Greetings! Kind of in the mood for a #throwback Tuesday (why wait for Thursday, right?!) My world has been in the review stage recently — doing some introspection and future dreaming. Admittedly, feeling at a loss and trying to catch up.
Therefore, this post will be short and sweet. I’ve linked a bunch of previous posts, in hopes that you will review, along with me, some of the muses I have had in the past and maybe prompt you to suggest some follow ups. If you are new to the blog — welcome to the adventure! I welcome your feedback and want to partner with you in your faith journey as I muse about mine.
In case you were wondering, I group my blog posts into a few categories:
travel
things to do
technology/blog
pets/kids
inspiration
education
crafting
book reviews
Obviously, I don’t nail all of them regularly, but these are roughly what I write about. These are my life. I welcome you to share it.
Can you believe July is almost gone?! Here we are, half way through summer, and I have been completely lazy! So much for cleaning, organizing and purging the house. And you, my friend? Have you accomplished all your summer time goals? Have you enjoyed the fruits of your labours? If you follow along on my social sites (please do!) then you will see our garden tour and the little harvest we have been enjoying. The rest? Not so much. However, such is the journey, so I will not fret.
Recently, we have also enjoyed a few backyard bar-b-ques with friends and family. It’s a good, Canadian thing to do in our short summer months… burgers on the grill, potato chips and watermelon. Which makes me wonder: Why do we enjoy shooing bugs off edibles all in the name of celebrating scorching heat? Whole other muse, I suppose. But. We have indulged in our fair share of shooing this summer already.
Which brings me to this week’s muse. A book review for “Taste and See” by Margaret Feinberg. Hoping to “discover God among Butchers, Bakers and Fresh Food Makers”, I devoured the book in about 2 days straight. It’s a quick read. Margaret takes us on her journeys (literally — she travels) to discover more about six of the foods Feinberg says have “spiritual significance” in the Bible: fish, figs, bread, salt, olives and lamb.
I quite enjoyed the journey, and each chapter brought on a whole new appreciation for the basic biblical staples. I especially loved the bread baking tour… my adventures with sour dough have given me a whole new appreciation for the art of baking and how complicated bread actually is! It would be an excellent small group study. Especially if you are a foodie! I encourage you to visit Feinberg’s sites (here) should you wish to see more about the book.
I love food. Which can be a curse and a blessing, but that, too, is for a different muse. I was eager to slice open the book and taste the adventure of the Israeli staples, and Feinberg’s insights into how the Bible uses food as a way in which God nourishes us… more than just physically. He wants to “…nourish our souls with transcendent joy and supernatural community and divine presence.” (pg. 22). Plus, there are recipes!
I’ve been learning and growing and thinking about this whole idea of “wholistic” spirituality…mind, body, soul, community. I often don’t take the time to consider how great food is a part of this. Can you image what a piece of chocolate is going to be like in heaven? Or what it will be like to have a cup of coffee with Jesus? Or bar-b-ques with the master priests of old? (okay maybe not that one… they tended to burn everything).
But you get it… God gave us this wonderful commodity and diversity of tastes to enjoy ! And sharing meals with others is a way to bond us in community, in conversation, and in care. I am reminded that we should always be thankful for such blessings. I am learning to take a deeper look at the bounty before me and the things it represents. Land, weather, growth of tiny seeds. Hard work, passion, patience. We take it for granted and mock His blessings with our “God is goods” and “Johnny Appleseed” prayers.
I’m about to clean out our fridge. My son just informed me the last bag of milk has curdled. We are having leftovers for dinner. I am not the next home cook about to be drafted for Master Chef … but this book has been a good reminder to “Taste and See” that God is good, His mercies endure forever, and He is the master of my world. I pray that you, too, will be welcomed to his banquet table with others and share in the community of Jesus followers, as we shoo a few flies away together at the picnic table this summer!
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So, my beloveds, you will forgive me if I go off the rails a bit and get a little philosophical with you for this post. It’s just the way I have been feeling these days. Have you ever considered what on earth are we doing here? What is the purpose of life? How do we explain the very reason for our existence? Okay — that’s even too deep for me.
What I have been wrestling with, and musing about lately, has been this whole idea of being in the perfect place at just the right time. I am happy where I am… but wonder if there is more. I know God has a plan, but what do I do about it? What is my role in this big, wide universe? How do I fit?
There is a philosophic consideration out there called the “Anthropic principle” that basically says (and don’t hold me to this as I am neither a cosmos expert, nor philosopher!) that the universe’s fundamental parameters must be absolutely perfect for life to be possible here on Earth for us to survive as human beings. A little closer to the sun, we fry. A little farther, we freeze. A force like gravity, or nuclear push and pull, is one iota off, and we all secretly implode or spontaneously combust or something… which leads many to believe that there must be a Creator out there who designed it that way…
But let’s hone in a little closer to home, shall we? I was reminded this week of many summers ago when we were up enjoying the Kawartha regions, and a particularly fierce summer thunderstorm hit. The ones where the sky turns that evil looking green-grey and the sheets and sheets of rain pour down in curtains of water. Violent lightening had struck an old tree and split the large trunk in two… we only heard the resultant thud as the split branch fell — exactly inches — okay a single inch— away from my brother’s brand new vehicle! A vehicle he had purchased about a day or so before! Was it luck? Was it God’s great providence? Was it simply a co-incidence? We were left amazed that the limb had been split exactly in a spot where the pieces would fall exactly perpendicular to the car, in exactly opposite to the other tree half, etc. etc. etc. Much like the philosophers, we contemplated the “what if’s” of the situation.
photo via Michael Bratton Toledo, Ohio… i.e. NOT our tree…
Perhaps you are like me, and think about the “what if’s”. Or the “what now’s”. Or maybe you spiral down into the even deeper realms of the “oh Phooey’s*” (* insert whatever word you deem appropriate here for your own thoughts) and you call out in desperate prayers to God and ask the hard questions. I got your back on this one. I’m here with you, musing about all that holds the balance of the universe together and the philosophical orbits of what is our place, right now?!
Coincidentally, (or maybe not), our topic for Sunday’s sermon was the providence of God. We were encouraged to seek out the examples in the Bible of how He time and time again provides. My thoughts settled, today, on Esther. A woman (strike one) with a lost identity, caught between a rock and a hard place, searching for answers. Answers that would not only shape the future for her as potential queen, but for an entire nation sentenced to death and annihilation. And then she is prompted: “… who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14
Mic drop. Dab. Boo-ya. Whatever current gesture you wanna throw out there. God has you (and me) smack dab in the middle of the pit (or King’s palace as it may be) for some reason. Exactly not too close to get burned up by the sun, and not too far to freeze, but exactly within one part in 10 to the power of 55 as to not be pulled apart by the expansion of the universe! (my apologies to every physics teacher I ever had). It’s not our job to debate it. It’s our job to believe and place our trust in the One who placed us there… for just such a time as this.
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