Come and Eat

 

 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. ~John 21:12

I love birds; watching birds, listening to birds, reading about birds, and trying to photograph them with my phone camera (not very successful). The other day as I was out walking, I heard a bird song from my childhood. "Come and eaat! Come and eaaat!" I can only remember hearing it in back-off-the-road places in early spring and summer mornings. Funny how sounds can jog a memory and take you back sixty years.

My grandparents rented half of a shotgun house way back off the road. The house had no running water and barely any electricity. Their back stoop was a couple of rock slabs stacked for steps. We'd sit and talk or whittle or just sit and listen. I'd hear the little birds sing, "Come and eaat!" Grandma always kept the cookie jar full. There would always be the smell of potatoes boiling down dry, almost stuck in the butter. Chicken frying at her house always seemed to carry the invitation to come and eat. The trip to Grandma's was two doors down a path along a barbed-wire fence. Whether the snow was piling in over the top of my little cowboy boots or daffodils blooming along the path I knew there would be the invitation to come and eat. 

Our Heavenly Father extends the invitation to come and eat. All we have to do is turn off the TV, put down the phone and open up his word. He has a table spread. Knock and he'll open the door for you. Jesus invites us to come and dine. Taste and see that the Lord is good. 

My grandparents didn't have a TV. They didn't have a phone. But they opened the word of God daily and spoke to the Father regularly. They knew how to have company, make you feel at home,  without technology. 

I used a little technology today. I thought what bird is most commonly associated with spring? A robin? So I searched for the American Robin bird song.  After all these years I finally knew what bird was making that inviting sound. I had seen it in my yard all my life. I had heard it all my life. Is Jesus calling to you to come and eat? Has your Bible lain unopened all week, waiting for Sunday? Have you forgotten to open your heart in prayer?  Just like the robin still calls us to come and eat, so the Master still calls us to come and dine. 

Take time to open up God's word today and feast at the table He spreads for you, for us. 

Come and eat.

Father, help us quiet ourselves from the noises calling around us that we might hear Your voice calling to us to open Your word and feast on Your precious promises. Help us interact in prayer with the one who has the table spread. In Jesus's name. Amen.

Hey Kids: 

Have you read My Spring Robin by Anne Rockwell? A child searches for the robin she sees each spring until she hears the robin's song. 

There are lots of books about birds for children as young as four and as old as one hundred and four. There are also lots of ways to look for signs of spring. One of my favorite nature study websites is Wonder-filled days. 

Be amazed this spring with all the things God has made to remind us of what a good and gracious God his is. 

No Matter How Small

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[fn]

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

~Psalms 139:13,14

STOP! Hurry to your nearest bookshelf, library, or store. Ger a copy before there is no more. Then slowly, carefully read each line. Is there anything vaguely familiar in the rhyme? 

Horton, whose elephant ears are very sharp, hears the tiniest voice calling for help. He can't see the person whose voice he hears. Some poor little person who resides on a speck of dust is crying out shaking in fear "that he'll be blown in the pool. He has no way to steer." 

That speck is as small as the head of a pin. But you know "a person's a person no matter how small."

Horton imagines who might be living on that speck of dust, "a family with children just starting to grow." The baby kangaroo agrees with everything his mother says. She's training her baby to have the same misconstrued values as she. But Horton keeps repeating "A person's a person, no matter how small." Even when everyone is making fun of him, he still stands for what he knows is right. 

Three monkeys jump on Horton's back. they could have been his friends, the government, or just pushy people trying to help. So they take the speck on the flower and give it to the vulture. Who is to "kindly get rid of the thing." What? Kindly get rid? of the thing? Others say nothing is there, but now there is an admittance that there is something there.

So the vulture "hides" it in a field of other flowers. Horton feels more dead than alive. Think about that. Horton didn't agree to throw the flower away but it's affecting him anyway. Finally he discovers the flower with Whoville still alive though shattered. 

The kangaroo says they live in a peaceable jungle. How can the world in which they live be peaceable when they destroy the smallest among them? How can Horton show them the truth? By getting everyone in Whoville to make a noise, shout, play music, just make noise, but the kangaroo still can't hear.

But not everyone who lives in Whoville is doing their part. When the mayor searches for the person, he finds him innocently playing with his yoyo at home. He's the one who is keeping the town from being heard. His shout "Yopp!" is the needed extra sound to bring the message to the kangaroo. She changes her mind and her little roo does too. 

