Stand Still and Consider

I meant to take the camera to church today, to post a photo of our new location.  But, as one of our church ladies says, my memory is something I forget with. I've been meaning to do this for several weeks.  If I had remembered  to take my camera two weeks ago, we would have seen a gorgeous green countryside in the background.  Today we'd have had a more fallish looking scene. We're meeting in an old township hall building with a wood floor and great acoustics, out in the middle of a corn field (or is it a bean field?  yes, I know the difference, I just can't remember!), with horses and chickens nearby.  Big oaks in the yard drop their acorns on the parked cars, adding big metallic thunks to the country sounds every few seconds.  And I'm pretty sure that if we keep the door open our singing can be heard a ways down the road.  The church nursery is a comfortable tree stump out back, where the one noisy child has been rocked, hummed to, and tricked into falling asleep.

Fall is definitely upon us.  Early last Thursday morning my hubby drove the car right out of the nice warm garage and dropped it off at the tire store.  I left a few minutes later in the van to pick him up, after turning the defroster up full blast, running the washer/wipers, and using my kitchen scraper to chisel a hard frost off the windshield.  I grinned at the cloud of vapor coming out of my mouth and nose.  I jumped into the van and shivered, and I couldn't help smiling. Truth!  It has been a long time since I have been that cold, long enough that I have forgotten how awful it is.  Fall is invigorating!  I love it.  And I have determined to love it all the way 'til.... maybe Thanksgiving?  Then the snow will be upon us for good.  God will give me grace to love the snow, too.  My chances of that might be better if I just observe it from my living room window, but with God nothing is left to chance.  :)  

In the short time we have been back in Minnesota I have really enjoyed watching God's handiwork.  What has been even more fun is watching my desert kids' reactions to the wonders I have taken for granted: worms in the driveway after a rain, apple trees full of ripe fruit, the look-at-me-blue sky of September, soft grass to run in with bare feet, frost on said grass, sand cranes feeling in a field, sumac turning bright red, and the appearance and disappearance again of all the leaves that alternately hide and reveal landscapes.  

Thanks for the photos, Amy.

Honest, I did finally learn to love (Can I say "love"? I think I can say "love"...okay) like the desert a lot, and there are desert things (and people!) that I miss tremendously.  But I am very happy to be back in a land where things are alive, and you can tell.  lol.  Okay, if I had been more observant back there in Bullhead Land, I would have appreciated much more of God's handiwork there, too.

Okay, now for the snow.  Stay tuned.  It's coming.  

Thank you, Lord, for letting me be blessed with all this beauty that you made for your own pleasure.

God thundereth marvellously with his voice; 

great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.
For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; 

likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.
He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work.
Then the beasts go into dens, and remain in their places.
Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.
By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened.
Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:
And it is turned round about by his counsels:

that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth.
He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
Hearken unto this, O Job: 

stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

Job 37:5-14