Monthly Archives: June 2012

Well, earlier this evening I was off to a reception for a couple Jill and I had done  pre-marital counseling with.  The hall was just a few blocks away.

I walk in the door and see some local people.  They look as though they are the only familiar faces in the crowd.  So I volunteer to sit with them.  Then I head off to get some punch, and begin to encounter others.

Sarah had mentioned her parent’s friends.  Particularly this small group that had stayed together over the years – along with their families!  They no longer lived in the same town, but they kept up contact.  The “group” and their kids showed up!

And in the midst of this group.  The Cappelles – a couple who had worked with our music ministry in Prince Albert.  And my cousin Norm Stonehouse, and his family.   Well, I abandoned this other couple (they had also run across people they knew) and headed off to sit with my cousin and his family.  What fun!

As the reception came to the nine o’clock hour, I slipped away to visit with other friends who were passing through town.  They had been part of our music ministry in Prince Albert.  Along with another family we have known for years, we laughed, and discussed, and condolences were shared.  I was refreshed.

Now how good is that!  Don’t abandon your friends – they will prove your support in the years ahead!

Jill loved red bushes and trees.  This past week, in Ontario, my morning walks saw me pass a multitude of these!

I came home and wandered into our back yard.  A few years ago,  in our “garden space”, we had left two red bushes.  Just for the sake of having red bushes. 

They were not seen.  They were trimmed a few times.  The rototiller had to carefully bypass them. 

Overall they needed a new home.

So today, I went out and moved one.  To the front yard flower bed. 

Will it take root?  We’ll see. 

But at least now, in plain view is a red bush.  A reminder and an opportunity for a new beginning.

I was pushed to read a passage of Scripture today.  The reference to it came from a devotional book.

Here is the King James Version version:

Oh Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of faces. – Daniel 9:7a

Confusion of faces?  Other versions talk about shame.  Others combine the two.

So I checked the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Old Testament).  That has faces as well!  And the Hebrew also uses “face” in the phrase. 

And so I began to think (and bounce this off our associate pastor).  If God is the one that is righteous, when we look in that direction there is no sense of being two faced or confused about what is right.  The problem is with us as people.  We have a confusion on our faces.  And as we look at one another, there is also a confusion on our faces.  We are shamed because we do not know right from wrong – our faces show it! 

Early signs that the Bible understood “body language?”

Yesterday morning I awoke to branches sprayed all over the yard.

The last few days before I arrived back, the sky had been ominous yellow and the clouds and weather unpredictable.  Wind storms churned up the sky last night.  So much so, that truckloads of debris have been taken to our local dump today!

In the early hours of the morning, I raked up what branches I could.  In the evening, a neighbour hauled them away.

My first thoughts as I was raking were – “I wonder what Jill would say.”

You see, in the past few years she was unable to do a lot of manual labour.  Her love of gardening was restricted.  She would watch me in the morning, out our back window.  Then, when I arrived inside, she would remark on the little things that made up the work I had been doing.

Nothing big.  Just something she noticed.  The comment was not earth shattering.  But the comment was recognition that she was watching and cared about what I was doing.

Some of the greatest things I miss are the small chatterings of companionship.