Cast the Net Far and Wide

A SPRINGTIME WALK AROUND THE CRESCENT… I live in an apartment.   Like everyone else, I have waited longingly for spring, seemingly so late in arriving this year.   My apartment faces the north-east, with a restful view of the gardens, mature trees and woods.   I get the morning sun until about 11:30 am, and so tend to rush out to soak in it on my balcony in the early morning.   In the afternoon, I have been drawn by the warmth of the sun and the blossoming trees to go out the front door of our building and walk in either direction around our street, which is a crescent, and on the larger street adjoined to it, and the nearby plaza occasionally.               One thing I have learned through being vehicleless these last few years is that on a bus or in a car you can miss everything.   On my first walk I almost tripped over a sidewalk crack, but suddenly saw and smelled some lovely wild roses. ...

I am sitting in my living room easy chair looking across at a special family photo on the opposite wall.   I am transported back to a time when my children were just one and three years old.   My husband Rien smiles with fondness as we hold the innocent children for an unplanned store photo. Stephen, three, is excitedly laughing, his blue eyes merry under a drift of blond hair. One-year-old Grace , blonde with her Daddy’s brown eyes, stretches out a baby hand, her face captured in the sweet beginning of a smile.   I am so happy now that we had the photo taken, as the children are now grown and my husband no longer with us.   The photo, for years a favourite sight in the hall of our home, had been stuffed into a box because of a broken frame.   My daughter, sensing how special it was to me, had had it reframed to match my new apartment. A wonderful new thought pours into my mind like a helium balloon being filled:   God, being outside time and greater i...

I have been so busy lately! AND I , at age 78, am trying to change my lifestyle for healthier living - and to please Christ. So there I was on the city bus, after a medical appointment, fearful of what might be coming next in my life, and worried about dietary changes, body chemistry changes and some very real symptoms in my body.  Scared, even though I am a Christian, and have often had to stand on God's Word for healing in mind and body.  Plus God  had asked me to fast and pray for Israel, but I knew that I also needed vitamins and nutrients, especially at my age. As we slid past the wintry trees and snowy hills along the bus route, I seemed to see in my imagination a mountain goat high up on  a huge snowy mountain.  He looked so peaceful, all alone and far above traffic and man-made  busy-ness.  Sure-footed, he stood still, staring straight ahead.  I was reminded that the Bible says that we should not worry about how we will be fed, or what ...

THE SAFEST PLACE IS IN HIS ARMS – GOD LOVES YOU, YES YOU!                 This is an eternal Valentine’s Day message – especially for anyone who is depressed, discouraged, sad or beaten down by life. The beams of the cross on which Jesus, King of the Jews and Saviour of all point to the four directions of the earth:   north, south, east and west.   His face is distorted with agony and sweat lines his brow as his nailed arms reach out to people of all walks of life, every skin colour and ethnic background.   Yet a holy light shines forth from His dear face. He is living out the greatest love anyone has ever shown:   to die, even though innocent Himself, for the sins of each one of us, no matter how hideous, so that we can go to Heaven.   That means you – yes, you!               I learned this truth years ago, when I was wo...

         OF LOVE AND A FAKE LEATHER GUITAR STRAP We did not have a dime to spare and sometimes not even a dime.   My husband and I with our two children, now twelve and ten, were living on a small native reserve in Manitoba in a house in a lumber yard, the only housing available.   Our term of service with a Christian organization establishing a market garden on the reserve was over.   Yet we were still on the reserve with no source of income. Even when our basic needs had been provided for by the organization, we had not been living too high off the hog.           “Happy Birthday, to you,             Happy Birthday to you,             Happy Birthday, dear Mom,             Happy Birthday to you!” A cake, decorated in my favourite colour p...

                                                    DRAMA OF A DOVE It is a beautiful piece of art.   A gift to my husband and me from a dear family member, it hangs in our huge front window, a tribute both to love of family and the talent of a local artist.   A dove, the symbol of peace, carries a small olive branch, as in the Bible story of Noah’s ark.   The dove is simply yet intricately designed, in subtle shades of brown and grey, wings held high. It appears to be flying right out of the picture, as the leaves on the twig in its mouth are carried into the border.   The whole piece is made of a square of bevelled glass, surrounded by a border of sky blue.   The artist’s mark is on the back. As I was looking at the ...

                                         GOALS                  Copyright     Frances K. Van Mil A guide’s honour is to be trusted; Loyal is she; Helpful to others, A friend to all and a sister to each other, A guide is merciful, a friend to animals; Orders obeyed– Smiles, sings, is thrifty, Pure in thought, word and deed. Yes, Girl Guides taught me many things about how to live – goals which remain in my life, and reflect the ten commandments.   Indeed, my Christian faith was strengthened at summer camp at Doe Lake, north of Huntsville , as we held our “Guides’ Own Service” on log benches, in the beauty of the woods, singing “ This is my Father’s world; and to my list’ning ears, All nature sings and round me rings th...