New Home

The devotional thoughts that previously appeared on this blog will now be found on my website on the Musings, Meditations and Music page. The day-to-day life things will be relocated to my knitting blog.

Notice

I have discovered that I do not have time to maintain two blogs. I have merged this on with my knitting blog. All posts from this blog have been transferred there and the topics that I covered here will now be covered there or on my website. This blog will be deleted at the end of February.

Lemonade

There is an old saying that goes: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." I have no idea who said this first, though it reminds me of Erma Bombeck.

This week my family has been making a lot of lemonade. It was supposed to be my hubby's vacation. The plan was to go camping and to take the kids to a nearby space museum. So we spent most of last week cleaning, repairing and replacing the old camping gear to get ready for the trip. Clothes packed, coolers filled, van loaded, we started toward our destination. About an hour from home the transmission in the van decided to spring a huge leak. A visit to a local transmission shop did not provide good news. We turned around and attempted to make it back home but about half way there the transmission gave up for good. Of course, the spot were it died was out of cell phone range. A very nice gentleman allowed us to use his phone and we were able to get a tow truck and a ride home. He was also nice enough to let us wait on his shaded front porch until help arrived. We had a lovely visit during our wait.

We arrived back home with kids (and a hubby) who were distraught that we were not going camping. So I took the youngest on my knee and asked if he would like to camp in the yard since the van was dead. You should have seen his eyes light up. We spent the rest of the afternoon locating the perfect "camp site" and setting up camp. We cooked supper outside, even roasted marshmallows. The house was referred to as the "bath house" or the "camp store" depending on whether we needed the bathrooms or some other part of the house. Mom was still allowed to have computer access and the kids got the enjoy the great outdoors. Our second night was spent on the living room floor due to thunderstorms but we put on a movie and still had a great time. We probably had as much fun as if we had been at a real campground. We haven't laughed so much in ages.

We have used the remainder of the week to garden, get a few baby chicks to raise, read, knit, listen to music and generally goof off. Yesterday, the kids even honored us by cooking an anniversary dinner. It has been a nice time of family bonding after all.

Of course, we are still haven't made it to the space museum, we are still concerned about how to afford major repairs or replacement for our van and our only vehicle doesn't have an operational air conditioner. Gas prices and food prices are on the rise and I didn't get that job I was hoping to get. Life is full of lemons lately but we still managed to have a good time and we know we will get by. We know that God will provide our needs even if we do have to suffer some temporary inconveniences. The situation reminded me of Paul's exhortations to the church at Philippi.

"... for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." - Philippians 4:11-13

Idols

I have been having an ongoing discussion with SmallFry about idols. I am having a hard time helping him understand what it meant when the Bible talks about the Israelites worshiping idols. Then I ran across a thread on a knitting forum about knitting being an idol. So I started thinking more about what really is and is not an idol.

When you are studying the Old Testament you tend to think of idols as a statue carved from stone or metal or wood - like the golden calf that Aaron made in Exodus 32. But was there something about that calf that made it intrinsically evil. Not really. If you look a little closer at this incident you will see that it was the attitude of the people who made the golden calf a problem. Notice verse 1 and verse 4 of Exodus 32.

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, "Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." - Exodus 32:1

And they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" - Exodus 32:4 (emphasis added)

The problem with the calf was not that it was a statue of gold but that it was becoming their substitute for God. The people of Israel had made for themselves something to replace God. There are over 100 different places in the Bible where idolatry is discussed, warned against and condemned. But we live in a civilized, intellectual society and we would certainly never bow down to an idol like they did in the Old Testament. Are you sure? In our society NFL football, NASCAR and a number of other sports hold their major events on Sunday. Children's sports leagues increasingly hold their games on Wednesday night and Sunday. The most watched television shows are more often than not on Sunday and Wednesday. Maybe, we would never bow down to a golden calf or a stone face, but there are plenty of other things in our society that are becoming our substituted for God. Perhaps, it is time for us to reread the passages in the Bible warning of the punishment for idolatry and reevaluate our own priorities.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols- I John 5:21

Design (Origins Part I)

I have been dabbling in knitting design (for evidence see here, here or here)and I have come to the conclusion that designing is actually hard work. It takes a significant amount of creativity and thought to convert an idea into a concrete item and then to put that information into a format that someone else can understand and appreciate. It is not something that happens by accident or without a bit of effort. Yet, there are those who say just the opposite about the world in which we live. There are those who think that the beauties and wonders of this universe are just happy accidents that occurred over billions and billions of years. But is that really true?

