Brainless and Beautiful

Never before have I seen such beautiful starfish than in the Pacific Northwest. They weren't your average thin and delicate coral colored starfish that you see washed up on the shores of the ocean. These were plump, soccer-ball size critters that were clinging to the pole of the boat dock on Annette Island Alaska. They were very much alive and feasting on a variety meal of marine life.

An interesting fact about starfish is that they have no brain. They're just a five spiked star with a central disc which acts as a water filter. Somehow all their parts can act independently of each other and even grow back a lost appendage. Within themselves they have the capacity to survive without thinking. They are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Can you imagine a species living for hundreds of thousands of years without a brain? No love, no fear, no attraction -- in fact they reproduce by free spawning. For the most part, they just glide around on the ocean floor and pig out.

One thing that both humans and starfish do have is laminin. Laminin is an adhesive protein in the cell membrane that holds everything together inside of us. Basically it's the glue that hold us all together. A scientific diagram of laminin looks exactly like the cross of Christ. To see the

video and exact picture click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e4zgJXPpI4

We are all fearfully and wonderfully made by God and in Colossians 1:17, itstates: "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together"How awesome is it that we are held together by supernatural glue that is unmistakably without any credit to our own thinking.

Almost as if it were totally brainless. It's just there, always has been and always will be.

Everything is Looking Cherry

Clichés are so out of style, but this one has got to be resuscitated. While those bright red cherry's are sweet to eat and eye candy hanging on the vine, life is everything but a bowl full of cherries.

I'm such a jealous mother. There was no other mother that could take my place with my daughters. And yet as the time passed and my children grew, the intruders gradually took my place. Intruders are boyfriends, myspace.com, Facebook.com, cell phones, imposter parents (overnight heroes that claim paternal/maternal rights because they let your kid spend the night), cars and sometimes -- their own father. Obviously, he's the ex.

Life can be so unfair and while I hated being the first to humble myself by spitting out the pit, it's better than being the last person to strip away the pride. It's painful. I didn't know how to do it. I was terrified that any attempt would backfire like everything else in the past. Someone out there reading this can relate to what I'm saying. How could your children so easily forget seeing you wear the same shoes to work every day. Could they not put two and two together to understand your sacrifice for them to have new shoes? Perhaps you've worked diligently for years and raised your children by yourself. The bond you created was never supposed to be broken. But it broke and now things are different and there are parts of those precious children that you just can't understand. At one time they would listen to you and learn from you. But now you are competing with the intruders.

I took cherries for another spin. Perhaps there are some of them that are capable of bringing the blossom back to life -- despite the fact that children grow up and find life outside the bowl more attractive. I began looking at my daughters and the intruders in a different way. I began to meditate on these things: Finally, whatever things are true,

whatever things are noble,

whatever things are just,

whatever things are pure,

whatever things are lovely,

whatever things are of good report,

if there is any virtue

And if there is ANYTHING praiseworthy--

Meditate on these things. Philippians 4:8

It's clearly that simple if you think about it. You can find some really sweet things to think about in people that drive you absolutely crazy sometimes. The bitterness that clings to the vine has slowly been cut away along with the past mistakes.Think on these things about your children -- They are lovely if nothing else -- the fruit doesn't always fall so far from the tree.

The Wooden Potato Barrel

Who would have thought

That at ten years old

I would treasure a barrel

Much more than gold...

It was back east

At the tip of Maine

The bitter cold mornings,

When potato season came.

I would walk through the field

With the other workers there,

Was given my section for picking;

Potatoes, more than my share.

My hands clothed with gloves

That were new from the store

Still held cold dried dirt

From the day before.

My fingers half around a handle

Held a basket big for my size,

I searched to the sky,

Praying for the sun to rise.

The digger came by

Exposing two fresh rows;

I prepared myself by stretching,

My palms to my toes.

When once the whistling wind

Possessed me inside,

I desperately started searching

For a sheltered place to hide.

I looked all around me,

Nothing but miles of field...

When I spotted my refuge..

My barrel......my shield.

I laid it on it's side,

The bottom against the wind,

Knelt down to the ground

And crawled safely in.

Savoring the moments

Of the comfort I'd found,

My boots turned to slippers,

My woolen cap to a crown.

My old faded coat

Became a gown of lace..

And the barrel around me...

Became God's embrace.