Tea Cakes

As of the past couple of years, my brother Rick and I have grown to watch after our centenarian + mother very closely.  So I come up to check on her every couple of weeks, do a few light chores, and pretty much just keep her company enough that I don't over-stay my welcome.

Rick and my sister-in-law, Debbie took a company trip to Greece, Egypt, and Italy for 3 weeks, so that was the perfect opportunity to bring her back to south Louisiana for a few days.   My wife, Darlene and I figured she'd get pretty bored rapidly so, we were always thinking of something to keep her occupied.  You can only enjoy so many episodes of The Andy Griffith Show and Gunsmoke...just sayin'.

After trying to put a couple of puzzles together, we abandoned them for some trips to visit grandkids and see one of them perform at a local hamburger joint.

After counting her meds, she realized that she was running low, so after 9 days, we made the decision to head back to her home, pick up some meds and check on the condition of her place.  As it was, we left just in time to avoid Hurricane Francine.  I had not checked the weather and had no idea it was imminent, so it was a good thing we left when we did.   

Settling back into life in the piney woods, it was good to see a few deer in the back yard, put up a new hummingbird feeder and re-pot some amaryllis bulbs I brought up from our place.

Somewhere along, we thought about tea cakes and began to look into recipes.  We found one that looked promising so I took it upon myself to whip up a batch.  My grandmother, Lizzie Reppond Pilgreen used to sometimes have some stashed away in her "safe", a screened cupboard in the dining room.

Anyway, I think they turned out pretty well.  Although the recipe said to cook them for 8 minutes at 350°. it took more like 15 to get them done.  

You have to be careful not to cook them too long because they're much better if they're not hard or crunchy. 

Mama wrote down the recipe for me, but I get in her way in her kitchen, so if I make them again, it likely will be at my place.

Dreams

As a child I would have these indescribable nightmares where I was surrounded by this omnipotent force that I did not understand.  It was formless, yet its power was frightening to me.  Now, when I think about it, perhaps the power it had really was nothing to fear other than that it was something I could not fathom.

I am pretty sure we all dream, perhaps every night (and sometimes in the recliner) we all go there like its a distant place that we don't understand the rules of.  Some are memorable while others can be disturbing.  As I've gotten older, I don't really have disturbing dreams and some are downright pleasant and even humorous.

Some troublesome dreams would often involve being in a place that was disheveled and without order.  More than once I would dream that I was at an event and did not want to get up from the table because I was without shoes and sometimes without pants, just socks and underwear.  What an embarrassment.

Just last night I dreamed of meeting lots of pleasant people who I helped do some things and they were so nice and accommodating.  It seems I was lost and couldn't get back to the airport and received plenty of assistance from my new found dream friends.  When I woke this morning, I had the most incredible pleasant feeling all over and whether or not I really did, I thought I woke with a smile on my face.  As I rolled over, I looked at the clock and said, "Good morning, Lord!  Thank you for a great night's sleep."

Over the years the dreams had become more and more fun and entertaining.  Some of my favorites would involve flying at will.  No wings, just willing myself to fly over objects, trees and obstacles.  As it turned out, later in my life, I became a SCUBA diver and a few times I rode underwater scooters.  They were tube like devices with battery powered propellers at the rear that you could hold on to the rear of, press the button and glide underwater at a decent speed turning around and over coral.  Another way to use them was to put the nose of it between your legs, hook the side of your feet and fins to the bottom and blast off, using your outstretched arms to guide you.  That is known as "Superman."  So now looking back, the "Superman" trick was exactly what I had been dreaming of for years.  Night before last I dreamed that I could will myself into a "superman" mode and fly in the air.  I even stepped off the rear deck of my Mom's house and just simply landed on the lawn with no impact.  Lots of fun.

Now, the most memorable dream I had, and recall it often, was that I was off somewhere in a distant city driving around just looking at things to photograph.  I did that quite often in the 20 years of traveling by myself working for my company. *(Thanks, Mr. Jones.)* Each weekend found me in some often sketchy neighborhoods with my trusty Nikon on the front seat.

Anyway,  I had pulled up onto an abandoned service station at an intersection that had long been deserted.  You've seen them before; faded paint on the pumps, weeds growing up in the cracks of the concrete and dirty cracked windows on the building.  There was a sign post that once housed the oil company sign but now was nothing but a rusty rectangle holding nothing more than pigeons.  Most of the buildings around were abandoned as well.

