Imperishable Beauty

Our pastor preached about reconciliation and forgiveness today, as we studied in Genesis about how Joseph and his brothers were reconciled after Joseph revealed himself to him. One point he made was that when Joseph forgave his brothers, he didn’t shuffle his feet and kick the dirt and stare at the ground and mumble:

“I, uh, um, I… forgive you.”

No, instead, Joseph looked right at them, and basically said:

I suppose I’m not the only one. I’m human, I’m impatient, and I want to be in control.

Moreso when it comes to things like… pregnancy tests.

Look what I found outside my house today!

I was going to use this terra cotta planter this afternoon until I saw what lay inside. The large “nest-like” thing is actually a man-made thing my mom gave me. But inside of that, this sweet little mommy bird built her own nest, complete with six little brown-speckled eggs.

Do you know how long I had to stand there to get this shot? I believe this is a Bewick’s Wren, but I may be wrong.

I watched her come and go every few minutes with a piece of something special for her nest. Diligently, hard at work to make her home for her soon-to-come babies. I observed as each time she came and went, she did so cautiously, on guard for any danger. As I watched her, I realized that she didn’t stop. Not once did she sit and rest inside with her little eggs. She kept going and going, popping in and out to keep building her nest, which quite frankly, looked just fine to me. And then I thought, this is what it means to be hard at work, building your home.

It all ties together with

Modesty is one of those topics that people take personally. Conversations about modesty can turn into arguments. Lines can be drawn and sides taken. In actuality, though, odds are that both sides agree on modesty for the most part and are arguing over the details. At it’s heart, modesty is not about clothes, it’s not about rules, it’s not about style. Modesty is about