Journeys of the Heart
I had a long talk with my sister today. I love all our visits, but some are better than others, especially when we can stir up memories for each other. And memories are usually great because we know where they led us to eventually even if they were a little scary at the time.
One of the ones we talked about today was a broken down car in a precarious situation.
In Arizona, on old Highway 93, somewhere between Wickenberg and Wikieup, our old ’66 Toyota Crown Deluxe decided to die. It was the middle of the night, and it was very dark on that stretch of road. Since we had been going up hill, we knew we had to get the car turned around and coast to a place to pull over. The guys knew how to drive, and my sister and I did not, but the guys needed to do the pushing. So, I was behind the wheel trying to steer and got us part way, sideways, blocking one lane completely when…
Here comes a semi truck headed down the hill and straight for the lane the car was in. I panicked so hard that I had trouble finding the door handle to get out of there. The others were already crouched at the side of the road when I got to them and just started praying. Of the 4 of us, I was a new Christian, and the other 3 were not big believers at the time. We were all fully aware that if the truck hit the car, we’d likely be blown down the steep ravine behind us. Worse, the truck could not move over to the other lane because a station wagon was now ascending the hill in the lane we’d just pulled our car out of. Even prayer didn’t seem like enough of a solution for the certain tragedy just moments away.
Since I’m writing this now, you know something changed, and that’s what my sister and I were talking about. At that moment, and even up to now, what happened is both a blur and a mystery. One minute, a semi was barreling toward our car as a station wagon blocked the only way it could have gotten around us. In the next moment, the semi was heading down the hill on the other side of the Toyota, and the station wagon was continuing up the hill untouched, unfazed, and just fine. We scrambled back to the car to finish pulling it around and getting it coasted into an emergency lane down the hill before we had time to talk to each other about what we saw. Did our car disappear for a moment, we wondered? Did the truck and the station wagon pass through each other? Did time just fast forward? Not one of us can tell you what actually happened in that moment, but we can tell you that God certainly did something miraculous, saved multiple vehicles, and spared multiple lives. I still wonder what the truck driver saw.
Now, remember, this is well before the days of cellphones or even car phones. I don’t think I even had a CB radio in that car. So we tried to sleep and planned to flag someone down for help the next day. My sister’s husband started out walking in the summer heat hoping a different location along the road might find a more willing helper. The rest of us just stayed by the car worrying. But you know what? In less than probably half an hour, here comes my brother-in-law riding in the passenger seat of a tow truck. As soon as it stopped and he got out, we asked, “Where did you find a tow truck?” “In, Nothing,” he answered.
Huh? Nothing? What could he have meant by that? He meant exactly what he said. Our car had apparently died about a half a mile from the little tourist stop called Nothing, Arizona. They had a gas pump, a tow truck, a little store, and a population of 4. And, amazingly, they were there and available that day. And now, it’s a population of zero and a total ghost town, but you can read the history of it on Wikipedia. And here’s a picture of my hubby and nephew in front of the little store years later but before it became abandoned…
That’s only one of many heart journeys that brought me to, and through, amazing circumstances. But I think that’s one of my favorites simply because it leaves no room to do anything other than trust The Lord. Normally, I want all the answers, and I want to be able to fix things, but in this story, I am content to trust that God did something big and beyond explanation. I want to think it was for me or for others with me, but it could’ve been for the truck or car driver who had other assignments they hadn’t finished on this earth. Whatever God’s reasoning, even the picture above wouldn’t have been possible if we’d all been injured or killed that night. And in this, I will continue my journey while remembering the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 46:10a, “Be still and know that I am God.”
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Happy Birthday, Grandma!
One of the blessings of being the first born is also getting to be the first grandchild. One of my favorite stories from childhood is when my mom, who was living in Ohio, called up my grandmother (her mother) to wish her a happy birthday. It was also the day of my birth, but Grandma did not know it yet, so Mom said, “Happy Birthday, Grandma!”
Of course, Grandma began her usual thanks for the wishes when the new term hit her. “Wait… Grandma?”
And thus began the plans to transport me back to Southern California and all the family members who had new titles like grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, etc. When life became more difficult not many years later, I believe the special position as the “first” everything, and all the spoiling that came with it in my formative years, gave me a balance that made the hard times easier to survive. And they made me a better big sister who could take control and take care as needed. Not perfect, mind you, as I was still a child, but I think I was a little more attentive to my baby sister.
I still have fond memories of shared birthday gatherings when there would be a cake with both names, or a big and little cake when we each got our own. I loved sharing my birthday with my grandmother, and it never felt the same after she left this world. But I will always have that sweet story of the phone call “reveal” to my newly ordained Grandma. 😁
Here’s one of those memories from a Polaroid I shared to my Flickr feed, though I’m sorry I cannot seem to control the sizes from Flickr pages to this blog…
Thank you for joining me on this trip down memory lane. And if you have a grandmother who needs a pretty card for her birthday, feel free to download and use the card above. You can add a name in multiple photo editing apps, but I recommend Photo Studio Pro the most.
