A chance visit to where-I-did-some-of-my-growing-up prompted a drive-by ”Mama’s old house” today. But any pleasant memories for which I am thankful were overshadowed by the fact that the house was not there. Gone. Demolished. Made way for brand spanking new big pretentious plaster houses.
All of it gone. Including my name scribbled with a carpenter’s pencil. I remember writing it and thinking it would remain etched there on the framing forever. It lasted a mere 27 years.

Thank You for the reminder, God, that this life is temporal. (312)
That things don’t matter. (313)
That memories last. (314)

I remember the pot belly stove with shining copper flue belching heat into winter.
I remember learning to play the piano.
I remember Grandma and Grandpa living in the attached flat.
I remember cycling round the section, and the little mud ramp.
I remember the vege garden.
I remember board games at the dining room table.
I remember drawing house plans.
I remember lying in my sister’s bed and watching Tenko through the almost-closed door to the lounge.
I remember neighbours.
I remember after-dinner walks.
I remember sketching the cabbage tree.
I remember Dad listening to the horses on his transistor radio.
I remember the tamarillo tree. I still don’t like tamarillos
I remember trips to the beach after checking the tide chart.
I remember the assault on the bamboo.
I remember sleeping in Grandma and Grandpa’s garage…
and my sister giving me a stolen peppermint….
only it wasn’t a peppermint; it was a quick-eze….
and it was stolen…..
and it tasted like it. (315-327)

Some things you don’t forget.
Memories last.
But things don’t.

So we popped round the corner to see the other house we lived in, only a matter of sections away from that now-disappeared one.
And that one was gone too.
Well, maybe it’s still there….underneath. But I didn’t see it. There used to be a modest family home nestled on the site. Now a big dark brown brick building has swallowed the garden.
Gone.
Things don’t last.

The hill where I took my first poorly-timed risk is still there. So is the scar on my ankle from the collision with the lady pushing a pram, who crossed the street at exactly the same moment I hurtled down on my red two-wheeler-bike. I really thought I’d make it first.
Thanks, God, for adventure. (328 )
I still have a scar on my hand too. Cut on the rusty wire fence as I tottered nervously on roller blades. I declined Dad’s offer to buy me a lemonade iceblock on the way home from the tetanus shot, and regretted my decision for years to come! The fence has gone now. Thanks, God, for my Dad. (329)

Houses. Homes. Family. Memories. Gardens. Life.
Thanks.

Thanks for the crisp morning (310)
~ opening the front door took my breath away ~
God, please take my breath away
every day
Please help me see
your shekinah glory

Thanks for clear blue sky (311)
not a cloud in sight
a perfect blank canvas against which the evergreens stand strong
and the AutumnColours blaze
May my life be a backdrop for Your Colour

Paint me as I breathe for You

Get thinking

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ~ Philippians 4:8

The world is so full of discord, agony, treachery, misery……..so how do we concentrate on excellent and lovely things in the face of such pain? I think the answer is not in ignoring the bad, but being able to bring truth and hope to bear on such situations.

God, I am thankful that you offer us the gift of truth. (305)
God, I thank You that without You there would be no *noble*. (306)
God, thanks for teaching us right from wrong. (307)
Thanks God, for being the source of purity, beauty, excellence, praise. (30
Thank You God for creating *admirable*. (309)

Please do help me to be Your agent, soaking myself in your solutions and being able to administer Your hope, even where there are no answers. Help me to think, to focus.

Get transforming

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2

Thank You God, that you give us the gift of lofty aspirations. (290)
You want us to be changed. You want us to see through Your eyes.
You want us to offer our daily lives in sacrifice, as worship.
You don’t want us to be the same as everyone else.
You want us to think differently, to live differently, to be non-conformists.

When I think of transformation I think of change, of growth.
Thank you for our children; constantly growing, learning, changing, maturing.

Thank you for T3-about-to-turn-4. (291)
Thank you for the way she has broken out of her timid shell this past year. (292)
Thank you for the joy that fills her. Thanks for her jokes. (293)
Thank you for the confidence with which she now carries herself. (294)
Thank you for her bubbly nature. (295)
Thank you also for her quietness, her contemplative demeanour. (296)
Thank you for her sparkly eyes, her generous smile. (297, 29
Thank you for her nurturing. (299)
Thank you for her readiness to help. (300)
Thank you that she walked 8km one day this week. (301) She’s a trooper!
Thank you for the overwhelming love I feel for her. (302)
Thank you for the wonderful memories we have of her life so far. (303)
And thanks for the collage creator! (304)

Get imitating

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children ~ Ephesians 5:1

ER(23months) watches me winding hanks of wool into balls as she drops off to sleep. She lies on her wee mattress on the floor winding her own hands round and round each other. She wakes and sits beside me as I knit, needles distinctively clickety-clacking. She knits too, perhaps imaginatively, perhaps with wooden skewers or chopsticks. The older children learnt the same way. Watching, copying.

A neighbour we used to live beside would stand on the driveway chatting with us, hands firmly planted in his pockets. His young son would stand beside him, hands deep in his own pockets.
Living together, watching, copying.

Thanks God that You show us imitation in action (28
Thanks that You gave us One to copy (289)

As I grow older, please help me not to be distracted, but to take the time to watch.

Get working

He who works his land will have abundant food, 
but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment.
Proverbs 12:11

Thanks for the gift of meaningful work (287)

Get something for yourself

A kindhearted woman gains respect, but ruthless men gain only wealth.
A kind man benefits himself, but a cruel man brings trouble on himself.
Proverbs 11:16-17

Thanks for the gift of kindness (286)
Thanks that it benefits everyone who experiences it.

Get patriotic

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Philippians 3:20-21

Thanks for the gift of promise. (283)
Thanks for the fact that there is more to life than *now*. (284)
Thanks that our passports just arrived and the children have a deeper understanding of the concept of citizenship as a result of discussions around this. (285)

Get ambition

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

Thanks for the gift of purpose. (27
Thanks God for the gift of work. (279)
Thanks for the gift of handcraft. (280)
Thanks for the gift of minding your own business. (281)
Thanks for the gift of quietness, absence of *drama* (282)

Thanks for helping me appreciate these things.

Get life

The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death. Proverbs 14:27

Thanks God for the gift of life (277)

Thanks for life now
Thanks for life after death
Thanks for life forever

I’m wondering if this verse suggests that if we want to embrace life we will make choices that lead to life….eg in the times of capital punishment if people lived uprightly there would be no cause for them to be put to death OR if we look after our bodies we might live longer….OR is that just too *practical* a reading?

God, please help me to fear You, to drink from Your fountain of life, to turn away from the things that might lead me towards death.