"Peace" has been a theme lately

This morning a friend sent me an email about a Bible verse on peace and yesterday there was a meme quoting John 14:27--a well known verse on peace--from a fb friend in my feed.

Maybe I am more aware of "peace" as a topic because for the last two weeks I was working on writing a devotional about peace from Jesus's words in John 14:27. I turned in the completed devotional on Saturday. In the evening during a zoom Bible study I was asked to read John 16:33 for part of the study. It is also a key verse on peace which I wrote about in the devotional.

Saturday night I found myself wondering if God might be trying to prepare me for something! In my experience going down that mental path does not lead to peace. So I reigned in those thoughts and made myself think about something else. 

This morning when I got the email about peace I simply felt thankful for the "peace that passes understanding" and chose to think about God's goodness in wanting me to have peace despite the trouble in the country that I keep reading about in the news.

I also decided that if I need that message so much maybe my blog readers would find it helpful if I post the devotional I wrote on peace. So, without further ado, here it is:

Peace

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27 (NIV)

The context of this familiar verse is the night of the crucifixion.* Jesus and the disciples have just finished their last Passover meal together. He is in the middle of telling them many important things to prepare them for what is ahead. 

Just before this verse he assured them that the Holy Spirit whom the Father would send will, ”teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (14:26)

It’s like he is saying, I know I am throwing a lot at you right now and I know you might be starting to feel kind of anxious but don’t worry, the Holy Spirit will remind you later what I said. The main thing I want you to do right now is trust me even if things around you start to look bad. Everything really will be OK. Just trust me. 

He said in verse 27, “My peace I give you.” It was His peace. The same peace that let him sleep in a small boat on a stormy sea. The peace that let him walk on water even when the wind and waves caused the disciples to fear and Peter to sink. It was the peace that he spoke to the wind and waves and they obeyed Him and became calm.* And then later in the evening at the point of his biggest test, it was the peace that let him say “not my will but your will be done” before going to the cross. 

“My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” 

Jesus gave them His peace. It was a gift. He gave it because he loved them. And because he knew they would need it. He wanted to give to them everything of himself that they would need to help them with what lay ahead. 

It wasn’t because they merited it by their stunning performance. That is how the world “gives”--If the world likes us because we perform to their, ever changing, standards then they give us their kind of peace, at least temporarily.

The world’s kind of peace is also all about what is here and now. Google defined peace as, “Freedom from disturbance; tranquility. A state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended.” The world’s idea of peace is that there are no troubles and everything around is tranquil and going the way we want.

Jesus had a different way of thinking. In John 16:33b he said, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” I have sometimes struggled with that verse. My thinking tends to be along the lines of, “Well how does that help me right now? At this moment I am stuck in this trouble and I don’t want to be so please make it stop. Amen.” Like the disciples, I keep hoping that Jesus will hurry up and set up his kingdom on this earth and end all of my suffering. We humans don’t like to wait. At least I don’t. Especially not when I am suffering. That’s normal. It’s human nature. 

But he was giving them a different kind of peace. He wanted them and us to have peace even in the midst of disturbances and trouble. It’s the kind of peace that doesn’t make sense to the world. It is peace that, “passes all understanding.” (Phil. 4:7)  

The rest of John 14:27 says “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Jesus was telling them they had a choice. They could prevent themselves from becoming disquieted and fearful about the future. 

In John 16:33 (the whole verse) Jesus said “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Their peace, and ours, comes from faith in what he has said. That is what having peace “in him” is about. Trusting that even though things look bad now, he is working in and through these troubles and in the end, we will have joy and peace. In John 16:22 he assured them, “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

To have His kind of peace we have to choose to believe what Jesus said and keep thinking about it. Whatever is happening in the world around us we need to “fix our thoughts” on his promises to have “perfect peace” like Isaiah 26:3 talks about. (NLT)

Being aware of what is happening in the world may be necessary sometimes. But constantly thinking about it won’t help us have peace! Like Peter if we spend too long looking at the wind and the waves, we will sink but if we keep our spiritual eyes on Jesus we can “walk on the water” with him. 

Notes:

*To see the whole context read John 13:31-16:33.

**To read these stories about Jesus:  

sleeping in the boat and calming the wind and waves--Mark 4:35-41 (in the King James Version he used the words "Peace be still"); also see Matthew 8:24-27; Luke 8:23-25

walking on the water--Matthew 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52; John 6:16-21 (Mark and John don't mention Peter walking on the water)

Backyard inspiration

Last week I signed up for a photography class on Skillshare.com. I'm taking advantage of a free two month trial of their premium plan to see if I might want to join. The first class I signed up for is called "Nature Photography: Recharge and Enjoy the Outdoors" with instructor, Tabitha Park. It is only 18 minutes of video. So it's not super in-depth. But I enjoyed it.