If you will kindly indulge me, I would like to share with you my journey to a deeper understanding of the origins of the universe. This has been a long and often difficult process for me. One that frequently required to rethink what I had been taught. Since this was a rather lengthy process, I will not attempt to write it all in one post.

First, let me give tell you a little bit about my background. I was reared in a semi-religious home. My family was sporadic in church attendance so while I had been given a reasonable exposure to the Bible, it was not something that was deeply ingrained in me. When I went to college, I, for the most part, gave up religion. I found "churches" to be full of hypocrites and I came to doubt most of what I was taught as a child.

Throughout elementary and high school my favorite subject was always science so when I went to college, science was the natural course of study for me. Though my emphasis changed several times while I was in college (shifting from a medical to a research orientation), my major field of study was always science (biology/math major; chemistry minor). There was a precision and order to the sciences that I found very appealing. There was a beauty to the way one branch of science interacted with another that I found fascinating.

The course of study in any science field is pretty strenuous. There aren't a lot of “goof-off “ classes and most of the allowed electives are science electives. So most semesters, I took at least one biology, one chemistry and one math and usually one other science (physics, geology, etc). Biology, being the science of life, gave me more opportunity to study the how life began, how species are interrelated and how it all fits together.

The rigorousness of a biology program doesn't provide one much time to digest what is learned. Mostly, you were stuffing the information into your head as quickly as possible in order to spit it back out on the tests. There simply wasn't time to question things, because you were too busy learning a of myriad facts - phyla, genera, species, bones, muscles, tissues, organs, etc. Your head was so full of facts that there was little room for logical reasoning. It was in this environment that I learned the theory of evolution and the general theories on the origin of the universe.

I will begin by explaining in simple terms the origin of the universe from the biological standpoint. According to what I was taught, the universe began when a ball of matter inexplicably exploded causing a great release of energy and sending bits of itself spiraling outward throughout the universe. Some bits of this matter formed stars, others formed planets, still others formed asteroids or other various space rocks. As the spiraling continued, some of the bits of miscellaneous space debris began developing orbits around the various stars, giving rise to solar systems. Through a series of random occurrences, the earth developed an orbit around its star (our sun) at a location that was neither too close nor too far from its source of heat and light. That unique location allowed the formation of certain organic (carbon-based) compounds in a sort of primordial soup. That group of chemicals was then radically changed by some major dynamic event (a lightning strike, for instance) to become the first living organism. Over a period of hundreds of billions of years, this organism evolved from a single cell creature to a multi-celled organism and eventually, through a combination of random mutation and natural selection, into the thousands of species that we see today. That is the short version.

There is some biological evidence that would seem to support this theory. For example, the similarity of features between one species and another would seem to suggest that they were once related. The bone structure of the frog, for example, is remarkable like that of the human. A pig fetus develops in a manner similar to a human. Is this proof that these radically different species developed from common ancestors? Or is there another possible solution?

In my study of knitting design, I have come to realize that I can recognize certain style elements of a particular designer. I can look at a pattern and often know who the designer is based on the overall style or certain unique design elements of the item. Likewise, there is also a similarity between the different projects of architects, painters, sculptors, etc. Is it not possible then, that the reason there are so many similarities between one species of animal and another is simply that they had the same designer? Is it possible that rather than the elaborate theories of evolution, that it is possible that the earth could actually have been created exactly the way the Bible claims?

