Blakeyblog

“Over the mysteries of female life there is drawn a veil, best left undisturbed…” This amusing line is from the movie “Little Women”, a tender story about a mother and her four daughters during the Civil War. As I watched this tonight I couldn’t help reminiscing back to when I was younger and my three sisters and I used to be so similar to the girls in this story–close, affectionate, thinking we’d always be together. But just as the March girls, we have each grown apart, walking down very different paths, some much much farther apart than we ever would have thought. At one part Jo says to Marmee, “Why can’t we all just stay as we are?” I used to feel that way, but how different things are now. Change is only what we make it out to be.

Tonight Astari, Bethany, Jen and Missy gathered here for dinner. I so enjoy the company of these friends because they are each unique and talented. When we are all together there is such a conglomeration of personality, tastes, styles and history represented that it seems to all round out. Conversations from the hilarious to challenging, everyone contributes so much and I am so thankful to be a part of such a fellowship. From 8 straight lines, de-lovely, to The Old Man and the Sea…it is never a boring moment when we are all together!

During lunch with a friend today we got to talking about the “One Anothers,” the many admonitions in the Bible to do something for or have an attitude towards others. We were noticing how many times the Bible calls us to “love one another.” (1 John 3:23, 4:7, 4:11, 4:12; 2 John 5; Romans 13:8; 1 Peter 1:22…I’m sure there are more) This is not calling us to a shallow acceptance of others. Nor is it saying we should ignore sin or conflicts. It is calling believers to true love, God’s love. Love that is pure, good and selfless. True love is from God and all about God. I cannot say that I am of God, that I love someone, but never consider spiritual things together with or about that person. Someone said that we are called to love others and use things, but that we are constantly getting the two mixed up. We are often exhibiting a form of love that is merely a use of that person to get things for ourselves. Usually it isn’t just material things but acceptance, appreciation, or some way to help us feel better about ourselves. This is not love. In God’s love there is no hypocrisy, no game to play. It is open, honest, challenging, forgiving, devoted, humble gentle and patient. I don’t want to have any veil over how I love others. But would rather choose to love genuinly, not posing to show a form of it that only seems right. But being found obedient to what God asks of me, I can live having nothing to hide…all by His grace and to His glory!

This weekend I received a very thoughtful gift from my in-laws…a Singer sewing machine. I’ve always liked sewing, my mom is an accomplished seamstress and taught me how. Though I have the basics down, I can only hope to aspire to her needle-and-thread talent. I didn’t realize what a substantial part my mother played in my past sewing endevors until today. Excited about my first project on my very own machine I set out to the fabric store as soon as I was off from work. It wasn’t long before I had my pattern and fabric selected and optomisitcly made my purchase. After dinner tonight I set up the machine to begin my project. This is when the problems began… It didn’t take long for me to realize that I was mistaken in my size selection, instead of a “4″ I had bought a “14″. I didn’t have any pins, thread, tailor paper, and I couldn’t seem to remember what in the world “interfacing” was. Several frustrating hours and a phone call to my mom later, it is all clear what I need to get to be able to sew on my own. So when I get a chance to go back to JoAnn’s I will be able to make another attempt at my project…hopefully this time I’ll succeed!

This week the forcast is rain, and lots of it. The weather man was right and it poured all day. I thought we had a lot of water all around, so it is difficult to imagine the Tsunamis in Asia today. I watched a video feed from a news website and was shocked to see how quickly the waves completely cover the land, cars and buildings. There was this fascinating section about how a Tsunami is formed by an earthquake out at deep sea, pushing huge amounts of water onto land in mere minutes…kind of like the tide coming in, but much much worse. Though this is geographically interesting, it is sad that over 30, 000 people lost their lives due to the monster waves. I thought about the account in Mark 4 where Jesus calms the storm. It says, “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.” Jesus stands up and rebukes the sea saying, “Peace! Be still!” Immediately the winds and waves are calmed by His voice. We are much too familiar with this account. Though we have trivialized it to a flannelgraph story, this amazing event really happened. A furious squall came up and when the Creator gave it an order, it obeyed. He was in control of the storm then and I know that He is sovereign over the Tsunamis today. Our weather and the ocean waves change…my plans for today sure changed!… but God never changes (Malachi 3:6, “For I am the Lord, I do not change.”) I was reading about God’s changeless sovereignty in Ecclesiastes 3, it says that God does whatever He pleases and we cannot understand it. God’s mind is too big for us, His plan too great for our comprehension. I will never fully discern all of God’s works, but Solomon says, “God does it, that men should fear before Him.“(v.14) This whole day I have been reminded that I am so small, pitiful and inadequate. Acknowledging this reality drives me to reverence and worship of Jesus my Lord, may all that lives sing His praise!

Another year has gone by and it’s Christmas again! It was a cold beautiful day here and we have had a lovely Christmas. First things first, Christmas Eve…we stayed up late, snacking all night and watching holiday features on television. While flipping to a different channel we were excited to find Dr. John MacArthur a guest on the Larry King Live panel. In addition to MacArthur, there were three other prominent religious figures and a Newsweek journalist discussing Christmas and common religious controversies from anti-semitism to capital punishment. The guest from Newsweek had recently written the cover story, “The Birth of Jesus.” It was sad to find under minimal investigation that he didn’t even believe that the Bible was innerant, inspired or sufficient, let alone accurate. This is what the conversation sifted down to. The Word. At one point this journalist said, “Things don’t have to be accurate to be true.” To this MacArthur, in his straight-to-the-point manner, called him out on the mat, “It’s a battle, it’s a war for the integrity, the authority, the veracity, the inerrancy, the inspiration of the Bible. If you believe the Bible is the authoritative, inspired, inerrant word of God, then what it says is absolutely true and binding. If you’re not going to believe that, you are going to have to attack the Bible, because of its longevity in the world, because of its power and its impact, you have got to deal with it religiously. ” Nevertheless, the other guests kept trying to dismiss this critical point by saying that if people simply believe enough something can be true for them. At one point it came down to what people believe and how they act, a common dichotomy in Christians today. The other guests proudly stated that people can try their best but stood by the view that no religion had the right way to God or righteous living. MacArthur spoke up, “Christians act like Christians. I think Christians are transformed people. And lots of people take the label, but don’t know Christ.” I sure appreciated this profoundly valid point, and even stayed up to watch it all over again when it re-aired at midnight.
(Follow this link for a full transcript of the show “Who Was Jesus?” )

This morning we slept in, ate warm apple stroodle for breakfast, and opened a few gifts. I was excited to be the recipient of a Singer sewing machine and some choice GAP apparel. Bobby was very happy to get a CD player alarm clock, he can set to wake him up with favorite songs. The friends we are house-sitting for have a little beagle named Libby, so in the afternoon we took her for a long walk and went to the movies. We saw “Finding Neverland” a sweet drama about the writer of the children’s classic, Peter Pan. Jonny Depp plays playwrite, John Barrie who befriends a widow(Kate Winslet), and her four young boys. The film brilliantly portrays Barrie’s summer-long aquaintance with the Davies family, in images intermixed with fantasy and reality, as their adventures become inspiration for Barrie’s journal and in the end a play about an imaginative boy and his adventures in Neverland. Innocent and tastefully entertaining, this film packs an emotional punch towards the end, so keep the tissues handy.

I’m off to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I can’t think of a better end to such a delightful day…we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

This site is for personal thoughts and narrations on my life, which of course includes my sweet husband, Bobby. Life with us is always an adventure, and I know I’ll have fun writing about it.