A Christian devotional from a woman's point of view
Hors d’ouevres
Olives, bread with dipping olive oil & spices, grapes
Entreè
Quail & Fish
seasoned with Sea of Galilee sea salt
Red lentils
Manna
Five loaves of bread
Dessert
Milk & honey custard, honeycomb, curds & whey
Drinks
Grape juice, sparkling water, fresh water turned into wine
New wine in new wineskins
Final course
Figs, dates, pomegranates, sharp cheese with unleavened crackers
When I was small, I thought the 4th of July fireworks celebration was just for my birthday.
Our cousins from Wichita frequently came in, as well as the California cousins, Grandma and Poppie Swift, and our aunts and uncles from northeast Oklahoma. The reunion was usually at our house.
The meals were usually the same—fried chicken, corn on the cob, fried potatoes, cornbread and brown beans, green beans, watermelon and cantaloupe. For dessert, Mom always made blackberry cobbler for my birthday.
I always ate as much corn on the cob, watermelon, cantaloupe, and blackberry cobbler as I could hold and ate the leftovers for supper. Mom cooked the other things during the rest of the year.
What does “birthday” mean to you? A decorated 3-layer white cake with candles? A pumpkin pie? Cinnamon rolls?
I have often wondered just what will be served at the marriage supper of the Lamb, who is Jesus Christ, spoken of in Revelation 19:9NKJV, “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
The night before He was crucified, Jesus served His disciples bread and wine, so at the very least the marriage supper will include those.
Will we have manna like the Israelites ate in the wilderness? Quail, which God sent the Israelites when they complained about the manna? And milk-and-honey custard? Giant clusters of grapes like the spies brought back from the Promised Land? Olives and olive oil from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem?
Oh, and Jesus always served fish. He fed 5000 men with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, as well as cooking fish for Peter on the shore of Galilee after His resurrection. Maybe we will have some filet of crappie, the finest freshwater fish there is.
What a menu! What a party! The Swifts and Hightowers will all be together again, and so will your family. Jesus is planning the menu now and it will include all our favorites, the tables are being prepared, and we will all sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The best part will be seeing our own dear Jesus Christ face to face in all His glory.
A friend of mine gave me a book on writing memoirs and strongly encouraged me to do so. I have set a goal of writing 500 words a day for a while to see what I can come up with.
I was thinking of slanting my memoirs to talk about Vinita, Ok. A small-town girl’s memories of life in Mid-Century Oklahoma.
What do you think?
My younger sister and I are less than two years apart in age, so we were like twins as we grew up. We didn’t look alike or act alike, but we were always together.
In fact, we really were very different. I was the leader, she was the follower; I was aggressive and she was passive; I was talkative and she was quiet; I was bold and she was shy. (This isn’t completely true now.)
She and I had the same best friend–our next-door neighbor girl Velta who was between us in age. We were quite a three-some. We did everything together. We sang together as a trio in church. We became the triplets, always together. We added a lot of other friends to our original gang through high school, but we three girls were the core group.
We all loved each other, but we had our spats too. We frequently didn’t see eye-to-eye on things. Sometimes two of the three of us would agree and force the other one to either go along with us or leave us alone.
It is hard to get three kids to get along together. Two can do pretty well. But when you add the third person into the equation, things get mixed up. But we still love each other to this day. My sister and I live in the same town now, but Velta is in Florida. She comes home to visit occasionally, and we have found there is still a bond there and always will be.
If you can get three people in unity with each other, there is not much they cannot do. Jesus said, “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matt 18:19 KJV.
In Ecclesiastes 4:12, the Bible says, “A three-fold cord cannot be easily broken.” O.T. Amplified.
Find yourself two friends you can agree with and pray together. God will move heaven and earth to answer those prayers.
In honor of Father’s Day, here are ten things I admire about my daddy and wish I had told him before he moved to heaven.
1. I admire his work ethic. Dad was a hard worker. He started working early in life, going to CCC camp which was Civil Conservation Camp during the Great Depression that President F.D. Roosevelt started to conserve natural resources and put unemployed young men to work. When he retired, he was a union machinist for the railroad. After he retired, he bought old houses and fixed them up to rent out.
2. I admire his great thirst for knowledge. Daddy was a voracious reader, a self-taught man. Dad only went through the fifth grade but because of his natural intelligence and desire to learn about everything, he could have had a master’s degree in college if he’d had the chance.
3. I admire his ability to talk on any subject. He read about every subject and remembered everything he read.
4. I admire his strong opinionated personality. Okay, I didn’t always agree with him. In fact, we frequently disagreed, but I admire his backbone, that he stood up for what he believed in without backing down.
5. I admire his dedication to his mother.
6. I admire his courage. He worked in the railroad “roundhouse” in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, in the slum area, but he was not afraid.
7. I admire his service to his country during World War II and Korean War. The Army shaped his life.
8. I admire his mechanical ability. Daddy could fix anything.
9. I admire Dad’s looks. He was a handsome man and we kids inherited the best of him and mother both.
10. I admire his heart for God. His mother was a Full-Gospel preacher and his dad was right by her side singing with her. Daddy gave his heart to the Lord early but was hurt by people in the church so he was never a church member, but he spent his whole life seeking God, researching religions, and finally returned to the God of his youth.
Ephesians 6:2-3, “‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise, ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’”
Lavon (Hightower—my maiden name) Lewis
Coming home from Lawton a while back, I ran through a thunderstorm on the Turner Turnpike. It was nearly eight p.m. and, as I neared the end of the turnpike, I had to pull over to the side of the road because I was so overwhelmed.
There over Tulsa was the most incredible sight—two complete rainbows in the eastern sky. I stood in the sprinkling rain, on the side of the road, cars whipping past me, and cried for joy at the awesome sight.
I thought of the awe and reverence that must have filled Noah’s heart as he saw the world’s first rainbow in the sky…a sign from God, a promise to the world that it would never again be destroyed by flood. Think of the joy Noah felt as he stood on the mountain surrounded by his family, having just been saved from the greatest disaster the world had ever experienced.
As I wept with joy over this beautiful sight, two full rainbows one inside the other, I thought of the storm I had just driven through. On the east side of Tulsa, that storm was still going on. From the back side of the rainbow, facing west, all that could be seen was darkness, rain, storm clouds. But from where I stood facing east, the setting sun shone on those same crystal raindrops, causing this dramatic sign of God’s love.
It was all a matter of my point of view. No one wants storms, just so we can have a rainbow, but it is a fact of nature that the only way a rainbow is formed is by sun shining on drops of rain. There is no rainbow without the rain.
Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Somehow the sight of the rainbows made the drive through the storm worth it all.