THE MEANING OF THE CANDY CANE

"A CANDY MAKER'S WITNESS"

A candy maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness, so he made the Christmas Candy cane. He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ.

He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the foundation of the Church, and the firmness of the promises of God.

The candy maker made the candy in the form of a "J" to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior. It could also represent the staff of the "Good Shepherd" with which He reaches down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs who, like all sheep, have gone astray.

Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candy maker stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received by which we are healed. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life.

Unfortunately, the candy became known as a candy cane-a meaningless decoration seen at Christmas time. But the meaning is still there for those who "have eyes to see and ears to hear". I pray that this symbol will again be used to witness to the wonder of Jesus and His great love that came down at Christmas and remains the ultimate and dominant force in the universe today.

MERRY

CHRISTMAS

LIFE IN A NUTSHELL

I'm just going to stop in a minute and do a little updating on life recently. It hasn't been exquisitely exciting but it hasn't been infuriatingly boring either.

School is going great, I finish the semester on the 9th and 10th with final exams in Philosophy and Sociology. Philosophy bored me to tears with it's open-ended questions and maddening theories of human nature, all of which argued the other. Sociology was interesting, I ate that up!! I did well in  both classes but it's now time to move forward so next semester it's World Civilization and Composition. 

My grandson is getting big, he just turned 2 in November. I still haven't seen the other grandson who's mother decided to take him away in the night. Who does such a thing after a grandmother has worked so hard to bond with her grandchild and be there for the young couple? Who just wisks him away in the night as if our bond means nothing? I still can't understand how she could have done this to little Ronnie and I, but it's done so there's nothing left but faith in God that He'll bring Ronnie back to me. I know for a fact the bond I forged can't be broken by any amount of time. He may not remember me, but he'll remember the love I imparted for that brief period of time and then he'll remember me in his spirit.

I finally got myself lined out with anti-depression medication and it has really helped a lot. My suicidal thoughts have almost vanished and I feel a sense of well-being. I still have a long way to go to truly be happy because it lurks beneath the surface at all times, but I'm on my way.

I'm still single, mainly because there's nobody in this entire state that doesn't say the word "perty". haha, just kidding, that's not why I'm still single but it does play a role. I just need some intellect in a partner and I seem to live in a part of the country where the men are oversexed, too much into mudding or southern rock bands, and have no interest in the person I am. I think it's a cultural thing. I've noticed stark contrasts in the mentality of men in the U.S. as opposed to men in the U.K. and other nations. I really don't care at this point because my faith isn't in the men, it's in the Maker of them.

God is still performing miracles in my life. Just when I grapple with Him because I feel He's failed me, He shows me that He doesn't have failure as a part of His personality or ambitions. He just takes good care of me in spite of my lack of deserving the things He does. I deserve up to a point but I can be so saucy with Him, I'm surprised He hasn't struck my mouth with a bolt of lightening just to seal the stupid thing shut for a minute. haha

I have a beautiful new God child....oh he's something! His name is Nathan and he lives with his adopting dad in the Philippines. He was offered to his dad because the mother had so many children and couldn't take care of one more. His daddy, my dear sweet friend, couldn't say no and took him without hesitation into his arms and heart. Nathan has thrived in his care. Incidentally, his daddy is a blogger, a blogger I met by following his blog. Carlo Magno is the name and taking pictures is his game. He's an extremely good photographer and captivated me with his images the moment I saw them. I've never ever been interested in photography or viewing photographs until I met someone who photographs from the heart, that's Carlo! Then we became friends and then Carlo "had a baby" and I was asked to be his Godmother. What an incredible honor! I only wish I was a rich woman because that baby would be showered with gifts from America!!!

Last but not least, my children! My oldest beautiful son, a.k.a. "Sunshine Boy", has finally achieved his life long dream of joining the field of law enforcement. He went through the police academy and earned his badge. He now works as a correction officer for the local jail. He'll work there for a time and then move to field work. As for my youngest son, a.k.a. "my little troubled one", he's somewhere living his life and finding himself and I'm just here loving him and praying for him, that whatever he's up to, be it good or bad, it's for a purpose and that God is bringing him through his valley to stand on the mountain. He has been trouble recently and I do worry a bit, but then I reflect on my own path and how God used every mistake I ever made to build character in me. He's brilliant and I trust Him with my son the same as He trusted me when He loaned the child to me to raise. It will all work out well.

