Monthly Archives: February 2016

Morning Musings

How Careful Are You?

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Maile 2 - CopySummer is drawing to a close in the Southern Hemisphere. In New Zealand this is the season of sun, sand and fun on the water. But our weather in these islands of New Zealand tends to be very changeable and variable. Especially in the northern part of the country. The land is long and narrow and sandwiched between two large oceans….the Pacific Ocean on the east, and the Tasman Sea on the west which is said to be one of the roughest and most treacherous seas in the world.

Most people living in Northland have some association with the sea, if not commercially, then recreationally. When the weather is good everyone who has a boat takes to the water, and on good days, little boats dot the wide open bays as far as one can see.

My great-grandfather’s family came from an area in England that was inland and as far as we know, had never had any association with the sea. When they emigrated to New Zealand in 1861, they had a four month ocean voyage ahead of them, and then a short coastal trip from Auckland to the Bay of Islands. From then on, their lives were inextricably tied up in the sea. All travel was done by sea; all their goods were transported by coastal scows; one son became a sea captain of sailing ships, another son turned to boat building. The sea was their very life blood, and their descendents have this love of the sea in their veins.

But like a lot of things, while the sea can be a good servant if used wisely, it can be a bad master when carelessly taken for granted. Treat it carefully and it will repay you a hundred-fold, but ignore the signs and one may even pay for it with one’s life!

This summer season many people have lost their lives due to carelessness and taking the sea for granted. Going out in boats that are too small for the conditions, or diving into river pools without being too sure how deep they are. Even when proper precautions are taken, the unexpected can happen.

An acquaintance of ours was recently body boarding with his young son when a wave caught them and the father came off the board hitting his head with some force on the sand. His neck was broken but fortunately for him, his spinal cord wasn’t snapped. He has been told that he is very fortunate to be alive, but that it will be many months before he can lead a normal life again. How prepared are we for a sudden calamity like this? How would we feel in the face of such a change of life style as this calamity has caused?

We have to remember that God has even these things under control, and can bring some good out of ALL things that happen to those who love Him. We cannot blame Him for things that are the results of our own actions, but we CAN look to Him for help and strength in the consequences of things that we do.

 

 

Morning Musings

How Sweet is Honey?

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Bee 1Honey is a wonderful healer in more ways than one. The venom of the bee can be mixed into honey and when a certain amount is taken each day, it can relieve the pain of arthritis. Honey is a natural sweetener, and yet with the sting added, it is a healer as well.

This reminds me of the experiences of life. Sometimes we have wonderful times with friends, family or on holiday and then shortly afterwards, there will be the sting of some disappointment. But if we allow it to, the sting can be a great teaching lesson that we can learn from, and then the healing will come later. Without it, all sweetness has no lasting effect, and will leave us with very little depth to our character. Without the bitter sweet experiences of life, our character will never be developed into what it is capable of being.

Without these times, we aren’t able to comfort others who might encounter similar things in their lives. Just as the honey with venom takes a while to work, so time will heal the sad times we may be going through right now.

Morning Musings

Curiosity Killed the Cat!

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4. Curiosity killed the cat, the old saying goes.  I grew up in a small country community where everyone knew everyone else’s business, and what they couldn’t find out, they made it up instead! So I always like to find out the whys and wheres when something unusual is seen.

This time, we had made our usual summer trek north to our holiday area, and what should we see as we came around the bend in the road near the big local river, but a house sitting on the edge of the river bank among the mangrove trees. Not only one house, but behind it was a second house! There was no real road  in to these houses, and they looked as though they had been dumped there from the river itself.

1.    Visiting friends a couple of days later, I saw a newspaper clipping about these two houses which solved the problem of how they had got there. They had been shipped on a barge from the big city over  two hundred miles south, and a description of the voyage north was given beside the picture. Their final destination was a few miles further up the river where they were going to be transported by truck the final few miles. So that solved the puzzle of the houses sitting in the mangroves on the edge of the river!

It seems strange to me, that something like this makes the news, when really it is no-one else’s business but the people who bought them, while the more important things of life that concern every single person are completely ignored. It’s obvious that these houses will be eventually lived in somewhere, but no-one is really concerned with where their soul is going to live for eternity. We make all sorts of preparations for a big trip we may be going to take overseas, but pay very little attention to the most lasting trip of all which every person is going to take eventually. Surely this is the most important thing to be curious about, and the most important trip to prepare for!

Random Devotional Thoughts

What Do You See?

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        images 2The other day we were driving along a beach frontage….the day was beautiful and the colours of the sea were brilliant and superb. Just as the road was about to leave the shore I noticed three teenage girls sitting on the edge of the stream that came out at the end of the beach. Their backs were facing that superb view and their eyes were glued to the smart phones they were each holding.

    My mind went to the story in Pilgrim’s Progress about the man confined in a room playing around in the rubbish at his feet while an angel was hovering above him holding a crown. Alas, he never looked up to see the glories above him, but just kept on with the worthless stuff around his feet. There were those three girls with their backs to the beautiful view that God had created, and not enjoying all that the beach offered in the way of swimming and playing in the surf, or even just walking along the beach scuffing their feet in the sand, but with their eyes glued to what world offers.

It does us well to take stock of ourselves, especially during this first month of the year when so many make New Year resolutions, and resolve to see the things that God wants us to enjoy.