Psalm 23 ~ Thou Preparest

A house. Your home. God's House. God's Home.


This week we were discussing Holy Spirit moments. I had a man come out of the doctor's office and sing for 5 or 10 minutes about Beauty. This was the Joy. The Pure Joy of Life. He sang because he'd gotten a Really Good Diagnosis and He was TRULY GRATEFUL. Beautiful day. Beautiful GOD!!! Beautiful my Springer Spaniel. Beautiful me (Made My Day), Beautiful GOD, Beautiful America, Beautiful News in America. Was Really A GOD Bless Me and You Moment.
God is really Good.



And...



Look around where you have lived a long time - you see memories. And Conversations with opinions. Like your refrigerator. Max Lucado once famously said, "If God has a Refrigerator - your photo is on His Refrigerator." This is something my mother and I have Seriously Enjoyed for years.

And like all memories and conversations, there are opinions.

Realtors have Opinions about Refrigerators. They Should Be Blank. It's personal clutter. The buyer doesn't want to see. My mother has been a Realtor for more than 30 years and I will happily tell you - when my mother repeats to me with the "Mother knows best look" and tells me to clean off my refrigerator, I can happily say, "Mother, heal thyself.' Mother's refrigerator has an invitation to my cousin Bob's daughter's wedding in Oxford, Mississippi. Was that 25 years ago or 27? And a few of her physicians on that refrigerator - are - retired.

So, one day, my mother told me again the mantra of the refrigerator. And I decided it was time to take all my photos and change them from my kids being 3, 4 and 5 years old and make them in their 20's  I, truly,  had an absolute blast making my photos current. A wonderful, ongoing project sometimes till late at night. Some opinions are worth their weight in gold. I smiled for weeks.





But I really needed a place to put some of the photos of the precious - now grown - adult children as beautiful and greatly beloved children. ---These just couldn't be in the drawer - just couldn't bear to not see them - where to put them - - - ON THE REFRIGERATOR. We all have flaws. And we can certainly take the time to enjoy them.

(Like the day, about 2005, Edward informed me, my pantry had "Had" it and I 'would that very day organize the pantry to his delight and he would check on his return from employment'. You know - there are ways to ask. And then there are times of the day to ask - And courtesy - is an important aspect of LIFE. ITSELF. And I was not in the mood to argue, but... not in the mood to Evah respond to that "Tone." Edward, pretty uncharacteristically, was that bossy. But he returned home in the evening to find himself delighted with the pantry. My, my it was a thing of beautiful. It took everyone about a week to find the key to the pantry organization. I delighted in living in France. My favorite thing in life is Beauty. And color. And it made sense. You just had to know the 'Colah' of what you were looking for. And today - we organize within genre and Colah. This has been part of our lives since 2005 and I've had several friends give me decorations for the Pantry. One is a hand-made bag for tea bags {I Love you, Mary}. And one is a Charleston Shrimp and Grits keepsake bag with a crawfish graphic. {Thanks, Harby!})

So - on to the all-important topic of Refrigerator regeneration.

I was going to remove and replace with new. But with the renewal photos... ( I used a few of the same ones). But the Best of the Best. You know.



My mother came down to visit and we had the Best Time looking at the wedding frames with new photos and the memories with those. My sons got involved.  Cal said, I can't believe you picked one of the two girls making V arms around me in my dorm room - you knew, don't you, she threw up on me after that, right? {Cal was a Fraternity President, you have to expect this ~ sorta.} We had to laugh about that - my mother and I decided the girls were too cute and the memory too funny - not to keep the girls in pink.  Right by the ice cubes.

(And we got the cutest Augusta, GA blue and white Magnets)


Edward loved the action shot someone in college had of Cal playing Ultimate Frisbee - he says you can tell Edward is his father. True. Alexander is in a green t-shirt pretending to be asleep on someone's lap. Alexander says we shouldn't use it, because we aren't sure who is in the jeans (in our living room). I suggested perhaps we could live dangerously, keeping the photo of Alexander laughing in his pretend sleep. (Now, that is a joke. It's from Youth Ministry. And Alexander knows this!!!)

