 hours available with potential, yet unfamiliar at this point. 

So as you peel off that first day of 2020, be it the desk Cat calendar someone gave you as a joke, or maybe the digital calendar that you utilize to organize your life, make the day count.  Embrace the ‘unfamiliar,’ because it may be amazing in a way you could have never planned yourself!  Jeremiah 18:12 reminds us that what is unfamiliar to us, is not a mystery to the Plan Maker! “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Happy Unfamiliar Year!

Really…it’s my favorite genre when it comes to recreational reading…a really great mystery! There’s something about trying to compile clues, untangle unknowns, and solve the situation that just reels me in. Maybe that’s why some of my favorite Christmas carols are sung in a minor key. (For the non musical, those are the songs that have a softer, sometimes sadder, but definitely mysterious sound in the melody.)

Some of my favorites from that category are ‘God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen’, What Child is This?’, ‘Mary, Did You Know’, and ‘O Come, O Come, Immanuel’. Hum a few bars of any of these songs and you will recognize the haunting, questioning sounds of the minor keys.

Take a look at some of the words and we begin to uncover an intriguing mystery.

What child is this? Let nothing you dismay. Mary did you know that when you kiss your baby’s face you kiss the face of God? Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel.

Everything about the birth of Jesus is a wonderful, joyful mystery…from the startling visit by an angel to a young girl, Joseph reeling in shock over the unprecedented circumstance in which he finds himself, an impossible journey with a pregnant mother that lands this drama birth event right where prophecy had said it would be, as foretold so many generations before.

So as you listen and touch and taste and read all the sights and sounds of this season, don’t miss the mystery…resolved by the birth of a child…the Child.

1 John 4:14 wraps the mystery up with these words: “…the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.” Mystery solved!

During our family pre Christmas get together, our youngest grandchild came running up to me in distress. ‘He’s missing! Baby Jesus is missing’, she reported. I got down at ‘eyeball to eyeball’ level with her and asked what she meant. Our three year old detective took me over to her great grandmother’s beautiful nativity scene sitting on a nearby table. ‘See! Baby Jesus is missing!’ She was right. Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, sheep…the scene was set, but no Jesus. So we found Her great grandmother (a.k.a. MaMa) and Reid explained the problem. MaMa explained that since we celebrate the birthday of Jesus on Christmas, that she would add the Baby Jesus to the scene on Christmas Eve. That would NOT do for Reid! She would not be satisfied until Baby Jesus was safely in the manger. So MaMa opened a drawer and Reid carefully picked up the baby and placed him gently on the hay. Then she ran off to play with her cousins, satisfied that Jesus was right where He was supposed to be.

“ Away in the manger no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head….
…Be near me Lord Jesus, I ask you to stay!’

Help me to panic like Reid just a bit if I find myself accepting all that is Christmas without making sure Jesus is in the center of it all!