Oil coated bird in Gulf of Mexico

Genesis 1:26  "Then God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.'"

Genesis 9:16 "Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

Mother and Rob, June 2010

Finally, finally, finally I got up for a visit with Mother.  It has been months and months and I was a bit afraid that she would look much deteriorated from the last time I saw her.  You tend to notice such things more after a long absence, I find.
 

DaVinci's Vitruvian Man

Job 22:14 "Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see,  And He walks above the circle of heaven."

This past week I was called into a local congregation to mediate a church conflict.  An open meeting to discuss the matter had been set up and the church leadership decided that instead of sitting around tables, they would place chairs in a circle.  A small altar with a Christ Candle was placed in the middle.
 

Gulf Oil Spill

Job 38:16 "Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?"

I may just be a pessimist, but I believe the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will cause permanent harm to our environment and in ways that have not yet occurred to anybody.  Why haven't they occurred to anybody?  Because we know less about the depths of the sea than we do about the moon. 
 

If you've followed me for any length of time, you know I've had a number of blogs.  Literally for years they have been created through Blogger and hosted on my personal website.  This spring, Blogger decided that they wouldn't allow blogs to be hosted elsewhere anymore and my posting came to an abrupt stop.
 

I resented giving them my traffic and finally decided that since my website needed to be redone anyway, I would look for a native way to host a blog.  I now have that.
 

What’s in your God-box? Each of us, says author Anne Robertson, builds our own way of understanding God—our "God-box"-- and fills it up with bits of scripture, wisdom, and our experiences of God at work in our lives. It’s a perfectly good way to puzzle out what God means to us. Encountering God through our human limitations, we learn something about the meaning of Incarnation.
 

For people of faith, religion and life are strongly connected. That’s why so many voters cite "moral values" as their most important guide when they head to the polls. But what exactly are "moral values"? For most Christians, regardless of their political persuasion, the best way to figure that out is to start with the Ten Commandments, the ultimate guide to morality.

It is about how Jesus lives now...today...through you.  It’s about how to be the Body of Christ in the world.  For everyone you meet.  Everybody.  Even the nasty lady who sneers at you in church and the boss who only lives to ruin your day.  And it’s about how to let your partner and your mother-in-law and your stupid, no-good sister teach you about God’s love.  It’s even about your dog.  And your dead grandmother.