It passeth knowledge, that dear love of Thine!
My Jesus! Savior! yet this soul of mine
Would of that love, in all its depth and length,
Its height and breadth, and everlasting strength
Know more and more.
It passeth telling! that dear love of Thine!
My Jesus! Savior! yet these lips of mine
Would fain proclaim to sinners far and near
A love which can remove all guilty fear,
And love beget.
It passeth praises! that dear love of Thine!
My Jesus! Savior yet this heart of mine
Would sing a love so rich, so full, so free,
Which brought an undone sinner, such as me,
Right home to God.
But though I cannot tell, or sing, or know,
The fullness of Thy love while here below,
My empty vessel I may freely bring:
O Thou, who art of love the living spring,
My vessel fill.
I am an empty vessel—not one thought,
Or look of love to Thee I ever brought;
Yet I may come, and come again to Thee,
With this the empty sinner’s only plea— Thou lovest me!
Oh! fill me Jesus Savior with Thy love;
Lead, lead me to the living fount above!
Thither may I in simple faith draw nigh
And never to another fountain fly,
But unto Thee.
And when my Jesus face to face I see,
When at His lofty throne I bow the knee,
Then of His love, in all its breadth and length,
Its height and depth, its everlasting strength,
My soul shall sing.
It’s fun to see our birdbath in use from time to time. Sitting in our family room I have a clear view of the birdbath through the sliding glass doors that open to our back acreage. I keep a camera handy with a long lens on it to capture moments like these.
In for a dip and then it was all in.
All washed up and ready for church tomorrow morning.
If I recall correctly, growing up we only had baths once a week on Saturday evening so we were all nice and clean for Sunday church. Every morning we’d have to wash our faces but baths were once a week. Things changed when we hit junior high and high school. When we had kids of our own it was normal to have a bath a day instead of once a week. I wonder sometimes if our little ones are too clean and not able to fight off common infections as when we were little. I remember having the diseases like measles and chicken pox but I don’t remember having lots of colds or the flu and we were never on antibiotics. I do remember having pink eye. I also had some mystery ailment (kidney infection?) that landed me in the hospital when I was in first grade and I was in recovery at home for a long enough time that I had a teacher come to our home for studies. The reason I think it might have been a kidney infection is because I had to drink a lot of water and I wasn’t allowed to have salt. My parents probably didn’t really understand what was wrong with me because they were never really able to tell me when I asked them about my mystery ailment. On the subject of communicable diseases I recall standing in a very long line with my family at the local junior high for polio vaccinations when I was elementary age. We also got smallpox vaccinations in elementary school. That smallpox vaccination was pretty primitive and left an interesting scar. Since we are on this subject of communicable, thankfully I only remember having lice once, in elementary school. Oye! My mother worked very hard to eradicate them. When I was an elementary school teacher there was an outbreak of lice and it made me squirm.
Hope you have a nice last Saturday in June! Happy Canada Day weekend to our friends to the North.
17 The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Can you imagine God singing over you?
Are you a child of God? Have you responded to His call to repent and be born again? Jesus died for our sins and rose again so that our sins can be forgiven and we can be saved and be born again. Is Jesus your Lord and Savior? Are you following and growing in relationship with Him?
If you answer yes then you are His child. You are one of His lambs. Stop and consider the fact that the God of the universe sings over you…
My daily readings right now include the Bible, Daily Readings by C.H. Spurgeon, The Pleasures of God by John Piper and Pray Big by Alistair Begg. In Piper’s book I’m in the chapter called “The Pleasure of God in doing good to all who Hope in Him”. The beginning sentence reads; “Can you imagine what it would be like to hear God singing?”
This chapter brought my thoughts to who I have sung over in my life. There is a simple song I sang over each of our children when they were babies. I made up the simple words to a simple tune and sang it when I held them or rocked them.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Joshua, Joshua.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Joshua, Joshua.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.
I sang the same song over our second born son, Daniel.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Daniel, Daniel.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Daniel, Daniel.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.
Then we had our daughter, Katie.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Katie, Katie.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Katie, Katie.
She’s my little girl, I love her so.
She’s my little girl, I lo-ove her so.
Now 40 years later I’m singing this same simple song over our granddaughter and grandson.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Addyson, Addyson.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Addyson, Addyson.
She’s my little girl, I love her so.
She’s my little girl, I lo-ove her so.
and
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Jaymison, Jaymison.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Jaymison, Jaymison.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.
Today I’m dumbfounded in thoughts about God singing over me. God singing over His lambs. I’m waiting on God for the day when He returns to gather his lambs. How about you? “Open our heart-eyes to see much further and see much better, to the riches of your eternity.” ~Begg
John 17:24-26English Standard Version (ESV)
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Weekend last we had some precious time with our grands and kids.
On Monday the electric company sent tree trimmers to top some of the trees in our backyard that were encroaching on the transformer and wires.
On the first day of summer I took a walk about our country bungalow to document the plants that are growing and blooming.
These are the last of the pink peonies we have in our yard. The crystal vase on the left was a wedding gift from my little babushka. Some of you might recognize the Princess House vase on the right.
We can take no credit for planting anything you see in the collages/mosaics. We are enjoying the fruit of someone else’s labor in the planning and planting on our property. What’s left to us is weeding and pruning in the future.
Linking up with Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf for Mosaic Monday.