I got out of my car, looked around and noticed the street had narrowed down to just to a little lane that gradually descended by a few feet.  Without hesitation, I followed the path where no more buildings nor man-made structures could be seen.  My walk was so pleasant with no clouds in the sky and on each side of the lane there was only one particular variety of plants dominating what looked like thousands of acres.  

They seemed to be chest high and as the slightest breeze blew, the stalks of the plants would wave the most beautiful and brilliant blue flowers that you can imagine swayed in the gentle wind. It is impossible to describe the beauty and intensity of the color.  Not only were the flowers absolutely breath taking, the little glimpses of emerald pedicels and sepals would flash beneath the blue flowers adding to the sight.  I can't stress how magnificent that field of flowers was.

Knowing no one could understand or imagine those colors, I knew they had to be photographed.  In normal times, that Nikon would have been slung over my shoulder but for some reason, I had left it in the car.   So I turned and headed back up the little hill to the car, unlocked it and grabbed my camera.  As I turned to go back and snap those pictures, I became confused and could no longer find the lane.  It just wasn't there any longer and grieved over it knowing I would never be able to prove how glorious that meadow of flowers were.

I am not a dream interpreter but I somehow like to think that this was a slight glimpse or faint snippet of heaven, that He had shown me just a bit of it and that it was not my time to see His glory.   Also, I had to return to where things of man were corrupt, disintegrating, and would eventually be overgrown by weeds and bushes.  The only way I could see that field (of dreams) again, would be when He calls me home to be with Him forever. 

Baruch's Lesson

While privately talking to the Lord this morning and making coffee, I lamented that my life was so insignificant and that I had wasted so many opportunities, both in worldly ventures and more importantly, Godly deeds.  I reminded myself that I had friends and relatives who had gone on mission trips, help build orphanages and preached all over the world.  Woe is me! It was a full blown pity party but the Lord wasn't going there with me.

As usual, I opened up my bible app to read some morning devotionals and continue on with my daily readings.  This morning, the book of Jeremiah was the subject.  As the scriptures unfolded, I found that Jeremiah the prophet had been somewhat of a thorn in the side of the king and his council resulting in him being beaten and put in stocks for a night by Pashur the priest.  Jeremiah was not shy about letting the king know how the Lord felt about the way the king of Judah was leading the people and prophesied against him often.  Judah and its kings had a long history of ignoring God and was often found burning incense in high places to other gods which greatly displeased the Lord.

After his release, Jeremiah went back to his place perhaps to sooth his wounds but more importantly, discuss the past event with God.

Jeremiah received a word from God and told his assistant (scribe), Baruch, to write down the words of the Lord and that they should be delivered to Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Jeremiah dictated to Baruch some disturbing news on a scroll which would be delivered to Jehoiakim's leaders.  As the leaders read the words, they asked, "where did you get this?"  Baruch told them, "these are the words from the Lord that were given to Jeremiah!"  Jeremiah 36:11-15  The leaders knew that the king should hear it and knew this would likely not be received well by the king and told Baruch, that he and Jeremiah should hide out for a while.  So, they gathered themselves up and headed straight to Jehoiakim, delivering the scroll.

After delivering the scroll, the leaders began reading the words and after a few columns, the king would angrily cut off a portion and throw it into the fire eventually burning the entire scroll.  When it became known that the original scroll was burned, Jeremiah dictated another with the same message with some other choice words added.  There was going to be a lot of destruction and lots of it.

Anyway, as the story goes, it seems that Baruch felt somewhat secondary to the whole event even though the Lord wasn't going to let Baruch be harmed in the upcoming mayhem.  So the Lord gave these words to Jeremiah, regarding Baruch.  Jeremiah 45:1) "Jeremiah said this to Baruch:  “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch:  You said, ‘Woe to me! The Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am worn out with groaning and find no rest.’  But the Lord has told me to say to you, ‘This is what the Lord says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the earth.  Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the Lord, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.’”

Now, what does this have to do with me feeling sorry for myself?  It think it means that I should get over myself and that my self imposed judgement of myself is not His plan for me.  

Matthew 6:1 tells us, "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.  If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."  We should be carful as not to let our service to the Lord turn into its own self righteous reward.

So, in retrospect, the Lord knew that I would be reading these very passages and that was His message to me.  There has always been those who have been designed for worldly greatness and those who have not.  These conditions do not negate the love of Him for us and that we are all vessels of His goodness.  Learn to hear and discern what the Lord is saying to us for we are all spokes in the wheel that carries His will and purpose.

