City on a Hill

Below are the lyrics of the song our praise team shared yesterday as special music, inspired by Matthew 5:14-16:  “You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”  Very appropriate for our first gathering in the new facility!

City on a Hill

You are the light of the world

A city on a hill cannot be hidden

Shine your light before all men

That they might see your works and then

Praise your Father up in Heaven

A city on a hill cannot be hidden

Standing tall before all men

To show the things that it's been given

And everything that it can give

Just like that city on a hillside

We got a light that's deep within us

No, don't keep it to yourself

Just remember how you felt

When you first gave your life to Jesus

And I now that our salvation isn't based on the things we do

But it's only given by the grace of God

By the sacrifice of Jesus, and if we really did believe

We were born to share this message with someone

This morning I’ve been working on a potential layout for our new-and-roomy church kitchen, which has been exciting!  The trick involves using already-existing cabinetry and a large island (with marble countertop!) in the forthcoming plans.  Can’t wait to show other interested parties, and see what they think.

Kick-Off

Our congregation worshiped in our beautiful new church building for the first time today, which strangely felt like a homecoming.  “Welcome home!” became the theme as we talked to each other and to Pastor Tim and his wife - our pastor of 5 years ago who has been shepherding a church in Michigan’s upper peninsula but is returning to join us once again.  There was much cause for celebration!

The attractive building with its reverent sanctuary, situated on the shores of a pristine pond graced with sandhill cranes wading in the shallows, was dedicated as a house of prayer and place of Bible study, salvation, rededication, and change (because of what God can do) where people will find healing, be released from addictions, and celebrate life – even in the midst of death.  A place to devote our hearts to God, to live in hope and then give it away to others who fine life hopelessly disappointing.

I left inspired by two succinct challenges:

First, LIVE LIFE.  Live in hope.  Live by God’s grace.
Then, GIVE LIFE.  Give hope away. Give God’s grace as it has been given me.

Living with hope is a different way to live, a way that invites us to experience the resurrection life right now.  To have hope, or to lose it, is a big deal.  We choose HOPE because God works in all things, and that gives us confident expectation that everything will be okay – that His grace truly will be enough.

Dinner with a Difference

Tonight I had no idea what would comprise our dinner, but the produce drawer in the refrigerator told me I’d better be using up some veggies that had been in there awhile.  I ended up with a spontaneous but visually interesting, aromatically appealing, scrumptious tasting dinner (with the inclusion of a couple of baked items made yesterday).  The menu was as follows:

Whipped cauliflower

Roasted asparagus, sweet peppers, and garlic

Zucchini, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes sauteed with feta cheese, oregano, and basil

Gluten-free zucchini bread

Gluten-free pumpkin cheesecake (with a crust from gluten-free graham crackers

  I made myself!)

Below is a picture of my place setting.  I would have invited you (truly!) except it was a very spur-of-the-moment ordeal.  Perhaps if you lived next door......  :-)

Murmuration

I learned a new word today: murmuration. 

It sounds like a word describing a sound, and in a sense, it is.  When huge numbers of starlings gather in flight to form rocking tidal waves in the air – twisting, turning, spiraling, thousands upon thousands all in sync – it is call murmuration.  I wonder if the murmur of their collective wings seems more like the roar of a tornado?

Evidently this flight pattern is a strategy for protection against predators.  The birds fly together in tightly packed unison to discourage attack, and yet if one diverges even a tiny bit the others must also adjust.  This explains their beautifully stunning choreography.

There are a number of interesting videos online of flocks demonstrating murmuration, but I’m including one here that a friend posted on Facebook – it was my introduction to the topic.  In this video, two girls are canoeing in Ireland when they’re surprised by a grand murmuration show; they just happened to be prepared to capture it with a camera.  The following link to the video is worth two minutes of your time!

http://vimeo.com/31158841

A Very Special Delivery

Tomorrow a VIP will visit: the midwife who will deliver our newest granddaughter AT OUR HOUSE in about four weeks!  I’ll serve homemade split pea soup for lunch while she, Mama, and I (and the two very young big-sisters-to-be) talk over the forthcoming protocol. 

Goodness.  This upcoming event seems both radical and perfectly natural, all in the same breath!

I used to think “special delivery” was something that happened through the mail, but this home birth will redefine the term SPECIAL DELIVERY forever!

Palindromes (for Word-Nerds and Wanna-bes)

You have to be nerdy to notice things like palindromes.  Or to even know they EXIST.  Let alone to CARE that today’s date IS a palindrome.  Yep.  Nerdy. 

Before explaining today’s unique palindrome-ness, allow me to enlighten you who are not yet so nerdy, but may have some subtle yearnings in that direction.  After all, don’t you just want to KNOW what the word palindrome MEANS?  If so, that would indicate deep down, in some crevasse of your soul, you’re a word-nerd. 

Me too.

According to Wikipedia, “A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction, with general allowances for adjustments to punctuation and word dividers.”  Palindromes date back to at least 79 AD, but the most familiar palindromes, in English at least, are character-by-character; the written characters read the same backwards as forwards. Some examples of common palindromic words: civic, radar, level, rotor, kayak, reviver, racecar, redder, madam, toot, boob, pop and noon.  Palindromes exist in names like “Mike Kim,” and even phrases like “Never odd or even," or “Madam, I'm Adam."

So after this little tutorial, you may have a new appreciation for the fact that today’s date (11-02-2011) is a palindrome.   If you find this interesting, reckon yourself duly initiated into the I Notice Palindromes Club, which also, by definition, means you now qualify to aspire to the title of Higher-Level Word-Nerd. 

The Stand-You-Stare-See Place

A group of voluntary busy beavers were at work when I stopped by our beyond-amazing new church building today with two grand-girls in tow.  Upon arrival, I explained to the eldest (age 3) that we had time to do a quick tour, starting with the sanctuary and bell tower, and then would go downstairs and outside to see the beautiful pond and the prayer garden (a small patio surrounded by plantings and a couple of benches).

After we’d made the rounds with great excitement and enthusiasm, I said, “Okay, we have just a few minutes left, shall we leave and go pick up your mom or is there something you’d like to see again?”

“I want to go back to the stand-you-stare-see,” said the three-year-old. 

At first it didn’t compute.  “The WHAT?” I replied.

Being used to my hearing impairment, she looked directly at my face and repeated herself.  “The STAND YOU STARE SEE.  STARE SEE.  S-T-A-R-E  S-E-E! You know!”

Ah.  Sanctuary.  That awe-inspiring room with the knotty pine vaulted ceiling and huge windows overlooking the sparkling pond that was actually more of a small lake.

We trooped back inside and entered the sanctuary to find a volunteer on an elevated bucket replacing light bulbs in the ceiling’s fixtures. “Do you want to take a ride?” he asked her.

It was no surprise to me that she nodded vigorously, being the adventurous sort. He lowered the platform to the level of the floor, she climbed aboard, and in a few seconds was peering down at us from 20+ feet in the air!  What a thrill!  Her eyes widened until they were as big as saucers, and she waved vigorously to her little sister who had to throw her head back in order to peer upward at her airborne angel-of-a-sister.

I’d told her earlier that the “sanctuary” was the special place removed from everything else where we go to worship God.  In classic fashion she received that information, and when we actually experienced it her little soul picked up on the room’s ability to inspire reverent awe. So it made perfect sense that, in her mind, it was the place to stand-and-stare - the stand-you-stare-see place - and that her first experience in the sanctuary was an elevated, lifted-up one.