Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Nick of Time

Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay

Do you know the feeling of relief you get when you get something important accomplished with barely a minute to spare?

Perhaps you realize at the eleventh hour that today is actually your wedding anniversary, and you haven’t yet bought a present for your spouse. But you race over to the store and manage to find the perfect gift just before they close. Crisis averted!

Or maybe you have to give a crucial presentation at work, but you’re stuck in traffic. So you take every shortcut you know and, lo and behold, you slide into the office as the clock strikes 9 AM. Your boss never knows how close you came to being late.

I imagine the thief on the cross knew this feeling.

When we speak of the “thief on the cross,” we’re referring to one of the two criminals between whom Jesus was crucified.

This is the one who said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Jesus assured him that that very day he would be with Him in Paradise.

Talk about being in the nick of time!

The thief was dying an excruciating death. He probably only had a few hours left to live. Yet even at that late hour, he professed faith in Jesus and was accepted.

His story is often given as an example of how it’s never too late to turn to God, and that’s certainly true.

But I wonder if there’s more we can glean from the account of the thief on the cross?

There’s a question that’s always niggled at me: how did he know that Jesus was indeed Lord?

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Still Water Reflects Best

Lago di Limides, Italy
Photo by Julius Silver on Pixabay

We seem to have difficulty being still these days, don’t we?

For many of us, life happens at warp speed. We’re always on the go, and have little downtime to pause and reflect on things.

But with all our constant motion, are we missing out on something?

Recently, I visited a park with a pond large enough to almost be a small lake. A slight breeze left ripples on the water, disturbing the reflection of the trees in the distance. The image on the water’s surface was wavy and impressionistic, not a true representation of the landscape nearby.

I then walked to a different part of the park where a river flowed lazily into the pond. The water was running slowly, and because it was sheltered from the breeze in this area, it was very still. The trees here were perfectly reflected in the water, giving a mirror image of their true forms.

I guess that to get the best reflection in water, stillness is the key.

Perhaps the spiritual lesson here is that if our lives are too frantic, it’s hard for us to reflect Christ.

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Language of Flowers and the Language of God

Say it with flowers!
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA-2.0

Flowers speak. Not just through their fragrance or their beauty, but with secret codes, too.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the “language of flowers” that was popular during Victorian times?

This enchanting symbolic language enabled suitors to send coded messages to their paramours, ones that couldn’t be spoken aloud. The message depended on the particular flowers and colours chosen for the bouquet. An entire conversation could be carried out solely through flowers, with no words employed at all.

We all know that red roses symbolize true love, and we’d rightly guess that the forget-me-not begs that the giver be remembered. But did you know the following flower meanings?

Red carnation: My heart aches for you
Hyacinth: Your loveliness charms me
Canterbury bell: Your letter received
Yellow rose: Jealousy
Butterfly weed: Let me go
Weeping willow: Sadness

The Victorian language of flowers is a cryptic tongue. Most people only see the surface of the flower and not the symbolic meaning hidden within it.

God has His own “language of flowers,” but it actually encompasses all of creation. God is continually speaking to us through nature:

“For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” (Romans 1:20)
“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship.” (Psalm 19:1)

If we listened in to what nature was saying about its Creator, what messages would be revealed?

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Lost In Translation

Sign on toilet door in Chengdu airport, China
Photo by Anne Roberts on Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA-2.0

There’s a real art to translation: zeroing in on just the right words to convey the nuance of what the original author intended.

Done well, a translated work can be a masterpiece in its own right.

Oftentimes, though, a translation can turn out to be a farce, as in the following examples:

A menu item in Chinese for a roasted gluten dish was translated into English as “Sixi Roasted Husband.” (The perfect dish for wives who’ve finally had enough of their mates?)

A hot and spicy chicken dish on another Chinese menu became “Chicken Rude and Unreasonable” in English. (No wonder the chicken met his end—he had it coming!)