Photo to Follow! 

Well, then we had the opinion - the refrigerator needed more decoration and not just old photos. So Kirk took the photo of the Daffodils and brought us his work, from our front yard, and we put Kirk's Beautiful Photo {he's a Professional Photographer and did wonderful photos of Alexander's Graduation party and have been on the blog before} on the Refrigerator, too.  People asked me what kind of lens I used. Kirk got good, rave reviews!!!.

And my mother-in-law came to visit and she said we all need refrigerator joy in life - Edward's grandmother, MOP, had a martini every day and had 'Olive' martini sticks, permanently, in the refrigerator. That day we found a sticker for the refrigerator saying "Happy Hour" - now, let's be very clear - we don't "Happy Hour" - it's not our bag - but - Hours that are Happy are worth a sign - we decided!!!

So we added a High School Converse Shoe and we all loved that - especially the visiting H S friends. That tiny shoe magnet got good, good laughs.

And the Happy Hour sign picked up the momentum of joy, as being only sheer happiness, and we voted for needing more of these 'Signs'.

Now there is just one constant on the Refrigerator.

Really.

Since 1992.

And my mother has never once asked me to clean it off our Refrigerator.

I know several people with this same Refrigerator Page.

We all got this from a spring day in Celina, Texas in June of 1992.

A Beautiful Day. One of the Lord's Perfect Days. A few people were smiling and crying. It was a Homecoming. Anita Lucille Richardson Willard was going Home. At age 94, her wedding band had been on 52 years without her Ray.

And now she was with her Ray and all was right with her world. God is in His Heaven. My mother cried when her minister read Psalm 23. My mother impromptu told us all - know Grandmother Anita truly lived her life for Jesus her Lord.  Anita had led a 42 year Bible Study at Kessler Park United Methodist. And after the funeral, my godparents and my mother and I just felt we had to recite the 23rd Psalm, even after the Minister had left the grave site. My brother put his hand on our shoulders. We all there that day - recited. 

I asked my mother how she had come by the beautiful Psalm 23 on her refrigerator. It had fallen from Anita's worn Bible. The page of Anita's Psalm Bible. Worn out by Grandmother Anita. Probably printed about the time of her marriage around 1928. I asked my mother if she could find the same yellow paper and copy this for me. My godmother had grown up with my mother and Marilyn wanted a copy, too. (My Godfather was holding his new granddaughter, Marilyn. We all oohed and ahhed over baby Marilyn with Marilyn's name and my godfather's beautiful eyes. Our next funeral, unknown to us, was going to be purely wonderful 62-year-old, all our lives - Marilyn. We still miss her and love her.) My cousin Dick had come from Franklinton and he said to mail him one. My brother has one. Quite a few people that day.

And Grandmother Anita left us The Word of the Lord. As a memory of a day, a beautiful to Jesus woman went home to be with her Jesus. Her husband Ray. Both brothers named Frank. Six brothers, six sisters. 

The future is uncertain. Is it? I'd say in Jesus - The Homecoming is Certain.

This Word of God is a Solid Foundation Lived by Grandmother Anita.
This Word of God is a Promise.
This Word of God she held in her hand and lived with her life.
This Word of God is a Knowing -
The Next Homecoming is for us all in Jesus
- A Certainty.

Grandmother told us of Dancing and Somersaults and Rolling and Joy she dreamed of Heaven.

And we know she wants us to have Joy in this Life.
Just like Jesus in John 14, 15 and 16. Love, Joy. Peace.

Live Eternally.
Live Today.
Live for Jesus Christ.
Love.

If we only had a ukulele for this one...


Our Heavenly Father,

Give me oil in my Lamp keep me burning!!!
Give me oil in my Lamp, I pray!

Give me oil in my Lamp keep me burning!!!
Keep me Burning till the Break of DAY!!!

Cover us all in Jesus, Keep us Going!!!
Keep us going till this is Thee Day!!!

Jesus Our Shepherd
Jesus Our Lord
Our Alleluia in Jesus. Amen!!!

 ♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †