NATIONAL TELL A STORY DAY

Today is National Tell A Story Day. It is celebrated in the United Kingdom, Scotland and the USA.

So, let’s start with a story.

Once upon a time there was a very sweet, 16 year old girl.  Her mother wanted her to do some errands and told her she could take the car.  Being a new driver, the young girl was very excited.  Off she went to town.

The errands were completed and the girl returned home.  Her mother, without even the hint of a smirk, asked, “Where is the car?”

Yes, I am that girl.  I was so used to walking everywhere.  I finished the errands and walked home.  Of course, then I walked back to get the car.

You have my permission to laugh and tease me.

Where can you find stories?  BOOKS....I wish I had kept count of the books I read to our children and grandchildren.  Fairy tales.  Riddles.  Chapter books.  Dr. Seuss.  Books without words so we could make-up a story.  I wonder how many times we were in the library.  I wonder if they remember me reading to them as a special memory or just a normal part of their day.

I love to read.  Not history nor westerns, but I love a good mystery.  Sometimes I want a romance.  A story that does not require any thought.  A story that begins, “Mary took one look at Bill and knew he was not the guy for her.”  Right away I would know they would fall in love, get married and ride off into the sunset in a very clean, pick-up truck.

Sometimes, I want to read true stories.  Stories that teach me about other cultures or how to cope or make me laugh.  Sometimes I want to read books that make me learn, teach me something new.

Where can you find stories?  OTHER PEOPLE….I love to hear other people’s stories.  One day, in a small town, in his grandfather’s restaurant, I met a young man who was headed to Juilliard School of Music.  While on a girl’s get away, the man behind the counter told me he is a single father, raising a very special little girl.  I cannot read music, but a wonderful pianist told me she could play a hymnal full of songs from memory.  ---- I wish I had asked my grandmother to tell me stories.

Where can you find stories?  IN YOUR IMAGINATION....I have a very vivid imagination.  A fun thing to do is start a story and then allow others to finish it.  Imagination!  The story can have twists and turns.  Characters will take shape and then disappear as the next person continues.  The story might begin in an amusement park, work its way through a cemetery and end up with the final scene on an almost deserted island.  Use your imagination.

Where can you find stories?  IN THE BIBLE….If you want to read about landscaping, a great big boat, murder, bravery, fashion, strange water phenomenon, spies, love, family (good and bad), a furnace and fear, read the Bible!  And that is only a small fraction of the stories in the Old Testament.

My favorite Bible story begins like this:  Once upon a time there was a baby boy born in the Town of Bethlehem.  His name is Jesus.

SURPRISE

I am not a fan of surprises.  For some reason, they do not always turn out quite right.

Surprise Party:  Really?  Do people enjoy them?  Maybe the person planning it.  The person walking into a surprise party, usually, either has found out and has to act surprised or has had the worst day ever and has to act excited. 

The Gift:  “Honey, I knew you wanted a __fill in the blank__, so I bought you one.”  Let’s be honest here.  “Honey” (that can be male or female) was not hinting for you to get the __fill in the blank__, they were warning you they were going to buy it.  And I can guarantee, what you buy will not be exactly what they wanted.  (This does not apply to birthday or Christmas gifts.  Those gifts need to be something that has been hinted for.  Those subtle hints when walking through a store.  Almost a whisper or sigh.)

Breakfast in Bed:  How sweet!  You are being served breakfast in bed.  What a wonderful surprise.  Advice to the children and men that prepared this breakfast:  Clean the kitchen after making this surprise breakfast or the person that ate the breakfast will give you a surprise.  (Usually this involves a banging of pans as they clean up your mess and the silent treatment as you try to figure out what went wrong.)

You Won a Car/Vacation/House:  Oh my gosh!!  How great would that be?  A car just appears in your driveway!  The tickets arrive in the mail!  Your dream home ready to move into!  Warning:  There will be taxes due.

We are surprised when we like a new food or discover a new back road.  A new author can surprise us with the ending of a really suspenseful book.  And our family never fails to surprise us, but I am not going there. 

Life is full of surprises.  Some are unexpected.  Some are wonderful.  Some break our hearts. 

Faith can surprise us.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

Faith can teach us to trust when we doubt.

Faith can make us strong when we feel weak.

Faith can give us hope when we do not see a way out.

Faith gives us the assurance that God’s love is constant.

Faith gives us the confidence to believe the Word of God.

Yup.  Life is full of surprises.  Some are unexpected.  Some are wonderful.  Some break our hearts.  And our faith makes it possible for us to survive all of them.

THINK ABOUT IT

I love numbers, but they need to be straight forward:  add, subtract, multiply and divide.  Give me a spreadsheet and I will find the missing penny.

