Wednesday Without Words

The Delights of a Good Book

A good book is a delightful thing, indeed: excellent company and teaching in every circumstance. I am grateful for such a gift!

I am continuing my march through Scripture via the ESV daily bible audio, and have almost completed 2 Chronicles and the gospel of John. Listening to God's Word in these big chunks has been a blessing, and a change of pace for me. Add in some New Testament epistles reading each day (currently 2 Timothy), and a dose of Spurgeon's Morning and Evening every night, and my defenses against the wiles of the devil are rather set. I am also chipping away at Piper/Taylor's Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. Excellent reminders there, even taken in little doses like I am doing presently.

I have just started listening to the audio version of G. K. Chesteron's The Man Who Was Thursday. It is delightful right from the outset, with Chesterton's delightful playfulness with words and delicious irony. And in these days when concentrating and focusing are not my strengths, I am enjoying this audio version exceedingly!

I just completed my first Agatha Christie in some time. I picked it up because I needed something light an fluffy, and it was. Not my favorite Christie book, Elephants Can Remember is a sort of "cold case" for Hercule Poirot, and I must admit, it is one of the only Christie books whose mysteries I solved about half-way through the book (hence, not my favorite--no twists to throw me, and seemed too obvious even to me with half my brain dead on vicodin....)

Technically, I still have a couple heavy-duty books underway (Writer's Workshop and Climbing Parnassus) but I doubt I'll get much done there for a while...I simply have no brain power for it.

As delightful as Chesterton, however, is Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers. This is a reread, of course, but that allows me to read in a leisurely way and lay it aside easily for a snooze. Sayers' banter and erudite references are such fun, though the untranslated Latin and French can be a bother!

Reading is a great blessing. What a lovely way to recuperate!

Waiting for rain

This morning it's cool and raining. That is a rare treat in the desert Southwest in June!

Last weekend, Dave and I walked the rim trail, from our house, along the edge of White Rock Canyon. (See at right, just one of the spectacular views). It had rained the week before, and there were suddenly a myriad of wildflowers springing up from the sand and rocks. It is hard to believe little seeds could lay dormant in that barren place, just waiting for a few drops of moisture to produce something of great beauty.

That is somehow a picture of the eloquent way God speaks into our lives and the world, isn't it? In barren soil, there is treasure hidden, just waiting for the rain from heaven to call it to life. In the barren soil of my heart, I wait for the rain of the Holy Spirit to produce something beautiful.

As I enter my second surgery in a month this morning, I am waiting. Waiting for that beautiful thing that the Lord is producing in me, which cannot be seen right now, but it is there. And once it is given the right moisture from heaven, suddenly we will gasp at the beauty God has hidden beneath the ugly surface. May my life be soil in the hands of the Creator, to call forth from it all that He wishes, all that is beautiful and best. In Him I determine to lay fallow and at peace until His rains come.