A Part of God's Family

A Part of God’s Family

She sent me a sack of red apples,
By way of her obliging son,
Beautiful shining crisp crimsons
From heavily-laden tree in her yard.

And I sent back, by her son,
Some books I’d wanted to give
For oh, so long a time, but
Just never got around to the delivery.

We hear so much these days
About the need for “being in community”.
But some of us have difficulty
Getting together physically, even one on one.

Sometimes, in our need, we cling
To our simple joy as part of the
Worldwide church, God’s family.
Letting that thought comfort us in our walk.

And then sometimes, God moves
Mysteriously, and “in community”
We are joined together in spirit and in life
By real kindness shown through a third party.

All Glory to the Lord, no matter how, or what!
Community comes in many flavors;
And we’re all a part of God’s family.  Blessed thought!



(c) 2013 by Marilee Miller



This post is shared with Laura Boggess'  "Playdates with God"

A Little-known Fact from US History

The Opinion Pages of the N Y Times relates a little-known incident from the US Civil War.

During the Civil War, the Northern army blockaded ports in Southern States, stopping commercial shipping.  The South didn’t have the means to build large ships that could become an effective navy.  So.  the Rebs sent raiders to sea, scuttling or torching ships that turned out to be American, and capturing vessels and trying to bribe crews of other nations to work for the South (to be paid by the Confederates after they won the war.) 

The Confederacy also secretly purchased European ships to re-outfit as warships.  One little-known story concerns such a vessel that had been berthed in England.  Newly converted and renamed, the Shenandoah sailed to the Bering Strait (off the coast of Alaska) under orders to destroy whaling ships that originated from New England, thus damaging the Northern economy.

Eventually the Shenandoah ended up circumnavigating the earth.  However, while still at sea, the captain learned that the Civil War had ended, and General Lee had surrendered, months before the Shenandoah had destroyed 21 Union ships in the Bering Sea.  The crew was guilty of  “maritime piracy”.


See http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/12/the-secrets-of-the-shenandoah/  by Tom Chaffin

(This review of the article is by Marilee Miller)

This incident suggests to me that I need to be in constant communication with Christ, my Leader.  I desire to do his will.  I want to live a godly life.  But it would be easy for me to think I knew what He wanted from me, and then charge ahead with my own plans.  When I continually give "all of me" to Him, may He equip me to be conformed to Christ's image.  Then I won't be guilty of failing to enter in to the process of becoming part of the Kingdom of God.

This post is shared with Laura Boggess, Playdates with God