I love watching the giant balloons of the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade floating through New York as wide-eyed children watch. I love the traditional football games. The official start of the Christmas season. The post feast nap. I love Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Song by Mary Chapin Carpenter captures the intimacy of this wonderful holiday. Grateful for each hand we hold Gathered round this table. From far and near we travel home, Blessed that we are able. I have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. I am grateful for another year with my best friend and bride Joni. I am grateful for three wonderful sons, two amazing daughter-in-laws, and three heart stealing grandchildren. I am blessed that our family will be able to be together this Thanksgiving. I am grateful for good friends. I am grateful for the abundant blessings of this country. Grateful for this sheltered place With light in every window, Saying “welcome, welcome, share this feast Come
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Regular readers of the humble ramblings (you both know who you are) know that I often confess how my brain was not wired to factory specs. There is no other explanation for the dizzying turns my mind makes. For example, this weekend I heard a song from my ’70’s disc jockey days. The song was Tin Man from America and the normal brain would have heard the song, registered a like it or don’t like it vote and moved on. Not my brain. I fixated on a piece of the lyric and spent time linking it to a spiritual epiphany in my life. You may recognize the lyric that started this Monday Musing. But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man That he didn’t, didn’t already have The lyricist double negatived his way to an important truth. The Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz went on a long journey to try and find a real heart. But
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I have been known to be a bad sports fan in addition to being a bad Christian. I suspect those confessions could be related. I grew up a rabid Cleveland Brown’s fan and that is, unfortunately, a lifetime condition. You try and manage your Brown’s addiction while hoping to lead a somewhat productive life. I completely related to a story about a Brown’s fan who passed away last year. Scott Entsminger placed this request in the Columbus Dispatch obituary. He respectfully requests six Cleveland Browns pall bearers so the Browns can let him down one last time. I became a Baylor Bears fan (thanks to my boys) much later in life. Incredibly, the Brazos Baptists have become a national football power. So I geared up for a big game last Saturday against forever power Oklahoma. During the game I agonized over missed opportunities. Fumed over momentum changing penalties. Expressed frustration when a defender missed a tackle. Baylor overcame a tough
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We had the privilege of hosting our dear friend Deb Johnson this weekend. Since she and hubby Brad moved to Nebraska those opportunities are too few. She told us that they dodged disaster when a massive tree limb crashed into their back yard and somehow managed to miss everything. Thankfully no one or no thing was damaged. Pictures showed the enormity of the fallen limb. An arborist estimated this magnificent Oak was a century old. Deb told us his observation about that towering tree. “No one could have known this tree was sick or weakened just by looking at it”. The arborist pointed out evidence of diseased wood on the fallen branch. Even though the tree itself still looked healthy and vibrant it was dying from the inside out. The bark and leaves looked fine but the core was dying. Soon another great branch would be weakened enough to crash down. Deb told me how that tree seemed to parallel
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Nothing like starting out the week by discussing two of the three forbidden topics: politics and Jesus. I used to be a rabid political guy. I once believed that with the right political leaders we could change the culture. I was right about the dream but wrong about the method. Getting certain political leaders in place might help with some issues that matter to me. But even if I get my “dream team” elected we will still have a problem in our culture. Sin. Politics and law don’t change that inconvenient truth (apologies to Al Gore) that we have an inherent human problem that I believe can only be addressed by one solution. The Gospel. Jesus gave us a perfect example of what it looks like to be a good citizen while recognizing what really changes the heart of man. The religious legalists (the Pharisees) were trying to trick Jesus and get Him in trouble with the Roman government. Nice
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Joni and I took a field trip this weekend with our grandson to the Gentle Zoo in Forney, Texas. It is a fun and kid friendly place where you can feed animals by hand. Our grandson’s favorite animals to feed were the goats. They were sweet and gentle as they took the food out of your hand. Not so nice was an overbearing Llama that forced his way into every feeding opportunity. We were warned that this critter would spit in your face if you made eye contact with him. That sounded too much like a couple of people I have encountered recently so we avoided him. What caught my eye was a sign posted around the grounds. That made the trip more special to know that many of the animals had been rescued from abusive or neglectful situations. It even allowed me to give a bit of grace to the spittin’ Llama (but I still kept a wary distance).
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