The Nature of Miracles

I want to see a miracle, but I'm afraid there are some people in my family that are going to keep it from happening. These are people that I trust; but I trust God more. I think all we have to do is to believe that God is really going to do what he told us. But there are some who don't think it will happen, that we can't do it.

Isn't that the point? WE can't. THAT'S what makes it a miracle: when GOD does it. I've noticed something lately. (I've been reading Exodus: Moses and the Israelites) When God performs his biggest miracles, it happens right after an act of obedience. The Israelites were camped where God told them to camp, so they were in the right position to get the miracle. God told Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea to divide the waters. Moses did, and the people walked to the other side.

We keep saying we want to see a miracle, but just when God is ready to do it, we say, "We can't." And you know what? WE can't.

Where am I supposed to be now?

I love schedules. I like to know what will happen and when it's going to happen. Summer is when the known schedule is thrown out and replaced with an overwhelming number of smaller schedules: the VBS schedule; the GA camp schedule; the youth camp schedule; the kid's camp schedule; the band camp schedule; the vacation schedule. And all of those have to be woven into work schedules for Mr. & Mrs. H and our eldest.

In a little over a week, school will start and 2 of my children will be back on a schedule that I am involved in: I take them to school; I go to work; I pick them up; we all go home. (Fridays, skip the work part.) My eldest's schedule will no longer involve me on a daily basis. It will intersect mine on selected weekends and holidays. So far, I'm okay with that. But I'm wondering how okay I'll be when that room is empty for a week or 2 or (gulp!) even more.

Mr. H and I have always maintained that our responsibilty is to raise adults, not children. In essence, that means our goal is to eventually send our kids into the world fully capable of fending for themselves. We give them responsibilities, because that's real life. We let them figure some stuff out for themselves, because that's real life, too. Well, real life is about to make itself known in a whole new way for our family. I hope my schedule is ready for it.

A Very Fine Place to Start

Mr. H and I have recently returned from our 25th anniversary trip. It had to be postponed for a couple of months due to our eldest's graduation from high school and all the events that surrounded that. (I don't remember having that many banquets and ceremonies to attend when I graduated, but that was several decades ago!)

Our trip took us through Chattanouga, TN, then on to Asheville, NC. We toured the Biltmore Estate http://www.biltmore.com/; rode the Great Smokey Mountain Railway http://www.gsmr.com/ up the Nantahala River Gorge from Bryson City; and (Mr. H's favorite) rode the Dragon's Tail at Deal's Gap http://www.dealsgap.com/. (I'm not sure where the picture was taken that's on Deal's Gap's homepage, but those mountains definitely look more Rocky than Smokey!)

This picture was supposed to be of the trestle bridge where the train stopped for a photo opportunity, (you can barely see it where the train disappears), but we were in the last car of a long train.

Can you imagine this view from your back porch? Actually, the Biltmore's back porch is a loggia, which I suspect is just a fancy name for porch.

This was our first long motorcycle trip. We had a blast! We bought a comm system so that we could talk to each other. I can't imagine riding for a whole day (the trip home Friday was 600 miles: from 7:30 a.m. eastern time til 8:15 p.m. central time) and only being able to talk when we stopped. A friend of Mr. H's asked if it got old, with nothing to do but talk for that long. My beloved gave his friend a very profound answer: The charms of youth fade quickly, but love resides in the mind. He told his friend that he liked to talk to me before he married me and that hadn't changed. What a wise man the Lord gave me!