Sooth Ruth, painted from the model earlier this week. Not really a fortune teller at all, but thought she could stand in for our soothsayer here. Maybe a little younger, maybe a little prettier. But who knows? Click on the picture for a larger view, and after that, again.
I read an account in the news about a dope ring broken up. The lawmen followed the transport lines, including the movement of two truckers, ferrying legitimate goods with the ill. One of them was religious, the other superstitious. The latter never trucked until a tea reader said the time was right. Actually it wasn’t tea, more like the exoskeletons of dead bugs—something like that. All for a price, of course.
When it all busted up the trucker squealed, implicating the fortune teller. They questioned her and she defended: “I only told them what they wanted to hear; I can’t see the future!”
There we have it, folks: The true confessions of a fortune teller.
As for the religious one, he should have checked his book. “No one knows what is coming—who can tell him what will happen after him?”
That’s another from Ecclesiastes* that frees us up (as truth always does). If we can’t know the future, and know that we can’t, then we can quit stressing about it and get on with things.
It’s the present that’s a gift. Maybe that’s why it’s called that.
It’s a funny thing about us and God. We who are stuck in the present are all preoccupied about the future; God, who knows the future, is more interested in the present.
Remember last week’s post, “It’s NOW that God favors what we do.”**
The future’s coming fast enough.
Open your present.
It’s a gift.
_________
*Ecclesiastes 10:14
** [1/15/12]
Next: Hospitality with a capital “Hhaa.” Coming Friday
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Our Lives Together
Its About Life
10:46 am
Hyatt! You do truly march to the tune of a different drummer! I love it and thanks for sharing more from that fertile creative mind of yours! Shea.
11:25 am
Once again, wisdom from the wise preacher… Thanks Hyatt. Always liked that little phrase:
“Yesterday’s history,
Tomorrow’s a mystery,
Today’s the present–
That’s why they call it a gift!”
11:29 am
The present, the present. My eyes are looking forward and my mind is reminding me of my last trip up. If I meditate on God’s word in the present, I can use it in the future so I trip up less often and I can accept the promise of forgivness for my past. That’s a great present!
11:34 am
Good thought, and well put, Hyatt. Brenning Manning talks about the “geography of nowhere” in that the word “no-where” can also read “now-here.” He emphasizes the importance of the present moment and living in it as best as we are capable of doing so. I think that part of what Jesus defined as “life to its fullest” (John 10) is just this. Think how fulfilled we would be if the haunts of the past were diminished, and the worries of what’s to transpire vaporized? Who knows… heaven may be that, simply living in the joy of the now and here, where nothing would distract us from appreciating all God has given to us. Now I’d take that in a heartbeat!
3:57 pm
If I ever would be worried
by a future so confusing
I would find immediate soothing
in Ruth´s arms…to whom I hurried.
5:12 pm
So then why do you think it is that we find it so difficult to live in the moment when it is all we really have? I mean really.
Thank you, Norm, for that no-where now-here, and the Brenning Manning reminder.
11:41 pm
I am always sitting in awe, with my mouth open at these great truths- Hyatt! Wonderful! And so is your painting! Wow! The present is truly all we have. To be in the moment and to be truly present in that moment, is so freeing. Such a gift! Such a present truly! Enjoying a sunset, a darling child, a beautiful flower, a smile, a hug from a loved one—— those are just times when I think—-heaven on earth! Thank you Father! Love love Lisa. PS love all the other people and their comments! There are some other great pastors in this group of yours, Hyatt! Such wisdom expressed! Wow!