On the other hand, I never was any good at math questions such as:  Train A leaves Chicago at 4:00 PM traveling 35 MPH and train B leaves Dallas at 6:00 PM traveling 40 MPH, what time will they arrive in Paris, France?  Yes, I know.  The tracks do not go to Paris, but for me the destination might as well have been that extreme.  I just did not get it.

I do, however enjoy a good ‘make you think’ question.

1.  Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?
2. What word in the English Language is always spelled incorrectly?
3. If you were running a race and passed the person in 2^nd place, what place would you be in now?

Do you know the answers to these?

I don’t know about you but sometimes I have problems understanding the Bible.  It is as if I am trying to figure out how the trains can get to Paris.  Other passages just do not make any sense.  They might as well be written in a foreign language.

Then there are passages, I have read and read and read.  Finally…..the light bulb comes on and bingo!  I get it.

Of course, there are many that are straight forward!  They add up.  They make sense the first time I read them.

The easy thing would be to keep reading the parts I understand, but, if I did that, I would become stagnate.  I would only learn a small portion of what the Bible has to teach me.  Therefore, (Love that word in the Bible.  Shows there is more to come.) I continue on.  I read and get excited when the light bulb shines and I finally get it.  I still struggle when directed to those passages that I do not understand.  I read, ponder, read again and know that someday, when I need that particular passage, I will understand it.

How about you?  Are you the same way?  Do you ever feel like you are just not smart enough or Christian enough to understand?  Other people get it.  Why can’t I?

Never fear!!! You are not alone.  Keep reading.  Pray for understanding.  Read a commentary.  Ask your minister.  Take a Bible study.  Remember, even the disciples did not get it.

Jesus said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you:  Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”  Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  Luke 24:44-45

How do we learn?  We are open.  The hymn, Open My Eyes, That I May See, says it the best. 

Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.

Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit divine!

Open my ears, that I may hear
Voices of truth Thou sendest clear;
And while the wave notes fall on my ear,
Everything false will disappear.

Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my ears, illumine me,
Spirit divine!

Open my mind, that I may read
More of Thy love in word and deed;
What shall I fear while yet Thou dost lead?
Only for light from Thee I plead.

Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my mind, illumine me,
Spirit divine!

Open my mouth, and let me bear,
Gladly the warm truth everywhere;
Open my heart and let me prepare
Love with Thy children thus to share.

Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my heart, illumine me,
Spirit divine!

Now go forth and read!  God will do the rest.

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ANSWERS:

1. Mt. Everest.  It just was not discovered yet.
2. Incorrectly
3. You would be in 2^nd.  Well, you passed the person in second place, not first.

A SIGN

Hubby and I stayed in Orange Beach, Alabama.  This is the hotel sign, at the bottom of the steps, leading to the beach:

 I love this!  Someone with a great sense of humor prepared this sign.  It got my attention.  It made me think.  It made me laugh!!

Don’t ya wish God would put signs up for us? 

=   =   =   =   =   =   =   =

Noah did not even have to look for a sign.  God told him exactly what to do:

So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them.  I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.  Genesis 6:13-14

Noah listened as God continued to explain exactly how to build the ark.  And, bless his heart, Noah did exactly as instructed.

/   /   /   /   /   /  \   \   \   \   \   \

Moses was a busy man taking care of the sheep.  Before he could talk to Moses, God had to get his attention.  Watch out Moses.  Your life is about to be seriously changed.

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.  Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.  So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”              Exodus 3:2-4

Quotes from Exodus 3:11, 13 and 4:1, 10, 13

·         But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

·         Moses said to God, “Suppose I go

·         Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me

·         Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord.

·         But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

If you have ever questioned the patience of God, these verses should open your eyes to exactly how patient God is.  God is talking to Moses.  Get it?  The LORD is calling his name from inside a burning bush and Moses keeps asking him questions. 

Moses asks the LORD to send someone else!  The scripture says that “the Lord’s anger burned against Moses.”  Yet a patient LORD continued to give Moses instructions. 

/   /   /   /   /   /  \   \   \   \   \   \

Saul was also a very busy man.  He was hunting down and persecuting followers of Jesus when a bright light stopped him in his tracks. 

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.  “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.   Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing.  So they led him by the hand into Damascus.     Acts 9:3-8

Well now, doesn’t that beat all?  Jesus picks Saul!  And what a job he had for Saul:  This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.  Acts 9:15 

Some believers trusted and supported Saul.  Some did not.  But Saul was a new man – Paul proclaimed Jesus to all! 

=   =   =   =   =   =   =   =

Noah went to work on the ark.  Moses reluctantly did God’s bidding.  Saul moved from darkness into light.  What will you do when God picks you for a very specific task?

I think the first sign needs a bit of improvement.