Do you have any traveling plans for the summer? Lord willing, we plan to take some day trips into Canada and around our area and we are hoping for visitors to our country bungalow. This is Dear’s last week of his part-time contracting job so he will be officially retired come Friday afternoon. I told him I’d like to celebrate by making an appointment for a massage for myself. He questioned my logic since he’s the one retiring.
When He cometh, when He cometh
To make up His jewels,
All His jewels, precious jewels,
His loved and His own.
Refrain
Like the stars of the morning,
His brightness adorning,
They shall shine in their beauty,
Bright gems for His crown.
He will gather, He will gather
The gems for His kingdom;
All the pure ones, all the bright ones,
His loved and His own.
Refrain
Little children, little children,
Who love their Redeemer,
Are the jewels, precious jewels,
His loved and His own.
Refrain
Words: W.O. Cushing, 1856.
Malachi 3:17New King James Version (NKJV)
“They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him.”
A minister returning from Europe on an English steamer visited the steerage, and after some friendly talk proposed a singing service—if something could be started that everybodyknew—for there were hundreds of emigrants there from nearly every part of Europe.
It will have to be an American tune, then, said the steerage-master; try His jewels.
The minister struck out at once with the melody and the words…and scores of the poor half-fare multitude joined voices with him. Many probably recognized the music of the old glee, and some had heard the sweet air played in the church-steeples at home. Other voices chimed in, male and female, catching the air, and sometimes the words—they were so easy and so many times repeated—and the volume of song increased, till the singing minister stood in the midst of an international concert, the most novel that he had ever led.
He tried other songs in similar visits during the rest of the voyage with some success, but the Jewel Hymn was the favorite; and by the time port was in sight the whole crowd of emigrants had it by heart.
The steamer landed at Quebec, and when the trains, filled with the new arrivals, rolled away, the song was swelling from nearly every car.
Our Father’s day table this year was Red, White and Blue inspired by Flag Day. There were 11 of us counting Addy and JJ. Addy’s chair is not in these photos. At all the meals we’ve had at our house when I set the table with napkins and napkin rings I’ve added one for Addy too, on her highchair tray. For this meal I overlooked doing that. Baba fail! When Laura helped Addy into her highchair Addy looked around at the table I had set and said, “Where’s my rag?”. I hurried to grab her a napkin ring and napkin. I love that she calls a cloth napkin a rag.
The photo below is Addy in her chair at her house but she has an identical one at our house. I did not take photos of everyone around our Father’s Day table or the delicious food we had. Blogger fail. Since Addy’s question was the quote of the day I wanted to include a photo of her in this post. In the future I will not forget Addy’s rag.
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When Addy saw this banner (bunting) she said, “how cute”.
Reminds me of the song we used to sing…
The Lord is mine and I am His
His banner over me is love
He brought me to his banqueting table
His banner over me is love
I’ll keep our red, white and blue décor up through the summer.
It is staying light so late here in the northeast corner of Washington State. It was so light when we hit the sack at nine. Today we are heading to Spokane for an appointment. We’ll do a little shopping while we are there, too. Colville has a Wal-Mart, a Country Store, a North 40, a Builder’s supply, an Outdoor Sports store, a couple small décor stores, a few furniture stores, a Do-It Center, and a small independent Sears. When we go to Spokane we like to hit the Home Depot, Costco, Trader Joe’s, Hobby Lobby, Fred Meyer, At Home, T.J. Maxx and Total Wine.
More and more we are learning to do without the Spokane stores that we don’t have in Colville. I’m learning to appreciate Wal-Mart. When we lived on the Coast (Seattle area) I very rarely stepped foot in a Wal-Mart.
Today is the last day of Spring! Yikes! Enjoy the day dear bloggers and my other friends who visit here.
Jaymison Joshua’s 2 month mark has come and gone and before this time gets away from me I want to document it. He is nine weeks old today. It is so easy to concentrate on firstborns with no competition for attention. When you have a toddler around during the stages of life of the second born it’s easy to get distracted. That’s life and it comes with some good benefits for the second born, too. It’s not all bad to not be in the limelight all the time.
Here are our firstborn and second born. This photo was taken on Father’s Day 2019.
“Wait a minute Baba, this post is all about me so stop with the distractions.”
Saturday June 15th.
“I see you, Baba.”
Baba and Gramps love talking to you and watching you. We love you!
JJ, you have our full attention.
We thank God for you and ask Him to lead you and guide you to walk with Him.
“There’s Auntie Laura taking pictures of me and Baba.”
You and Uncle Joshua chillin on the couch.
Here you are with the guys on Father’s Day 2019.
Numbers 6:24-26English Standard Version (ESV)
24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
We had a super weekend but I left my camera at our kids’ house in all the excitement and only have these fun photos our daughter-in-law posted on Facebook to share for now. My camera will get dropped off tomorrow.
This weekend besides being Father’s Day Weekend was the Colville Pro-West Rodeo Weekend. The parade was on Main Street. Our kids went to the parade on Saturday afternoon before coming to our place for a early Father’s Day dinner. Addy was a little concerned about all the loud noises.
She had fun collecting beads and candy from some of the floats in the parade.
It was a hot and humid day and Dear and I opted to skip the parade this year and make the final preparations for our time together Saturday evening. Just look at that sky in the photo above. It says heat and humidity to me. I am so very thankful for the heat pump we had installed in November. It is a pleasure to be cool inside when the temps get over 90 outside.
Thank you, Laura, for the great photos that you always take and share with us!
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 