Should I cease thinking of the possibilities of being an effective witness to the faith?  Of course not but if checking off boxes and accumulating photos of mission trips is my reward, then I have accumulated nothing. 

Huckleberries

Mama is from a different time and place.  Being 102 years old, she's seen depressions, wars, marriages, divorces, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, births, and deaths.  With that, she still enjoys simple things; humming birds, deer in the back yard, and has often told me that the two things she loves to see the most is the American flag waving in the breeze and a snowfall.  Being a Louisiana girl, snowfalls are few and short-lived.

Each morning she goes out and scatters a large cupful of bird seed on the old picknick table and some on the ground.  After she leaves, a host of squirrels, birds and rabbits will come to feed.  Young rabbits come so close to her that she could actually step on them. 

Now that I'm retired, I spend a few days with her each month, coming up every other week to do a few chores, give her some company, and take her grocery shopping.

For the past few days, she's concentrated on 10 or 12 wild huckleberry bushes around her country home, so we went out and picked a few.  She says my brother will enjoy making some huckleberry jelly.  She's collected and frozen a couple of pints of them.

Picking berries fits more into a rural lifestyle and wouldn't fit into the plans of a much younger generation whose life experiences are shaped by electronics and social media posts.

So, what are huckleberries?  Huckleberry plants are perennial shrubs that grow from 2 to 10 feet tall, depending on full sun, and produce tiny blueish black berries about ¼ to ½ inch in diameter that has a sweet tart flavor. On my Mom's place, there are probably a couple of dozen nearby if you go down into the woods.  

Picking them is time consuming so the harvest is more of a pleasure than an economic solution and I would venture to say the same about making one's own jelly.  

ETA:  Jelly is made.

Rick helped pick more berries so they went to work making jelly.

Huckleberry Jellies!

Bulls, Baal and the Children of God

Moses ascended Mt. Sinai where God gave him the ten commandments, but while he was gone, derision grew in the camps of the children of Israel, so they collected all the gold from everyone and fashioned themselves a golden bull calf.

Without the presence of Moses, the children of Israel quickly forgot about God and returned to the worship of Baal.  Baal, or "Lord", whose symbol was that of a bull, and the Israelites had become very familiar with the worship of it as a deity. Baal represented prosperity, therefore the calf was made of gold.

After receiving the law, Moses descended from the mountain and his anger was aroused.  In Exodus 32:19, it is recorded that "When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain."

Some see that there is a template set by God where the United States is like that of ancient Israel.  The United States has deep roots in the God of the Bible and in its infancy, George Washington, after being sworn in as the first president, effectively said that if America ever turned away from God and His eternal laws, its blessings would be removed.

In the late 20th century, we began to see the laws of God being systematically removed.  No longer were the Ten Commandment allowed on government property, and slowly became less important in our private lives and business.  The very mention of it or Jesus Christ brings hatred, anger, and vitriol, stirring up those who think that we ourselves are the creators and not the creation.

After the stock market crash of 1987, an Italian sculptor, Arturo Modica illegally placed a 7,100 pound symbol of prosperity and financial optimism, the charging bull, outside the New York Stock Exchange which was removed to a small park on Bowling Green later that day.

Today, Charging Bull figurines are seen on the desks or walls of virtually every financial office in the United States.  Our financial system now is worshiping Baal and awaits another Moses to descend to New York and the financial district to smash our ten commandments or the constitution.  

It will not be pretty.  Who or what will be the instrument of our destruction?

Job, God and me

For the past few years, I have awakened and spoke with God virtually every day, just a brief, "Mornin', Lord. Thanks for seeing me through the night."  I am not sure if it can be called praying, worshiping, or praising but either way the communication is there.  No, He's not spoken to me in a thunderous voice and there have been no flashes of lightening but just the same, sometimes I feel as if He is everywhere in the room.

My next step is brewing up a cup of coffee, sitting in my chair and spending a few minutes reading in His word and contemplating what I've just read.

Sounds pretty holy, doesn't it?  Well, if that's what I wanted, then that's my reward. That would be fine as long as the winds and turbulence of the world isn't distracting me.  Will my little daily devotions walk me through the gauntlet of challenges ahead?