Well, that's the update for now. I must go study for the finals!! God bless everyone who visits my blog!

...HAVE A JOKE ON ME!

Just a little joke to break up the monotony:

A new pastor was visiting the homes of his parishioners. 

At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door. Therefore, he took out a card and wrote "Revelation 3:20" on the back of it and stuck it in the door. 

When the offering was processed the following Sunday, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, Genesis 3:10." 

Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter. 

Revelation 3:20 begins "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Genesis 3:10 reads, "I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid, for I was naked."

HOG PENS ARE A GOOD THING

When God created the world and all that's in it, He created man with free will but He wrote His word upon the hearts of men that we may know Him if we seek Him. Jesus never knocked and asked for entry, He was always sought and given a seat at one's table. The same thing applies in our lives today. Same concepts. We still have free will, we can still know Him if we seek Him, and He still doesn't force His way in.

My friend and I were discussing someone she knows who has been saved but seems to be enduring the "trials and tribulations" the Lord warned us of. My friend felt that she had the answer to what ails the young woman and her opinion was that the young woman just needed to get in church and be with other believers. I agree that she needs to surround herself with believers but I didn't agree that she'd necessarily find peace or resolve in church attendance. After I stated my opinion, I questioned myself, 'why would I think that?' God told me why, shortly after our conversation had ended.

God opened my memory for a while and allowed the things I did, places I went, and people I hung around to flood my mind. I remembered meeting Christ as a child and growing up with sparse interactions with Him. Mostly, I'd be forced to go to church when I stayed the night with a friend whose parents were church goers and those were the house rules. The thing God wanted me to see the most was that I wasn't meant to get saved and stick to His side like a scared untrusting child. I was meant to live my life.

Once I was the Lord's, "nothing could pluck me from His hand" and my time to wander into the world and make my mistakes was upon me. The entire point of knowing God but having an earthly existence is to live, learn, and make mistakes so that you learn to build your faith...to lean on God. 

I myself ventured out and lived in the "hog pens" of the world. When God called me back for restoration (like the prodigal son), He found me chin-deep in the hog pens. What that meant for others around me who would be struggling the same as I had was a testimony of miraculous change for which they could rely on as a God-given truth, an encouraging word to let them know there's hope, the realization that God never leaves us, nor does He refuse to forgive. I was meant to acquire my testimony so that I could share it for good reason at the right time, just like I heard someone share their's for good reason and at the right time for me.

My friend and I talked a bit and I told her all of this, to which she listened attentively and thoughtfully. We changed the subject thereafter but I knew my friend understood that her friend would have to venture into the world, fall into a few hog pens, get very dirty, but once God's plans for her life had been accomplished in that, He would reach in and pull her from the pit, clean her up, and set her before others to share of the miraculous things He had done for her. Possibly at a time when she thought she was unforgivable.

We have to let one another make mistakes. We have to trust that God is building the faith of our brothers and sisters through their trials and tribulations and that the motivation should never be us trying to tie them to a church bench and expect that to keep them from suffering. We're meant to suffer with Christ. We're meant to use those times to build our faith in God. We're meant to find, through our trials, that God never left us nor forsook us and that He forgives His foolish children, like any good parent would.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

This is not at all what you'd expect from a man with a violin. He's very talented, very diverse, and the music he makes will make you want to close your eyes and float to somewhere you can find laughter and love! Enjoy

THE MAN WHO LOVES GOD!

Leonard Knight, a man who found Jesus and was changed so profoundly that the next 47 years of his life have been dedicated to sharing one simple message, "God is love and it's not complicated, keep it simple, He loves everyone, you don't have to complicate it." [paraphrased]

This is a really good 9 minute video showing his Technicolor Mountain, also called Salvation Mountain. He's been working on it all his life, alone in the desert, just for God! How amazing is that?

THE DEATH OF FAITH

So, I have a dilemma so I decided I would search a place on my social site called "communities" for a community of Christians and find someone to discuss my dilemma with. What I found was so sad. I found community after community with the word "Christian" in the title but the member count for each was mostly between 1-6. I did find some with 26 and one or two communities with more than that number but I don't believe I found one community created by a Christian that had 100 members in it. It's worthy to note that the headings were things such as "Fundamental Christians", and "Christians Following God", and "Country Christians," "Compassionate Believers", things like that, but none of which had more than a few members at any given time. 