And one last thing; I learned today that there is a scientific group doing studies on mother’s milk that shows how different needs of a baby create different chemical components within the milk. It’s a different composition for boys than girls, it changes for sick babies, and first-time mothers have more cortisol in their milk which causes first-born babies to be more alert, attentive, and anxious. It’s almost like some Intelligent Being designed things to work in certain ways that benefit the human race, huh? 🤩 Read a summary of more highlights from this amazing study by Katie Hinder, an evolutionary anthropologist, on X (you’ll need to log in) at https://x.com/i/status/2016990657450299837 and prepare to be amazed. (If you don’t have an X/Twitter account, maybe look up the scientist by name. It’s a lot of fascinating study.)
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Wombo Dream Butterfly Memories
When I first started using the Wombo Dream AI app, it was creative but lacking in crisp and defined images. The colors were pretty, but many of the images weren’t worth saving. That was around Christmas of 2022, and they were improving daily. I left a 4-star review and explained that horses having 3 legs and 2 tails wasn’t exactly 5 stars, but to keep improving. They replied with happy words for my review.
The images above were made on January 14th, 2024, so this is their 2-year anniversary. They came up in my memories in Amazon photos, and I decided they’d be the perfect share. There were a whole lot more, but I grabbed some of my favorites and let the AI in the Photo Studio Pro app for Android arrange them in a collage. I love that it did all the fitting, and all I had to do was change the background to create a frame I liked and hit save. I could stare at colors like this all day.
I saved a lot of my prompts before they started having problems near the end of 2024 when all the old prompts were erased. I think this may be a collection of some of the prompts I used: ”detailed butterfly with stained glass wings, in a garden of pastel flowers, colorful rays of light in the background, red, blue, purple, green, glittery, gold, silver, sparkles, colorful, sparkling, jeweled, jewel tones, bright, hot pink, glowing, garden, glitter, beautifully lit.” The next image is what I get now with these prompts and using the Dreamland V3 filter. You can see the details are better, so if they ever get everything fixed again, it will certainly be a wonderful app for playing with color and making butterfly memories.
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All That God Commands
The title for this post comes from the last verse of this reading from Genesis 6:9 through Genesis 6:22, “Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.” (This verse from the Amplified Bible.)
I just spent an evening and a full day at a training seminar to learn about prayer and healing and ministering to others. I have about 25 pages of notes, and I saw some amazing things in the Power of God. Since I have walked as a follower of God, I can testify to multiple miracles, including one that is medically verified. And yet, I look at these chronicles of Noah, and I wonder, if it were me in his place, would I do ALL that God commanded me to do?
If we all told the truth, I’m sure we would all admit that it would be a struggle to exceed the boundaries of the natural things God wants us to do and take a jaunt into the supernatural. If we can’t see it or feel it, can it really be true? Then again, we can’t see love, but we somehow trust it is true. We can’t see salvation, but we know it is true, and often trust someone who says they’ve become saved just on their word. And salvation, the regeneration of the human soul, is the greatest miracle of all. Of course salvation wasn’t even part of the culture back then–except for Noah. The world had never yet seen a drop of rain, so just believing that God was going to destroy the earth with water was a stretch, but he did it. But then, to build a boat on dry land, build it the size required and believe it would float, and then trust that the animals from all over the earth would just find their way there and walk right in? Wow! Most of the world would have called, and probably did call, Noah a crazy man. But he obeyed in spite of their accusations.
Growing up, we had a record, and yes I mean a vinyl LP album, called “Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow…Right!” I can’t tell you how many times we listened to it, but it was funny pretty much every time. The part we listened to most was the three skits where God calls on Noah to build an ark. Noah asks questions like, “Am I on Candid Camera?” and “Who is this really?” And while the story is written as a comedy, so much of it rings of truth when thinking about how humans react to that which is supernatural in God. To hear it for yourself, listen to this recording at God Tube… http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=WL7YYLNX and let me know if it’s your first time hearing it, or if it brings back some great memories for you.
And after you listen to Bill Cosby, and/or read today’s Scriptures, ask yourself whether you would act like Bill’s Noah, or the Noah in the Bible who, rather than doing things his own way, did ALL that God commanded of him. No wonder he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
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October 5, 2013 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | album, ark, believing God, Bible, Bible study, Bill Cosby, Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow...Right!, comedy, command, Complete Jewish Bible, Cosby Noah, Creator, crystalwriter, funny, Genesis 6, God, humor, Lord, LP, memories, miracle, Noah, nostalgia, obedience, right, salvation, Scripture, sketch, supernatural, Torah, Torah commentary, Torah Portions, Torah Reading, truth, vinyl, Word, Word of God, Word of the Lord, Yahveh, Yahweh | Leave a comment