The Table Tops

It was a beautiful, warm evening, perfect for an outdoor gathering. I had been so busy that day. I had forgotten to clean the glass table tops on the deck and back porch for our 40 plus guests that were invited to a Bridal Shower as a surprise for a friend. So when the first guests arrived I took them up on the sentence..."What can I do to help?" Perfect, they could clean the table tops...Handing them paper and cloth towels and some window cleaner in a bottle, sent them out to do the duty at hand...Some time passed before I remembered the ladies with the cleaning supplies. As I passed them en route to another area, I saw that the tables looked smudgy and uncleaned...Stopping by briefly to see the problem of why they didn't sparkle and shine, I found that they were using sparingly the spray which would do the job in an instant...Mentioned that and moved on to the other guests needs...Forgetting all about the unclean table tops until every one had gone home. Somehow it seemed to me as I thought about the tables, that it is somewhat like me and the holy spirit. God provides an abundance of the Spirit to wash and cleanse us through the blood of Jesus, but we don't let Him apply it in it's fullness, thus making smudges on our character that any one can see as they pass by our lives...Oh Father, please wash and make me fully clean is my earnest plea so a reflection can be seen of Jesus as people pass by.

Running with the Coyotes

It seemed impossible that our big Great Dane would not chase the coyotes, but instead just ran with them...Two ahead and one behind him...I, in the mean time was calling him back to me...He thinking he would just follow along on this run kept running...Realizing this was not a good plan for my dog as big as he is, he is still a dog and those were coyotes...Finally going inside the house to fetch something from the fridge, I made my way out the back gate into the forest to call Grayson off his focus...The coyotes had gone into under brush in the manzanita, that he couldn't get through, thankfully...He finally came when he saw a treat in my hand that smelled like a hot dog...Beef of course...As I brought him into the safety of our fence line the thoughts started coming in quick succession...After I posted a short blurb on Facebook found that the trick for coyotes is to let the dog run with them and they will take them to a secluded place and then turn on the dog and kill it . So thankful for this information, now I will keep closer eye on him when he is out on the big acreage...However these thoughts kept pressing on my mind...We as humans can run with the devils imps thinking it is just a game and then we are lured into something much deeper and death can be the end of us...Maybe not so much physical, but spiritual death...For His Holy word says , "the wages of sin is death". So if the Lord is out hunting for you to bring you back to him with some wonderful treat, made and designed especially for you to respond to, come to Him for He will bring you back into the protection of His fence line...The commandments are His perfect fence line...For when we are safely under his protection we will know that it isn't wise to run with "coyotes" even if it only is a frolic in the woods, death may there await.

Hello Again

Can it be this many months since I have shared my heart with you...Yes time has in some ways dragged by and then it has also moved so fast I couldn't catch up with the threads of a day as they seemed to slip through my fingers. These last four or five months were shattered by the illness and death of my very best friend, whom I met in the early 1980 when we were both raising black wool sheep. We had met by a phone call placed by me the day I received my Natural Colored Wool Growers Assoc. booklet that I had just gotten in the mail box that day...I had thumbed through and found another farm just about a mile and a half from my farm... I had called her to ask if I could meet her and she invited me right over...I jumped in my old orange pick up and drove the short distance between us and found she had beautiful sheep and young lambs too...We were both eager to share the beauty of our individual flocks and the fine quality of the wool they produced. She called her "girls" into the low shed barn, calling sweet nothings, rattling a can of grain to entice them to come close, for they were afraid of me, a stranger standing beside her and they wouldn't come. So I enjoyed their beauty from afar. I asked her if she would like to see my flock and she agreed. We both traveled in my truck and I took her to my farm yard and rattled the can of grain, calling my "girls" by name and they each brought their lambs and dutifully went into their stalls as if they were robots following some uncanny magnet to arrive at their assigned place in the barn...We both laughed and she said to me "I think I hate you"...how can your sheep be so obedient? Well neither of us never knew how that happened for it never happened again for me...But that was the day I met Delores and we were friends from that day forward...I purchused a spinning wheel like hers, thinking that if I had a wheel like that I could spin like she did. She did teach me how to spin and in some ways the yarn I spin does look simular to the yarn she spun, but spinning is something like making potato salad...Giving 5 recipes out to 5 different gals will provid 5 different flavors, because no one does things exactly alike...We had many things in commen which caused our bond to be stronger year by year. We started Sierra Shepherds together in 1983 which included all the farm families in the area that belonged to the Natural Colored Sheep Growers Assoc...Kind of a Placer County chaper...We were at the local fairs, winning prizes and earning enough as a group to attend with a beautiful booth at the Spinners and Weavers Conferences that came about once per year...We were very visiable and did as a group much more than we could have ever done as a single farm enity...As the years brought on a more quiet life style and the selling of our flocks we had grown in friendship to be like sisters. Then one day the Doctor gave her the tragic news that she was filled with cancer and after Chemo and radiation, things took a turn for the worse...We planned her funeral together and it was my privilege to honor that request to faithfully fulfill the plans we had made. So part of me has been made numb by her loss. Part of me rejoices in the knowledge that she suffers no more and I can bask in the promises of our Shephed that we both loved, that He will take us through the valley of the shadow of death, and I will fear no evil . Psalms 23 The promise of God's holy word gives me hope and courage for the future..."I can tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meeti him ahead of those who are in their graves. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever, so comfort and encourage each other with these words." 1Thessalonians 4:15-18