The Creation

My daughter found this at her school, and thought I would enjoy it. I do, and decided to post it here. Very nicely done.

THE CREATION

by: James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)


AND God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
"I'm lonely --
I'll make me a world."

And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.

Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said, "That's good!"

Then God reached out and took the light in His hands,
And God rolled the light around in His hands
Until He made the sun;
And He set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said, "That's good!"

Then God himself stepped down --
And the sun was on His right hand,
And the moon was on His left;
The stars were clustered about His head,
And the earth was under His feet.
And God walked, and where He trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.

Then He stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And He spat out the seven seas;
He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed;
He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled;
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.

Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around His shoulder.

Then God raised His arm and He waved His hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And He said, "Bring forth! Bring forth!"
And quicker than God could drop His hand.
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said, "That's good!"

Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that He had made.
He looked at His sun,
And He looked at His moon,
And He looked at His little stars;
He looked on His world
With all its living things,
And God said, "I'm lonely still."

Then God sat down
On the side of a hill where He could think;
By a deep, wide river He sat down;
With His head in His hands,
God thought and thought,
Till He thought, "I'll make me a man!"

Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled Him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of His hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in His own image;

Then into it He blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.
"The Creation" is reprinted from The Book of American Negro Poetry. Ed. James Weldon Johnson. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1922.

Did you hear about...

I think I originally heard a version of this on the radio, and it has really stuck with me. It has a good message. So credit to whomever came up with it first.

You know that lady at church, June, the one who is always giving out the refreshments after service. I've heard she leaves her home, and sees another man nearly every day. Her children are left home alone for long stretches of time. You know she is married to Dave, that guy that plays the sax in the choir. For shame!

That paragraph paints a pretty sad picture of June. Her reputation is pretty much down the drain with that information floating around. She and Dave could both lose their good standing in the church if the elders found out about this.

What if I told you the man she visits almost every night is her father, who is terminally ill? And that her children are teenagers, who are perfectly capable of looking after themselves for a few hours. That changes things, doesn't it? Do you look differently at June now, when she hands you a cookie after service, or offers you a sign of peace?

How are we talking about the people in our daily lives? Are we giving the whole story when we speak of them, or half truths meant to tear other people down? In Scripture, the Lord tells us to "Therefore encourage one another, and build each other up, just as you are doing." 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Speak of things that build our neighbors up, and encourage them. People will remember how you made them feel above all else, so speak in a way that leaves people smiling when they have been in your presence. Speak highly of others, even when you are not in their presence. You never know the burden another person is carrying in his heart.

I think my daughter says it best, "Don't be talkin' bout folks!"

God bless!

Chela

Faker

Friday morning, I was looking at my fish tank, and noticed my snail was missing. My huge yellow snail that college kid had given me as a gift. Looking closer, I found him laying on his side behind our shipwreck ornament.

Darn it, my snail died. What kind of pet owner am I that I can't even keep a snail alive. I need to just give up and keep plastic plants from now on. All day I felt sick about this deceased snail. To make matters worse, just the night before, the kids and I had been watching the fish, and my youngest had mentioned wanting to name the snail. After all, the plecostomus is Stanley. Now I have to tell the kids he died. Great, some pet owner I am.

Shortly before going to pick up ds from school, I decided to check on the snail one more time, just to be sure before I broke the news. I hadn't dealt with removing him just yet. To my surprise, the snail is happily sliding up the side of the tank, very much alive. He's lucky I don't turn him into escargot for his little stunt.

He earned himself a name after all for that stunt...Faker.

God bless
Chela

I am more...

You'll never amount to anything. You're a failure. You're so stupid. You're a loser, what a waste of space. You'll never be able to go water skiing. What an idiot..

Stop right there. I am none of those things. I am a child of the living God. Jesus bought me with His blood on the Cross of Calvary. He promises me a mansion in Heaven with Him. A mansion!! I love the house we live in now, but it's a bit cramped, and we are really rubbing elbows. I get a mansion?!! And I don't have to clean it!