It's fair to point out that the people who create those communities are usually men in the social network who have very few people following them in their circle count so that means invitations usually don't reach too many people and most people ignore them when they get an invitation to join a community. But if you look through the communities on cat lovers, techies, or LGBT, they're 1000s strong. But do you know what community I found with the highest number of members? Islam. 10,000 members.

The second thing disturbing to me were the subtitles of those Christian communities wherein the moderator or creator of the community would announce that his/her community was a "place to connect" or "a place to share ideas" or "be one in the Lord." But guess what I found in each and every community I opened to look around in? Comments were ALL disabled. Every single person who posted something had disabled their comments. How's that connecting? How do Christians expect to connect with one another that way? 

It's also worthy to note that we're talking about millions of people from around the world so somewhere in there the Christian faith is turning into something that nobody wants anything to do with and those who still are a part of it don't really want to connect. 

I'll now weigh in on that and give my personal opinion based on what I feel myself and what I see. Religion is destroying the faith. The faith is not a heart thing anymore, it's a Bible thing, a church thing, a religion thing. Christianity is no longer the faith in God it was initially meant to be and taught to us by Christ himself, but rather something people practice in their flesh and if you practice God in your flesh and not in your heart, then you're not a Christian, you're a religious zealot who has no Spirit of God in them. Religion will not save you. Bible thumping won't save anyone. All the church services in the world are doing nothing for people. They're using the religion to grow further into their own "good deeds" and further away from simple service to God in the form of love and truth and benevolence. We're not to act in the flesh as Christians. Quoting scripture does little more than show the world you've memorized some words. Even I am turned off by the quoting of scripture. One or two verses that you know have meaning and when you say them it's because the Spirit compels you, is one thing. Quoting scripture to every thing that happens around you and using it as a shield to hide your true self behind isn't what it's meant for.

Religion has all but destroyed the faith. It's clear to me that the devil has gotten into the church and he's working diligently at destroying Christians from the outside in. They see and believe, they hear and believe, but they don't know and believe based on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who comes at the moment of salvation and makes us to know the truth, which immediately should set us free from the practice of religion. Remember the scribes and pharisees folks, remember what Jesus said about them and you'll know.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS...

Religion finds people acting on their flesh when they allow themselves to read a passage and then act it out without the moving of the Holy Spirit. 

I give you this example: A man is lying in the gutters. You see him there and know that the Lord expects benevolence of you as well as it is in your heart to do. You've read the scriptures to love thy neighbor as thy self and not to send your neighbor away empty if you have it to give, and so you think on those verses. You decide you're going to give the man some money but something is tugging at you and you second guess the gesture. Without a whisper to the Lord or an inquiry to Him as to why you feel like you shouldn't give the man the money, you begin to reach for the $5 you have but then decide, "no..I'm giving him the $20." The tugging gets stronger and now you're sure there's something telling you not to give him that $20, just the $5. Nobody would ever second guess such a thing unless they're selfish or greedy, right? Only a good person would choose to give more instead of less, right? Did you ask God to just give you some clarity and guide you to what the right thing to do is? 

Let us hear the conclusion of the matter: You've decided to give the man the $20, despite the tugging at your heart and the strong feeling that you should only give him the $5. For a brief second you contemplate why you've brushed aside the feelings and you quickly rationalize it with these 3 words, "The Bible says..." and that's all the explanation you feel you need to give yourself. You then hand the man the $20, which he happily accepts, and you part ways. You continue on your journey feeling 50% right and somehow 50% wrong but you shrug it off. Within a span of time you have to return via the direction you came in and in so doing, hope to see the man gone because you happen to know that he can get a bed at the mission on the corner for $5. Instead, you approach the area where you left him to see an ambulance and officers and a crowd of people forming. You walk up to a bystander and inquire as to what the commotion is all about. "Some homeless man stumbled out of the bar across the street and fell into the path of a big truck," he says. Instantly your heart sinks. Without another word, you make your way closer to the accident scene and sure enough, it's him, the man you gave the $20 to.

