Double Rainbows

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.

The Shaking

 

Several years ago cracks developed in our walls and at the doorways and windows, and in the exterior brick. To preserve the value of our home, we called a company that repairs foundations and after a hefty amount of money was exchanged, our home was fitted with 14 piers, buried in the earth at certain places around the perimeter of the house.

These piers were screwed into the ground until they hit bedrock, about 14 feet down and they now hold our house level, which is guaranteed as long as the house stands.

The workers dug up my plants and shrubs all around the house, dug holes as deep as a man is tall, to place the piers. They were to replace the shrubs just as they found them, but one hibiscus disappeared, one or two shrubs were planted too close to foundation, and a couple were almost sticking out of the dirt. I was so glad to have that job finished, I let it go.

Our world is going through a shaking. The sandy foundations that we have built upon have allowed cracks to develop in our walls. It isn’t just the natural world, which is experiencing earthquakes; or the financial world where the solid companies of our past have fallen; or the political world where changes are happening. There are also major changes in the religious world.

It would be really easy to be shaken in our faith. Maybe you have been planted in a different spot and it is uncomfortable. Maybe your roots are sticking out. Maybe some of you have been lost in the re-planting. Wherever you are, you must not dry up and die. You must dig your roots back into the soil, even if it isn’t the place where you previously were planted. If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you belong to the kingdom of God that cannot be shaken.

Hebrews 12:28 says, “Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably, with reverence and awe.”

You must drill down to the bedrock, to the Rock of Ages, the solid Rock of Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

My Chevrolets

 

 

My first car was a 1953 Chevy, which had been parked out in a pasture, with chickens roosting in it and hay stored in the trunk. My uncle paid $15 for it in 1965 and I drove it for about 18 months until it threw a rod.

My next Chevy was a 1957 Chevy that I got by default when I married a man. I loved that car. He built a hotrod out of it, but later traded the body for a paint job on his ’66 Chevy El Camino.

In 1976, when I was getting a divorce, I asked Mom to pray that I could get a new car, since my old one was worn out.

 I visited Bixby Chevrolet with my brother-in-law and told the salesman—”Chevy Malibu, 4-door, 6 cylinder, air and automatic, power steering and brakes.” He asked, “Do you care what color?” Then he showed me a pea-green Malibu with 10,000 miles.  Four or five of us family members drove that car until it quit.

Some years later, when we had to have it hauled off, I asked my husband to get the Malibu and Chevrolet symbols to save. I loved that car.

I used to tell my kids when I got them raised, I was going to buy a 1957 Chevy, but when it came right down to time to buy, I got my current vehicle, a 2000 Chevy Tahoe, bright red, black running boards, and chrome. I love this car. My husband says, one of my biggest problems in life is that I get too emotionally attached to my vehicles.

I believe God wants His children to have the things which we need in life, and I have sure needed cars all these years.

In Luke 19 the story is told of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we celebrate on Palm Sunday. He sent his disciples into Bethany to find a colt, saying, “Loose it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you,’why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’”

“Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” Matt. 6:8

Jesus needed a donkey but I needed a Chevrolet.

Abounding Love

 

 

Someone told a friend of mine, “Lavon is the same old girl on Monday morning as she is on Sunday.” What a compliment. I have been accused of being a put-on. You know, I run around acting silly, greeting and kissing everyone.

 But one time I was having a pity party. “Father, I am always the one who says hello first, who hugs first, who wants to have a conversation. Just once, I wish someone would come looking for me and want to know how I am and want a hug. I am tired of always being the greeter.”

God replied, “You think this loving personality is just you, and, yes, I made you that way, but do you remember? You prayed ‘God, love people through me. Help me love everyone, even the unlovable person.'” God said, “I have answered your prayer.”

That Sunday, Donna Young came up to me as I walked through the front door of the church and hugged me first. “You just look like you need a hug this morning.”

Sometimes when I look at a person, love wells up inside me, like when you hold a precious newborn baby. You smile into that sweet face, and hold her in your arms, and love overflows out of your heart.

Phil 1:9 says, “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more.”Father God, draw your people together with cords of love that cannot be broken. Let us love the unlovable, the sinner, the unsaved person. Let us love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Let nothing ever come between us to separate us from each other.

Father, I pray this prayer for everyone who would be reading this. I pray that their love may abound yet more and more. Even when we are not in the same physical church on earth, remind us that we are all members of the church of Jesus Christ our Lord, along with those church members who have gone on to the church in heaven or those who have gone to another physical church on earth.

Bind us together in love. Amen.

The Fruit of My Ground

 

 

My 7-year-old grandson and I planted lettuce and spinach seed last week in 2 whiskey barrels and some big pots and we were so proud of ourselves. Then a friend told me I was already 2 weeks behind. Lettuce should have been planted in February.

At our other house, we “farmed.” My husband always plowed up half of the backyard for the garden and we planted at least a flat of tomatoes. For those of you who don’t know, a flat of tomatoes is about 36 tomato plants. We had tomatoes to give away and lots left over to can. Oh, and squash. We had so much squash that we couldn’t give it all away.

I read a joke once about a small town, where everyone locked their car doors, not to keep them from getting stolen, but to keep someone from filling up the backseat with squash.

A lady friend from church came to visit one day and I loaded her up with squash, something she didn’t grow in her garden. She said “I just pray that God will just bless you back abundantly for what you have given me.”

I said, “Oh, no, not more squash.” That week the squash bugs moved in and killed my plants almost overnight.

My mouth determined my destiny. I got what I said, “not more squash.” It opened the door to allow the “devourer” to come in and destroy my crop of squash.

In Malachi 3:11 God says, “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground.”

And the reason He will rebuke the devourer? Malachi 3:10 says, “‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may food in My house, and try Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.’”

This year, I will talk to my plants and tell them that God has blessed the fruit of my ground and rebuked the devourer, but I am not planning to plant squash this year.

All About Jesus

 

 

 My grandson and I painted ceramics this week. We painted a decorated Easter egg, two little ceramic Easter baskets, and an Easter egg with a chick sticking his head out. Engraved on the egg were the words “Just out” which my grandson colored different colors.

I dug out my Easter decorations—candle Easter eggs, fake green grass and all the little dollar figurines I bought last year, depicting rabbit mothers pushing rabbit babies in carriages, rocking rabbit babies in cradles, around decorated houses and toadstools.

When I was a kid, we melted dye tablets in cups of water, then dipped our boiled eggs in them. Sometimes we used a candle to draw on our eggs so that after they were dipped in dye, they had swirls on them.

We hunted Easter eggs in our house the whole week before Easter, hiding them in behind the books or under the bed.

Then on Easter after church, we hunted eggs with the rest of our Sunday School classes. We carried our Easter baskets to collect chocolate eggs and marshmallow chicks and bunnies. We wore our best dresses and new shiny shoes to church.

We raised chickens so we knew about the chicks pecking their way out of the eggshell. We held baby chickens, but then we had to let them grow up and not be our pets anymore. We saw rabbits around our backyard, in the garden, and on the farm, but we didn’t really raise rabbits as pets..

We learned songs at school about Easter.  “Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail” (written by Gene Autry, by the way) but we knew that Easter was not about the Easter bunny.

Come Easter Sunday morning, we heard again the story of how Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried in a garden tomb, but the stone was rolled away by an angel and Christ arose.

And then we sang, “Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes, He arose a Victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign, He arose, He arose, Hallelujah, Christ arose.”

Easter is always all about Jesus Christ and His resurrection; the rest is just fun for the kids.