What Do I Know?

Tree frog behind my ficus.

With the weather warming up slightly, my son and I love to have the windows open in the evening. Nights still get chilly but I love the cool air. And I had to laugh. I could already hear the cree cree cree of tree frogs.

I always laugh when I hear the frogs. I grew up maybe two miles from here. We never heard the frogs. It wasn’t until my husband and I bought this house that I heard their nightly calls. Cree cree cree.

The funny part? I thought they were some sort of bug, maybe a cicada. When I’m clueless, I don’t fool around. I don’t know how long we lived here before I mentioned it to my husband. “Bug? What bug? I can’t hear it over the frogs.”

Since then I’ve spotted them in my neighbors grapevine that grows on our fence. We’ve even found them in the house a time or two and often in plants on the porch and patio. Cree cree cree. I love my tree frog neighbors even if at first I was absolutely clueless.

I was reminded of this when a friend posted about the vaccination clinic she periodically works. The numbers of people coming in have seriously dropped. “I guess the rest of you just don’t care.”

Or it could be that the National Guard has been holding mass vaccination clinics that serve 100s of people at each event. And FEMA is using a sports facility where they have vaccinated almost 9000 people. I went to a local pharmacy because it is closer and more convenient.

It seems like so often we assume we know things. My experience must be your experience. Isn’t that true?

But really, only God is all knowing. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure of much except the call I hear each evening, cree cree cree, isn’t a bug. It’s a frog.

–SueBE

Earth and Stars

Life is a balancing act.  One of the things Christians in the US spend time trying to balance is finance.  I earned it, I should get to spend it but there is so much need in the world.

This topic came up this morning because last night a friend and I were discussing quilting.  She mentioned that long arm quilting machines (that’s a sewing machine in my mind) cost thousands of dollars.  Thousands.  My brain filled in $4000, maybe $5000 if it is a humdinger.

This morning I saw an ad for a machine.  Buy it and you get $3,600 in free stuff.  Seriously?  I had to see what this machine cost so I clicked through.

$12,999.

It’s a quilting machine.  I don’t think it is a long arm quilter but I don’t know enough to be sure.  But seriously.  13 thousand dollars for a machine that quilts.  That’s 26 cattle through Heifer.  Twenty-six families and communities whose lives could be improved.

That’s the star part of me talking.  And when we are talking luxury sewing machines it is easy for me to be pious.  This isn’t the sort of thing I would consider buying.

But go to far in the “I’m not the kind of person who would buy that gold-plated whats-it” and I become the person who needs the reminder.  Be humble.  You too my braggy daughter are flawed.

Earth stuff and star stuff in one.  That’s me.

–SueBE

Humble Hearts

This is a tough one for me.  As a nonfiction writer, I spend a great deal of time searching out facts and using them to build credible arguments to support an idea.  I have to remember that when I get up from my desk, I’m dealing with people.  Flawed, feeling, contradictory people.  And the hardest thing to remember?  I’m one of them.

–SueBE