Or this Google Translate zinger: “It’s been the goat in the budget, because His raining badly, so quite short, he is on the bucket month out.” (Not sure what this meant in the original Danish, but I hope the goat was able to figure it out.)

Then there’s the sign for a hair salon in China whose English name is “Could Not Connect To Translator Service.” (A bit of a give-away that they didn’t bother hiring a real live translator?)

Sometimes, we have a different understanding or “translation” of what God actually meant in certain Bible verses.

For example, in times of difficulty, we cling to verses such as Romans 8:28:

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.”

However, it can often be hard to see what good could possibly come from our difficult situations. We might be going through health challenges, injustice, hardship or loneliness. Where is the good in any of that?

But maybe we have a limited understanding of what “good” means. Perhaps we and God have different “translations” of what this looks like in our lives.

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Chocolate Doctrine

Photo by Jean Beaufort PublicDomainPictures.net

One of the wonderful things about chocolate (and there are many), is how well it pairs with other foods.

Chocolate seems to go well with just about everything. It marries happily with fruits like strawberries, raspberries, pears, cherries and bananas. It perfectly complements the flavours of nuts, such as peanuts, cashews, hazelnuts, almonds and macadamia nuts.

Chocolate cheerfully coexists with citrus, coconut, ginger, caramel, coffee, dairy or mint. It has even been known to blend with the flavours of chili and meat in some Mexican dishes.

Some adventurous people claim that chocolate goes well with broccoli (well, perhaps…if you held the broccoli).

You’ve got to hand it to a food that is uncompromising about its own flavour yet harmonizes with such a wide variety of other substances.

Did you know that the Bible implies that we should be a bit like chocolate? Not in so many words, of course, but the concept is still there.

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Get With God’s Program!

Photo by Jill Wellington on Pixabay

I don’t seem to have much luck getting birds to cooperate with me.

Years ago, I bought a Victorian-style birdhouse, and painted it light blue with white trim. I nailed it to a tree where I could see it when sitting at my kitchen table. I imagined the delight I’d have watching birds move in and raise their young there. I couldn’t wait for my new feathered neighbours!

But the birds refused to move in.

Year after year, the pretty birdhouse sat empty. I was so disappointed. What ingrates those birds were! And after all the trouble I’d gone to for them!

The problem was, I’d put the birdhouse where I wanted it, with no thought to their needs.

The birdhouse was pretty, certainly, but its placement didn’t suit the birds one bit. Being nailed to a tree made it too accessible to predators like squirrels or racoons. The birds didn’t feel safe nesting there.

I thought the problem was with the birds, but it was with me. I’d done it all on my terms and expected them to get with the program.

Don’t we sometimes do the same with God?

We want to do things on our terms, in our own way, and expect God to get with our program. I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way.

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Consider the Lilies

Photo of Tiger Liliy from Pxfuel

Do you spend a lot of time in the morning fretting about what to wear?

You’re not alone. Many of us worry about our clothes. We’re afraid that they aren’t stylish enough, or that they make us look fat, or that they’re last year’s (or even last millennium’s) fashions.

Some of us even worry that we won’t have enough money to buy the basic clothes we need.

But we shouldn’t be anxious that God won’t provide for us. After all, look how He’s clothed the flowers.

Have you ever marvelled at the rich “vestments” some flowers are clad in?

Look at the iris attired in silky frills, the peony robed in ruffles, or the delicate tracery of Queen Anne’s lace. The sumptuous, constantly unfurling petals of the rose boast the finest tailoring. Some flowers are decked out in speckles, mimicking the polka-dots on a dress; others are costumed in stripes, like a crocus. Even the common petunia can have petals that resemble luxurious velvet.

Red Rose photo by AliceKeyStudio on Pixabay

God hasn’t stinted on giving flowers rich colours, either. What about the intense blue of lobelia, suitable for any royal robe? Or the bright yellows of daffodils, the vivid oranges of marigolds, or the saturated reds of poppies? On the paler end of the spectrum are the shy blues of the forget-me-nots and the delicate ballet-pinks of some tulips.

