Day 6….land of milk and honey…

 Day 6…land of milk and honey….

No sightseeing yesterday, people day…

We went to the “Market of Choice” for dinner. A favorite…long aisles of various foods, salads, hot dishes, various cultures, etc…aptly named….I wish I had one close to my home…

We are so blessed as a nation to have so many choices…I feel at times like this is the land of milk and honey that God promised the Israelites coming g out of slavery in Egypt…

This trip we have traveled through all kind of agriculture that feeds so many…seafood, cattle, game hunting, fruits and vegetables of all kinds, wineries, canola oil, honey just to name a few…

Where I live it is fruits, potatoes, grains, onions, grapes, dairies, etc…

Another state maybe more minerals, gravel, etc…

 But, so much…Not all nations have that…

Plus, freedom to worship God…abundantly…not all nations have that…

I realize the following was written for the Israelites, but the principles are the same for us now…following Him is imperative…

Thank YOU….

Deuteronomy 11:8 “Therefore, you shall keep all the commandments which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land which you are crossing over [the Jordan] to possess; 9 so that you may live long on the land which the Lord swore (solemnly promised) to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land [of great abundance,] flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot like a garden of vegetables. 11 But the land into which you are about to cross to possess, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

13 “It shall come about, if you listen obediently and pay attention to My commandments which I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul [your choices, your thoughts, your whole being]— 14 that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early [fall] rain and the late [spring] rain, so that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your [olive] oil. 15 And He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. 16 Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away [from the Lord] and serve other gods and worship them, 17 or [else] the Lord’s anger will be kindled and burn against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the land will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

18 “Therefore, you shall impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul, and tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as bands (frontals, frontlets) on your forehead. 19 You shall teach them [diligently] to your children [impressing God’s precepts on their minds and penetrating their hearts with His truths], speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. 22 For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in all His ways and to hold tightly to Him—

26 “Behold, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse— 27 the blessing, if you listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following (acknowledging, worshiping) other gods which you have not known.

29 “It shall come about, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not across the Jordan, west of the road, toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? 31 For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it, 32 and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today.

This land….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q7PULELvok

(I realize this song isn’t a hymn or praise song, just a folk tune, but it kept coming to mind)…

Day 5…power…

 Day 5… power….

Tidal pools…

The ocean….

The lighthouse….

The gravesite…

The broken highway …

You know , we can’t make real tidal pools that continue to live…we can’t make an ocean…we can’t make the crumble like earthquakes ….we can’t stop death…

The lighthouse was the only manmade thing of these pictures and all the materials and talent were not manmade either….

God made them all including the power over death through faith in Jesus Christ…

Genesis 1: 20 Then God said, “Let the waters swarm and abundantly produce living creatures, and let birds soar above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” 21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind; and God saw that it was good and He affirmed and sustained it. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

Revelations 16: 18 And there were flashes of lightning and loud rumblings and peals of thunder; and there was a massive earthquake—nothing like it has ever occurred since mankind originated on the earth, so severe and far-reaching was that earthquake. 

Ecclesiastes 8:8a There is no man who has power and authority over the wind to restrain the wind,
Nor does he have authority over the day of death;

James 4: 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy [the one God who has the absolute power of life and death]; but who are you to [hypocritically or self-righteously] pass judgment on your neighbor?

Jesus is our light…the light of the World…

John 8: 12 Once more Jesus addressed the crowd. He said, “I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” 

Thank YOU…. 

Day 4…

 Day 4….

Provision of food…

Friendship…

Roads…

The ocean…

That was day 4…

Provision…honey, mustard, fish….

Roads…crowded roads …to the beach…

The ocean…the Pacific…dividing the land, the water and the heavens…

Proverbs 24:13 
My son, eat honey, because it is good,
And the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.

Proverbs 17: 17a A friend loves at all times….

Genesis 1: 6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse [of the sky] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters [below the expanse] from the waters [above the expanse].” 7 And God made the expanse [of sky] and separated the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so [just as He commanded]. 8 God called the expanse [of sky] heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

9 Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place [of standing, pooling together], and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that this was good (pleasing, useful) and He affirmed and sustained it. 11 So God said, “Let the earth sprout [tender] vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit according to (limited to, consistent with) their kind, whose seed is in them upon the earth”; and it was so. 12 The earth sprouted and abundantly produced vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, according to their kind; and God saw that it was good and He affirmed and sustained it. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

Thank YOU…

Day 3

  

Day 3…

Yesterday was flowers and somber….

We went to the beautiful Crystal springs rhododendron garden in Portland …it was in full bloom with dogwood, old plantings of rhododendrons along a lake, creeks,  among towering fir trees…everywhere you looked another color of flowers caught your eye…lots of people, lots of picturesque scenery….

