Month: October 2022

Posted by Jolayne Rogers

Be still, be patient, be gentle, be calm…I feel like I should pick one of those as the caption for this picture. All three boys believed me when I told them that if they hold still they won’t get stung, so all three have frequently held bees. As soon as Rhett noticed this little lady buzzing around his hand he froze, and watched it as it explored his palm and fingers, telling me it tickled but that he was okay.

It is still tense, this fascinating encounter with nature. Every time. They have never been stung by an exploratory bee. They have always held still, watched it, talked to it, and waited until it flies away (sometimes helped along by a gentle puff of air from Mommy). But the fact that it COULD sting wars with the fact that it is intriguing to have a wild creature flit and crawl along your hand, so every time the bee flies away there is a sigh of both relief and disappointment.

.I wish I were as calm, and trusting, and patient with the bees that interrupt my everyday life. I wish I took time to be still and seek God, to be patient and not catastrophize, to be calm when figuring out the next step and to be gentle with myself and those around me when things aren’t going as planned. Instead I am more prone to flail around and get stung. What could be a blessing in disguise providing a memorable otherworldly encounter turns into pain and swelling and the need for healing due to my panicked over reaction.

May God give me the grace to hold any bees He sends me, until they fly away.

13You, Kelly Sundin, Sarah Stegner and 10 others

1 Comment

1 Share

Love

Comment

Share

The last enemy has been striking hard and often.  My friend, and our emeritus elder, Don Crabtree, went home this morning.  Nelson, Sunny, Donna, and Rayma all preceded him very recently.   Praise God it wasn’t war or plague; they all passed peacefully having led full lives….but death still stinks!   I don’t have to remind you of that, but I do want to remind all of us that Jesus hated death so much He suffered a horrible death Himself to end it!  A billion years from now we’ll look back at death as a vague memory – because it will have been abolished!  

So grieve with me – but always with hope; things aren’t right yet…but they will be!

“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.  For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,  then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.  THE LAST ENEMY THAT WILL BE ABOLISHED IS DEATH.  For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.  When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.” 

~1 Corinthians 15:20-28; NASB 1995; (emphasis added)

Pastor Scott