Fire Insurance or True Heart

Our youngster is eleven. We have taken him to church with us since shortly after his birth. He attends a Christian school. We endeavor to live our lives in accordance with the teaching of Jesus Christ at home, though admittedly, often fall short. Last night, my husband comes into my 'studio' and closes the door behind him. He said "Our son just prayed to have Jesus come into his heart". He elaborated a little more in that at school they're studying from the book of Revelation, and he got scared. We praise God !

My prayer is that he has been truly convicted of his sin and his sinful nature, and truly desires a personal relationship with the Lord. My 'fear' is that, at this still young age, he merely wants 'fire insurance' of going to heaven, and that's not ASsurance. Time will tell as the years go by. And we'll continue to pray that he'll continually desire and draw near to the Saviour.

Scanning Negatives

For the last several days I've been scanning decades-old film negatives to my computer using my all-in-one printer. Most of these photos are from my childhood in the 1950s and 1960s. The black and white images have turned out pretty well using the tools available on the computer from the printer. The color images are a bit more difficult as the film has aged, and color was a relatively new element and not very stable, or so it seems. One of the most frustrating issues is that the scanner will only accommodate 35mm negatives or 35 mm slide film taken out of the cardboard or plastic frames. Most of the film I want to scan is approximately 4.1 cm x 6.5 cm or 5.7 cm squared. I don't know yet how I'll get those scanned. I searched some on the internet to see if special film scanners for those sizes were available but didn't find much. I may have to check with photographic suppliers....and that may be prohibitive to the budget!

Aside from the technical issues, I've enjoyed viewing these old photos which bring back the childhood memories of Christmases, life on the ranch, siblings and other family, and the many houses we lived in during those years.

Horses

My childhood was largely spent on a ranch. We didn't own it but my father worked on it. At that time the ranch was around 2000 acres of beautiful woodlands, hills, creeks and fresh air. While we lived in several houses near the ranch and even in town during those years, there was one house we lived in the longest for about five or six years. That place is home, in my heart. It remains only as a memory in my mind and in photos as it burned down in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I still visit the ranch owner who, now retired, lives at the ranch rather than in the big city. And it's still 'home'. And I miss it. And I'm glad I can go visit.



We had horses and cattle on the ranch, with round ups in the late fall, early winter. It was always wet and cold, but was a time for which I looked towards with pleasure. I loved the horses and riding. I think I must have also read every book and story in our school's library, and the town library, that had anything to do with horses or cowboy-western events. Many of them I read more than once. I watched shows like Fury, My Friend Flicka, Sky King, Zorro, The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid, Roy Rogers & Dale Evans. Perhaps my favorite stories were the Black Stallion series, and it was so thrilling to have a movie made from them. I miss horses here. I miss having them to ride, to care for, even to seeing them, for while there are horses in areas near here, there aren't any on my normal paths around town and other outings. It's been several years since I've ridden even a stable-rental horse.



I hope there are horses in heaven, or at least on the new earth, but I wonder if it would be the same. This meloncholy feeling for certain things of the past will no longer exist. There will be no more tears, so I won't cry over long-lost horses, cats, dogs that were so important as a child and since. I won't tear up when I watch a movie of a horse story like Flicka or The Black Stallion. But still, I hope there are horses.

A New Generation

My first child called me a week or so ago. She wanted me to be the first (aside from herself and husband) to know that she might be (was pretty sure she was) pregnant. She called two nights ago and confirmed that she is indeed pregnant. She and her husband thought it would take longer, but are thrilled nonetheless. They only recently stopped preventing pregnancy and thought it would take longer because shortly after they were married she had to have a surgery that resulted in the loss of one of her ovaries. So by the middle of September, Lord willing, I will be a first-time grandma. I wish we lived closer !! My baby's having a baby !! She really can't be closing in on 30 can she? That means she's really not a baby anymore, but in my heart, she'll always be 'my baby'. I wonder if she'd like the baby clothes I saved from when she was a baby; maybe some of the special blankets. Since it's her first, she'd probably like all new, but she's practical, so may be very happy to receive even her old ones. Oh, wait, she might have a boy and well, those clothes just wouldn't look right on 'him'.

Spending time in the past

Recently, I've spent a lot of time on a certain social network site acquiring friends. Now some of these weren't necessarily friends, as in close and personal, but they have become friends of a sort. Friendships do come at all levels. I've found former classmates, current friends, friends of friends, people I wanted to be closer friends with that just didn't get to that point, people I'd still like to be friends with, friends from church and groups within the church, friends from former neighbors, a couple 'friends' who are total strangers (adjusting privacy settings to keep them that way), and also friends from former employments, along with family and other associations. It can be quite mind-boggling. Mostly, it has been a real joy to re-connect with many of these people to see what paths their lives have taken, hopefully to see that they have, at least currently, happy and/or successful lives. Some I haven't seen or heard from in nearly 40 years.

I've also pulled out my box of memorabilia from high school. Now, 39 years later, it's sad, funny, sweet, and embarrassing all at the same time. In high school, I wasn't one amongst the popular crowd, nor was I in the 'picked on' crowd. I was, at least in my perception, within a group that was mostly invisible. It was a very small school in a very small town. We had around 70 graduates that year and everyone knew everyone else, not only at their own grade-level but in the entire high school. We have reunions every five years. We've lost several of our classmates to early deaths: suicide, accident, illness. We remember them fondly.

Blog Beginning

I've wrestled with whether or not I should, or even want to start a blog. Aren't there enough words already floating around the internet and elsewhere that are just meaningless and repetitious or vain-glorious?

I have decided I will begin, but I may not post much, nor often, and there may or may not at some point be photos. I will have to determine if I want to post only random events or find a more specific purpose in directing my posts.

I shall also remain largely anonymous for now, and with my comments regarding family and friends, their names and specifics shall also remain anonymous.