As the name of my blog indicates, I spend a lot of time thinking about home. Of course, my Heavenly Home is the one that is eternal, so that’s where I need to lay up my treasures, and that’s the one I’m striving for. But in the meantime, I have been given this tiny piece of the here-and-now—this home on the edge of town, this family, this neighborhood—in which to serve Him. And, though this is in the earthly realm, I want the things that happen here to be investments in the Heavenly realm.




Friday, May 28, 2010

Amazing What You See While Running Errands


Earlier this week we were running some errands in town, and had a bit of time to kill between appointments. Never ones to miss out on an opportunity (insert sheepish grin), we headed to Dunkin Donut for some iced coffee. While sipping my mocha-java deliciousness, I decided that we would take a ride around town and admire some of the older neighborhoods.

I adore older homes in established neighborhoods. Now Ron is totally against living in any neighborhood--he is a rural man all the way. But I grew up in neighborhoods, and can imagine myself living in many of these older homes--ones with interesting architecture or an octagonal window or a wide inviting entryway or masses of shrubbery and flowering plants or windows with many panes of wavy glass. Ahhhh....

As we meandered, several homes begged to be photographed, so we slowed down as we rode by, rolled down the window, focused...and hoped that no one would peer out of those wavy glass panes and report a stalker!


Kati loved the inviting gate opening into the garden,
and named this one The Secret Garden House.




Note the octagonal window. :-)



Love the transom windows, the black door, and the gorgeous wreath!



Wavy windows



Sweeping entry (and another beautiful wreath)



Okay, get ready to change channels. (And, Mom, stop reading! Yes.)

Later, our errands were completed and we were driving home. We were at a stoplight, getting ready to turn onto the highway, when out in the roadin the road, people...on the dual highway!—stood a man! The traffic was stopped at the time, but nevertheless, it is not everyday that you see a man standing in the middle of the highway! He was holding a plastic grocery bag and a long stick. What?!

Sleuths that we are, we quickly deduced his purpose for standing somewhere between life and death. There was a l-o-n-g snake (Kati says it was a kingsnake), also defying death in the middle of the highway. And the man was desperately trying to get said snake into the plastic bag and off of the highway. Oh. My. Goodness. He was poking at the snake with his long stick, trying to encourage it to move toward the median (which the snake did not think was a good idea). Then the man would attempt to lift it onto the stick so he could put it into the plastic bag (another idea that the snake did not like). And then, the light turned green and the traffic began to flow again, while man and snake continued their struggle in the road and large vehicles swerved to avoid running over the man.

In the meantime, I am frozen, still at the intersection, and, despite my total aversion to snakes, I cannot take my eyes off of this terrifying scene! I am wondering what kind of idiot will risk his very life to rescue a snake...and at the same time, I find myself rooting for the idiot! What is wrong with this picture?

After what seemed like hours (while I probably missed a few right-turn-on-red opportunities and frustrated the motorists behind me), my light turned green and I knew I had to proceed. At this moment, the rescuer had managed to wrangle the snake near the median, he himself was on the curb, the snake was dangling from the stick, and it was heading toward (although not without a lot of wriggling) the bag. The girls were able to keep watching a bit longer (as they were not driving), and they think that the snake was eventually bagged.

As I finished the journey home, I thought about this man's act. I certainly would not have risked my life for a snake. And then I thought that what this man did was not so unlike what Christ did for me. I was ugly, not worthy of His favor and mercy...but He gave His life for me.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:6-8

2 comments:

  1. Wow, Cheryl ... now THAT was an outing! As you know, I LOVE photographing houses and windows and doors, etc. So your ride through the Salisbury neighborhood was my cup of tea. I'm very familiar with that feeling of trying to capture a picture of someone's house and hoping they are not calling the police to report a strange stalker. Sigh.

    But wow. Your "adventure" in watching the man and the snake. That is simply amazing. It's a wonder there wasn't a fender bender during that incident. It's the kind of story you will get many laughs over during the years. But yet there was a spiritual lesson in it. I think that we can see Christ in so many, many everyday incidents, if we only open our hearts and SEE. I'm reminded of the hymn "At The Cross", with the older version ... "Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?"
    Thanks so much for sharing this word picture with us. In the future, any time I see a snake (which I hope isn't often), I will be reminded of the man standing in the middle of a busy highway, trying to rescue one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Cheryl,
    I so enjoy riding through old neighborhoods and admiring the old homes, what stories they could tell!! Yours are beautiful too!

    I also enjoyed the snake story, and what a great analogy, so powerful! Great post! Have a great Memorial Day weekend,
    Hugs,
    Sue

    ReplyDelete

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