Here's the lesson God taught me using this exact same story and scenario, which He wrote on my heart years ago. He has never allowed me to lose it's meaning: When the man chose the $20 over the $5 while snubbing the Holy Spirit's urging not to, he sealed the man's fate. What He didn't know about the man were the things God knew, and what God knew was that he would take the money given to him and drink it up. But if the man only had $5, he wouldn't have had enough to get as drunk as he prefers and so would have chosen to take the $5 and go find a bed for the night. Also, at the mission they serve a message of Christ with breakfast so the man would have heard a salvation message the next morning. All God needed from His servant here was that his act of benevolence not be based on scripture alone nor what the man's flesh wanted to do, but rather on a willing heart combined with the knowledge of scripture. Most importantly however is that the Holy Spirit was the power behind it all. He was the guiding force but the man shrugged Him off because his flesh and his belief in the scriptures assured him in his mind (not his heart) that he was doing the right thing. He had read it and he thought it and therefore, he did it. 

What's the moral of this story my friends?

IS HIS GRACE REALLY SUFFICIENT?

Is His grace really sufficient? Well, I don't know..what is grace...what is His grace? I've always been taught that grace, in a nutshell, is God's favor for His children. So when I'm told that His grace is sufficient, then I'm being told that His favor towards me is sufficient for my life to be lived in a fine enough way that I'll make it...not without trials and tribulations, but that I'll make it.

It's a cold and rainy night...no that's not the first line of a new horror novel I'm writing. It's just cold and raining and gloomy and dark. I'm thinking about all the homeless people who are finding a mission, a cheap motel, a bridge, or a cardboard box to get in for the night. I look at myself and see that I have a brightly lit, warm, comfortable, "sufficient" home to be in on this cold and rainy night. 

Why do I have this home and how have I kept it for almost 9 years? Well, it's not by my strength...it's not even by my works. It's by God's grace. He is providing this home. He is providing the money for the rent and it's not much, but it's sufficient. I don't have a lot. I don't have a fine home or a fine car but I have what I need and it's sufficient. At the risk of saying the word too much, everything I have at my disposal is sufficient for me to live this life in a fine enough way to make it through.

Every time I go out to start that old jalopy in the driveway, it starts right up. The only times it hasn't (dead battery or such) was on a day that I really didn't need it to start. By God's grace that car has started every night of classes. The long treks to my neurologist in the next city over...I get there every single time. I've not missed one appointment in 4 years. I made it to all of my physical therapy appointments without delay (that car doesn't look like it should be going past my mailbox). God's grace is the reason for that.

I believe that God expects us to meet Him halfway. I don't take what He does for granted. I don't sit back eating bon bons and expect a miracle to fall in my lap, or groceries, or anything else that requires my attention. In so doing my part I find the Lord meeting me halfway. Oh how many times I've cried and wailed for thinking it was all about to crash down around me and suddenly everything "magically" falls into place. Not in any form that would be considered me having more than my share, but in a way that's fine enough for me to make it through. I just trust Him in my heart of hearts and His heart connects to that. He feels my faith like a ray of light reaching into the heavens where He waits with an open heart. When the ray of faith reaches God, a switch is flipped and all good things begin to flow from Him and into us.

I don't make the mistake of trying to be inhumanly perfect. I also believe that God can't stand a phony. He can't stand people who try to be pious and religiously perfect. He wants our genuine selves. He wants our flaws so He can polish us into a diamond. He wants us to stumble so we reach out to Him so that He can prove that He's the one that can steady us.

He's more than gracious with us. It's no different than when we love to give something of ourselves to another. You know how you purchase a gift and hand pick the wrapping, then run home and lovingly wrap that gift for your kin folk or friend? Remember the feeling that comes with knowing how much they'll love that gift? Remember how it feels knowing you're about to make their day? Now, remember how it feels when that gift is turned down because the person thinks "oh you shouldn't have...I can't accept this...I'm sorry but I can't accept this..it's just too much, take it back but thank you." Your heart is broke because you love that person and you want them to have that gift, no matter the cost. They just don't know how much you wanted to give them that gift. God is like that with us. He just wants to give us His gifts but He never spends more than He should and He never gives us things we can't use. He is thoughtful and gracious with each gift He bestows and all He wants is for us to trust that He knows which ones we'll need or want or love the most and those are the ones He's been waiting on the chance to give us. We just have to accept them. (sorry that sounds so corny).