Although there were lots of flowers, you didn’t feel crowed…just impressed…in awe of the beauty and variety….

Thai lunch…

Then to Omsi, Oregon Museum of science and industry…

I have to admit, I didn’t take one picture, and I didn’t realize it until we were through it…but the section we traveled through, I would have been hard pressed to capture it in pictures…

We went through the life of the Titanic and the thousands p

Of lives it touched….from the dream to its death…and lives and deaths of the people who road it…artifacts scavenged on the ocean floor…

(When I was on my first trip after my husband’s passing we visited a cemetery in eastern Canada which many people from that ship were buried…it was sobering reading many of the epitaphs on the burial stones..)

At this display, each ticket holder was given a card with a name and information about a person on the trip…at the end of of the display, you could look up your person to find out if your person lived or died…my person was a young mother who was going home with her children to Canada from Scotland with her husband….as the ship was going down she as frantically searching for her nanny and children who had taken them to safety on the rescue boats…the mother and father  died while the children lived…story after story of real lives who were in the ship….

Both places we visited started with a dream…a goal to serve people in one way or another…one grew and grew into a thing of beauty….the other sank to the ocean floor…both involving thousands of people from all walks of  life….both have lessons of life…both included building ….

What are we building, life or destruction?

Thank YOU….

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

https://www.portland.gov/parks/crystal-springs-rhododendron-garden

https://omsi.edu.     (Oregon museum of science and industry)

        Titanic…

 Day 2…

My oldest son and I travelled from Pendleton, Oregon to Portland…we followed the Columbia river..the weather was wonderful, the wide river like glass winding between the winding basalt walls. Barges, a cruise ship, fishermen chugged along, winding their way to their destinations…

Upon arrival at my daughter’s home, we unpacked, then headed out to the donkey sanctuary where she works. We petted and brushed the donkeys who have found their forever homes after being abused, abandoned, etc…is it like being around great big dogs, with minds of their own…

Dinner at a Japanese restaurant with robot servers….(there are live people as well )… 

Fellowship with one another is key…adding a few fun, interesting visits to the itinerary is great…something out of our ordinary days…

Most of us have ordinary days…with a treat along the way…

We have had them for eons of time…we rejoice in each day…because each day is a day that the Lord has made…”let us rejoice and be glad in it”…

Thank YOU…

This the day…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4A5klnLG2uM&list=RD4A5klnLG2uM&start_radio=1&pp=ygUmdGhpcyBpcyB0aGUgZGF5IHRoYXQgdGhlIGxvcmQgaGFzIG1hZGWgBwE%3D 

Backroads…

 Backroads….

Adventure # ?….

My husband and I travelled some, China-2 times, Mongolia, across the USA, USA East coast, Alaska-2 times, trans Canada via train, around the islands of Hawaii, visiting children and parents  wherever they were….we had a bucket list and actually checked off a few…several got cancelled for various reasons. When I look at this accomplished list, I feel so blessed… But we hadn’t finished, when he got cancer…that was an abrupt halt…actually I felt guilty even thinking about traveling without him or even having fun without him…I finally realized I still had to live for whatever years God granted me…it wasn’t being disrespectful to go on living.

So I have a friend who was “willing” to travel and we had great adventures and travelled some more, plus I had the opportunity to travel with my children a bit as well…all were soooo fun and places out of the ordinary…

Now I have cancer, which has dampened the traveling quite a bit…not the amount of energy that I used to have, lots of meds and still under treatment…

My children/grandchildren continue to travel to “exotic” places, some on missions, some as pleasure…so seeing their photos is mostly my way of traveling now…enjoying their joy….

Yesterday, one of my sons drove a few miles of backroads after leaving my house…smelling the forest air, seeing the spring flowers in bloom on the mountain sides was a treat! Today, Lord willing, we travel on to one of my daughter’s home in Oregon…

Backroads or detours, changed plans are part of life…new chapters…sometimes they come abruptly…other times they come safely into life…

I think of Mary, mother of Jesus..she had an abrupt change when the Angel came to give her her Life changing news…or even the disciples, who quickly left their nets to follow Jesus…reading  through whole Word, people made life changing directional decisions, going on adventures that God had planned…

We are still doing that…maybe a few backroads along the way…

Jeremiah 29: 11 For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Thank YOU…

Plans…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBhuLCPZ_0Q

Mothers….

 Mothers…

Proverbs 31:25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;

    she can laugh at the days to come.

26 She speaks with wisdom,

    and faithful instruction is on her tongue…

28 Her children arise and call her blessed…

John 16: . 21 A woman, when she is in labor, has pain because her time [to give birth] has come; but when she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of her joy that a child has come into the world…

Thank YOU….

Mamas…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ8uJ16P9Cs