When I attempted, a few minutes ago, to describe our spiritual longings, I was omitting one of their most curious characteristics. We usually notice it just as the moment of vision dies away, as the music ends or as the landscape loses the celestial light. … For a few minutes we have had the illusion of belonging to that world. Now we wake to find that it is no such thing. We have been mere spectators. Beauty has smiled, but not to welcome us; her face was turned in our direction, but not to see us. -CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Expanding on my recent post, consider the creation. In our yards, countless worms burrow every morning. Bugs fly around. Birds seek food. Perennials drop their leaves to hunker down for a long winter. All of it happens whether I exist or not. It happens whether I feel good or ill. No government program can stop it.

The world goes to work on Monday morning– without calling me first. My wife and family do countless things throughout the day that I never hear of. Our cat jumps on our table when we’re not in the room (she’s too dumb to know that the fur gives it away).

The point: none of it has anything to do with me. Or you. We’re not even in control of our own lives. All around us, economies rise and fall, elections and layoffs happen, people die, etc. Even in the things where it seems we are masters of our destiny, like where we work, upon a little reflection it turns out that our control is an illusion.

It’s all about Him. And when He returns, when the King comes, everything will vanish before His throne. The loftiest sports stars and politicians and nations will be as nothing– how could they ever have been a big deal? All will be clear. The eyes of all creation, which often seems robotic and yet waits with longing (Rom 8:17), will be on its Maker.

If we believe this, maybe it should inform how we live now.

Wow. I don’t remember our high school choir sounding quite like this. Quite a story, too.

How can I tell of the rest of creation, with all its beauty and utility, which the divine goodness has given to man to please his eye and serve his purposes, condemned though he is, and hurled into these labors and miseries? Shall I speak of the manifold and various loveliness of sky, and earth, and sea; of the plentiful supply and wonderful qualities of the light; of sun, moon, and stars; of the shade of trees; of the colors and perfume of flowers; of the multitude of birds, all differing in plumage and in song; of the variety of animals, of which the smallest in size are often the most wonderful,— the works of ants and bees astonishing us more than the huge bodies of whales? ; Shall I speak of the sea, which itself is so grand a spectacle, when it arrays itself as it were in vestures of various colors, now running through every shade of green, and again becoming purple or blue … How grateful is the alternation of day and night! how pleasant the breezes that cool the air! how abundant the supply of clothing furnished us by trees and animals! ; Who can enumerate all the blessings we enjoy? If I were to attempt to detail and unfold only these few which I have indicated in the mass, such an enumeration would fill a volume. And all these are but the solace of the wretched and condemned, not the rewards of the blessed. ; What then shall these rewards be, if such be the blessings of a condemned state? What will He give to those whom He has predestined to life, who has given such things even to those whom He has predestined to death? What blessings will He in the blessed life shower upon those for whom, even in this state of misery, He has been willing that His only-begotten Son should endure such sufferings even to death? Thus the apostle reasons concerning those who are predestined to that kingdom: ; He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also give us all things? (Romans 8:32) When this promise is fulfilled, what shall we be? What blessings shall we receive in that kingdom, since already we have received as the pledge of them Christ’s dying? In what condition shall the spirit of man be, when it has no longer any vice at all; when it neither yields to any, nor is in bondage to any, nor has to make war against any, but is perfected, and enjoys undisturbed peace with itself? Shall it not then know all things with certainty, and without any labor or error, when unhindered and joyfully it drinks the wisdom of God at the fountain-head? -Augustine, City of God, XXII

As we age, God shows us more how we are, in the end, unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10). As Lewis said, “All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you; I’ve never had a selfless thought since I was born.” Any godliness noticed by others in widescreen pales when we consider our minute-by-minute lives. We don’t need a microscope to see our countless, faithless thoughts, words, and deeds. Therefore, a hearty “Amen” to this observation by R.C. Sproul. Consider it.

In one respect, Christ’s sinlessness is more astonishing than his resurrection. Other people have come back from the dead, but no other person has lived a sinless life. His perfect life is amazing because no one of us has ever loved the Lord with all of his mind, heart, and strength. … Can you imagine someone living every minute of his entire life loving God with an undiluted, perfect affection, whose whole mind is devoted to the Father, who has no other desire than to obey the Father’s will? That is more difficult for me to comprehend than that Jesus came out of the grave. -from Truths We Confess

Even mushy evangelicals aren’t enamored of feminist harpies. You know, the wild hairs who march around with coat hangers. But I find “Christian egalitarians” far more offensive. They deny things that no one seriously denied for two thousand years. They speak in measured tones about “mutual submission” and “creating opportunities for women” while reading their TNIVs and denying the authority of Scripture. That’s really what the whole debate about feminism, just like the debate about homosexuality, comes down to: denying that the Holy Spirit has come along as intellectually and morally far as us moderns.

