One of my favorite places is reclining with a good fiction book on my yard swing, especially at the end of the day. I must confess, I’ve been a bit out of sorts lately with my brother Pooch contracting cancer (he starts aggressive treatment next Monday) then adjusting to 6 hours of driving a day over hill and dale and through all kinds of traffic. Sometimes I don’t know whether I’m coming or going! Take this week so far for an example. The student I transport has two different schedules, a later one for Monday and Tuesday and an early one for Wednesday through Friday (a one hour difference). On Monday afternoon I left one hour too early and ended up parking at the Ephrata Cloisters to take a one hour nap! Then this afternoon I left one hour too late and realized it about 5 minutes into my ride and had to call the parent and he kindly agreed to go pick up his daughter because of my absentmindedness! I then put the schedule in BOLD characters on my refrigerator door and yes, Lord willing I will reach my 65th birthday this year! I bought my first Senior Fishing License!

Back to my swing…. so then I took some R&R while reading a Louis La’Amour western to kick my brain into neutral or la la land (a habit I got from my big brother Pooch… the western books that is). I eventually dozed off (under a nice fleese blanket of course) and when I awoke I noticed all the creatures that had come alive all around me! I have a small pond tucked into the corner of our house just outside our living room window, complimented by a couple of bird feeders, and the assortment of birds swooping down to eat and/or take a bath was spell binding. The Robins were also hopping through the green spring grass around me busy worm hunting and a Mourning Dove was just above my head in my Maple tree’s branches just cooing away! I retrieved my iphone from under the blanket and began snapping pictures. The good ones are attached. Check out the Dove in the very corner of the house in almost an angel pose!

Years ago, I mean a LOT of years ago, I was sitting beside my wife’s brother-in-law on his patio one evening after a picnic. He was an unbeliever at the time. Meaning he had not yet come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His wife was a believer and so he had heard the Gospel, that Christ died for his sins, was crucified and buried, and then rose from the dead on the third day to be his Savior from sin. But John just couldn’t believe all that or make it personal for himself. We sat there looking up into the glorious evening sky. We weren’t even talking necessarily about the things of the Lord when John just blurted out as he waved his hand across the sky and said, “What about all of this? Where did it come from?” From somewhere deep inside of me came the words, “Well John, the Bible says The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows forth His handiwork!” That was it, nothing more was said. Just a shrug of the shoulders and the seed was planted into his heart. He would later tell me that was one of the turning points or links in the chain that brought him to salvation.

We have a GREAT God! Amen? To think that the ONE who created the universe and a gazillion galaxies around us cared enough to become a man in human skin, live without sin, and then provide a way for us to know Him is just mind boggling! The Apostle Paul wrote about God’s creation and how that it preaches to the unbeliever. Check this out from Romans 1:20  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. 

Then Jesus the Creator walked the earth and John the Baptist said of Him, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world!” Do you know Him? I mean really know Him. Not just following a set of rules or know a crede or two or have Sunday School attendance pins hanging to your shins! It is frightening to know there will come a day when Jesus will look at the crowds before him and say to many, “Depart from me, I never knew you!”

Will you join the creation in praising the Lord? I’ve been getting up very early lately and while it’s still dark, when I go out my front door, I hear the halelujah chorus of all of creation already praising Him! Have you heard it? Will you wake up and take your first step of real faith today and let Jesus the Savior and Creator come into your heart and life and complete His creation in you? “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to those that believe on His name.” John 1:12

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