an Artist and His accompanist

Stars twinkle from horizon to horizon, hidden only by the cactus-dotted cliff that wraps protectively around us. My gaze slides down the rocky beach from the cliff, past our kayaks, tents and camp kitchen, and settles where the waves lap gently at the shore, bioluminescence mingling with reflected stars as each peaceful swell tumbles onto the stones. What a rare treasure to watch the Master Artist at work all day in the desert flora and life-laden sea, to hear the heavens silently declare His praises at night, and to marvel at each uniquely intricate sunrise He paints to welcome the arrival of each fresh day. As the show begins on this, our fifth and final day on the islands, a familiar reverent melody wafts out of my sister’s flute and mingles with the waves. Ginni serenades the Artist as He washes the sky in ever more vivid reds and golds.

Later we will cross back through the roughest seas and wind we have yet seen on this trip to the mainland where sun and shadow dance on the stark desert peaks that rise abruptly above the Sea of Cortez. The week had slid by far too quickly, like so many do, but it was a week I treasure like few others, filled with the love and joy of family as we celebrated my parents’ 45th wedding anniversary, my mom and aunt’s shared birthday and the impending arrival of a new generation.

So, many thanks to Ginni for arranging it and to all of you around the country who helped us celebrate. It was definitely a week to remember! You can follow along on our journey either through story or through pictures.

And if you're ever interested on just such a trip, just follow the link to Ginni's website.

Happy Valentine’s day this Saturday!

Donna

an Artist and His accompanist

a grain of rice

We’ve seen “Junior” for the first time. The tech said s/he was the size of a grain of rice, 5.5 millimeters. But the heart made the grain of rice shimmer. On the big flat screen monitor is almost looked as if the heart was bigger than the entire body.

Fascinating. To see a picture up on a screen and to know in my head that what I’m seeing in black and white on the screen is a real little person who is living inside me (we even have a picture!) – and yet it still seems unreal. I wonder if it will ever be totally real until s/he is born.

Seeing with our naked eye may not be the only way to come to believe, but it sure is a powerful influence on what our heart views as reality!

It’s a little like believing there is a Heaven, and that the promised Kingdom of God is reality, based on the dim, hazy image of it we perceive here on Earth. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but one day face to face. Now I know in part; one day I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known (1 Cor 13:12). Although I have to wait to experience a child, I now know intellectually that it is real. And I’m re-ordering my life because of that knowledge. A little voice challenges me, “Are you changing your life in response to the knowledge of Heaven, too?”

It’s a little early to be telling people we’re “due in September”, but I wonder, is it ever really too early to declare the glory of God? The creation of life is a miracle no matter what its outcome. And halfway down the timeline of eternity, after He has tenderly wiped away our tears, as we enjoy our children in the presence of Jesus, will it matter if we spent our earthly lifetime with them or if they helped Jesus prepare our place in Heaven while we lived on Earth?

We’d very much appreciate your prayers for the three of us and the massive changes that are afoot. We hope your new year is starting well!