Tag: Comfort

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Christian Blog Hope

One Firefly Night

Last night, just after dusk, I sat on the back porch taking in the sounds of nature. There were a few crickets and some bird who didn’t know not to sing after sun down. It was all garden variety, until my eye caught a green blink…blink…blink. A firefly!

Hyper-focused, I tried to guess where the micro flash would come next. Over by the storage shed, near the silhouette of a tree, surely this little guy has company!

But there was only one. A single firefly blinked a few times. And then it was gone.

A one firefly night.

It happened so fast, I didn’t get the chance to share it with anyone. I ran inside to tell my wife, “Sweetheart, I just saw a firefly. ONE firefly! I think I’ll name him Frosty.”

“Frosty?”, she said.

“Yes, after Robert Frost. You know, the poet who wrote, Nothing Gold Can Stay?

I then quoted, unprompted, one of my favorite poems:

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost

A single lightning bug–arguably, the most beautiful but fragile of God’s creatures, lives in the words of a famous poet, but also in the heart’s cry of Psalm 43.

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.

Psalm 43:5

Nothing Gold Can Stay.

The scripture, the poem, and the firefly: each say life is GUARANTEED to change. It’s beyond our total control; all one can do is prepare for the inevitable.

Depressing? Perhaps. The free acceptance of an unknown future CAN be.

But you and I know who holds the future.

Put your hope in God; for I will yet praise Him.

This post first appeared on my blog in June of 2019. But, would you believe, the same thing happened the other night?! One firefly appeared in my back yard, blinked a time or two, and then was gone.

Categories
Christian Blog Christian Living

Playing “Pop Up”

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The other day I had a class-and-a-half of kindergartners in my music room. That’s approximately three dozen six year olds.

As I’ve stated here before, working with young children is like herding cats. And this particular day was no exception.

I started off the lesson with something engaging. But it happened anyway–a little thing I call “Pop Up.” My enthralling introduction to loud and soft music was repeatedly interrupted by children coming to tell me things.

“Mr. Duncan, I need to go potty. It’s a “mergency.”

“I have a cut on my finger,” says Callie, showing me a scratch on her pinky.

Yes, to the emergency bathroom visit. No, to the band-aid request.

“Mr Duncan, Kathlyn said my shirt’s on backwards.” A quick look says Kathlyn’s right.

“Boys and girls, we’re not getting up now,” I say with a grimace.

I turn around to start a video but my “teacher sense” tells me there’s, yet another, little guy “On my six.” That’s aviator talk for someone’s right behind me.

Sure enough, I feel a tap-tap-tap on my lower back. It’s Timmy, smiling. “Mr. Duncan, do you need a hug?” Now I’m smiling. “Sure, Timmy.”

Life also does this little thing called “Pop Up.” And, like dandelions in the front yard, it can happen overnight–one unwanted reality after another.

But then you sense there’s someone “On your six.” It’s God, smiling. “Child, do you need a hug?”

The Lord appeared to us in the past. He said, “I have loved you with a love that lasts forever. I have kept on loving you with a kindness that never fails.”

Jeremiah 31:3 (NIRV)

Thank you for reading. 🙏❤️

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Christian Blog Protection

Big Dog Watching

Sheep Dog or Collie (Rough), from the Dogs of the World series for Old Judge Cigarettes by Goodwin & Company is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0
Sheep Dog or Collie (Rough), from the Dogs of the World series for Old Judge Cigarettes by Goodwin & Company is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

The man who does our income taxes lives on a little farm near our town. Yesterday, when I went out there, it looked like a baby farm animal zoo!

In a side pasture next to the house there were several chickens pecking at the half-green grass. Right in the middle of them was a little pot-bellied pig, rooting around and running in all directions. The girls paid him no mind.

Suddenly, the baby pig took off running towards the middle of the pasture. “Where is he going?” Then I saw them, four baby goats grazing contently. They and the pig engaged in a brief stand off, before he scrambled back to his lady chicken friends.

When I picked up our completed taxes, I commented to our accountant’s wife about the unfenced animals. “How do you keep them safe?” I asked. “There are plenty of critters out here who’d like to eat them for dinner.” “Baxter keeps an eye on them,” she said.

Sure enough, as I drove away, I saw a large dog lying next to an out building. He’d positioned himself where he had a commanding view of of the whole scene. The little animals were covered.

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O Lord, you preserve both man and beast.

Psalm 36:5-6 (NIV)

Occasionally, I see posts where fellow believers write as if God has walked away from His creation. Things are getting so bad, they imply, He must no longer be keeping an eye on this world.

Kind reader, this is untrue. As the scripture above says, the Lord’s great love, faithfulness, and righteousness surround us. He has a commanding view of everything. We are covered.

Thank you for reading. 🙏❤️