Road Trip!

By Liz Cowen Furman –

We recently drove our middle son out to California to start college at California Baptist University. (Amazing place!) But before we could leave, l had to drive the eight hours from our motel in Dubois, Wyoming, home to meet up with my hubby and son to start the journey. Then on the return journey I left him in Conifer, Colorado, and drove back to Dubois for the last week of our season and to close the motel for the winter. The total miles traveled in one week and three days was 2,648 through six states. Whew! Good thing I love road trips.

On our journey, I discovered some amazing things…here are the top ten.

10. Sunflower seeds, cinnamon discs and singing loudly work well to ward off drousies while driving.

9. August might not be the best month to travel from Wyoming to California and back. Hotter than Hades.

8. Southern Utah is a beautiful place.

7. Oceans are one of God’s coolest inventions.

6. Israeli Melons! Yum!

5. Rainbows – we were chased all the way across Utah and then again at the beach by the most gorgeous rainbows which we decided were a sign of great things to come for our son. (Wish I could include pictures with this article, they were AMAZING.)

4. While Vegas is touted as a very FUN place I found it to be desperately lost and so sad. Not to mention dirty and unbelievably HOT.

3. 113 degrees + 80 miles per hour = melted tires. Oops.

2. Older motels run by families are a blessing.

And the number one thing I discovered on this most beautiful trip?
Leaving a child at college states away from home is not for wimps… Gasp, sob, smile because I know who has him in the palm of his hand.

We had a great time with Matthew on the way there and are so thankful God has his back.
As He has ours. We can take this promise to the spiritual bank. Check out Joshua 1:5 “No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5, NIV)”

Visit to NASA

By Judy Davis –

During a visit to the Kennedy Space Center, the awesome accomplishments of space travel amazed me. Rockets from Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions stand as monuments to the scientific achievements of mankind.

I visited the Space Center several times when I attended the Christian Writer’s Conference held each year in Florida. However, I have never seen a rocket blast off into space. I came so close to seeing this happen several years ago. I was staying with some friends and we got up in the middle of the night to go and see this spectacular event. We stood for hours it seemed in an open field near the rocket site. As we were waiting patiently, and so excited, the final countdown finally arrived. 3…2…1…and then suddenly an announcement over the loudspeaker: “this mission has been aborted due to technical problems.” Needless to say it was disappointing. Later, we laughed as we thought of how we waited and waited….and then missed it!

Even though I’ve watched many launches on television, it’s hard to comprehend that a rocket weighing hundreds of tons can be blasted into space. When Neil Armstrong took his first historical step on the moon, some people doubted whether he really did. Though I don’t understand how, I believe astronauts have orbited the earth and landed on the moon. I believe because eyewitnesses who were at the space center reported what they saw, whether by television, radio, newspapers or magazines.

As a believer in Jesus Christ, it’s hard to comprehend that the son of God actually walked on this planet over 2000 years ago. But just as I believe man can defy gravity, I believe in Jesus’ divinity and humanity. Jesus came to earth on a mission from God. He walked on the earth because many eyewitnesses saw Him. They didn’t have the technology of today to photograph Him, but they wrote plenty about what they saw. If there were a monument to the mission of Christ, it would be the cross He died upon.

Whether you and I understand it or not, God sent Jesus on the greatest mission ever. “For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).

Jesus on Your Grilled Cheese

By Carol Barnier –

Warning: Serious Cynicism Alert

Few of you will ever know the thrill of seeing the face of our Lord Jesus on your drywall. I can tell you first hand, there’s nothing like it. The problem is, in my case, the face that emerged looked more like the Sith Lord from Star Wars rather than Jesus. And that’s not the first time I’ve seen a clearly-not-Jesus face appear. Karl Marx appeared in my wooden door grain, Mark Twain on my marble floor, and I’d swear I saw John Goodman in a cow pie (my apologies John, but it is what it is).

There have been Jesus sightings by people all over the world in the most unlikely of places—places like Cheetos, clouds, banana peels, baby scans, end of a log, grain of a rocking chair, stained tea towel, rusty side of a refrigerator, bacon drippings, freeway underpass, tortilla, granite countertop, bottom of a turtle shell, and my personal favorite—stains on the coffee mug of an atheist. These people are serious. They take photos, slap them onto Facebook, and start a viral ooh-and-ah fest round the world with amazed and reverent supplicants. This behavior actually has an academic latiny-shmatiny name: pareidolia, which loosely translates to I think I’m in love with my toast. So powerful is this longing to see the face of Jesus in an unusual place, this year’s Christian Retailer’s extravaganza provided the opportunity to purchase a George Forman-like grill that imprints the face of Jesus on your grilled cheese sandwich—(No. I’m not making this up. Google Grilled Cheesus if you don’t believe me . . .which begs the question, just how do we know what Jesus looked like, and moreover, does He prefer Gouda, Brie, or Cheddar?

I don’t want to rule out the possibility that there may indeed be some authentic appearances, but you’ve got to know how to evaluate these things. The Catholic Church, being fully aware of just how often this can become silly, has taken this evaluation process very seriously, even producing a checklist of Rules Regarding Apparitions explaining how to judge the validity of a sighting. Among other things, it includes looking at the individual who found the sighting with a very cautious, even cynical eye. Is she a true adherent? Or did she jump on this bandwagon recently, bringing with her other questionable practices like swinging dead chickens over her head before prayer? Is this an unusual thing in her life? Or did she also see David Bowie in her freezer’s frost last week?

My sightings of the Sith Lord, Mark Twain and John Goodman have taught me something; if you look around long enough, you’ll see faces in everything.