That said, Gene Veith notes that it’s easy, given necessary wars against egalitarian heresies, to see passages like Ephesians 5:22 solely as dealing with authority and yet missing the point that the whole purpose of vocation, including marriage, is to love and serve one’s neighbor, and the husband is to take the lead in establishing it:

If marriage mirrors the relationship between Christ and the church, with the husband in Christ’s role, then the husband ought first to give himself up for his wife, whereupon in response the wife, playing the part of the church, will respond by submitting to his good intentions for her. -God at Work, p. 81-82

When we went through marriage counseling last century, my pastor at the time pointedly remarked how ridiculous it was to see women driving men around town. He imitated a guy sitting like a lump in the front seat, with the lady doing the work and leading the way. I think that remark came on a day when my wife-to-be drove me to the church. Now I drive most of the time.

Another area where I have come to find a cheap and fresh joy is in seating my wife in the car before I get in. It seemed unnatural at first, but now I get such as pleasure from it that I can barely bear to not do it. It’s too enjoyable to miss. Similarly, it’s fun to let my wife off at the front door of a restaurant while I go park and trudge through the snow or rain. Does she appreciate it? You bet she does. My love and service is lacking in many other areas, but these minor victories are a small picture of Christ’s joyful service for us. As John Piper is fond of pointing out, Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2).

Back in the early 90s heyday of Windows 3.x, someone created a funny little program called Tiny Elvis. From time to time, a little Elvis Presley figure would arouse from slumber at the bottom of your desktop and say things like “hey man, check out that cursor… that thing is huuuge!”

That came to mind when reading Ephesians 3:14-21 recently:

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

What strikes me about this prayer is how massively big it is. It sounds too grand to pray that those we know would be filled with “all the fullness of God.” That’s full. And yet Paul goes on to say that our Lord is able to “do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” So my advice would be: go for it. Pray big prayers.

My sister-in-law went to be with the Lord yesterday morning. In any Christian home where death comes, it is supremely painful to see the suffering and the wailing, and yet also a soul-expanding joy to see compassion, hearts filled with grace and tenderness, and a quiet hope. These are things we see through suffering. Perhaps it is for this reason the Preacher says in Ecclesiastes 7:

A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

I’ve posted this quote from Lewis before, but it is so true:

The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us, but joy, pleasure, and merriment He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in the world and [pose] an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.

Many of our prayers are not answered because they are things that God has not promised to answer (like when I prayed that the Indians would finally win the World Series). But what does God promise we can pray with total confidence: that all things work together for good for his children (Rom 8:28), that our light and momentary afflictions prepare believers for an eternal weight of glory, and that the dead will live again (1 Thess 4:13-17). There are a hundred others. Think on these things (Phil 4:4-8) and rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory (1 Peter 1:8).

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. -Colossians 3:1-4

If our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, then shouldn’t that be modeled in our prayers? In group intercession times, I’m struck by how prayer requests are almost always for individual, temporal concerns.

There’s nothing wrong with praying for Bob’s hip, traveling mercies for Mildred, Earl’s adjustment to college life, or that second-cousin Bobby would grow up big and strong. However, instead of prayer laundry lists befitting a pagan, how about God-centered and distinctly Christian prayers? These are brief and lacking examples, but they seem closer to the things that preoccupied the apostles: that our denomination would be shielded from false teachers, that our congregation would be knit together in love, that we be given greater measures of grace to bear fruit, that we we come to recognize our sin and more greatly appreciate the righteousness and mercy of Christ, that we would boldly declare and glorify Christ before a perishing world, that we would know what it is to “rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8), etc. Some of these may seem general, but (a) the church can always use more “we” and (b) it can easily be adapted to specific circumstances. For example, when praying for Bob’s hip, we might pray that he would know that his momentary afflictions are preparing him for an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor 4:17). Or we might pray that God’s grace in helping him cope would be a lasting witness to unbelievers.

Revelation is designed not only to assure us of God’s final purposes, but also to increase our longing for him and the realization of his purpose. The sureness of that final bliss comforts the saints during times of temptation and persecution. It purifies our desires by directing them to God and his glory. And then the tawdry counterfeits of this world are seen to be what they are. We have eyes to see the beauties and joys of this creation as pointers to God and his goodness (Acts 14:17), rather than foolishly perverting created things into idols (Rom. 1:18-23). -Vern Poythress, The Returning King, p. 193.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! -Rev 7:9-10

Every day people — immortal souls — come in and out of our lives, all in one of two classes: believers and unbelievers, wheat and chaff, sheep and goats, circumcised hearts and uncircumcised hearts. Some move away and we muse on whether we will ever see them again. We hope and pray they will join us in that vast throng pictured in Revelation 7 (and repent that we weren’t a better witness). All on this tiny globe hurtling through infinite space.

It’s far too vast to contemplate. Eventually one ends up back in the same spot:

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. -Psalm 131:1

I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. -Is. 42:16

I dread things, especially stuff at work. “Oh no, something unfamiliar is coming up this week; failure awaits!” You vainly search a barren desert for a rock to hide behind, but cannot find even a pebble.

Calvin Coolidge’s famous quote is certainly true: “If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.” But it is not encouraging. What if the thing you dread is the 1 in 10?

What is encouraging are the promises made to believers, so beautifully stated by Cowper in “God Moves in a Mysterious Way:”

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

…

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. -narrator in Fellowship of the Ring

Another July 4 has gone by, one where once again we drank in large gulps the blessing of family, wishing time would stand still. To paraphrase Lewis, it was a very pleasant inn.

As often happens, a small comment captured me: my oldest sister was shocked to learn that there was once a Kroger grocery in our hometown. She never knew that until tonight.

How much knowledge is lost with every passing soul; how quickly it fades away! My great grandfather fought in the Civil War; today we know little of him. My aunt, frail and in her 90s, remembers sitting upon his knee as a small child. That is most of what I know of him.

I can ask my mom what life was like growing up in the 1930s. She has presented many small slices. Some are even in writing or on tape. However, the intricacies of family life and the farm are lost except for perhaps a few anecdotes that will be repeated to the next generation. A generation or two after that, even that will likely be gone.

Look about you now. Think of your family, of your town, of your life. Most of what you see and know will be lost to the ages in 50 years. In 100 years, our children’s children will perhaps wonder what we all used to talk about, what life was like for us, what we were like. I’m doing little more than restating Ecclesiastes, but how few are our years.

I do not think history is lost. God knows it, after all. It seems not too speculative to say that heaven will be rich with history.

When the waters saw you, O God,when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled. -Psalm 77:16

even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. -Psalm 139:12

You never quite know what’s going to come in from the deep when you snorkel in the ocean. I’ve been surprised by sea turtles, grouper, barracuda, and small jellyfish (sadly, no reef sharks!). I remember floating once over a shallow shelf being startled to see an eel lurking out of a hole about a foot under my stomach. There was no room to paddle, so floating was the only option; it seemed to take forever to steer clear as I watched the little fellow ominously grinning the way eels do.

Once I joined a night manta dive in Hawaii. Never having learned to scuba, I snorkeled alone while the divers went to the bottom. They shot floodlights from there. From the dark, silent waters, huge mantas eerily wandered into the lit areas. Some majestically glided a few feet beneath where I floated.

I eventually became more interested in looking away from the rays, the boats, and the shoreline, and out into the murky blackness all around. The water was lapping about me. I thought about what lurks out there. Was a hammerhead sizing me up? I looked down and was startled to not see the lights any longer. The divers had gone back to the ship and I was alone! For a brief moment the terror of the deep hit me. How horrible it’d be to be left floating in the vast ocean alone at night! I can’t describe it, but I’ll never forget it.

To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, our God is not a tame lion.

Last weekend presented a nice opportunity: clear skies and a new moon (well, close enough). And so the telescope and I visited my boyhood back yard, well away from the city.

It may be an urban legend, but I read once where a power outage occurred in a city and many residents reported seeing UFOs and other strange sights in the sky. It turns out that they were just seeing the stars and the Milky Way. Much can be said for urban conveniences, but it’s really a shame that many never get to see the stars in their glory. In rural areas, light pollution — the combined result of security lights, all-night gas stations, etc. — is increasingly a problem. The back yard isn’t what it once was, and that is a sad thing.

In any event, as we sit in our houses reading, conversing, watching a ball game, or sleeping, the heavens silently declare God’s glory. Observing the lovely M3 last Friday, it struck me that this thing is there every day and night, waiting for all to look upon its glory. It’s a half a million stars, 34 thousand light years away from the earth. Not far away in the sky is M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. It looks like a smudgy blob in my telescope. It’s not like the pictures, but still, but there it is, countless numbers (trillions?) of stars forming a galaxy 30+ million light years from our own galaxy.

