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| Black and Blue Salvia |
Sat. Sept. 15, 2012 1:21 AM
Ok, it's begun. I have decided to write a blog during my insomnia, inspired by an article in Ladies Home Journal by an insomniac who wrote her first novel in the middle of the night while her husband slept. He was mighty grateful, I suppose, that she stopped inadvertently keeping him awake. (Later I learned that acclaimed author Barbara Kingsolver also wrote her first novel during pregnancy insomnia.) My husband is in the basement once again nursing his own insomnia, as I write. In fact, straining my ears while in bed in the dark, wondering where he was and if he was returning, woke me further. I finally got up and found that he was in the basement. So I had free reign to turn on lights and the computer. Now my co-pilot Scout Kitty is purring beside me on the chair.
This was also started because the Lord gave me an incredible gift the same day that He showed me the article in the ladies' restroom of my employer. He gives me gifts of nature since He knows how much I love His creation. His gift involved a female ruby-throated hummingbird suddenly appearing and nectaring a mere two feet away from me!! I was getting the mail from the mailbox and was admiring the black and blue salvia nearby, fresh in re-bloom from the badly-needed recent rains. Suddenly my eyes caught a movement and it was her. Hummers are so incredible the way they seemingly hang in mid-air. She methodically inserted her beak into each flower after first looking me over to verify I was not The Enemy. I was so awestruck that I froze and held my breath. She stayed! She sipped from each bloom, for possibly up to a minute! The late afternoon sun caught her fresh green iridescence and her soft white feathers elsewhere. Then she was gone, in an instant. That is the closest I have ever been to a hummer except when I watched them being banded in southern Illinois a few years ago.
One of the neatest bookmarks someone gave me states the following: "Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them." (Psalm 111:2). It has a neat painting of seashells, another gift He has given me numerous times over the years. My mom probably gave me the bookmark, since she introduced me to seashells and we share a love of them. Or perhaps my friend P gave it, since she also knows about the Lord providing gifts from nature.
I don't know if this verse intended the reader to delight in His works of nature, such as seashells, but I do and so do many others. I think He is fine with that. That is, as long as we give credit where credit is due: God Himself. He created all these lovely things of nature. The bookmark is marking Psalm 121 in my NASB Bible:
Psalm 121
Ok, it's begun. I have decided to write a blog during my insomnia, inspired by an article in Ladies Home Journal by an insomniac who wrote her first novel in the middle of the night while her husband slept. He was mighty grateful, I suppose, that she stopped inadvertently keeping him awake. (Later I learned that acclaimed author Barbara Kingsolver also wrote her first novel during pregnancy insomnia.) My husband is in the basement once again nursing his own insomnia, as I write. In fact, straining my ears while in bed in the dark, wondering where he was and if he was returning, woke me further. I finally got up and found that he was in the basement. So I had free reign to turn on lights and the computer. Now my co-pilot Scout Kitty is purring beside me on the chair.
This was also started because the Lord gave me an incredible gift the same day that He showed me the article in the ladies' restroom of my employer. He gives me gifts of nature since He knows how much I love His creation. His gift involved a female ruby-throated hummingbird suddenly appearing and nectaring a mere two feet away from me!! I was getting the mail from the mailbox and was admiring the black and blue salvia nearby, fresh in re-bloom from the badly-needed recent rains. Suddenly my eyes caught a movement and it was her. Hummers are so incredible the way they seemingly hang in mid-air. She methodically inserted her beak into each flower after first looking me over to verify I was not The Enemy. I was so awestruck that I froze and held my breath. She stayed! She sipped from each bloom, for possibly up to a minute! The late afternoon sun caught her fresh green iridescence and her soft white feathers elsewhere. Then she was gone, in an instant. That is the closest I have ever been to a hummer except when I watched them being banded in southern Illinois a few years ago.
One of the neatest bookmarks someone gave me states the following: "Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them." (Psalm 111:2). It has a neat painting of seashells, another gift He has given me numerous times over the years. My mom probably gave me the bookmark, since she introduced me to seashells and we share a love of them. Or perhaps my friend P gave it, since she also knows about the Lord providing gifts from nature.
I don't know if this verse intended the reader to delight in His works of nature, such as seashells, but I do and so do many others. I think He is fine with that. That is, as long as we give credit where credit is due: God Himself. He created all these lovely things of nature. The bookmark is marking Psalm 121 in my NASB Bible:
Psalm 121
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
The Lord the Keeper of Israel.
A Song of Ascents.
121 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
From where shall my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
Did you catch that? He made heaven and earth. He made seashells with all their lovely colors and shapes. If you would, notice verse four that states that He neither slumbers nor sleeps. And He protects us. In verse seven He states that He will keep our soul. I interpret that to mean He will keep our emotions and spirit intact through storms of ill health, job loss, and relationship upheaval. Why not really read and meditate on this chapter? David wrote many of the Psalms from his difficult life. He just says it like it is. And here he makes it clear how our Great God can do anything to protect us from the storms of life. For many months I read this Psalm every night right before bed to put my mind in the right place for the rest of the night. I had to read it daily because I need constant reminders. Now I read other Psalms and other passages as needed, for variety.
The children of Israel had the pillar of cloud by day and of flame by night, God parting the Red Sea, and daily manna (not too much, not too little) and still after all those constant daily signs and miracles, it took them 40 years of wandering in circles and relearning the same lessons to get to their destination. And Moses was within an inch of getting there, having been brought all along by God, and at the last minute lost his temper one more time with their faithlessness and sin. He sinned himself by not following God's precise instructions and losing his temper, and that was enough to keep him from the Promised Land. I am no better than the Israelites.
So here I am in my lack of faith at nearly 2 a.m. rereading The Word and gritting my teeth in faith. (Actually right now I am really having a good time and not in the least sleepy, enjoying the start of this blog journey), even if I am up the rest of the night and have a full day of chores ahead of me tomorrow and entertaining tomorrow night, He will give me adequate strength for the day. (Note: I was up till about 4 a.m.) How do I know this? His Word and experience of many years of insomnia.
If I can by these writings help even one person, with God's guidance and help, it will have been worth losing all that sleep. After all, He allows things to happen to us for our good and for His glory. If He is better glorified by insomnia so that I now have the found time to pray for others or write things to help people, so much the better!
What I would love to share with people is that He has created some beautiful things in nature here on earth and in the sky. My friend P has been kind enough to share her own insomnia stories about how she gets up in the night to let her dog out to do her business. While her dog is outside, P is looking up at the stars and planets and marveling at the One Who made it all. And He has all the myriads of stars counted, accounted for, knew each one as He made it and when and how long it would be in existence before it would wink out. How many billions of universes are there? He knows. He created them all.
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