But I think I’ve also learned something else. Rather than looking for the face of Jesus in our coffee stains and our mulch piles, I think our time is better spent trying to BE the face of Jesus. Doing an act of kindness when others turn away. True—it’s not Facebook worthy. No one’s going to line up and pay money for a trinket representing your act of kindness. Little bobble-head dolls aren’t going to appear with your giant grin nodding reverently toward an adoring fan club from the back of someone’s Kia.

No. There is a hurting world out there. They need to feel a loving embrace, a drink when they’re thirsty, a hand when they’ve fallen. They need to know hope. They need to know that the God of the Universe knows their face. And I suspect, that no matter how beautifully rendered, they’ll never find such truth in a cow pie.

The God Who Sees and Seeks

By Dawn Wilson –

“Come and find me, Mommy,” my oldest son Robert yelled down the hallway. At age three, Robert loved to play Hide and Seek, but his attempts to hide made me laugh.

I stopped cutting potatoes for dinner and searched for my son. It didn’t take long to find him. As I rounded the corner, I spied two legs sticking out from below his bed. I smiled, understanding that in his little mind, as long as he couldn’t see me, I couldn’t see him.

“Gotcha!” I yelled, as I grabbed his legs and pulled him out. I tickled him and we both erupted in goofy giggles.

I wonder whether God smiles or is grieved when we play Hide and Seek with Him. He must think we’re pretty silly when we “hide” our sinful behavior. Do we really think He can’t see?

In Jeremiah 23:24, God asked the prophet, “Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” The writer of Hebrews gives us the answer: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight” (Hebrews 4:13a).

As a child, I heard the story of Achan (Joshua 7:1-26), hiding banned items in his tent in direct disobedience and rebellion against God. My Sunday school teacher said God saw what was hidden and punished Achan with death. I remember being terrified of God—the One who saw everything!

In high school—trying to live a “Christian” life without knowing Jesus—I read about Ananias and Sapphira, hiding their sin of greed and lying to the apostles (Acts 5:1-11). But God saw it all. He knew their hearts. As I read about how they died for their deception, I squirmed. “God sees my heart,” I thought, with growing fear, “and I’m such a mess!”

Even after I became a Christ-follower in my early 20s, my view of God was such that when I thought of Him beholding my sinful behavior, I was too convicted and scared to come to Him. Whenever I sinned, I avoided time with God instead of quickly coming to repent and move on in freedom. I still had much to learn about the grace of God and that the person who “conceals” sin will not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces sins discovers God’s great mercy (Proverbs 28:13).

But one day, I read the story of Hagar the concubine, running away from her jealous master, Sarai (Sarah) to dwell and perhaps die in the desert (Genesis 16:7-14). God “found” her by a spring of water in the wilderness when she felt most alone and destitute.

Hagar called the Lord “a God of seeing.” She realized that the omniscient God saw her in her great need, and He was going to look after her and her son and give them a future. She called the place where God met with her Beer Lahai Roi—meaning “the well of the Living One who sees me.”

My view of God changed that day. I understood the incredible grace of the One who sees everything, yet pursues me to reveal Himself for my good. The Psalmist says, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Psalm 103:8). There’s no need to hide; but even when I do, my loving Father God will seek, find and comfort me with His love.

What have you learned about this great God who sees and seeks?

It’s Great Up Here

By Karen O’Connor –

I was sorry to hear about the unexpected death of my neighbor, Carl. I knew it would be difficult for his wife, Marion. They’d recently celebrated forty-five years of marriage and in recent months they were inseparable—well almost. Marion was totally committed—devoted even––to keeping Carl healthy so he’d be around for a long time. She couldn’t imagine life without him. And I could see why. He was tall and still good-looking for seventy-nine years and he was a fix-it man besides. There was nothing Carl couldn’t do around the house and yard. Maybe Marion had an ulterior motive for serving her hubby seaweed and wheat germ!

I have to admit, though, sometimes it was a real drag to be with them, especially at community potlucks or holiday buffets. Marion was a broken record (make that a CD) on the subject of healthy eating. She prepared lots of veggies, bran muffins from scratch, raw fruit at every meal, and plenty of fresh, purified water. And whether or not you wanted her advice on how to renew your energy, you got it.

Carl went along with the plan because he loved her and he wasn’t the kind to make waves in a calm sea, but I could see the mischief in his eyes when she wasn’t looking. His friends saw it too.

Henry, who lived in the house behind Carl and Marion, once told me that when he and Carl met for lunch on the days Marion played golf, Carl indulged himself in all the no-no’s like chocolate cake (sometimes two big slices), hot fudge sundaes, eggs cooked in bacon grease, and a double portion of pure whipped cream on his apple pie. He loved them all. Figured it didn’t hurt to have a little fun once in awhile as long as he was being “good” most of the time.

Carl used to joke about what it would be like in heaven. He could imagine St. Peter ushering him through the pearly gates and then pointing for miles around at the huge buffet tables filled with all the goodies Carl loved. And best of all, they wouldn’t be forbidden in heaven. Surely God wouldn’t post a list of healthy and unhealthy foods. New creatures in Christ wouldn’t have to worry about counting calories anymore.

“There will be no more tears and no more pain in heaven,” he said chuckling at the prospect, “so I won’t have to watch what I eat. No cholesterol to check either!”

Henry said now that Carl was gone, he could picture his dear friend looking down on him and shouting, “Henry, it’s great up here. No diets, no exercise regimes, no restrictions, no bran muffins. If I’d have known all this ahead of time, I’d have come a lot sooner.”

Heaven does sound heavenly at this point in life. There are still so many things to deal with on this side of eternity. I’m watching Marion now that her partner has left for his reward.

Sometimes I ache for the time when I won’t forget where I laid my glasses, whether or not I brushed my teeth, what my own phone number is. But then I stop and realize it’s wrong to wish my life away. God will bring me “home” soon enough. Meanwhile, pass the bran muffins.

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