Dreams Realized and Spectacular Events

screened-in back porch

It is Saturday afternoon -- that time between busy activity and starting dinner. The photo above shows where I am sitting now, although the picture was taken a couple of days ago. 

My computer is balanced on my lap as I sit barefoot in that chair you see, waiting for my pedicure to dry.  (smile) The photo looks like there is a floating lamp shade in the back yard. It's really a reflection of a lamp in the family room. 

The screening of our back porch was installed on Thursday and we love it! I am reminded of Sue who, when she lived in Florida years ago, would love to sit on her covered patio beside the pool in the quiet of early morning to do her Bible study. I had a similar arrangement at my house (also in Florida at that time), but sitting outside for an extended length of time in the warm humidity was unthinkable to me. Now, here I am, doing that very thing with a happy, very contented heart.

Age and perspective have been the Creator's tools to change my heart on some matters. He is doing things within me I never dreamed possible.

Often my prayer on Saturday morning is asking the Lord to help me prepare my heart for church on the morrow. I do that now as I recount to myself (and to my readers) some of the highlights of this past week. There is so much for which to be thankful.

Starting with some of the basics, the Lord has given my heart permission to continue beating regularly and the energy to expand my lungs with fresh air. Exiting my bed every morning has been a painless action. Every single day I was able to follow my habitual route through the family room into the kitchen, flipping on light switches. Later, when I turned on the local morning TV news, I could readily see the Lord had faithfully watched over me through my hours of sleeping.

On Tuesday was the spectacular solar eclipse, and although clouds diminished the show in my area, from news reports we could tell it was truly a remarkable event wrought by God's hands.

the inside of our church sanctuary,
as seen from the balcony
before the service began

Wednesday night we met with our newfound church family for their usual supper served in the gymnasium. Beloved and I know next to nobody, so it was a delight as I put my plate at an empty table to have a female voice call out from behind me, "Are you alone? Come sit at my table!"

One of the senior members of the church was speaking to me. I picked up my things and took a place beside her, with Beloved following suit with his plate and cup. This pleasant lady introduced us to the couples who joined us, making sure we all got the names right, and then carried on a pleasing and informative conversation to make us feel welcome. That was a dream realized. We have been asking the Lord to put people in our way who will call us to themselves in a warm welcome.

After our dishes were put away, Beloved found his way to prayer meeting while I joined a ladies' Bible study class. By the time everyone had arrived, we had at least twenty in attendance. I have been looking forward to studying the Word with a group of women and making friends. As we went around the room introducing ourselves, I wondered to myself who would be my next good friend.  I am blessed with good friends sprinkled across the nation, but local friends are needed, too. This is a dream in-the-process of being realized.

Getting the back porch screened in is a dream, too. Over forty years ago I sat on a similar porch of Beloved's aunt in Alabama. On that warm muggy afternoon, much as it is here today, a ceiling fan spun above our heads. I thought how "southern" that was and I loved it. We lived in South Dakota at the time. I never thought that one day we would have our own porch in a warm climate with a southern fan gently cooling my skin.

newly-installed porch fan before the screening was installed

In the wake of the eclipse, another spectacular event is going on right now, as I type. Not a happy thing for those personally affected, of course, Hurricane Harvey is doing impressive things in Texas and Louisiana. Our nation is seeing, whether in person or on the media, the strength of nature created by our God. 

It has been a week to remember. As I ponder these things and prepare myself to attend church tomorrow, I meditate on the meaning  of worship as defined by Lauren Chandler, "Remember all the ways [God] has rescued and will continue to rescue." We are to "speak out loud of His faithfulness and thank Him for it."

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