Burning Eyes At Sleepytime

Good morning! I opened the windows for some fresh nighttime air after 0130 and made a rather burning error along the way. The wind brought the smoke from the Colorado fires to us again last night. It's not an import we care to have but certainly better than the fire. Sleep doesn't work well with burning eyes and an itchy nose though, and coolish air or not I got back up and shut the windows. The dawn came orange this morning and I woke up a little fuzzy myself. Not, 'What day is it?' or 'Where am I?' fuzzy, but more of a 'Woof, that was a tough night' kind of fuzzy. The cat on the other hand was enjoying life to the fullest. Whenever I am going through the valley of a tough time, someone else is on a peak. The time will come when I am on a peak, and it will then be my turn to offer comfort and understanding to another.

Peaks and valleys again? I seem to write about the valley a lot lately. I guess when life seems to be in the bottom of a valley, it is easy to look up and wonder at the peaks. But Jesus is not standing up on a peak looking down when I am laboring through the valley. For not one of us could push through the briers and thickets of the valley floor without our trailblazer to follow. We tend to look around at the impenetrable mess of thorns all around us and feel the urge to give up. But, Jesus leads us through, often turning around to tell us to stop looking at the thorns and concentrate on the path ahead. Perhaps I should say, 'on the Way ahead'. We see the arrows of the devils and demons coming at us and despair. We feel the barbs of the thorns in life and want to quit walking. But the devils and demons shoot from a distance because they see what we forget, the Shepherd walking with us in this life. The plants of tribulation with their sharp thorns draw back in respect for the Holy Spirit in us, puncturing our armor only as much as they are allowed and no more. Life seems tough at times and despair easy to grab. As always happens, someone is there with me and you to tell us once more, "Look to Me, lift up your head and see the Light, live another day in Me!"

If we knew the number of our days, we would step on out with renewed purpose. The destination would be in sight and our eternal home on our minds. That number may not be known to us, but it is finite and the great day of our Lord is coming. Swiftly we will go to Jesus, and like the fellow who died at 102 we will say, "It all went by so fast!"

God bless you,
Bucky