Some flowers even have names which relate to clothing: bachelor’s buttons, lady’s slipper, Texas bluebonnet, foxglove, lady’s mantle, and monk’s hood.

And how about those lilies? In fact, I seem to remember a Bible verse which talks about the beautiful garments lilies wear:

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:28-29 NKJV)
Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

What’s in a Name?

Photo by Jill Wellington on Pixabay

As a gardener, I must admit that I prefer using the common or folk names for flowers.

These sometimes ancient names are often whimsical and enchanting. Who wouldn’t love calling flowers by such names as cherry pie plant, lady’s slipper, love-in-a-mist, baby blue eyes, bachelor’s button, quaker ladies, whirling butterflies, johnny-jump-up, busy lizzie, or candytuft? It makes the heart sing to use endearing names like these.

The scientific or botanical names for flowers, on the other hand, can seem daunting. They’re usually derived from Latin, and while they can give a more accurate description of what a plant’s nature is, they can sound a bit intimidating to my ears.

In fact, some botanical names actually sound like a disease:

“Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve got Scabiosa again.”

“That’s nothing! You should see my sister’s Myosotis: it’s rampant.”

“You don’t say! But did you hear about Kelly? She’s got Nepeta nervosa.”

“No! Is she seeing a psychiatrist for that?”

(In case you’re wondering, Scabiosa is the botanical name for the pincushion flower; you might know Myosotis better as the little blue forget-me-not; and Nepeta nervosa is a type of catmint.)

I’m so glad that we have the opportunity to use informal names for the flowers we cherish.

In the same way, believers have been given the great privilege of using a remarkably intimate name for God: “Abba Father.”

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

How Can We Sum Up God?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

Some of you might recognize this sentence from typing tests in school. It’s an example of a “pangram,” a sentence which contains every letter of the alphabet at least once.

At 35 letters, this is not the shortest pangram, however. This next one comes in at a slim 28 letters:

"Waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex."

We can trim it even shorter than that if we allow abbreviations. The following sentence is a perfect pangram, using each of the 26 letters of the English alphabet only once:

"Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx.”

That got me thinking… If we wanted to construct a sentence expressing all of God’s attributes, how short could we make it? Is it possible to sum up God?

This is a tall order, because God is so multi-faceted.

We’d have to start off with His role as Creator of the universe and all life on earth, including you and me.

We’d have to include His unfathomable love, His mercy, truth, justice, holiness, faithfulness, wisdom, righteousness, goodness and grace.

We couldn’t leave out His omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. And let’s not forget his unchanging, eternal nature.

Whew! Looks like our sentence is getting pretty long. We might have to trim it a bit.

I wonder if we can encapsulate all God is in one word?

Turns out, we can:

Jesus.

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Throne of Grace

Image by Ralph from Pixabay

What does your favourite chair look like?

Is it a ratty recliner held together with pieces of duct tape, like the one used by Marty Crane on the TV sitcom “Frasier”?

Or is it more regal and imposing, dominating the room like a throne?

I think many of us rather like the idea of having a throne like the ones monarchs throughout history sat on.

The seat of the Chinese emperors was known as the Dragon Throne. The Mughal emperors of India had the Peacock Throne.

Korean monarchs sat on the Phoenix Throne, and Japanese emperors on the Chrysanthemum Throne.

The Shahs of Persia sat on a royal throne known as the Marble Throne, while Swedish monarchs were crowned on the Silver Throne.

Both the emperors of Vietnam and the Pharaoh Tutankhamen were enthroned on a Golden Throne.

And of course fantasy novelist George R. R. Martin has given us the Iron Throne, the seat of the monarch in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. It was said to have been made of the swords of defeated enemies.

But there’s a throne made of something infinitely more precious than any of the above…

The Throne of Grace.

Read more