Proverbs 15: The Eyes of March
Well, I said I may have a few days in this year where I couldn’t write much, so this is the first of those. I still recommend a full reading of this chapter on the 15th of every month. A link to the Bible Hub website can help you do that, and I also recommend a download of the Bible app from YouVersion. That website will take you to the app page, so you can choose the one that works for your device.
Bible Hub: Proverbs Chapter 15.
YouVersion app install page.
So, I’m keeping the focus today on verse 3…
Proverbs 15:3 WEBUS
[3] Yahweh’s eyes are everywhere, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.15.3.WEBUS
And, in case you don’t know, my title is a word play on “The Ides of March” when Julius Caesar was killed on March 15th in 44 BC by a group of conspirators, including one whom he thought was a friend. Or at least someone who valued the position he’d been awarded by Caesar. Read a short coverage of the history at https://www.historyskills.com/classroom/ancient-history/marcus-junius-brutus/ and then think about what you know of changes to the Roman empire just 77 years later when they crucified The Messiah.
Since we know that God’s eyes are everywhere, and that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we know He was watching all the events that surrounded The Ides and making sure the scene was set in the land of Israel, and in the Roman empire, for what needed to transpire for His purposes. We can trust that He always watches and prepares, and even more that He always plans to work things for the good.
I tried to find this song on video with lyrics, but I could not. I found the clearest and loudest one I could though, since most of them seemed to be played from record players and weren’t the easiest to hear.
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God Loves To Repair Broken Pieces
I have a statement in a few of my bios about how I like kaleidoscopes because I feel like they represent how God sees His creations; they are all beautiful when light, especially God’s Light, shines through them. God is the Master of repairing broken things, and He’s uniquely able to repair broken hearts like no one else can.
The image I made tonight is a representation of a Japanese art form called “Kintsugi.” The article on Wikipedia doesn’t have a lot of images, so do a search to see some amazing transformations, but the link with the word goes to Japan Daily, so it’s got history and images. It’s a Japanese art form of repair done with real gold showing through the cracks and making the restored object more valuable than the original when it was unbroken.
Now, imagine something with even more value than gold (God’s touch) filling the broken places in human hearts and what the value becomes with God’s Holy Spirit making us whole. This clip from the movie Joshua with Tony Goldwyn demonstrates it beautifully and still makes me cry.
If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s old but I highly recommend it. And on the subject of recommendations, I also recommend a wonderful story about a broken woman and her battle to repair herself before letting God do the mending. It’s in the book “The Story of With” by Allen Arnold. The tag line might make you think it’s only a book for creative people, but it’s an amazing and life-changing story that combines a Bible study with a fictional allegory. My sister, who’s not much of a reader, finished it in 2 days and said every Christian should read it. My affiliate link (for tracking) is https://amzn.to/4agQfqu and I’d love to hear comments from those who read it. Also, here’s a video review from someone who read it…
And, finally, just because it sums up the story of someone who loves to see brokenness repaired, here’s a video of Guy Penrod singing The Talley’s song, “She Loves the Broken Ones”…
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From Whence Came the Poet
On this day (Jan 15) in 2022, we officially said goodbye to the father of many. My sibling family is a large one consisting of both sisters and brothers. Some are half-siblings, step-siblings, and adopted siblings, but they are all mine. The sister I was raised with has her own special place in my heart and life, but I carry each of my siblings in pockets of my heart—and often to God’s throne in prayer.
You see, I am the first born to this man who was wild yet called. His life was a wrestling match of soul and spirit with a God who never gave up on him. He ran from God geographically (though that’s not truly possible), and he ran emotionally, but he always came back. Whether it was a grenade in the face when his tunnel rat duties got him too close to the enemy in Vietnam, or a moment when lyrics or poetry came pouring out of him to remind him that God still loved and pursued him, something was always pulling him back to a place to consider God again.
He left my mom and sister and I just after I turned 5 years old. My mom kept all his pictures and told me stories of things like his interview with Jerry Dunphy after the incident in Vietnam. She said he was in a hospital bed and told the reporter that he prayed for God to give him his eyesight back, so he could see his girls. My favorite picture was the one with guys from his Brave Lions group that showed my name tattooed on his arm. And, yes, I wrote a song about that tattoo.
The years after that were scattered and chaotic. He had multiple marriages and other children. I struggled with my mom’s emotional and spiritual issues. But something always made this little girl long for her daddy. One winter, as a teenager, I ran away and found him in Kansas. I didn’t stay long, and I’ll share that story in another post, but it wasn’t time for us to be a permanent family yet. During that short time, though, I got to see his poetic, musical, and artistic sides. I was only gifted the ability to write poetry and sing. I’ve tried to learn an instrument, but it just never settled with me, and drawing without the help of technology never came naturally. But I love that I can see him as the DNA source of my love for words.
Somehow, that thing of finding himself oft pursued by The Lord also came to me. In my case, I was looking for deeper meaning more than a good time party, but it still filled my life with a mix of dead-ends and a few major moments with God before I willingly gave my life to Him.
As I’ve met and gotten to know my siblings, I’ve found similar stories in their life journeys. Some have finally let God catch up to them, and some are still looking for other answers. But I still call our journeys Grace by DNA because it seems we all took pieces from our shared father’s journey and made them part of our own journeys. I’ll be gathering those journey stories into a book I started back in 2020, but I’ll tell you bits and pieces here in this blog.
While writing this post, I searched and searched for the tattoo song, but I cannot find it right now, so I guess it’s not time to share it. The gist is a comparison of my father’s tattoo with the carved names in the midst of God’s palm, and it’s called Daddy Can Never Forget Me. It talks about how even if he tried to have it removed, the scar would always remind him of me, and then it talks about the nail scars in Jesus’ hands. I sent the lyrics to my dad at one point, along with a letter reminding him that God could never forget him either. He said it made him cry, and I hope it planted a seed that helped to bring him back to The Lord in his last years.
We did have some periods of distance between us through the years, just as I had times where I was distant from my Heavenly Father. But, thankfully, Dad and I didn’t give up on each other. And God never gave up on either of us as He led us to an eventual reconciliation before Dad left this world in 2021.
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My Writing Dreams and Goals
Since I posted the writing goals worksheet yesterday, I thought I’d take just a moment to share some of my own. I’m short on time, so I’ll probably add more later, but for starters, I want my own publishing company. I have the domain and had a beautiful site years ago with Yahoo Small Business, but it languished, so it’s time to move forward with it. The image above is a sampling of logo ideas I worked on with Gemini.
For this year…
Goal 1: Blog every day!
Goal 2: Publish 2 children’s books. One already has a story board.
Goal 3: Create the layout for the magazine I want to publish.
When all these things are ready to be published, I want them under the ” For One Soul” label because that’s how I see all my writing and ministry. The words on my business card say, ”Live every moment of your life as if it could be … For One Soul.”
Later, I’ll post about the thoughts behind that statement. For now, I’d love some feedback on the logo ideas. Thanks.
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