Greetings and welcome!

Joy lives here - we're happy you've come to visit.  (No this isn't me quite yet - but she's a classy lady, yes?)

My original blog was started on a life venture I am no longer traveling.  So, I'm going to retrench, start over and go back in time to catch up!

Here's a post from Martha's Mews, written while I was living in the paradise of Crete (from 2002-2005).  I was working first as a very educated dishwasher for the United States Navy:

Vol. 1, No. 1

May 2003

            I am fast approaching a birthday in November, which will put me the same age my Mama was when she graduated to heaven.  I have already passed the age my Dad was when he graduated.  So, having just passed my son’s graduation anniversary, I am thinking lots about heaven these days. 

          A precious new friend in our home group expressed some consternation about spending all her time in heaven singing – she doesn’t quite think she’s ready for that!  On 24 April, I found these words in one of my devotion books.  If you do not have this in your library and you are a musician or lover of old hymns, I would strongly recommend Be Thou My Vision: Daily inspiration from the Greatest Hymns of All Time by John Fischer.  Fischer uses these words from the hymn “With Christ and All His Shining Train” by Thomas Prince:

                   There glorious services we’ll do;

                        And He’ll unveil His wondrous ways,

                        His love and glories ever show;

                        And filled with joy, we’ll ever praise.

These are Fischer’s words:  “Heaven is going to be a busy place.  But to hear some people talk in traditional terms about heaven is almost enough to make me cancel my reservation.  All that stuff about sitting on clouds and playing harps bores me.  If God has challenged our hearts, minds, souls, and our wills here on earth, why wouldn’t He keep challenging us in at least the same way – if not new ways – in heaven?  Are we not in His image?  Isn’t this image for something?  Is He not preparing us here to rule with Him and serve Him and worship Him in heaven?  Why do we have a tendency to think of heaven as a place where we will be doing nothing – a celestial retirement home? …. Anyone who is busy and fulfilled in serving the Lord naturally will want to keep on doing the same thing in heaven.  God didn’t give us these desires just to burn ourselves out on earth.”

Okay, so with that rummaging around in my mind, I’ve been chewing on this thought about heaven.  God created ANGELS – millions and millions of angels – to sing His praises, to shout “Glory to the Lamb,” and to serve Him.  So, there must have been something else on His mind (I say this VERY sarcastically) when He created His “masterpiece” – man!  It would seem to follow then, that if God intended for His original man to live 1000 years (this is before Noah’s flood days, folks), He had some great discoveries, inventions, creations, and lessons in mind for this man to learn.  And if this life here on earth is but a blip on the screen of eternity, why in the world would we spend such a short time doing these things and then eternity sitting around on clouds strumming harps.  Yuck, does that ever sound BORING to me!

I’m thrilled at the idea of society in heaven.  Of course, pre-heaven, we have 1000 years on the earth where, according to Isaiah, we’re going to be continuing to marry and have babies and raise them to love God.  If we’re going to have resurrected bodies with “no spot or wrinkle,” then it would seem to follow that we will have resurrected MINDS without any forgetfulness – hey, if we get the same minds that Adam had, can you imagine what will happen in that first 1000 years!

Hopefully, I’ve given you something to chew on, too.  As a famous tele-evangelist’s wife always says “Make Your Day Count!”  We have so few of them left!

AHA – you thought I was finished?  Nope – just getting fired up.  Another one of my devotion books is Barbara Johnson’s Boomerang Joy.  Listen to today’s reading:

SPREAD HIS LOVE

How can eating a 2 pound box of candy make you gain FIVE pounds!  It’s one of life’s great mysteries!!!

When John Harrison wakes up each Monday morning, he can’t wait to get to work by seven-thirty a.m.  At age 55, he isn’t opting for early retirement.  Harrison is the official taste tester for Dreyer’s and Edy’s Grand ice creams, in the business fifteen years.  In fact, he created the first batch of cookies’n cream ice cream and works on developing new flavors.   An ice cream lover from way back – his great-grandfather opened 2 parlors in New York – Harrison doesn’t swallow the stuff at work but puts away about a quart a week at home.  “Who’d trust a skinny ice cream taster,” he asks.

Harrison says taste buds (his are insured for a millions dollars!) are at their peak early in the day.  He’ll sample sixty packages of ice cream a day – three hundred a week – concentrating on body and texture as well as the right balance of cream, sweeteners, and flavor.  “Smooth and creamy” is what he is tasting for.

“Smooth and creamy?”  That’s what we all want, isn’t it?  A job like Harrison’s – creative and full of perks.  We want to be valued, to become an expert on everything that’s sweet and flavorful.  Harrison says he never swallows on the job.  Once you get full, he claims, you lose the sharpness for tasting subtle nuances and detecting delicate aromas.

Isn’t this true of life?  The more we stuff ourselves with material pleasures, the less we seem to appreciate life.  Don’t you know people who have it all – everything but joy, that is?  And don’t you know people who have very little, who have suffered financial difficulties, family turmoil, and physical problems, and yet bubble with thankfulness and love?  Those who have had to wait and work for happiness seem to enjoy it more, because they never take it for granted.

Do you taste life, savoring all the fullness of its flavor?  Like Harrison, I wouldn’t mind becoming spiritually chubby if it means I were a living example of someone enjoying the Lord, living off His promises, and bringing the flavor of Jesus Christ to the world.  Of course, I would remember not to swallow too much too fast, always with my mind on the goal:  glory to God and good stuff for others through my work on earth.

We can’t guarantee “smooth and creamy” for ourselves or anybody else.  We can never untangle all the woes in other people’s lives.  We can’t produce miracles overnight.  But we can bring a cup of cool water to a thirsty soul, or a scoop of laughter to a lonely heart.  By being flavorful ourselves, we bring the taste of better things to come so others can take heart.

If only we were aware of the hope generated by living acts of joy and generosity, we might do many more of them.  When we give comfort and relief, remove fears, help carry the burden of someone else, the joy comes back to use as well.

The boomerang power of giving happens in us at the very moment we enter the life of someone else in a positive, life-bringing way.  Our spirit is lifted, our character is made stronger, our own path is straightened.  We become more tolerant and compassionate, flexible and soft.  Rough edges are rubbed off, and we get closer to “smooth and creamy.”  Whenever we do something good for someone else, we are skimming cream from the milk of life.

So go ahead, joke with clerks in ice cream stores and buy an occasional triple-scoop cone for someone next to you in line.  Show enthusiasm for your neighbor’s children.  Tell a family member or friend, “I love you.”  See beauty in an old and haggard face.  Listen to a little child.  Pardon the short-coming of a rude stranger.  Ignore the grumbling of a grumpy spouse.  Find the diamond in the rough.  When things seem hopeless, remember the Bible says “And it came to PASS . . .”  (not “it came to stay”)!

Isaiah 55:12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Heaven is going to be a glorious, wonderful, exciting place!  But let’s not wait till we get there to PRACTICE!!

I have a sign on my front door that says “Sparkle, Shirley.”  It’s said that Shirley Temple’s mom said those words to her before Shirley went for an audition.  Well I am going to change my sign TODAY to “Bubble, Mom.”  These are the words my Tobey says to me on an almost daily basis.  SO, to all of you, I say …

Make THIS day count – Bubble, folks!

MJ