I said all of that while thinking back to my 20s and early 30s, back to a time when I just wanted to take care of myself and be at peace, no more people telling me what to do in my own house, bullying me around, or holding me back from doing what I need or want to do, that which I know will help me as well as others. God has graciously and sufficiently given me that. I have a home, nothing big but comfortable for me. It is two baths and two bedroom even though I really only need one of each, but God in His wisdom and sufficient grace made that way early on so that I'd have a place to start storing baby stuff for my grandchildren. He's put me back in school, which was a dream I've always had. I used to drive past the college and look longingly at it, sigh deeply, and sadly think, "I wish I could go back to school." (The truth is that I wanted to do high school over but that's just not allowed, hahaha).

That's only the start of how sufficiently God has provided for me. Every day, in every area of my life where it's needed and reasonable. How has God blessed you and how do you see that it's actually quite sufficient?

A STORY ABOUT TODAY'S EVENTS

I just had the wildest ride! I was sitting here minding my own business when I heard a vehicle in the driveway. I go to the door and see a Honda SUV and it's making some noise and smoking. The girl yells and asks if she can park it smack in the middle of my driveway. I should have known right then something was wrong.

I told her she couldn't block me in and to roll it into the driveway further and so she did. She shut it off, got out, popped the hood, and steam rolled. I told her she was overheated. She asked for cables and I said, "why, won't it start again?"She said, "nope, if I shut it off it never starts again." Now, I've seen vehicles that are all to hell but it really seemed she shouldn't be on the road in this one. I look under the hood and the housing for the oil dip stick is just a gaping hole and there's oil blown all over the motor housing. I thought, 'what could possibly be so important that you'd go this far in a vehicle like this one?' I can think of only one non-emergency situation, drugs. She was pregnant...I was hoping I was wrong.

She goes around and opens the door and out pops a little puppy, scared and thin. She then lights a cigarette, which I gasped at, even though I'm well aware that ladies smoke during pregnancy...ignorant fools!! She makes a phone call with me standing there and then I ask, "do you need a ride on up the mountain to your destination?" She says, "yes please." She puts the puppy back into the broken down vehicle and reassures me she just needs to go up a short distance and then she'll have achieved her goal and can come back down to the puppy. I drive her up to a house with two running vehicles waiting in the driveway, and many people running around. My first impression? Drug house.

True to her word, she is in and out and claiming to have retrieved a memory card for a camera. I'm sure she's lying, but rather has retrieved drugs...likely pills of some kind. We return to my house and I get the jumper cables out, fill her radiator with water, check her oil but have none to put in for her. She begins turning the motor over and water just blasts out from around the radiator cap. I'm yelling for her to, "Wait....wait...wait!!" but she's cranking it to death. She finally stops turning it over long enough to hear me explain that it's out of oil and we shouldn't continue to try running it for fear of it locking up. That's when she says,"my papaw is gonna kill me, he's just gonna kill me." I got the distinct impression she had done something wrong and it wasn't about the car breaking down.

We begin making plans to get her home as I offer to drive her to her house so she can find someone to retrieve the vehicle but I tell her it shouldn't be driven if she can't determine what's wrong with it. She makes another phone call and whoever she's talking to gets her wrath instead of her humility. She finally barks at the person on the other end of the line, "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO THEN!!" She establishes that she'll meet that person at the store at the base of the mountain and hangs up. She asks to use my restroom but I felt very unsure of letting her into my house. By this time, I'm sure she's not an honest person and is highly likely to be on drugs of some kind, despite the precious life she's carrying in her womb (and the puppy with her, which is still jumping from front seat to back seat of the broke down vehicle).

We come in and I'm thinking, 'she'll just pee and we'll go.' She was in there for so long that I finally came to the door and asked if she needed me to send in a rescue party. She chuckled from behind the door and said, "sorry honey, I'm pregnant and constipated." It was odd because she flushed the toilet twice. I have nothing in that bathroom to steal except perfumed soap and facial moisturizer so if she was pilfering, she was left disappointed. However, my medicine cabinet door was slid open when I went in behind her later. By now, I'm considering calling the police and having her searched for drugs. I'm also worried that perhaps she was shooting up in my bathroom.

