Meet Lady.......So before Christmas Jon sold the Bob Marly (my black 1995 Jeep) to his sister. I loved the Bob Marly. He had such character and Starbuck and I could just jump in and go without worry of dog hair or dirt. We would head off to the trail, go on an adventure and return home in the faithful black Bob Marly.
Jon had seen a jeep that a parishioner was selling and briefly asked me if I liked it back in the summer. I did like said jeep. Then close to Christmas he sells the Bob Marly so I was pretty sure the other jeep was going to show up. A couple of days before Christmas no new jeep. Christmas Eve night no new jeep. So......what was I going to drive with the Bob Marly gone? But alas one light weight present I opened contained a key with the word jeep on it. After a search I saw the new jeep parked in the church parking lot from our back deck.

So meet Lady, 2008 Wrangler 2 door, X edition trail rated jeep! She is green and has cloth seats instead of the plastic that the Bob Marly had. She is a 6th speed and shifts into all 6 gears smoothly. So compared to the Bob Marly she is somewhat genteel! Thus the name Lady. Sometimes I even call her the Green Lady.
Just one issue to straighten out with Jon. Number one, Lady is suppose to be mine and secondly, we live in Marble, a deep mountain location and Lady IS A JEEP. So I take her out for the first adventure. I put up the back seats to make room for Starbuck in the back and off we go to park below Daniel's Hill. Starbuck and I make a beautiful hike to Lizard Lake and back. I load her up and we return home. Jon was coming in from the church and I excitedly told him what we had done! He responded, "You took the Jeep and you took Starbuck?" Well yeah I did. He then responded, "You'll get the jeep dirty and get dog hair everywhere." I simply looked at him and said, "Well, Lady is a jeep and you said she was mine and SHE IS GOING TO HAVE TO MAN UP around here!

Jon, a friend and I saw American Sniper yesterday. I am not one to recommend movies but in this case I break that rule. If you want to remember what our troops have to endure and what their families suffer, then this very intense and sad film is a great reminder. It is not for children and it is difficult to watch but there are troops and families still out there who need our support and prayers! There is a world out there that needs our prayers!

Okay, so I live in a sort of "isolated" place in between two mountain wilderness areas........ when our monthly paper came out this month, there was an article by our very own mobile local vet who lives in Marble explaining that a couple of local dogs had an animal encounter! So yeah, that got my attention having a local dog myself. Her best guess was that they had been mauled by a mountain lion! Okay........
On Tuesdays I volunteer at our local Marble Charter school. I sub there as well. So during recess a Marbleite dropped by to warn the school that a mountain lion was in a tree by his gallery. So the teachers let the kids know and just pulled them a little closer in and avoided the trees around the school. Two things crossed my mind: one, I wanted to leave the school and try to get a picture of such an elusive animal and secondly, I truly do live in the heart of of a magnificent mountain location. Do not get me wrong, I would have tried to stay in the jeep to get my photo!!!
I walked home from school with snowflakes falling, mountains shrouded in clouds thinking what a wondrous world that the Almighty has placed me to live.... And I should say, I did keep glancing up in the trees just in case........

After church during our fellowship time God blessed me with a very special gift! I have a friend, a sister here in Marble who has been and continues to be on a difficult journey. She is battling ovarian cancer. She continues this journey with such courage and grace! She leans on God and shares the things that He is teaching her freely, blessing all those around her.
Today she was sharing with me about the songs she has been singing; she has a God-given angel's voice! She has been singing blues song and laughs as she completes them. She has been reading dramatically some things at the table in English or Southern accents and again laughing. She shared that this week she asked her husband to dance with her and they had no dance music so they started out slow dancing. Then she decided to sing Davidic songs and they did Davidic dances. She laughed and I laughed with her, picturing the dance and hearing the music. We were laughing like two young girls right there in the fellowship room right in the middle of her difficult journey!! I sense God is giving her freedom in the midst of her struggle; freedom to continue to sing, freedom to dance with her husband and freedom to laugh!
This sharing she did with me, this laughter she shared with me was a gift from Heaven itself. Perhaps we will all sing in Heaven. Perhaps we will all dance in Heaven. Perhaps we will all laugh in Godly joy in Heaven.
Praise to God and thanks to my friend, my sister for sharing with me today.......

Advent......Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is the four Sundays before Christmas. It celebrates the anticipation and the waiting over the centuries in the past for the coming of the Christ child to save our world. It also celebrates the waiting and anticipation of the second coming of our Savior. I love Advent in the church.
So today our church was busy decorating, getting some of the Christmas decorations up in the sanctuary and the fellowship hall in anticipation of the season. We were working together on several projects; everyone running around getting their part done. It was snowing out. Jon walked through the front door of the church. He and two other men had been decorating the huge outside Engelmann Spruce with lights. He had on his stocking cap and his heavy winter coat. He was covered in snow! I just had to laugh!
"Did you get the lights on!?" I was just like a little child! He told me that they had accomplished the task. So of course I ran out the door to see. When I opened the doors of the church it was a snowy, Christmassy wonderland. Snow was swirling and flying about. It was cold and the world seemed transformed in its new snow. Jon plugged in the lights so that I could see the tree. Of course the tree had snow on the branches enhancing the lights. I was filled with joy and I felt Advent stirring in my heart!
"Rejoice, rejoice Emanuel, shall come to thee O Israel!" My prayer is that I always watch and wait with anticipation like a child for the coming of our Messiah in my heart and in our world!

Great cloud of witnesses.......In the early hours of this morning, my sister-in-law's mother, Mary, went to her eternal home. It is a great loss for Monica and the family because we lost Megan not quite two years ago. But Mary left with us a great hope in her last hours.
AB, my brother, said that she kept saying I love Jesus, Jesus loves me and I love my Mama. At one point she said that she saw the people. Monica asked if they were saints and she said yes. Off and on she spoke in a Heavenly language. Then in the dark morning hours she gently stepped from this world to the eternal world.
We who love Hebrews in the Bible, know that the writer speaks of the "great cloud of witnesses." The writer uses the analogy of the Christian running a race to finish the course here on earth and that we are cheered on by this cloud of witnesses. He goes on to explain that these witnesses are the saints who have gone on before us. I believe that Saint Mary saw this crowd and has now joined them. So it is my prayer that I will finish the race here in this earthly realm and will hear Saint Mary along with the other witnesses cheering me on and welcoming me to the finish line which will be my true "forever" home!
Let us not forget that we truly are just passing through this earthly place. It is not our home. Our home has always meant to be with Jesus. Let Saint Mary's final day here among us be hope to us in what she spoke and in what she saw. Christian let us "comfort one another with these words....."

Back in Marble......this afternoon one of our younger churchgoers had a Birthday party in the fellowship hall of the church. They were running around the church laughing and playing games of imagination and having the time of their lives. The parents of the birthday boy planed original games and crafts. The fellowship hall was filled with laughter and Joy!
We live at the end of the road here in Marble. There are no McDonalds or arcade pizza places to have celebrations. We have no grocery stores or even a gas station. We do have the glory and majesty of God's creation, our small historical church, our small charter school and children who still enjoy games that are formed from their own ripe imaginations. There is Marble's heartbeat, a community church, a community school and children that still run and play freely in the great outdoors!
"......Suffer the little children to come unto me. For such is the kingdom of Heaven..." Jesus Christ.