Jan. 23, 2012 Snow day

It’s not actually a snow day here in the Seattle area.   It’s a ‘recover-from-the-snow-and-ice-and-wind-damage-day,’ so there is no school. And, since I’m a teacher, blessed me, there’s oodles of extra time from the Time Keeper, my Heavenly Father, to do what He’s called me to do–write to you.

But first, since we rarely if ever get weather like this, here are a few pictures  for  Show and  Tell:

Ice crystals on fir branches

Front yard with very flexible, ice-embedded jacquemontii birch trees.

Poor viburnum, Pink Dawn, was just beginning to bud….

Since I have no idea what to say or where to start, I’ll offer you this. My first blog post and all.

It’s the beginning of the year and I’m plowing through the Pentateuch, much like I plowed through the snow to take these photos. And since my spiritual life dovetails with the rest of my life, I thought I’d share something from Exodus Chapter 16 about manna (Hebrew for ‘what is it’?).

There are parallels I noticed between gathering actual food and spiritual food.

You have to get something to eat DAILY–-even if it’s just one meal, feed yourself on the word of God. Also, fresh food is best, old stuff just rots and brings no life.

You have to get your own food–you can’t take someone else’s word–i.e. live your walk with Jesus on someone else’s nourishment. You know what I mean. A friend tells you what the Holy Spirit showed them, or they pray powerful prayers on Sunday morning or in your small group. You figure if you just hang out next to them it’ll rub off and make you ‘cool by association.’ You’re off the hook to find a word or morsel of food for yourself.

You can’t go looking so you’ll have something to give away to someone else. For instance, while you’re reading the Word, saying, “Oh, so and so needs to hear this.”  Don’t do that.  Ask God to feed you.

Gathering food will cost you something. The Children of Israel had to go out early every morning.  Like roll out of their cozy warm sleeping mats, leave their tents and go outside to gather their meal. Going after the food of God’s word costs us time and effort, just like getting physical food. But we can’t live without it.