Make Way for (Elder) Ducklings!

By Karen O’Connor –

Parents of eight ducklings need a bit of help finding a safe place to raise their brood. During a rest stop in Boston’s Public Garden, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard agree they just might have found the ideal spot. But when Mrs. Mallard and her darlings are stuck on a busy street in downtown Boston, their policeman friend Michael rushes in, stops traffic, and makes a way for them. And so goes the story, Make Way For Ducklings, the children’s award-winning classic by Robert McCloskey, published by Viking Press in 1941.

Perhaps there have been times in your life when you needed someone like Policeman Michael to make a way for you. I have! Especially now that I’m older. Sometimes I feel as though I’m invisible. I want to throw up my hands and say, “Look at me. I’m a person too. An older person, I know, but still a person. Make room for me, please. Couldn’t you at least acknowledge me?”

Maybe that’s why I pump iron and jog and hike. If I stay “buff” I won’t be overlooked so easily. Maybe my age won’t matter.

Well the time came when that almost occurred. One summer morning I jogged along the beach near my home wearing a pair of old shorts, a ratty t-shirt, and a bill cap to keep my hair from flying in my face. There I was––with my naked, lined face––and the rest of my body tagging along too!

I finished my run, wiped my face on the tail of my shirt, and slowed to a walk. Just then a teenager on a bike sailed past me, then stopped, turned around, and jabbed the air with his right thumb. “Not bad for an old broad,” he shouted, and then pedaled out of sight.

What nerve! Who does he think I am? Then I broke out laughing. At least he looked. He was rude, but he had made a way for me that day—a way to feel good about myself just as I was.

A year later my husband Charles and I were on our way to one of my speaking engagements. One evening at dusk we ventured out of the hotel where we were staying and walked up to the corner of Highway 1 and a cross street that led to a restaurant on the other side.

We were about to make a run for it (no traffic in either direction that we could see) when suddenly a small truck appeared. We back-stepped in surprise as it squealed to a stop. The driver leaned out the window and motioned us to cross. “Go right ahead.”

Kind enough, I thought, since he was in the wrong. We stepped in front of the vehicle, waved a “thank you,” and then started across.

“No problem,” he called after us. “We have to take care of our older folks!”

Darn! Here I am, fit as a farmer, but to this younger generation I’m still an “older folk!”

There’s something about that phrase that clangs in my ear. I’m not ready to listen to it. But maybe I should, since chronologically I am one. I surrendered, jumped off my high horse, and became willing to admit that people of any age can use a bit of support now and then. I decided to view the situation with new eyes.

That evening the young driver had been our “Policeman Michael,” making a way for two elder ducklings to cross the highway safely, so we could return home the following week and get back to the gym.

Can You Read My Mind?

By Jane Thornton –

They say grooms don’t care about wedding ceremonies, passing responsibility for colors, flowers, food, and songs to the bride. Not so for my groom. Although he voiced no opinion on colors, except to lay down the law against a pink tux (darn it), he did participate fully in the music choices.

We easily settled on Friends are Friends Forever as à propos for our attendants’ entry. Although losing touch seems inevitable, we knew we would always consider these people friends. Romantically seeing rescue in each other from all emotional struggles, we agreed on Bridge over Troubled Water for one of the introductory songs.

I was excited about my latest discovery. “How about Amy Grant’s Doubly Good for your entrance?”

His brow creased and a speculative gleam entered his eye. “I don’t know.”

“Do you know the lyrics? ‘ If you find a love that’s tender, if you find someone who’s true, then thank the Lord; he’s been doubly good to you.’” Hugging him, I was a bride in alt. “It’s perfect.”

He agreed, but not with great enthusiasm. He was too modest, but I knew how wonderful God had been to me by bringing us together. I wanted the audience to think about how blessed I was in this handsome, godly man.

Anniversary night, five years later, we snuggled down on the couch with our two-year-old son to reminisce over our wedding video. Watching my dad touch my face, tears shimmered across my eyes as I remembered that shaky, excited feeling.

Piano chords chimed over the lawn. Sober, yet calm, Wes entered to stand under the moss-draped live oak while Amy Grant crooned the first line. I sighed, “He truly was doubly good in sending you to me.”

Wes flicked my hair. “Hmm. I thought you meant for me to think about how He’d been doubly good to me by sending you.”

Horror washed over me. With a shriek, I paused the video. “What?” My gaze flashed back and forth between the puzzled, downturned lips on his live face to the serious stare on his filmed self. “You thought I was telling you how lucky you were?” My voice rose to a squeak.

“I am lucky…blessed.” He stroked my shoulder then ruffled our son’s hair.

A gesture that would normally comfort only scraped my raw nerves. “How arrogant did you think I was?”

Honest to a fault, he shrugged. “Maybe I was a little put off at first, but the lyrics were still true.”

Amazing that he could think so when he thought he was marrying a conceited, self-righteous prig who wanted him to dwell on how blessed he was to get her. My heart mourned over the frozen image. At a time when I wanted him to be feeling adored and respected, he was feeling forced gratitude.

I punched the play button. “Watch it now, knowing that it was supposed to be about you.” My stomach churned, but I tried to calm down and enjoy his annual teasing about my forgetting part of our vows.

How many times do we think we understand or have made ourselves understood? How many miscommunications go undiscovered? We could drive ourselves crazy with the ponderings.

How many times do we misunderstand God? But He has promised His Spirit will help us with that:

“The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God… no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God… we have received … not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us… ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” II Corinthians 2:10-12, 16 (NIV).

