in a fog

Is it Friday yet? I've been waking up the last two mornings in Friday-mode, and each time I would suddenly realize it wasn't Friday, and reluctantly put away the jeans...

I'm feeling sort of hum-drum this evening. It's a perfect day outside and I'm finally wearing capris, but here I sit and blog instead of enjoying the fresh, warm air. Go figure. My tan is even starting to look pretty good - thank you, Jergens! :)

Jeromy has been on work travel this whole week, and except for weekends, the upcoming two weeks as well. Am I basking in the clean house and all the [free] cereal I can eat for dinner? You bet! Yet it is a little melancholy without my Squeeze. I don't sleep as well at night without him. So maybe I feel hum-drum simply because I'm tired. And snuggle-deprived. Yet Jeromy still seems to find amazing ways to fill my love tank over the phone.

I'm looking for a good strawberry recipe. We have a fantastic farmer's market here in the county, and yesterday I picked up some red ripe strawberries, and this little mouse needs to make something out of them before the big hungry bear comes a prowlin'! The problem isn't finding a decent strawberry recipe. That's easy. The problem is choosing just one! I'm leaning towards a strawberry jello cake with chopped berries and a vanilla pudding-Cool Whip topping.

Hmm....maybe I'll have that tomorrow for dinner instead of Honey Bunches of Oats.

You know, I was just thinking. Our society plainly ruins things sometimes! Not that this is the first time I've noticed, but I was reminded this morning, when I started up the Allero in a gloriously dense fog. Literally; although, some mornings that is true in another sense, yet not so glorious.

The Christian radio automatically kicked on with the ignition and the first thing I heard was good ol' Mike Alley giving the latest morning traffic report on the WGTS morning show. Fog. Well, duh. It was more like a "be careful" warning than anything else. But what do I expect? I don't care if it's dry and sunny, that Baltimore/Capitol beltway is always a mess. And thank the Lord I don't have to drive it, regardless of the time of day!

It's not Mike's fault, or the beltway's fault, or the fog's fault, for that matter. Low clouds with limited visibility produces danger on the road. When fog is disregarded it doesn't take much to wind up in an accident.

But...doesn't that just seem like a waste? Why should the traffic report cause us to think negatively and even disgustedly towards such a wonder of God's creation, just becase of the inconvenience?

'Oh great, fog! Now I have to slow down. Now I'm going to be late to work!' Oh, the horror!!!!

This morning, I didn't give in to the highway pressure and drive like an animal just to be granted the utmost employee pleasure of turning on the copier machine. Not that I do that or anything. But I sometimes like to picture what these crazy drivers might be thinking as they weave and race and white-knuckle their steering wheels. An out-of-context phrase from a Daren Streblow bit comes to mind, "I wanna do invantory!!!!"

Who knows what they're really thinking about, but they certainly are not gazing out their windows, marveling at the portrait-like clouded landscape surrounding them, and especially not while worshiping with the Michael O'Brien piano ballad, "Before the Day."

This morning's Southern Maryland fog was just the thing to help me slow down and really take in the morning. I normally do not enjoy my commute. I really wish I used that half hour each way to send up prayers for others and to reflect on God's goodness and grace in my life. I wish I would pull my heart away from the world and myself to enjoy the scenery of the fields, barns, and ponds along they way. Perhaps I'm a little bitter for having to go into work so early instead of finding a good book and a sturdy tree trunk to lean up against during these most serene hours.

But God can still meet me on the freeway, and He proved that today. Something in the fog caused me to remember that "inclement weather" is just a term man came up with. God calls it "beauty". He said it was "good".

I say, it still is.

The song was just a bonus. All the Christian radio stations in the world play the same or other type of clip of some teenager testifying how amazing it is that the "right song seems to play at just the right time"! I always think that is kind of corny, just because every single song on Christian radio is Christ-centered and of course is going to speak to anyone's situation at any given time. Yet this morning I kind of caught a glimpse of what those teens are talking about. Just a simple truth my parched heart desperately needed.



Genesis 1, from "The Message"

1-2 First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don't see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

3-5 God spoke: "Light!"
And light appeared.
God saw that light was good
and separated light from dark.
God named the light Day,
he named the dark Night.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day One.

6-8 God spoke: "Sky! In the middle of the waters;
separate water from water!"
God made sky.
He separated the water under sky
from the water above sky.
And there it was:
he named sky the Heavens;
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Two.

9-10 God spoke: "Separate!
Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one place;
Land, appear!"
And there it was.
God named the land Earth.
He named the pooled water Ocean.
God saw that it was good.

11-13 God spoke: "Earth, green up! Grow all varieties
of seed-bearing plants,
Every sort of fruit-bearing tree."
And there it was.
Earth produced green seed-bearing plants,
all varieties,
And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts.
God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Three.

14-15 God spoke: "Lights! Come out!
Shine in Heaven's sky!
Separate Day from Night.
Mark seasons and days and years,
Lights in Heaven's sky to give light to Earth."
And there it was.

16-19 God made two big lights, the larger
to take charge of Day,
The smaller to be in charge of Night;
and he made the stars.
God placed them in the heavenly sky
to light up Earth
And oversee Day and Night,
to separate light and dark.
God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Four.

20-23 God spoke: "Swarm, Ocean, with fish and all sea life!
Birds, fly through the sky over Earth!"
God created the huge whales,
all the swarm of life in the waters,
And every kind and species of flying birds.
God saw that it was good.
God blessed them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Ocean!
Birds, reproduce on Earth!"
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Five.

24-25 God spoke: "Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind:
cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds."
And there it was:
wild animals of every kind,
Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug.
God saw that it was good.

26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God's nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
"Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

29-30 Then God said, "I've given you
every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
given them to you for food.
To all animals and all birds,
everything that moves and breathes,
I give whatever grows out of the ground for food."
And there it was.

31 God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Six.

1 Heaven and Earth were finished, down to the last detail.

2-4 By the seventh day
God had finished his work.
On the seventh day
he rested from all his work.
God blessed the seventh day.
He made it a Holy Day
Because on that day he rested from his work,
all the creating God had done.

This is the story of how it all started,
of Heaven and Earth when they were created.