Nothing

It is when you plan nothing that you have a world of options at your fingertips...yesterday Jamie needed help for an hour or so so she brought baby Sam and Blake by. We did the usual things...feed the baby, play on the front yard swing...rock on the front porch...and then we took a walk...and Blake asked if we could go on the bus...I looked down at the stroller...and thought I can do this...so I said yes but we have to go back and get our bus card and figure out when the next bus is coming. By the time we got back Sam was sleepy and I put him down for a nap...and asked my housekeeper if she could just watch him while Blake and I went for a short bus ride.

We gathered our gear...a bag of Skiddles...and a baggie with the bus card, some spare change and ID...and headed to the bus stop. It came within ten minutes...and teh joy of seeing it come towards us down the road...was a thrill in itself. We rode a short way to Memorial Park...I told him that they had just made an awesome crossover pedestrian bridge and we needed to check it out. But what I didn't realize was the bus stop was much too far from the bridge so we had to figure out something to do for an hour before the returning bus would pick us up on the other side.

There was immediate disappointment when we got off and looked around for there were no playground toys in sight....Oh but there were tents ...lots and lots of white tents....set up for this weekends' art festival in the park. So we walked in each tent and imagined what would be in each of them....and made up stories. There were bike riders circling the horseshoe...some in race mode...some just casual riders out enjoying the beautiful day...but there in the quietness of the park was enough activity to make it interesting.

Children can make games out of nearly anything...like wandering in and out and around the big bolsters blocking the driveways...and throwing rocks into the forest and later on the grass when waiting for the bus. We had nothing planned but found so many things to enjoy. Blake's idea was next time we might even put our bikes on the front of the bus, like one of our bus riders did as we rode to the park, and unnload them at the park and join the riders...that just might be a wonderful idea.

But I tell this story for two reasons....one....when our schedules are not so "planned" up....we are freed up to take time to look around and enjoy what is right in our back yard "so to speak". There are some of us who are planners....constant planners....it is just part of a natural bent...and then there are others who are not only not planners but are just not much for doing either....especially when it involves something that has no credible advantage for his or her own person interests.....and then there are those who love adventure....on any level. I am sure there are more categories that could be added but you can see where I am coming from. We are so surrounded by opportunities....but it is often initiate that we lack. We are content in the status quo and our curiousity level has diminished as we add one year onto another. But I truly believe that Life is meant to be lived fully...not with a bunch of holes in it that let the joy seep out unknowingly.

There is joy in findind the "something" in nothing....there is joy in stopping to smell the flowers, or notice the birds flying or the differences in people that we pass along the way. Joy is available for any of us who seek it... It is God's joy...and as long as we are longing to be filled with it ....he will pour it on and into our lives.

Second....when we allow ourselves to disengage temporarily from responsibilities and stresses and the worldly treadmill that we so often are trying to negotiate....we have a greater tendency to acknowledge God's presence in and around us. God is a whisperer...and a nudger...he doesn't come at us with
a loud and arrogant presence...he is gentle spirited and comes to us through thoughts of mind and experiences that we find him clearly involved in. But as long as we are TOO busy to notice... his efforts to reach us are temporarily in vain. He will continue to try...and never be too discouraged to quit...but we are the ones who are missing out on the blessings of knowing him at every interval of our lives. It isin the quiet times...the kicking up dirt times...the tossing rocks times....and the walking int he woods times...that he is able to get through to us. It is then that we are able to realize his presence....and embrace his beauty.

It was just an outing...a quiet unplanned outing....but it filled us both us...and we not only had a chance to be together without distraction ...but also had a chance to further bond a relationship and make a memory. Memories don't have to be about big times or big places....memories are made in the hearts of those who have experienced something that has been life changeing or life altering...or even life touching..These are.memories that we want to keep that have made us feel special....or helped us to "see" special....or something that has touched a place within us that is the source of a peaceful and gentle countenance....those are the keeper memories..the ones we want to make...but then there are other memories that we would like to disreguard that have taken up residence in our hearts as well ...memories of sadness or guilt or shame or regret....you get the picture.....But what we have to remember is that God plays a part in all of our memories....some are covered by His grace while others are saturated in His joy.

Ecclesiastes 3:14
I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him

It is my prayer today that you will let the memories that are not so positve be dissolved by God's grace....just as jello dissolves when water is stirred through it. And that the memories of joyful times replace the space that is left behind by past incidents of sadness.

Talk a walk in Park....it could be the park in your backyard or the one down the street or even the one you could imagine in your mind...and just for a while let go of the distractions that are before you and let God nudge you and whisper His thoughts into your mind....and fill you with His peaceful countenance. Be free...and be refreshed today this day by the winds of God's Holy Spirit. God is with you...always has been, always will be....and life with God, if you give Him a change will be an adventure filled with joy....for God's claim to fame and glory is that "He did make everything out of nothing."

Praise God wherever you are or whatever situation he has allowed you to be in...for His glory will shine through.
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