We went out to leave and she got the puppy out of the car and slid him into a pillow case, which I handed her because his little feet were muddy. This took her an incredible amount of time. She seemed unable to focus on a task, unable to understand my words, and unable to complete a motion without something sidetracking her. I'm telling her in a rough tone that I have to go (I just wanted rid of her) and get back to my life. It's odd because she felt no indignation at being dismissed by someone nor was she in any way feeling urgency to get out of my life.

I drove her to the store to meet the person she called and they arrived as I did...good! I said my goodbyes, reminded her that my landlord would have the vehicle towed if it was left more than 24 hours on my property and she exited the vehicle with a sideways, "thanks for your help."

I made a bee line for my house and within minutes, she was again knocking on my door! "Can I use your cables again?" I got my jacket and keys and out the door with a sigh I went. I came outside to find an old lady, her hair flying all over the place and a gravely angry voice, yelling at the young lady about pills. She was yelling back, "Shut up mamma " the mother was yelling, "No! I will not shut up, Mariah!" The two were bickering incessantly while hooking the jumper cables from the mother's car to the broke down vehicle, which now had a kindly old gentlemen just sitting in it waiting patiently for the women to do the work. I wondered if he was hen pecked by this abrasive old woman, who took authority over both vehicles as well as both people.

The vehicle roared to life and the old woman started shouting orders, "I'll follow you Don because it's probably gonna break down....Mariah, get in the car and don't touch mine....if you tear my car up...you don't know what you're doing, don't touch those cables or you'll mess up my computer chip..." yackety yack and blahblahblah. I could only think of the unborn child which soon would be born into that family.  

I warned the mother that the vehicle was dry of oil but she wasn't concerned. She turned to me and said, "thanks for your help...she has no driver's license and stole this car out of our driveway knowing it wouldn't go far." I knew immediately that I had taken her to a drug house, for pills most likely.

This whirlwind of a story ends with them leaving in the vehicle as I and my new wolf dog friend (who showed up during the commotion and stayed faithfully at my side) watched them go (with a sigh of relief). I thought of the girl's mother yelling mercilessly at her and thought that her childhood must have been hell with that woman. I said a silent prayer for the baby she's carrying. The child will likely be born with drugs in his/her system and will be just another statistic. 

I did what I could for this young lady but for every second that passed with her in my presence, my level of disgust rose. I was disgusted by her smoking while pregnant, stealing that car from an old man, putting her mother through the hell she was going through, obviously doing drugs while pregnant, and just generally adding to this world's problems.

May we each be a part of the solutions and not a part of the problems! 

JUST WONDERING

Dear Evolution,

If I evolved from an amoeba, then why do I have a conscious? Why would you give me something which causes me to pause before I act? If you gave an alligator a conscious, he would starve to death, same for a lion. They can't feed themselves if they have a conscious. I mean, have you seen how they behave when a baby deer wonders too close to the edge of the pond?

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

Dear Atheist,

If there is no God, then why can I not remain in my sin? If there's no God then what is the thing inside my soul that pulls me away from the things I know are wrong. Why is there no amount of rationalizing or justifying that allows me to comfortably continue down that path of doing wrong? With so many cultures and beliefs around the world, how do I instinctively know what is right and wrong? You say it's a conscious? Well, why would I need that if I'm just a product of an evolutionary process? I mean, if I was an alligator with a conscious, I would starve to death....oh wait...I think I've heard that somewhere before. <shrugs>

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

Dear God,

With all the miracles of nature, all the inner parts of the human psyche and the spark of spirit inside every living being, how could I ever doubt that you exist? If you don't exist, then why do we bother with love? Why don't we just remain in a state of instinctual behavior...feeding and breeding, death and the births that replace those who have died?

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To your right is a documentary I chose out of many that can be found with David Attenborough, one of our world's greatest teachers of the planet and the life on it. This is an awesome video that shows many of the animals that we have here on our "Pale Blue Dot" (an allusion to Carl Sagan and the prior post). The animals that live on this planet each seem to be able to do something that the other species cannot. It's as if each one was deliberately hand made to perform it's specific task and each task has the purpose of keeping the planet clean and free from being over run with either plant species or animal species.

If you like nature programs and you're curious about what's going on in the Himalayas, this video will satisfy your needs. Grab a snack and relax as David Attenborough effectively and somewhat humorously explains the life on our planet in at least one little corner of it. I hope you are able to revel in the design of our greatest artist, our God!