The class assignment Ms Park said is just to "go outside and have fun with your camera." She suggested an early morning nature walk. But said that any outdoor space that inspires me would do. 

We do have a few flowering plants in our yard and it is obviously close and easy to get to. So I thought I would try that. It is no Edenic paradise though, so I didn't expect much joy, but to my surprise I actually did get inspired before long and took lots of photos. The morning sun looks lovely on the flowers and their were some other interesting sights as you will see.

Since I managed to get outside sooner than the recommended start time of 8:00 a.m. I did another little job first.

I've been having wasps coming into my bathroom and bedroom. One way they are coming in is from the bathroom vent. We're wondering if they have a nest in one or more of the roof vent pipes. I've read that they become active in the morning. So I thought if I could spot which roof vent pipe they fly out of in the morning then we will know if and where their nest is. 

I didn't see any flying out but I did spot two going into what I think is my bathroom's vent pipe. I guess they got up sooner than I did. They didn't come out again while I was watching. That might be enough proof. I don't know what to do about it if there is a nest in the vent pipe. Maybe we need to contact our roofer friend.

Anyway here is one of the wasps arriving at the vent pipe. (This is from a video I shot of it):

After several minutes of watching for wasps, I got down to my photography assignment.

First was the crepe myrtle. The light was still a little dim but with the camera set on Auto I was able to get some pretty shots.  

 

Then I went to the back of the yard where the "roses of Sharon" live. The sun was just peaking over and around the house and some of the blooms were still in shadow.

This busy bee surprised me. Just after I took another photo I glanced back at the flower again and saw it had a visitor! I quickly took this photo. When I tried to refocus for a better shot it was gone. 

Then I started stalking it. That is quite out of character for me, above mentioned wasps not withstanding, I usually run when bees come near me. But now I was hoping the bee would come closer so I could get another shot. I guess it didn't like the look of me though because it mostly stayed further away. It was also very quick. It's amazing how fast it moved. I did manage to get these next two pictures of it on some of the top most flowers.

 

On the way to the lantana in the front yard I stopped again at the crepe myrtle and got this photo of another interesting critter.

And this cute little bud just about to open. (or is it already spent?)

The lantana at the front of the front yard faces east and gets a lot of sun in the morning so the colors were really gorgeous. 

I love the textures and the different shades of green and pink in the above.

I like how some of the blooms on the left look almost like fungi :-). 

I hope you have enjoyed coming on my photography assignment with me. May you also find inspiration where ever your week takes you, even if only to your back yard.

Honeymoon Part 2 - Australia

And finally the Australian portion of my Honeymoon Scrapbook.

After several days in New Zealand (see last post). We flew to Australia to see John's family and friends.

While we were there John also wanted to show me some of the unique sights of Melbourne. One day we took the train into downtown Melbourne. The train arrived at Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street Station on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets. That's the building in the center photo below with the beautiful arch and nine clocks showing the next time of departure of each train line. 

Clockwise from the top left above is John standing by a boat we rode in down the Yarra River which runs through central Melbourne.

Then moving right the glass and steel dome pictured in the top and middle right photos with the balloon and brick tower is inside a mall where we had afternoon tea. I don't remember which mall it was but I do remember having yummy towering tall scones with jam and cream, a giant clock and this view with the tower and the fun toy balloon. The brick tower is a real old (no longer used!) shot tower. They kept it in place and built the mall around it. 

Our first weekend in Australia we had two receptions planned. We rented a tux for John and I wore my wedding dress.

While getting ready for them I had a mishap with John's Mum's iron and burnt a hole in my wedding dress. Eek! Somehow I managed to not fall apart (outwardly anyway) while we scrambled to locate a fabric shop to get something to patch it with. Somehow, even though it was a Friday afternoon and lots of shops were closed then, we found some lovely lace fabric that looked remarkably like the lace on the dress. Thankfully the hole was near the bottom in the center front so I was able to applique a couple of pieces onto that area in a way that covered the hole and looked balanced and almost like they were meant to be there. 

 Here is a zoomed in look at one of the patches at the bottom right front edge of the dress (not the train) taken from the right page below.

The first reception was at John's parents' home for family and close friends.  

John's Mum made the cake part of the beautiful little cake and probably most of the other delicious food we ate. (She also made a larger cake for the church reception the next day.) She had a lady from their church do the icing on both. 

