My Mother's Hands

My skin is aging. I look down on these hands as I type, and I see a connection to great loves that have come before me. As I examine the lines forming on my left hand and touch the smoothness that still remains, I feel my mother’s hand. I see the veins that beautifully line her skin. I am a child again and holding her hand. My great aunt is suddenly with me. Her hand looks much the same, but the lines have become deeper and the veins more prominent. I still feel her sweet fingers wrap around mine. Hands. Touch. So much feeling transpires. So much love. Hold hands. Look at the lines. Look at the lifelines that run through our veins. Remember. Love. 

LT

Animals: Angels Among Us

I’ve just come back from several days spent breathing deeply and soaking in the quiet moments I could in the woods alongside a lake with my family and puppy dogs. I delighted in catching sight of various birds and wildlife jumping around in the trees and the joy of walking my dog and gazing out at beautiful landscapes.

I’m convinced animals play a significant role in spreading God’s love in the world. Their sounds and actions draw our attention away from the world we’ve created and draw us back to the beauty of God’s creation. They capture our attention and both awe us with their power and splendor and help us pause in the simplicity of their specific activities.

The animals that come even closer, those who become part of our communities and families, have the ability to draw love out of even the most lost souls. They can bring instant joy to their companions and the strangers they meet. I believe these special animals are God’s advocates and angels. Their time among us may be shorter, but their impact is powerful nonetheless. They help our hearts to grow in ways we may not have thought possible. They are sharers of instant love and joy. Why wait?

Ellie

I am thankful for all the special animals in my life, but one in particular, my Ellie dog, was sent to walk me into a new chapter of life. I knew I needed a new direction, but I didn’t know what to do, which way to go or which way to look. I found myself being pulled towards the Humane Society. When I first met Ellie, she humbly crawled towards me presenting herself as a companion in this journey of discernment. I knew she was there for me, focused on me, loving me. Together for over a decade, she filled my heart for a lifetime. Her sweet and playful, get-up-and-go spirit encouraged the same in me. I can still feel her presence and love for me and can still see her jumping through the woods off on an adventure.

Birdie dog joined our family shortly after our son William was born and just before Ellie decided it was time to go. Now a mommy to two and full of grief over the loss of Ellie, there didn’t seem to be enough room in my heart for Birdie. She didn’t complain. She spent time with my husband and enjoyed learning how to fetch. I didn’t give her much time.

Birdie

One night, exhausted and overwhelmed, I tucked myself into bed after the babies were finally asleep. Andrew was away for a meeting. As new mommies sometimes are, I found myself pretty weepy. Curled up in the dark by myself, I suddenly felt a wet nose pushing into my arm. Birdie had come to find me. Although Andrew had trained her to stay on her bed, she knew it was time to break the rules. She knew I needed her. In an instant, she opened my heart and filled it with her sweet love. Once I opened my heart to Birdie, I was happily surprised at how much my ability to love could grow.

God’s creativity in making sure that love always finds a way amazes me every time.

These angels in animals clothing are here to help us catch a glimpse of the greatness of God and to open our hearts to a greater capacity for love. I smile at the thought that they were designed in this special way to continually catch us unaware and to redirect our attention.

Thank you, God, for the creatures among us. Your love abounds!

“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.” Matthew 3:16 NRSV

With love and light,

LT

Pillar of Salt

Once my son became wary of loneliness and fear, we had to develop some bedtime patterns to help him go to sleep. One of those has been listening to audio stories so that he does not feel alone and has something positive to think about prior to sleeping.

A couple of years ago we received a wonderful series of Bible stories on CD retold by the gifted storyteller Elaine Blanchard. Recorded in her own voice, “Elaine has taken Bible story favorites, dusted them off, added a dash of delight and humor to create a collection of twenty-seven stories for children.” (http://www.elaineblanchard.com/about.html)

My little buddy was having a particularly hard time going to sleep the other night. I was sitting with him while he was listening to his stories, and I happened to catch the names Sarah, Abraham and Lot. Not listening closely, I asked, “Oh, is this the story about when Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt?”

William looked up with me with eyes full of terror and said, “What?!?!? Is that true? Did that really happen? Did God really turn someone into a pillar of salt?”

I stared at him blankly, panicking at the idea I had introduced, and quickly attempted to stutter out some sort of response. Of course this was not one of the stories that Elaine included in her compilation. What was I thinking?

His questions continued with, “Does God still turn people into pillars of salt?”

I gulped, breathed a little, patted his chest and tried to take us through this challenging story that I had unwittingly introduced my child to. What a gift it turned out to be for both of us.

As we searched for meaning in the story together, we talked through why God didn’t want Lot’s wife to look back. God was promising Lot and his family a new life full of hope that would help them to turn away from the challenges and negative influences they were facing behind them.

I didn’t talk to William about the fact that the two cities in question were being destroyed and that was why God was asking his faithful followers to leave.

This has always been a hard story for me because I think people limit it and use it to attack others unlike themselves. It also has a lot of family and societal traditions to which I do not relate and find hard to condone even in historical context.

What I do believe about the story is whatever those people in those towns were doing, it was not with God in mind. Their hearts and eyes were turned away from God and instead set on selfish pleasures. I think we can find plenty of examples today of how we let the world and our own wants take us away from a loving and fulfilling life of simple needs.

As Jesus said, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone…” (John 8:7)

I asked William what his heart felt like when he felt loved and looked towards things that made him feel happy. He responded saying it made him feel good. I then asked him how it made him feel to be angry or to look towards things that made him mad or sad. I asked him how it made his heart feel. He said, “Heavy.”

I asked, “Do you think that your heart might even feel hard in those moments?”

He nodded, still a little confused.

“What do you think a pillar of salt might feel like?”

“Hard.”

“Perhaps a little unstable, too? If it’s salt, it might fall apart?”

He nodded.

Maybe this story isn’t about God turning Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt but her causing her own hardness and unstableness by looking in the wrong direction. When we focus on the hardships of our past and can’t look towards the future of hope and love that God is providing us, our hearts can be hardened and weak at the same time. We can become like a pillar of salt.

William finally decided he was hot and as his little seven-year-old self expressed, “Exhausted.” It had been a big talk and a very big discussion to end the day.

Before I kissed him goodnight, I thanked him and God for the conversation we had had. It’s certainly not one that I had expected, but it was one I needed. I told William that our talk had helped me realize that I had been looking back and worrying about many things that I knew God didn’t want me to focus on and that in a way I had been hardening my heart. I thanked God for surprising us with this story and giving us a reminder to look forward. (Luke17:20-37)

With love and light,

LT