Musings

What is Memorial Day?

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In yesterday’s Bible reading, I came across Joshua 4:6 and its timeliness struck me. 

We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, “What do these stones mean?”

This particular memorial served two purposes. 

1.  It was to remind those who experienced that amazing, dry-ground walk through the Jordan River, so that they would always remember God’s power and how He’d moved on their behalf. 

2. It was a tool that would help them teach their children about God and their relationship with Him. 

What is Memorial Day?

1. It is a time to remember the truth that freedom ISN’T free, and that we owe a debt to those who ensured our freedom to live as we do today. At the very least, our debt is to remember. 

2. It is a tool, a time we should take advantage of to really educate our children, to help them understand more about this nation we live in and why we have it. It is our opportunity to introduce them to some who survived, and let their stories introduce our children – and us – to many who did not. Our children can’t remember, but we can tell them rather than letting them assume Memorial Day is nothing but a day for family reunions and hotdogs. 

Someone (George Santayana?) once said that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” 

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C

It’s All Connected

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I’m dealing with Plantars Fasciitis, and this is proving to be an educational experience. Truly. 

See, the pain is in my heel, so I assumed that was where the problem was. I was wrong; the root of the problem is in the arch of my foot. But get this; that problem is made worse when my calf muscle is too tight. You see, it’s all connected. 

So is pretty much everything else in life. Just like a too-tight calf muscle can cause problems in my seemingly unrelated heel, someone who is “too tight” in life can cause problems in and for other people. Whoever said that no man is an island spoke truly. Like it or not, we are connected to others, and the decisions we make-even those that supposedly affect only ourselves-can trigger definite consequences in the lives of those around us. It’s a fact we would do well to remember. 

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C

I Really Don’t Know

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I recently had a conversation in which a gentleman who had just discovered I am a church secretary said something along the lines of, “You work all week? I guess I figured you would just show up at services and that was it.” Er… no. Not even. Not EVEN. 

His comment started me thinking, again, about how little we know about each other’s lives. We look at what we see another person do and think we get it, but we usually have no clue. (And the stay-at-home moms shouted, “Amen!”)

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C

It’s Just Color

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ruby-and-sapphire-gemstones-300x300

Sapphires and rubies: They’re two very popular stones, and have been through the ages. I may be mistaken, but as I recall the ruby has consistently been the more valuable of the two.

When people think of sapphires, they generally envision a rich blue, but in reality sapphires come in a wide range of colors. My personal favorite is the pink sapphire—the hotter the better. I’ve never bought one for myself, though, because jewelers generally label them as rubies so they can get higher prices for them. Deceptive, no?

Well, it depends on how you define deception…and which deception you’re talking about. You see, rubies and sapphires are both corundum. They’re the same stone. Red, yellow, blue, or white, the only differences are their color and their perceived value.

The same is true of people. We were all made from dirt and will return to dirt. Yes, there are different colors of dirt, but it’s all dirt. Other than our delightfully variegated cultures, the only differences between the so-called races are color and perceived value. Like a customer who walks into a jewelry store, many have bought into the idea that one color is more valuable than another.

But it’s just color.

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C

Life Stinks

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I find myself wondering how many, on this last day of 2015, are thinking these words…or worse. 

I could be. My husband, nephew, and I were in a wreck on the 20th. My nephew walked away, bless God, but my husband won’t be released from rehab until tomorrow and I’ve got a hip that is only just now letting me walk any distance and a fixator and pins holding my wrist together. 

Self-pity and depression are SO easy to fall into at times like this, and it would be easy to paint all of 2015 with the pain of today. But 2015 was a great year! I won’t bore you with the details, but this really was a great year, with lots of wonderful moments and days in it. 

Even in the midst of today’s chaos I’m finding things to genuinely thank God for. Again, I won’t bore you with the details, but when I asked God to help me find them I was suddenly able to see…and to be genuinely grateful that God is making lovely things come out of this truly ugly situation. 

I have had a few “Life stinks!” moments lately, but I’m getting past them-hopefully have gotten past them. I thank God for 2015 – with all its beauty and ugliness – and, as the fireworks light the night sky, my sleeping self (I don’t do midnight) will thank Him for the joys of the year to come. 

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C

The Road Home

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Copyright Tammy Cardwell
Copyright Tammy Cardwell

Only a short distance from this bridge, over which I’ve passed numerous times through the years, lies the entrance to New Hope Cemetery. This is an old cemetery with a fascinating collection of aged headstones. This is a rustic cemetery and it holds the earthly remains of some of my nearest and dearest.

Too many times, we’ve followed a hearse over this bridge, taking a loved one to their final resting place. Several times, we’ve crossed the bridge to visit the graves of those we’ve not seen in so very long. The last time I was there–the day I took this picture–we were “visiting” Mother.

You’d think this bridge would represent loss to me, would inspire pain, but it doesn’t. Why?

The answer lies in the cemetery’s name–New Hope. Yes, we’ve laid our loved ones to rest here, but I know that in each and every case they were born again and destined for Heaven. For them, and those of us who expectantly wait to see them again, this place offers hope indeed–hope of that new life, true LIFE that will never end–eternal life in the very presence of God, surrounded by those we love so much…HOME.

So this picture shows a path of hope, a man-made construct that bridges the past and that glorious future as we follow the road home.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

An Appropriate Gift

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At one time, I was very much into Victoriana. I read period fiction, collected ephemera and other items from that era, subscribed to Victoria magazine…

That was a long time ago, or so it seems. I’d already moved in other directions when we pretty much lost everything we owned in 2010. Since then, the busy-ness of life and the demands of life’s necessities have drawn me even further away from that time of my life. 

So it would seem inappropriate for one of my oldest and dearest friends to send me a copy of Victoria’s A Woman’s Christmas for my birthday. It would seem…

I picked it up and was instantly drawn in. I was… actually… transported. I suddenly found myself back in those days when our boys were young and Christmas was still a magical time for me, when I could hardly wait to put up the tree and spent months planning and shopping for just the right gifts. 

Those days are gone-hopefully not forever, but to be honest I’ve had a hard time finding the magic of late. So I am very grateful to my friend for empowering me to touch it again. Bless you, Marilyn, for sending me such an appropriate gift. 

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C

Immediate Forgiveness

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While praying this morning, I had a fresh revelation of the immediacy of God’s forgiveness. In the Old Testament, when man sinned he had to prepare a sacrifice and go make that sacrifice. This took time, and in the meantime he had to live with the knowledge of what he’d done, that he wasn’t right with God. Today, forgiveness is as close as a softly uttered, “Oh God, forgive me!”

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C

I’ll Never Know… THANK GOD!

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“I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.”

Once again, it’s a line from a song that’s had my attention and made me think. 

Many parents have lost children. I thank God I’m not one of them, and thank Him that I can’t even imagine their pain; I wouldn’t want to. With that in mind, what about God’s pain when He sent Jesus to die for us? 

Sending your son to war where he may well get killed… That pain is beyond imagining, but for God, who has existed forever, to send to His death the One who has existed forever right there with Him, to be separated from Him for a time for the first time in Eternity… 

That isn’t cost. That’s COST. That is a God-sized pain that…

Someone told me, once, that we’ll know everything when we get to Heaven. I don’t believe that for multiple reasons (For instance, knowing everything would mean the end of growth and I don’t see God stopping us from growing.) and this is one of them. God is merciful, and in His mercy He will never let us know a pain so overwhelming that only He could handle it. 

I thank God I’ll never know that pain, and I thank Him for choosing to endure it…for me.

Celebrating Jesus!

Tammy C