M3 and M51 are two glorious, mind-boggling profusions of splendor amid trillions in God’s great universe.

If you get a chance, go out around the time of the next new moon and see the heavens. Take along a planisphere and some binoculars and just sweep along the Milky Way. Enjoy God through His creation.

There are wise and kind words here not only for a pastor, but for all of us with elderly parents and relatives.

The benediction that we pronounce today with hands uplifted is a symbolic expression of the minister touching his people… Jesus understood the importance of touching those to whom He ministered. Very often, when He healed people, He touched them. We see a beautiful example of this in Matthew 8… Jesus not only healed the leper, He touched the man. Jesus ministered to his physical need and also to his need for human contact. People today need that touch. That’s why an important moment in church on Sunday morning is when the pastor interacts with the worshipers as they depart. I tell my students in the seminary that there’s an art to greeting people at the door after the church service. It’s vitally important for the pastor to extend his hand and at least offer to shake hands with every person who comes by. Some will walk right by, but the vast majority of people want to stop and shake the pastor’s hand. If that person is an elderly man or woman, and especially if it is an elderly widow, the pastor should never, ever shake with one hand. He must take that lady’s hand in both of his hands. Why? It is because she needs that special touch, because she experiences loneliness. In giving her that tender, loving touch, the pastor is being Christ to the people, giving the Master’s touch in His name to people who are afraid, or who are lonely, or who are hurting. People want to be touched, not in an evil sense, but in a tender and merciful sense, in a human sense. -R.C. Sproul, A Taste of Heaven, p.165-66

But, you object, a heart like mine can offer Christ so little — at best, so poor and pinched and stingey a hospitality and such meagre fare; for I have nothing worthy of Him to set before Him, only a kind of affection, real enough at times, but which, at others, can and does so easily forget; only a will, quite unreliable, deplorably unstable; only a faith that is the merest shadow of what His real friends mean when they speak about faith, I know. But, there was once a garret up under the roof, a poor, bare place enough. There was a table in it, and there were some benches, and a water-pot; a towel, and a basin in behind the door, but not much else — a bare, unhomelike room. But the Lord Christ entered into it. And, from that moment, it became the holiest of all, where souls innumerable ever since have met the Lord God, in High glory, face to face. And, if you give Him entrance to that very ordinary heart of yours, it too He will transform and sanctify and touch with a splendour of glory. -AJ Gossip

A wonderful, 1826 passage from Swiss pastor Felix Neff, quoted from “Evangelicalism Divided:”

[I]n this impure and dark world, this obscure quarry, whence the Great Builder is pleased to take some stones for his edifice, what shall we find, but work-yards for a season, where everything appears to be in a movement and disorder? What unshapen stones, what rubbish, what fragments!

How many things fit only for temporary service! How many arrangements merely provisional! How many mercenaries and foreigners are occupied in these quarries… How many dissentions among the laborers, how many conjectures and disputes about the final purposes of the Great Architect… which are known only to Himself! Shall we search in this chaos for the true church, the spiritual temple? Shall we endeavor to arrange, in one exact and uniform order, all those stones that we find in the various quarries opened in a thousand places in the world? Oh, how much wiser is the Master! While some are disputing about the excellence of this or the other department of the work; and while others are spending their strength in endeavoring to introduce perfect order, the wise Master-builder surveys, in silence, the vast scene of operations, chooses and marks the materials which he sees to be prepared amidst all this confusion, and causes them to be removed and placed in his heavenly edifice; assigning to every piece the place most proper for it, and for which he has designed it. Such, my beloved brethren, is the sublime idea which we ought to form of this universal church. Oh! How contemptible now will appear, in our eyes, those endless disputes which have at all times divided the believers, and continue to do so to the present day. Let us rather labor in the quarry where our work is assigned, to prepare as great a quantity of materials as possible; and especially, let us entreat the Lord to make us all lively stones fit for his building. Amen!

Commenting on Luke 24:50 (”Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.”), Hendriksen says:

Acts 1:11 “This same Jesus will come back in the same way.”
If, then, he departed while blessing his disciples, and if he is coming again with blessing for his church, does it not follow that even now, during the intervening period, he, as representative of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, delights in being for his people a source of blessing? Also, that he wants us, in a derived or secondary manner, to be a blessing to everyone with whom we come into contact?