We will explore these ideas in the coming posts. I am hoping that you will enter these studies with an open mind. I admit to a certain amount of bias when I began searching for these answers. As I college student, I tended to accept the word of my professors without question. I hope that you will enter into this study with the desire to follow where the evidence leads.

Oops!

This winter was a tough one for my family. Consequently, there are several things that I should have done that I forgot to do. One of those things was regularly updating my blog and website. Another was to award contest prizes for the Winter Blossoms contest. If you entered the contest, please send me your snail address and I will send you some sort of prize - some teas and whatever other goodies I can find - I will probably skip the mug that I originally planned to send since it is a bit late for Christmas mugs. Don't know exactly what at this point but you will get a prize. Send your snail mail addresses to this email address tabitha AT tabithasheart DOT com (you know what to do with the AT and DOT). Sorry about the delay. Unfortunately, sometimes life happens.

Winter Blossoms (a contest)

Sometimes God places blossoms in the most unexpected places - on the cactus in the middle of the desert, in the crack on the busy sidewalk or like here - on the scrubby, little shrub in the middle of the winter. This is winter honeysuckle but my family has always known it as Kiss-Me-At-The-Gate. It blooms, with its creamy, pearlescent blossom and heavenly aroma, in the dead of winter usually from mid-January to February. When all the plants around are dead and brown, Kiss-Me-At-The-Gate greets you with its lovely blossoms and wonderful fragrance, reminding you that even in the dreariness of winter, there is always hope for spring.

Sometimes, God provides us that tiny glimpse of hope of spring amid the winters in our lives. When we are experiencing particularly trying times and feeling the weariness of the world, God sometimes sends some person to remind us that there will be better times - just like those winter blossoms, these people point us toward spring and renewal. Recently, I have had several winter blossoms burst into my life.

In a recent post, I told you about the winter blossom that came form my little buddy "Paul". If you missed it, go to the Deluged... post and skip to the end of the post to read about it - I'll wait.

This week one of my winter blossoms was Marti, a lovely lady on one of my sock knitting groups who sent me the most encouraging email out of the blue. When you are writing a blog, sometimes you wonder if anyone actually reads it. Marti does and she took the time this week to tell me. She will never know how much she encouraged me with her kind words.

Another blossom came from Patricia who has said some very kind things about my website and blog on her own blog. I am humbled by her kindness and warmth. And I am strengthened by her encouragement.

Still another winter bloom came from my friend Jerry. I knitted Jerry a pair of socks many months ago when he was in the hospital - think of it as a prayer shawl for your feet. I was chatting with him and his wife Janice Sunday about their new granddaughter when out of the blue Jerry started telling me how much he had been enjoying those socks and hinted that he might need another pair. What a wonderful feeling to know that something you made with your hands was appreciated by the person for whom you made it. I honestly didn't know if he would ever wear them. I knitted them mainly because it was the only thing I could think of to do for him at the time. He was having major surgery, we were all very worried about him and I wanted to do something besides pray for him. Since I am a knitter, I knit while I prayed for him and when I was through praying a pair or socks in the colors of his favorite sports team popped off the needles (it wasn't quite that miraculous but the knitters out there will understand). I am happy to report that Jerry has completely recovered and apparently wears the socks all the time. Yes, there is another pair in his future.

A final winter blossom I would like to share came from my kids - affectionately known as "The Varmints". Today has been a very gloomy day with the threat of storms in the air. After breakfast this morning, they presented a play for me. It was a restaurant scene based on that classic dilemma of finding a fly in ones soup. It was quite humorous - especially considering how old the fly-in-my-soup gag is. I really needed a good laugh this morning.

So how about you? Have you experienced any Winter Blossoms lately? The January blog contest is quite simple. Share a winter blossom in the comments and your name will be entered into a drawing for a mug, an assortment of tea and cocoa and whatever other goodies I come up with by the end of the month. Add a link to your blog or website and I will include your name twice. You have until midnight January 31st to leave your comment. The winner will be chosen at random and the name will be posted here and on Tabitha's Heart & Hands. The winner will then have one week to email me their snail mail address for sending the prize.