I recall the story of Job.  God said there was none like him but Satan argued that it Job's faith and love for Him was because he'd been blessed with wealth, family and friends and that if those things were gone,  Job wouldn't be so lovey-dovey with the Lord then.  What would happen if all those things were suddenly removed?

The challenge was on so the Lord gave Satan permission to afflict Job with all sorts of problems but under the condition that he could not take his life.  As the story heats up, messengers come with the news that a great storm came, blew down the dwelling with all his children in it and no one survived.  Also, there as a fireball that came down and consumed all his livestock and all was gone.  Job, ripped his garments, pile ashes on his head and cried out, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

It's one thing to lose possessions.  You can deal with that by adjusting yourself to a new normal but when he became afflicted with sores on his body, things now had gone from economics to a very personal physical way.  His own wife just even said to him, "Job, just curse God and die!", yet he did not sin against God.  Now, the last of his family had now turned on him.  What about his friends?

Along came three of his friends and a younger guy who sat with him a while.  Each of them reviled him and strongly hinted that he was not the man of God he pretended to be. Job refuted each of them, sending them into a tizzy,  and still proclaimed the holiness and his everlasting faith him Him.  Job still had not sinned.

Eventually, God restored Job's wealth and family and Job lived a ripe old age.

In a way, if we isolate ourselves from the world, perhaps we can wrap up in a spiritual cocoon and ignore those things of the world and be oblivious to it all, but that's not how most of us are built.  We have to continually deal with both physical happenings as well as emotional challenges such the afflictions of those near to us as well as our own.  How then do we continually overcome and still hold fast to Him who made us?

There are some things to avoid in wrapping ourselves in that spiritual cocoon. Both in Christianity and religions of the world, some would cloister themselves as monks high on a mountain or lock themselves in a man-made retreat of brick and mortar devoting themselves to becoming deeper with God.  But, that's not how He created us.  He designed us to procreate, to live and to worship with one another and to enjoy the life he gave us.  Sure, He called special people out to be His voice on earth for the purpose of vocalizing his will but they too, ate, drank and breathed the air which he created for us.

I've had a few trials but none like that of Job.  Right now, there is a calmness to my sea of life but storms will come and I pray that my faith will not sink in the high waves.   He put me here for a purpose as he did for all.  Our job is to walk in his ways, love one another, forgive one another, and have compassion.  Compassion on those near and dear to you, compassion on the stranger, and yes, compassion on those who seemingly despise you.

All these things I can do while enjoying that second cup of coffee, watching my children and grandchildren accomplish things with the talents he gave them, while knowing that it was God, who gave us all these things.

Lying on the rear window back ledge

Lying there against the rear window on the back ledge of the car, objects moved from large to small to infinity and were constantly replenished as breeze whipped around from the downed windows while the car sped along at 60 mph. To an eight-year-old kid back in the 50s, it was almost a universally accepted thing to do. It was not illegal, and it was done often. Of course there were no seat belts or any constraints and a padded dash was sometimes added as a safety measure for the ones in the front seats.

The diminishing signs, poles and trees was like watching creation in reverse, I could not see what was coming from the front and every few seconds, something new would become the past then be replaced by future past objects. Having ultimate trust in my Dad to take care of what was coming up on the road, I never had a worry for what was out front. The occasional bump in the road or the tight curve did not unnerve me, and all I had to do was enjoy the ride. Whoa!...there goes a cow on the side of the road!

Sometimes I let the events of my life load up on me, and now I try to see the future, only to realize my hindsight is much better than my foresight and that only God knows the future and not me.

Recently, my wife and I were handling an intense life event and I spent a lot of time mapping out in my mind how things should or would play out. As was pointed out, I was often in a twitch when it looked like things were not becoming a reality in the fashion I had envisioned. I began to understand my limitations, so with my wife's advice, I began to talk with God (at length) and confess that I had no power and that He was the one driving the process and I should be that eight-year-old kid again and place that ultimate trust in God to map, guide and walk me through the process.

Wanting to display strength, leadership and confidence, we often hide our fears and dwell on worst case scenarios. I should have been taking Psalm 56:3-4 to heart. "When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?"

Psalm 37:5 tells us, "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act." I've seen that work recently and if only I could put myself in that position for the rest of my life, and be totally dependent on God to handle the bumps, drive me around the curves and steer me around the random heifer on the side of the road. He also says in Jeremiah 29:11, "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."

That's where I want to be, for it is written (Mark 11:24), "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

My job is to learn to trust in Him. He already knows His job.