Here is a better view of it. I was delighted to see that it was the rolled kind of icing. It was made with marzipan and maybe fondant or royal icing or something like that. It was rolled out smooth and draped over the cake. I first saw pictures of that kind in magazines when we were planning our wedding. I thought they looked so pretty and posh. (Our American cake had a fluffy butter-cream type of icing in case you are wondering. The bakery we used didn't do rolled icing.)

The cake part of this cake was fruitcake which, John said, was traditional for Australian wedding cakes. That tradition seems to be changing from what I saw online just now. Anyway, it was not like what most Americans think of when they think of fruitcake. It was dark, dense, moist and mostly raisins. It reminds me of where the Beloved, in Song of Songs, says to her Lover "strengthen me with raisin cakes."* 

The second reception was Sunday after the morning church service. 

John's Mum sent me this picture recently from the church reception.

After all the festivities, we took the train to Gippsland in Eastern Victoria to spend a few days with John's brother and his family.

They live out in the country. The critter in the top left photo on the fence railing is, I think, a wild possum. 

They took us to this stunningly beautiful beach, called Ninety Mile Beach, a bit over an hour or so from their home. It was summer there, being in the southern hemisphere the seasons are opposite to here, but it still felt cold to us even on the beach. I love how clean Australian beaches always are. I wish (more) American beaches were like that!

We also had a trip to Healesville Sanctuary that specializes in native Australian wildlife.

 The animals pictured above: Left page l-r top row: unknown little bird--that you have to zoom in to see under the Healesville label, koala, next row: Ibis (?), echidna, next row: me and another lady petting a wallaby, wombat--sleeping on its back; right page top row: kangaroo in the shade, me--trying, unsuccessfully, to hop as far as a kangaroo

Then it was time to say our goodbyes to John's parents and head back to Dallas.

Thanks for coming along on this meander down memory lane! I hope you enjoyed it too.

Note:

*Song of Songs 2:5 (Some versions just say raisins.) I've heard that raisins were a symbol of fertility. So that seems appropriate for a wedding cake! 

Honeymoon Scrapbook - Pandemic Project Part 2

As I shared in my last post I've been making a scrapbook of our wedding and honeymoon. The last post covered the wedding. Now we are on to the honeymoon!

The first stage of our honeymoon was at St Botolph Inn, a beautiful Victorian style bed and breakfast in Weatherford, Texas, not far from Dallas. (Sadly, it is no longer in operation.) But when we were married 24 years ago it was very much there and owned and run by a sweet Christian couple.

We arrived around 10:30 that night. They kindly waited up for us. I finally got to eat something thanks to our friend Jodi who thoughtfully packed some food for us from the wedding.  (See this link for my Google album for higher res versions of all the photos if these are not clear enough.)

The first day there we were surprised and delighted by one of those perfect snows we rarely get in Dallas that is thick enough to make everything look like a wonderland but not too cold and no ice to cause trouble when you want to go somewhere. 

After two nights we headed back to Dallas. We quickly re-packed, picked up the snapshots of the wedding to show John's family that our good friend Tony got developed for us, packed the wedding dress and "hoop skirt" all by themselves in one large suitcase and headed to DFW for our trip "Down Under."

The first stop: Auckland, New Zealand. John wanted us to have a "proper honeymoon" before we went on to Melbourne, Australia to meet his family and friends.

We stayed at "The Garden Room" a bed and breakfast in the nearby suburb of Devonport. One of the highlights was being half a minute from the gorgeous, pristine Cheltenham beach. The first morning due to the time difference we woke up early enough to go for a 6:00 a.m. swim. I still remember the sensations of the deliciously warm water and the soft thick perfectly squidgy sand and the delight of having the place all to ourselves. Then we went back to our room for a shower and a breakfast feast. By the next morning jet lag had caught up with me and I couldn't get out of bed before 10:00 a.m. so I'm glad we made the most of the early wake-up that first morning.

Other highlights were eating dinner one evening at a Lebanese restaurant with a glorious view of the ocean. Their hummus was the best I have ever eaten. I could've made a meal of it.

Kayaking in Devonport harbour was another highlight. Unfortunately, walking around in damp clothes afterwards may be what triggered several months of terrible infections. (My IgA deficiency problem makes me more susceptible to infections. But we didn't know about that then. There were likely other factors too. If you want to know more send me your email address in the comments and I'll write you directly.)

One of the must-see sights near Auckland is the volcanic island of, Rangitoto (left page). We caught a ferry to it. I think we actually climbed to the summit up some stairs that I had a picture of but did not include here. John took this picture of me with the "summit train" because I thought it was cute.
The right page is of our visit to Waitomo caves. The one I remember best was the glowworm cave. We went through it in a boat. It was pitch dark except for the faint green lights emitted by all the tiny little glowworms. It was too dark for us to take any photos. In the above page if you zoom in there is a tiny picture of it in the center of the page that I cut out from a brochure.