The Supreme Court has heard the case. They are waiting to make a decision while thousands of children die. Who is the last one to let our voice be heard? 

A person's a person, no matter how small!

Heavenly Father, please let the voices of your people arise and be heard by all the land so that the killing of our innocents will cease and healing can begin. In Jesus's name. Amen. 

Hey Kids:

Have you read Horton Hears a Who? Just who is a Who? I think you probably know the story of the Grinch. Little Cindy Lou Who lives in Whoville, the same Whoville Horton saves on the speck of dust. 

Many of Dr. Seuss's stories have important messages with a Christian worldview. What other books by Dr. Seuss have you read? What were some of the messages? 

Every book has an underlying message.  I like to go back and reread books that I enjoy to make sure I got the author's meaning. What other books have you read with a Christian worldview?

Wonderfully Made

 

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. ~Psalms 139:14 KJV

My niece, out playing in the snow with her sons, took close-up pictures of the snow on their hats. She obviously has a great camera to take such detailed pictures. Amazing that man can make a camera like that. Oh, I just said, “Man made a camera.” But what about snowflakes? Are they complicated? Simply put, they are snow crystals that enlarge and change shape as water vapor changes into ice without going through the liquid state. I wonder if the frozen fog would be snow formed on the trees.

It's amazing that God can make a person who is so much more detailed in every respect. The explanation of the making of a person is so much more complicated than that of a snow crystal. Scientists still aren’t sure why snow crystals grow with six sides and form symmetrically.  Explaining exactly how a person is formed is still a mystery too that scientists can only observe. That’s why this month is Sanctity of Life month. A time to stop and reflect on how precious each life is whether young, old, middle-aged or at the moment of conception. All life is precious and purposeful. Whether a person is a great statesman, a mom, or a mechanic, they each serve a great purpose. Using the talents God has given us to serve Him is an even greater purpose. God has given each of us something precious and holy, life itself. May we use our lives for His glory this year and always.

Heavenly Father, help us see the wonders of your creation with new eyes. Help us see ourselves and others as wonderfully made. May we cherish each life from the moment of conception to the last heartbeat of old age, realizing each person has a purpose that you have planned. In Jesus's name. Amen.

Hey Kids:

Would you like to learn more about snowflakes? Maybe even make a snowflake? Here's a great site.

Please let us know what you've learned about snowflakes. 

Maybe you'd like to share something wonderful you've learned about yourself as God's marvelous creation. 

Ten Ways to Hear God

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth! ~Psalms 46:10

The winter snows are beginning to fall. I love snow. I recently finished reading Ten Ways to Hear Snow by Cathy Camper, a children's book about a child visiting with her Grandmother who cannot see well.  Mrs. Camper describes the things Lina hears because of snow as she walks to her Grandmother's. Lina hears shovels scraping, the crunch of her boots, the ploompf of snow falling from a limb. On and on she notices all the things she usually ignores or can't hear without snow. Finally at Grandma's, when she has only heard eight things, she hears the drip, drip of snow melting from her mittens. Lina's Grandmother has difficulty seeing. When she asked Grandma if she knows there has been a blizzard last night, Grandma said she could hear the snow when she raised her window this morning. Grandma says, "Today everything sounded hushed and soft. No noise is the sound that means it's snowing." That was the tenth way Lina heard snow. 

I could easily relate to this story because I have experienced the hush and the softness, the peace of snow. Ten Ways to Hear Snow also made me think about the ways I hear God. I wondered if I could think of ten ways that I hear our Lord. 

1. In the rustle of leaves in the breeze. —Jesus tells us in John 3 that the wind blows where it wishes and no one knows where it comes from or where it goes like the Holy Spirit as it convicts and guides us. 
2. In the laughter of children. —Jesus said to let the little children come unto him. 
3. In the reading of God's word. —The Ethiopian eunuch was reading the book of Isaiah about how the Messiah would be led like a sheep to the slaughter when Phillip encountered him on the road. Acts 8.
4. In the preaching of God's word. —Paul asks in Romans how will people hear about Jesus without a preacher
5. In the kindness and love others demonstrate. —Paul writes in ICorinthians 13 about demonstrating our faith with faith, hope, and love; love being the greatest. 
6. In the sharing of a testimony. — In Acts, Paul testifies of his conversion on the road to Damascus. 
7. In the singing of birds in the early morning. —Song of Solomon chapter two speaks of the singing of birds as a time to come away with my love, my fair one. 
8. In the chirping of crickets at night. —Jacob, running from his brother, took stones and made himself a pillow to sleep. God appeared to him in a dream that night. It was the place of Jacob's decision to follow the Lord. 
9. In the flow of still waters as I sit beside a stream. —Psalms 23 tells us God leads us beside the still waters. 
10. In the voice of God when I am still, in prayer. —In I Kings 19 God speaks to Elijah in a still small voice to get his attention and give him direction. 

