Landing Gear Loaded

Have you ever seen a brightly, multi-colored, aero-dynamic goose land in a pond? As it gets closer to the water, it briskly flaps its wings to break the fall. Then the back of its heels touch the water and, forever so brief of a moment, it looks like it is “skiing.” Very smooth, very graceful landing.

Then there is the dirty-gray, clumsy looking pelican! Having walked a few beaches, I have watched more than one pelican make its landing on the vast ocean. Most often it has been a single bird so the lone pelican had my full attention. A fantastic fisher with that huge scoop of a pouch-like beak. But when a pelican decides to ride the waves for a while and comes in for a landing, what I have seen and almost heard was – wait for it— PLOP! Graceful? Not even close! It would be like taking a big bowl of wet, sticky bread dough, lifting it high, and dumping it on the counter – PLOP!

G – I am a goose and I do not Plop!

P – I am a pelican and I do not “ski.”

G – You are you, and I am me.

P – Your head on me, and my head on you, We’d both look like a “silly goose!”

G – So, you stay you, and I’ll stay me.

Two amazingly sculptured water fowl with two distinct approaches but they both hit their landing with bodies afloat. Live in the “skin” God designed for you. Or perhaps I should say, fly in the weather with your own “feathers.”

“I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that well.” – Psalm 139:14, NIV

Blessings, Gloria Sines

Memory and Meditation

Here is a true story about the value of memorizing and meditating on scripture--and of the power of music to aid in learning. My memory work for this month is I Corinthians 13. Going over the verses again, I remembered this story that I wrote for a devotional book a few years ago.*

I lived on a quiet street and enjoyed a good relationship with my neighbor. We shared produce from our gardens and tips about growing peonies. When I learned that she had lied to me about a community issue, however, interactions became strained. Working in my yard one day, I seemed to feel her eyes watching me.

I wanted to shoot angry looks her way, make her sorry for her deceitfulness. But I had been sharing Christ with my neighbor; I needed to demonstrate his love. Struggling with my emotions, I remembered a song my children had learned in Vacation Bible School. It was an adaptation of I Corinthians 13: “Love is patient; love is kind; . . . Love is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrong.” Singing the song to myself, I waved and smiled and kept pruning the shrubs.

Months later, my neighbor approached my car as I pulled to a stop in the driveway. “I got baptized this weekend,” she said. “I thought you’d like to know.”

Thank God for His word, for those who encourage us to learn it, and for Vacation Bible School songs!

--Sherry Poff

*Love is a Verb Devotional, Gary Chapman with James Stuart Bell. Bethany House, 2011.