Christian Devotionals and Scripture Applied to Everyday Life

You just have to love old houses. They are full of surprises and you never know what you will find. Sometimes the surprises are fun, like when we took down our aged mantle piece and discovered some charred postcards written in the 1800's along with an old coin from 1825, and a couple of pictures from years past. But other surprises are not so pleasant.

Recently while visiting a friend we got talking about the large pine trees in her front yard. They were randomly scattered around the lawn and over time had grown large and full. For many years they had provided hiding places for the children who played around them. For many hours they were an obstacle course for the lawn mower that had circled them. And on many days they provided a beautiful backdrop for family events and special pictures.

It is a terrible feeling to be lonely. Everyone experiences aloneness at different times in his or her life. There are periods when you are physically alone, but it is also possible to have this desolate feeling when surrounded by lots of people.

Recently on an airplane trip I was asked to move from my assigned seat to accomodate a young family. I gladly moved to the new seat located by the exit door. I did not think much about it, other than there was more leg room, until the flight attendant approached and standing in the aisle between the seats launched into a memorized speech. I missed most of what she said until she neared the end. She asked those of us in these extra leg room seats, "Are you ok with this?" Most nodded in ignorant agreement, but I immediately queried, "Whoa, could you repeat that? What am I agreeing to?"

Recently we had an auction where we sold some very old and decrepit prints. The yellowed paper was ripped on the edges in a few places and one corner was folded up on itself. Though these old drawings looked like nothing special to the untrained eye, they were worth quite a bit of money and sold very well.

A number of years ago we raised our first flock of chickens. One morning, after having invested months raising these feathered friends, I went to the barn and met a disastrous sight. During the night a coyote or some other wild animal had bypassed our attempts at security, crept into the barn, and killed almost all of the birds.