The voice of God when I am still. To know the presence of God I need to be still. I need to listen to his voice, blocking out the clamor of life around me. What will he say? He will tell me truth. When all the world tries to tell me their truth, the only voice that matters is God's truth. 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. ~John 14:6

Heavenly Father, help us to be still so we can hear your truth and know that you are God and you are the one and only in control. In Jesus's name. Amen. 

Hey Kids:

Have you noticed God speaking in your life? Has he spoken to your heart while you were still? Maybe you were listening to Christian music, or your Sunday School teacher. Maybe you were listening to your parents as they led family devotions. 

This week, listen for the ways you hear God speaking. You might like to draw a picture or write a sentence in your journal. You will probably think of other ways than the ten I listed that you can feel and hear the presence of God. As you listen to God, He will also listen to you. Is there something you would like to tell Him? 

Dear Parents

 

Dear Parents,

Have you read your children's literature lately? I recently had a conversation with a lady who is helping raise her seven-year-old niece. She was horrified with the language in children's books promoted in public schools. Many parents and caretakers are upset with the values children's books are often promoting. So what's up?

Children enjoy books that use less than polite words for the bottom and bodily functions, words many Christians don't allow their children to use. Publishers and authors want to sell books so they use language that will get a giggle and values that are heavily promoted by society. Children will read a whole series if they get that giggle factor. Teachers just want children to read. 

But is it all the teachers' fault? 

Most children are not homeschooled nor do they attend Christian schools. Is it not our job as parents to monitor the literature our children are subject to and promote literature that has positive examples and Christian values? 

Where do we start? 

We can take our children to the library and read to them and with them. Start early, really early, like at birth. We can evaluate what we read. We can let our children know how we feel about a book and how it does or doesn't match our values. I love Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. I don't know her faith but her book promotes positive family relationships and a dad who is worthy of imitation. I'd put her picture book at the top of a list of best books for young children.

Books about God and Jesus are great but they're not likely to find their way into your child's public classroom. We need to be more like Paul on Mars Hill. 

For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. ~Acts17:23. 

We can help our children find a way to use the secular world to show Jesus to their classmates. Isn't it all about demonstrating Jesus, not just telling about Jesus that will make a difference?

Here's a partial list of the books I enjoy reading to children.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle -a salvation story - the caterpillar eats the wrong thing and though he tries to turn over a new leaf, he still must die to his old way of life to gain a new life with a new body.
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle - be aware of who you hang out with - every animal invited the spider to come and play, then left except a fly who kept hanging around. He was eventually eaten by the company he kept.
Beauty and the Beast - a servant's heart story - our kindness can make a difference in so many lives
Little Red Riding Hood - listen to your parents - a story of Satan who walks about seeking whom he may devour
Elephant and Piggy by Mo Willems - a variety of stories about two friends who face common or funny situations but manage to do the right thing to resolve the issue
The Grinch by Dr. Seuss - Christmas is not about gifts but about the Gift
Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss - a sanctity of life story, A person's a person no matter how small.
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder - stories of family life centered around family values
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis - a fantasy genre that depicts the war between good and evil
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - Historical fiction about a ten-year-old girl whose family hides a Jewish friend to protect her from the Nazis. A story about doing the right thing even in the face of grave danger.

What books would you add?

Hey Kids:

What do you like to read? Who are your favorite authors? Why?

Why? Now that is the question. 

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen is one of my favorite books. Why? Because it's about snow and hunting and being with Dad. The child loves and respects his dad. They have a great relationship. I think this book shows me without telling me to honor my parents and appreciate God's creation. 

Do you have a favorite book that shows Christian values? Be sure to let your parents know so they can add your book to a list of favorites.