He also promises me a table of plenty, dining with Him in Paradise! What a promise! He offers me a seat at the table with Him. My face shining, as much food as I want. He doesn't want me to cower at the sides, scrounging for scraps.

Jesus also promises me I can do anything. Jesus tells me in Phil 4:3 that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can do ANYTHING through Jesus. I can rise above those who tell me I can't, that I am not strong enough, or good enough. Jesus will see me through it all. He believes in me, and knows I can achieve great things in life. He wants me to be happy, and to shine as a light for Him.

Jesus also has great plans for me in life. When he knit me in my mother's womb, he already had my life planned out. In Jeremiah 29:11, Jesus tells me, "For I have great plans for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future." Jesus has my life in His hands! He has planned for my future, and they are good plans that will not fail.

I have nothing to worry about, no reason to feel ashamed in my life. Jesus loves me, and cares for me every day. What if I never learn to water ski? I'm not worried. One day Jesus will show me how to walk on water.

Chela

I thought it was funny!

It was about 10:30pm last night, and everyone was tucked into bed, dreaming about our wonderful weekend at the beach. I couldn't sleep, and kept hearing a strange noise. It sounded like a kitten, and I thought maybe our little Hershey was trapped in a room or something. I decided to get up and account for all the cats.

Julie was on my pillow, so I knew it wasn't her. My bedroom window is prime real estate, looking out over the pool, so I assumed someone would be on the sill. It was really dark as I reached my hand over to feel for a kitty.

Sure enough, there was a cat there! Bear jumped up and came flying out of the window, and tore across my dresser. With enough noise to awaken the neighborhood, he continued on flying out of my room, across the hallway, and into ds' room. Unfortunately, he made enough noise to wake dh, who surely thought the world had ended.

I quickly explained it was just the cat, trying not to laugh too loudly. I gave that up entirely when I had to tell ds why the cat had run into his room with the hounds of on his tail. Certainly I used up another of Bear's 9 lives when I touched him in that window sill. I'm not sure why I scared him so badly, I guess he thought everyone was asleep, so it must be a big monster after him. Poor guy.

Everyone else was quiet and accounted for that evening. I think it was the quail I was hearing after all. I kept chuckling about the whole thing until I fell asleep. I'm so glad animals are quick to forgive, or I might not be around to write this to you.

Chela

How They Grow

Last night, I was brushing my teeth when I suddenly remembered something my youngest ds had said many years ago. We were sitting in the car, waiting on a particularly long train when ds said,

"It would take a lot of pounders to pound that train."

Now it would make more sense if you knew that "pounders" back then were tape measures! Ds said they told you how many "pounds" something was. Cut the guy some slack, he was only 3 years old!

His real fascination at that age was a tire pressure gauge. He found them fascinating, and brought one to every show and tell at preschool. We'd frequently check the tire pressure on the van when I picked him up after school. This led to quite often getting asked if we had a flat tire. LOL

Ds is now 13, and growing like crazy. He's hit quite a growth spurt this summer, and is shooting up like bamboo. I've also noticed he is getting broad through the chest and shoulders. He's definitely not a little kid anymore. Ds was complaining during the summer that he had outgrown his shoes. I told him that we'd get him some when school started, as he only wore them once a week anyway, to church.

Poor kid wasn't kidding about the shoes. Dh took him to the shoe store, and ds had grown two shoe sizes. I should have seen it coming, all the food he inhales these days has to be going somewhere.

Ds already has his future planned out. He wants to go to DeVry and learn to design video games like his older brother. He's definitely heading to the right field, computers are taking off these days, and it seems video games are as well. At least at my house they are! On the first day of school this year, he had to write where he wanted to go to college, and what he wanted to do for a living. He of course said DeVry. No one knew where the college was located, except for ds.

Thank You Father for the gift of this young man who has gone from talking of pounding trains to planning out his future. He's a clown, a child with a great heart, and a good head on his shoulders. At least most of the time. He's also the worst bedtime staller I've ever met. I love him dearly, Father, and thank You so very much for the gift of him. Please watch over him, and guide him in Your ways. Amen.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Psalm 127:3

Saturday

My mom once told me that all the emails I sent her titled, "Saturday", always start with the words, "I'm so exhausted". Once again, that has proven itself true. It has also been a rather interesting day, one that has me feeling very accomplished.

