Where's The Bread?

I think seagulls are strange birds. Most of the time they soar way above all the other birds. Well, that is if you live in the city. At the beach it’s different. There they come down low most of the time. At other times they walk or run along the beach looking for hand outs. We call them scavengers. Most have probably lost their natural instincts to search for a meal. But that would again be the gulls that stay close to people.
Three incidents come to mind when I think of gulls. When the girls were young, we went up to Tobermory and ventured out for a ride on the Chi Cheemaun. While on the ship, we had a snack of french fries. After having our fill the girls would hold a fry in their hand and the gulls would come swooping down and pick it off. The youngest one was afraid they might nip her finger thinking it was a fry.
The second incident happened at the wonderful beach town of Port Dover. We had gone there to enjoy the water, get a tan and eat a dog at The Arbor. Being older, gulls bothered me at the beach so I would scare them away. I scared one of those pesky gulls away when I threw sand at it. It climbed up and up and I lay back down on the blanket only in time to see the same gull drop something white and it landed on my chest. Not to worry, there was lots of water to wash it off. And besides I used someone else’s towel to wipe it off.
The last think about gulls is the noise they make. I have been trying to figure it out. Do they scream to let the others know there is food to be had or are they trying to scare the others away from their freshly found food? I think the later. Maybe it has something to do with the survival of the fittest. They see food and they don’t want to share. Maybe its first come first served?
To us humans, we are far removed from this attitude. Most of us would give the shirt off our back to someone who is in need. We as Canadians can be proud that we are known for being one of the most generous people in the world. Remember I said one of.
But do you know what. I think Christians the world over have everyone beat. True Christ followers are complete opposites of those pesky birds. As Steve Brown say tells us over and over, “We are one-beggar telling another beggar where we found bread.”
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”
Something to think about.
Rob

There are times when lying in bed feels too good. One of those morning when all seems well with the world and you have no agenda. All of us have had one of those mornings. Some of us even wish there were many more then there have been.
From the warmth of the covers we wake early but keep both eyes closed. We are in that space where we can hear but we just refrain from opening our eyes just yet. We hear the birds outside singing and chirping with the happiness of greeting the morning sun. And through our eye lids we know the sun rise is coming. Don’t know who made up that phrase because the sun doesn’t come up. The odd car goes by the house and we wonder who has to be up so early. What earth shattering even would get someone up this early? Oh, right, some people start work earlier then me. But 4:30 am?
As many of you know, I’m an early person. But there are days when bed and warmth hold me back from putting my toes on the cold hard wooden planks. Just like me, some of us just like that extra couple of minutes to gather our thoughts and plan our day. To lay there with no hint of hurry up and slow down. In a few moments, our day and our world will crash in on us. We will have agendas and meetings. There will be a time schedule and things to accomplish. But right now it’s just, me and Him. It’s a wonderful moment and a great feeling and a great time to just think: God, you have given me another day. Thank you.
Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word
Something to think about this morning
Rob

Part Of The Family

Sunday was such a great day. It is one day in many where we appreciate mothers. After dinner and dishes that the mother’s didn’t have to do I settled onto the computer, only to be met by two emails about family tree stuff. Two men I have not communicated with before, sent me some information I was looking for in relationship to one of the many family tree lines I am researching.
Well . . . the one fellow has twelve hundred names and lives in Portsmouth UK. What a bonus. I’m really getting into checking his names, and dates and differences of his information against mine. You can spend hours on this but I didn’t because I wanted to read the other persons email. He to had a myriad of information including a multi paged document on lots of family information. Include in it was something I found very interesting. He had transcribed a will signed in 1830. What an amazing piece of information. This had me returning to the conversation earlier between those here at the house about having a will. If you don’t have one, go and get one right away.
But back to the research. Some of you may also be interested in this family tree stuff. Learning about where you come from and how you arrived where you are. It can be interesting and informative. I have many names on my family tree. Most of them I have never heard of or seen but we are all connected. I find it facinating and I enjoy the hunt for the next name, then next person and the next place.
Let me tell you, if you know Jesus like I know Jesus, we are all part of the family of God. He is our Father and we are His sons and daughters. We will all inherit the kingdom of God. It’s ours. He has adopted us and we are eternally His. An interesting thing about all this adoption thing, there are no spiritual grandchildren. We all have to make our own personal connection to God. We have to admit our sin, ask forgiveness and accept Christ into our hearts on our own. No one can do this for us. And when we do, God accepts us into His Family and we can all sing this hymn together.

From the door of an orphanage to the house of the King
No longer an outcast, a new song I can sing
From rags to riches, from the weak to the strong
I’m not worthy to be here but praise God I belong

I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God
I’ve been washed in the fountain
And cleansed by His blood
Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod
For I’m a part of the family
The family of God

Something to think about
Rob

It's Me Against The World

Nature is a beautiful thing. Don’t you agree? It seems like all around us there is something more to see. Something more to notice. Something you may have never seen before. Take for instance the beach trees in our front yard. In one day they came into full leaf from nothing. Extraordinary. Or looking inside the tulip cup. Amazing. Some of us can not only see it but capture it in pictures like Ernie.
While out driving on the hwy. a number of days ago I was distracted from the task at hand by two birds. One was a hawk and the other seemed to be a sparrow. I assume the hawk was in the neighbourhood looking for dinner. And that dinner would be a fresh sparrows egg. The sparrow would have none of it.
So, for a lengthy period of time the sparrow would dive down onto the hawk and peck at his head. Without blinking an eye my mind immediately went to the David and Goliath scenario. The size alone would have you guess the Hawk would have the upper hand. We may all have seen this play out before. But this time the sparrow kept diving onto the hawk time after time. And this hawk just never flew off somewhere else. I don’t know if it was his reluctance to give up on getting dinner or that he just was hoping the sparrow would give up and fly away or he was dumb enough to keep taking it. Think about that in your life. . .
Time after time, one dive after another and it went on and on and on. Well I kept driving and turned my attention back to what I should have been doing. As I drove on, leaving those two to work out their difference far away in the rearview mirror, I realized that what I saw is mirrored in our lives.
We are not big, even though we think we are on the top of the food chain. Our world is filled with sin that, as the bible reiterates about sin that so easily besets us. Or as another translation puts it, entangles us. My mind then went to the question of childhood. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
For us, what we really need to do is to take a lesson from the sparrow. Keep at it. One peck at a time. One small victory and another victory will move us forward and before we know it, the hawk will be gone and life will be as wonderful as God always intended it.
God sees the little sparrow fall,
It meets His tender view.
If God so loves the little things,
I know He loves me to.
Something to think about
Robin