And on Luke 24:51 (”While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.”):

Matt. 28:20 “I am with you always.”
He departed in order to remain with his church; in fact, now more than ever. When he was still on earth he was not able physically to be everywhere at the same time. But now that he is in heaven he is able, in and through the Holy Spirit, to be everywhere (not bodily, to be sure, but spiritually). Also, while he was still on earth he was present with the church. Now he is present in the church. In other words, he has departed from us in order to draw closer to us.

“Quickly bring a robe, the best one,” etc. Note the intensity of the joy resulting from the successful search… Is not the material found in Luke 15 [the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Prodigal Son]… very suitable for meditation during the week previous to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, or on the very Sunday of communion? -William Hendriksen

And [the Pharisees] said to him, The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them, Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. -Luke 5:33-35

The late William Hendriksen commented:

The important truth which Jesus here reveals and which makes the passage so practical and filled with comfort especially for today is that for those who acknowledge Christ as their Lord and Savior the proper attitude of heart and mind is not that of sadness but that of gladness. If it be true that “God with us” (Immanuel) spells joy for believers, should not “God within us” (the situation on and after Pentecost) awaken in every child of God joy unspeakable and full of glory? It was in order to bring such abounding joy that Jesus came on earth and that he, through his sacrificial death, brought salvation full and free. See Luke 2:10: “good tidings of great joy”; 24:52 “they…returned to Jerusalem with great joy”; John 15:11 “that your joy may be full”; 17:13: “that they may have my joy made full in themselves.” The apostles learned that lesson (Rom 5:11; 15:13; Gal. 5:22; Philippians, the entire epistle; 1 Peter 1:8; 4:13; 1 John 1:4; 2 John 12). -New Testament Commentary on Luke, p. 310

Or as the Psalmist so beautifully put it:

They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. -Psalm 36:8

I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. -Matthew 26:29

Matthew Henry comments:

Dying saints take their leave of sacraments, and the other ordinances of communion which they enjoy in this world, with comfort, for the joy and glory they enter into supersede them all; when the sun rises, farewell the candles.

The Acts 15 deliberations bring joy every time I read them. The letter itself overflows with charity, brevity, and glad tidings:

22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, 23 with the following letter: The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. 24 Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, 25 it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.

In the movie Rembrandt, the painter (Charles Laughton) sits in a tavern with a group of men. How, his companions ask, can he stand to paint his wife Saskia all the time? Seven years of marriage, and still he paints Saskia! The discussion continues:

REMBRANDT: There was a man in the land of Uz and the Lord gave him all that the human heart could desire, but beyond all, this man was in love with his wife.

A MAN: He must have had a secret.

REMBRANDT: He had.

ANOTHER MAN: I’d like to know it!

REMBRANDT: He had a vision once. A creature half-child, half-woman, half-angel, half-lover brushed against him. And of a sudden he knew that when one woman gives herself to you, you possess all women. Women of every age and race and kind, and more than that, the moon, the stars, all miracles and legends are yours. Brown-skinned girls who inflame your senses with their play, cool yellow-haired women who entice and escape you, gentle ones who serve you, slender ones who torment you, the mothers who bore and suckled you; all women whom God created out of the teeming fullness of the earth, are yours in the love of one woman.

ANOTHER MAN: How?

REMBRANDT: Throw a purple garment lightly over her shoulders, and she becomes queen of Sheba. Lay your tousled head blindly upon her breast, and she is a Delilah, waiting to implore you. Take her garment from her, strip the last veil from her body, and she’s a chaste Susannah, covering her nakedness with flattering hands. Gaze upon her as you’d gaze upon a thousand strange women, but never call her yours, for her secrets are inexhaustible. You’ll never know them all! Call her by one name only. I call her Saskia.

One of my favorite native wildflowers, the showy ladyslipper orchid. It is such a joy to get down on one’s knees and enjoy the Creation!

What gets 15 feet tall, invades quickly, is hard to kill, and cause the kind of suffering that makes poison ivy seem nice by comparison? You guessed it: giant hogweed. Good grief, look at the size of this monster!

And this striking but scary alien is spreading into Ohio from Pennsylvania. There was an article in a NE Ohio paper last year about a man who found more than 100 of these things surrounding his barn, calling it “a forest of hogweed.” “I tried to kill them,” he said, “but you can’t destroy them.”

I don’t want to start a panic, but… Run for your lives!

All right, so it’s not another 1950s B movie. It’s just another oddity in God’s great big world.