After a few days in Devonport, we rented a car and drove south to Rotorua where we stayed for a couple of nights at a small sheep farm. I got to "make friends" with some cute and cuddly lambs. Another highlight there was visiting the fascinating and beautiful Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. We took dozens of photos. It was a challenge to edit them down for the scrapbook.

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland (left and top right). While in Rotorua we also went to a traditional Maori dinner and cultural show (bottom right).

Meeting the cute and cuddly sheep and lambs

Then it was on to Melbourne, Australia. I'll save that for the next blog post.

Wedding scrapbook pandemic project

I did it! I finished my primary "pandemic project" -- a scrapbook of our wedding and honeymoon! (24 1/2 years after the event!)

I started it last year. At first I mainly made progress when I went to my friend Susan's house to work on it. That was before "shelter at home" for Covid 19 began.

Then a few weeks ago I started on it again here at home and have been flying through it ever since. Now I'm done! At least with the wedding and honeymoon portion. Since there are 17 pages left in the book (that is 8.5 sheets) I plan to keep going and add the first year of marriage. I had quite a few photos from that time in another album and various cards and mementos in some files so it was a good way to downsize and consolidate those.

I'm thrilled to have the main part done! I wish I could invite you to come and see it. But since that isn't possible, I'll do the next best thing and show you pictures.

First I got organized:

The album on the right has the professional pictures. The one on the left is full of snapshots. The purple accordion file was where I was keeping the cards and misc. This picture is after I started combining cards with the snapshots to get them into chronological order before beginning the scrapbook

We had two large photo albums and an accordion file full of cards and letters.

The two albums were because John's parents couldn't come to the wedding due to health problems so they paid for us to go see them in Australia after the wedding. We had friends take snapshots of the day, and events leading up to it, with disposable cameras. Then we put those in an album to show John's parents. Later we added our honeymoon photos to the same album. The other album had the professional photos of the wedding that we got later.

There was a lot of overlap between the two photo albums. So I figured with a lot of editing and adding snippets from the cards and other mementos I could make one nice scrapbook. It seemed a great way to downsize it all. It was also a fun way to relive such happy memories!

In process here at home:

I was using our dining table that we recently moved into the living room. (We bought a smaller table for the kitchen.). We moved the big dining table into the living room so we could more easily do puzzles and projects and entertain guests. We did manage to have people over one time before the pandemic hit. Some day we will again. In the meantime it is a great place to scrapbook. 

The finished result:

The complete scrapbook in front. The empty albums and the leftover scraps behind. It is fun to see how much downsizing I did. I do wish the finished album was a little lighter weight though. It feels like I need a wheelbarrow to carry it!

And now the moment you were waiting for ;-). The inside. After putting all the photos in this blog post I discovered that Blogger doesn't give a high enough resolution for you to see much detail. So if you want to see a clearer version follow this link to my Google album:

Celebrating our engagement!

Wedding preparations and more greetings and congratulations.

Bridal shower

Wedding invitation. Bachelor Party on the right.

The Rehearsal and dinner on the Left. Bride and groom's breakfasts on right.

Getting ready. Lots of help from many dear friends!

Our wedding party - waiting for the big event to begin

A special moment with my Mom and brother on the left - And other special people on the right. The lady in turquoise on the right is my Mom's eldest sister, Carolyn. The man in light blue is her husband.

And so it began. The lady pictured coming in at the top left was my dear friend and supervisor, the late Diana Lewis. When people at work asked her if I was her daughter since we had the same last name, she always said she was my "other mother." She was very motherly and a great supervisor.

Bride's maids and Mom coming in. I wish you could hear the music. We were very blessed to have lots of gorgeous music throughout played and sung be several dear friends.

My brother walked me down the isle. John had his eyes closed in this shot of him watching me come down the isle. He said it was because he was crying so much. I was too nervous to cry, unfortunately.

This was our attempt to include an Aussie tradition, the signing of the marriage license. But we apparently didn't do it right because all our Aussie friends who saw the video thought it was the American way of doing it! 

I was planning to put snippets from cards around some of the pictures but in the end I liked the uncluttered look better.

The top two photos on the left are my friends and family from California. The third photo down is our singles pastor and his family who were also John's housemates and long time friends.
On the right page our friend Mike is reading greetings from Australia. He did a good job coming up with funny "messages" from the airline and bed and breakfast too!

I put most of the cards at the end of the honeymoon. After all we didn't actually read any cards until we got back from the honeymoon! This page of cards was primarily people who helped or were in the wedding. I wanted the honeymoon portion to start on the next two page spread.

I think I will stop here and save the honeymoon for next week.