Rainy Day Joys

Today has been a cold and rainy winter’s day on the Gold Coast.  We hurried home so that we could ‘go’ to a Girls’ camp in Farmington, Maine.  You’re right to scratch your head, we did too when they asked us to be Camp Missionaries this year!

It seems that perhaps one of the good things to come out of Covid was that we all, even us oldies, have really discovered the internet!  Now, thanks to technology, we enjoy chitchats with friends all over the world and can be AT camp, even though we are actually be 16,048 miles away here in Australia (I Googled that factoid, so it must be right!).  

So I hope and pray the camp goes well these next few days.  We were planning to kick it off with a live ‘Zoom’ connection, but when we tried a practice run, the satellites in that part of the world just couldn’t keep up, so we had to suffice with sending over a pile of pre-recorded videos instead. Please pray with us that lives will be touched. 

But one real, live experience we had was a 3-day ‘getaway’ with our son and his family!  The rain, for the most part, was absolutely torrential, but we were able to enjoy ourselves anyway, cowering in the hotel’s heated spa, riding a ferry over to a nice shopping area, and even spending a day at the Australia Zoo, where the late Steve Irwin’s family still wrestles crocodiles, come rain or shine. Thankfully, the unit we were staying was lovely in many ways and even had a washer and dryer which we used continuously.  

I must admit, Tony and I remembered a verse of Scripture as we lay in bed listening to the pitter patter of little footsteps at some unbelievable dark hour, 4:30 am, I think. The verse was Proverbs 27:14, “He that blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.”

Fortunately though, we feel blessed instead of cursed. One of us may have had to repent yesterday after of buying each of the boys noisy toy guns and ice cream at the same time………

Did you catch the sermon here? Begin with Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” 

Then move on to Proverbs 27:14, and understand that all people, even loving and close family members, do not operate on the same circadian life cycle. Early mornings may be better suited to quiet “ummph” greetings than boisterous words of blessings. Then finish your Scripture tour back at Ecclesiastes 3:1 and appreciate the fact that, to a child, the presence of sugar in the system automatically removes all restraint. Combine that with a weapon of mass cacophonic possibility and the future is clearly set.

But don’t leave without recalling the words of the Psalmist (127:4-5) “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.”

“Quivering”, but about as happy as I can be.

Marsha