When God Tears Up our Nest

 “All was well with me, but he shattered me.”

—Job 16:12

Once upon a time, there was a colony of ground squirrels in front of our home that appeared when the snow melted in the spring. Carolyn and I would enjoy watching them as they scampered from one hole to another, while others stood like tiny, alert sentries watching for hawks and other predators.

But one day, in mid May, a man from the golf course arrived in a little green tractor with a large tank on the back loaded with lethal gas. Ground squirrels, the groundskeepers told us, dug holes in the fairways and thus had to go. It made us sad to see the truck arrive.

If I could, I would have chased the little animals away, torn up their holes and forced them to settle some other place. I’m sure they would have resented my interference, but my actions would have been solely for their good.

So it is with our Lord: he may break up our comfortable nests from time to time, but behind every change and displacement lies the love and eternal purpose of God. He is not cruel or capricious; He is working for our good—to conform us to the likeness of his son and to give us glorious enjoyment in heaven forever.

Can we then resent change when it comes from one whose love is so sure?

DHR

For the Love of God

“We were born for the Love of God. If we do not find it, it were better for us if we had never been born.” —Justice Hugh Black

There are two kinds of people in the world. There those who aimlessly trip through life with goofy grins on their faces, who, if they think about life at all, are more concerned with what it provides than what it means. I think of friends of mine whose lives revolve around hunting, fishing, sex and six packs and who sincerely believe that the one who accumulates the most toys has won. 

And then there are other friends who spend their entire lives trying to discover what, if anything, life is all about.  They’re the readers and thinkers, the lovers of music, art and wisdom, who take on the ideas of all the ages, examining them from all sides, trying them on for size, jettisoning some, embracing others, in order to find the good, the true and the beautiful—always learning, always searching, always trusting that life someday will reveal it’s long–concealed and exquisite design.

In either case, about age 40 or so, when they’re more in sight of the end of life than it’s beginning, the enterprise becomes senseless. That’s when they get deeply restless and the search for fulfillment through money, power, sex or celebrity no longer suffices.  They get no satisfaction from philosophy or morality, artistic creation or any of the pursuits of the will or ego. That’s when they may realize life’s stupendous simplification: God is what they’re been looking for all their lives. And there he is at the end of every alternative, standing and waiting!

If you’re looking for God, my friend, you will find him. You will find him because he has been looking for you all your life. It is his longing for your love that has drawn you to seek him. “I look for God,” Pascal said. “because he has found me.”

DHR 

In January, Carolyn's 95 year-old mother fell and was taken to the ER. Her condition deteriorated and on Sunday morning January 22, she slipped from our presence into the presence of the Lord. Mother was an extraordinary woman whose life continues to bear fruit. She will be greatly missed, but we do not sorrow as those that have no hope. She is with her Savior whom she loves and whose presence means infinite joy for her. She is "fine," to use the self-assessment she always gave when asked how she was feeling. Her obituary, which Carolyn wrote, can be accessed below.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/idahostatesman/obituary.aspx?n=clara-ellis&pid=155637857

As you can imagine, we've had much to do and no time to write. I hope to continue in a week or so when our schedule settles down to something like normal. 

DHR