Comment prompt: Any miscommunications you’d like to share?

Goin’ Fishing

By Susan Dollyhigh –

“I’m going fishin’, Nana,” KK, my three-year-old granddaughter said.

I smiled to myself as KK walked out of the kitchen where I stood washing dishes. How cute. I imagined KK casting out an imaginary fishing line and reeling in her plastic fish. Suddenly, my smile vanished as I recalled some of KK’s previous escapades. With sudsy water dripping from my hands, I dashed down the hall to the bathroom, all the while envisioning the tub overflowing with water and plastic fish.

Instead, I saw KK slowly emerging into the hallway – from the den. As she walked toward me, she cautiously placed one small foot down and then the other. In one hand she held a paper cup while her other hand covered the top. Upon reaching me, KK removed her hand from the cup and said, “Look Nana, I caught a fish.”

Peering into the cup of sloshing water, I recognized a fish that had been kidnapped, or fishnapped, from its home in the aquarium. KK was serious about her fishing. She never intended to use a make-believe fishing pole to catch plastic fish.

KK was determined to catch real fish.

Simon and Andrew were fishermen casting their nets into the lake when Jesus came along. These two men were serious about their fishing. They were using nets and catching “real fish.” Yet Jesus told them he had a more important fishing assignment for them – to be fishers of men. What did they do? They immediately dropped their nets and followed Jesus.

Even today, Jesus calls us to do the same. Do we hear His voice saying, “Come, and follow me.”? Are we willing to leave behind our busyness as Simon and Andrew did? Are we willing to share the good news of Jesus Christ with a lost and hurting world? Are we willing to be serious fishers of men?

PRAYER: Father in Heaven, please open our ears to hear Your voice. Please open our eyes to see the lost and hurting in our world. Please help us to be obedient and lay aside our busyness so we can be fishers of men.

“As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him” (Mark 1:16-18 NIV).

Signs of the End Times? The Blossoming of Israel

By Dianne E. Butts –

In Deuteronomy 27-30 (see 30:15-21), Moses told the people of Israel that if they lived according to the good ways God wanted them to live by, they would be “blessed” and would prosper. But if they “forgot” God, which means moving away from Him and refusing to live the good ways He wanted them to live, He would not bless or prosper them. This is because the Israelites were to represent God the world. God is good, so the people were to represent Him by being good. If they were not good, they were not representing God and needed to be removed from the land so that the rest of the world would not have a bad and wrong impression of God.

Unfortunately, Israel did indeed forget God and began to live in the same way the rest of the world was living. They did not represent God to the world, so God removed them from the land He had given them.

When Israel was taken out of the land and the people dispersed all over the world, the land became a nearly uninhabited, desolate wasteland—a picture of the condition of Israel’s relationship with God.

But the people of Israel began returning to the land after World War II, and on May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation again after nearly two millennia of being dispersed. Since then, that desolate desert wasteland has begun to blossom, just as Bible prophecies predicted. Here are two examples of those predictions:

“But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home. I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown, and I will multiply the number of people upon you, even the whole house of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. I will increase the number of men and animals upon you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 36:8-11, NIV).

“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt. The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. They will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.” Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the LORD have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it’” (Ezekiel 36:33-36).

Today, according to 101 Last Days Prophecies by Eternal Productions, “Israel’s increased rainfall and world renowned irrigation technology have caused the land to blossom. Incredibly, as foretold, they currently export over 1,200 million dollars of fresh produce each year, including over 100 million in flowers and ornamentals plants. Amazingly, this recently re-gathered, often attacked, tiny nation exported over 54 billion dollars worth of goods in 2010. This was inconceivable a century ago. In contrast, their neighbor, Jordan exported less than 8 billion in 2010” (p. 9-10).

Could the re-blossoming of Israel be a fulfillment of prophecy and a sign of the End Times?

The Father’s Heart

By Peter Lundell –

Our dog recently ran away. My daughter and I love Angel, our little Yorkie, as if she were our baby. So we were grief-stricken when we could not find her.

I prayed and prayed she would be found and returned. Then the call came!

When we went to the house and the person brought Angel to us, I felt overwhelmed with joy.
But Angel was more interested in the owner’s dogs. When I held her, she seemed to think nothing of it, as if simply going home after a day’s adventure. She was oblivious to what she had done, how troubled we were, and how happy we were to get her back.

She couldn’t understand; she’s a dog.

Then it struck me. So many of us are like her. Even I have been like her.

Countless people, including you and me, have been separated from God—and thought nothing of it. We couldn’t understand. We’re human, not God. We’re as oblivious as Angel the dog.

And all the while God aches for his lost ones to come to him.

I could feel the Father’s heart as Jesus expressed in Luke 15 with the parables of the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son. The Father searches for the one lost, longing for return. And when the lost one is found, God, the angels, and those in heaven rejoice over every person who comes to faith.

When we get right with God, we might say a prayer and feel good. But like the dog, we have little idea of the immensity of what’s happened or how heaven rejoices over us.

If I could feel strongly about a four-legged animal, imagine how the Creator and Lover of our Souls feels about us. It overwhelms me.

May you also be overwhelmed at feeling God’s heart.

PRAYER: “My heavenly Father, I have caused You both grieving and rejoicing. May I feel Your heart, how You’ve grieved over me when I’ve gone astray and how You’ve rejoiced over me when I’ve come into Your arms.”

“While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:20–23 NIV).

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