I had an outreach with the zoo that had me leaving the house quite early this morning. I arrived at the college where the event was to be held, and settled in. I always enjoy working with the other docents, it's fun to chat with them during slow times, and it's nice to have someone reach over with a paper towel and clean mess off your leg, or gently say, "actually, that animal is from Africa, not Europe." Hey, no one's perfect!

The day wore on, we had an ongoing flow of people coming by, enough to keep it interesting without getting overwhelming. I decided it would be fun to hold the hedgehog-harmless enough, right? It's just a hedgehog. So I don the heavy gloves, and scoop up Harley. It's fun to show people how they roll up in prickle balls, and become impenetrable. Harley would also peek his cute little face out between my fingers like he was shy.

I'd had him for a while, and Harley was resting in my lap. Nothing big going on, I was just relaxing, listening to everyone talk. All the sudden, Harley latches on to my wrist, and won't let go! Let me tell you, hedgehogs have 36 very sharp teeth, and bites HURT!

When a hedgehog feels threatened, they will "pop" up in the air to give a predator of mouthful of prickles. Harley kept popping with his teeth firmly embedded in my wrist. It was enough to bring tears to my eyes. The worst thing is that there were 4 other volunteers there, (and one with more experience than me), and no-one knew how to detach this thing from my arm.

I thought maybe if I put him back in the carrier, he'd let go. But someone had come by and put 4 bbq plates on the carrier, so that was out. The only thing I could think of was to rush him over to the water fountain, and douse him in it. A guest followed me over and hit the button for me. (very hard to do when your hands are tied up with hedgehogs. Hips don't work well.)

Harley released the second that cold water hit him. Relief! My wrist had multiple teeth marks where he had bitten me, in an area about the size of a quarter. It hurt so much, but no blood drawn. After putting Harley in jail, (his carrier), I sat down, and said, "There goes having a hedgehog for a pet! One volunteer later said she would have dropped him. I guarantee, if I had tried to drop Harley, he would have been hanging from my wrist by his teeth.

When I told my boss about the bite, I told him nothing unusual had happened, he was resting one minute, and bit me the next. Mr. H said, "Welcome to hedgehogs." Nope, not having one as a pet. EVER. I'll stick with ferrets, and guinea pigs. They are more my style.

After the zoo, ( I got 6 hours today!) I met up with my dh for a fun evening out. Okay, well it was nothing glamorous, he'd been driving, and I'd been holding animals for the zoo, but we had fun together. We ran a couple of errands, and grabbed a bite to eat.

Then we went home, and had a nice time talking about everything on the way. We got home, and the house was so hot. Not what we wanted after a long hot day at work. Time to clean the a/c unit. Actually, cleaning the coils isn't too much work, it's putting it back together that's the hassle. I think it took longer than cleaning the whole thing.

Our last chore for the day, and by now it was about 8:30pm. We needed to repair our pool gate. Sometime back, a dog had broken through the lattice, and broke a big hole in it. Eventually, the bottom of the gate had broken off completely. Not only was this a hazard for neighborhood children, it wouldn't confine the dog either. So after a bit of trimming and nailing, we have a strong new gate. Just in time for my niece's visit next week with her little ones. I'm so excited! Plus, we have a fenced in area to let the dogs run. Thank you honey!

By this point, dh and I were hot, tired, sweaty, and covered in bug bites. I told him we should strip down and jump in the pool. He started in the house for towels, and I said, no, just get in the pool. What a refreshing treat after so much work, and such a long day. Of course the kids thought we were crazy, ( or something), but who cares. Nothing beats relaxing in your pool after a day of hard work.

At this point, after all the hard work we've put into our pool, I think it must be full of Holy water, as we have sure cleaned the h*ll out of it~ Have a great evening!

Chela