Only Child

I have two grandchildren in college, and It’s hard to realize how old I have become.  My baby boy turned 42 years old this past January!  He hates when I call him my baby boy, but I do it just because I can.  But, if he is 42, that means that I must be … well, … let’s just say that I’m getting old.  I remember when my dear wife, Kathy, was pregnant with our second child, Phillip.  She anxiously said, “I love our daughter Becky so much.  I don’t know if I can love another baby too.”  But she did.  When Phillip was born, Kathy didn’t have to cut her love in half for the second baby, she just seemed to have more love for both of them.  And the third, and the fourth.  Her love for the first one was not diminished; her love just grew with each one.  Hey, that’s just the way it is with God.  With each sinner born into God’s forever family, His love just grows and grows and grows.  Actually, God loved us WHILE we were sinners, even BEFORE we became His children.  Romans 5:8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  And every moment of each day, God carefully listens to the prayers of millions of His children all at the same time.  He can, because He is God.  But when I pray to God, I feel as if I were God’s only child and He is attentively listening to my each and every word that I say.  And He does.  And God listens to you as if you were His only child!  The dear Lord is attentive to you, … and to you, … and to you, …

 

Emergency

I had a rough evening Friday, but a worse morning Saturday.  I was working on the church kitchen drain late Friday evening and realized that I needed a few extra fittings before Lowe’s closed at 10 pm.  But when I got there, they had closed at 9 pm.  Bummer.  So, I got up early Saturday to be at Lowe’s when they opened at 6 am.  But as I rounded the corner in our sub-division, I saw emergency lights flashing.  Two police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance were blocking the road.  I pulled up, but a cranky fireman told me to back up.  “This is an emergency area!” he warned.  I backed up, turned my headlights off, and sat there for a few minutes.  There was a back way out of the subdivision, but it would take ten minutes longer.  Didn’t they understand?!  I needed to get through!  I had to get to Lowe’s!  Why hadn’t they parked on one side of the road?  Why did they have to block the whole road?  Just then I saw a paramedic come out of the neighbor’s house carefully carrying a rolled-up blanket about the size of a baby.  In a moment, my emergency was no longer an emergency.  My neighbors had a REAL emergency - I only THOUGHT that I had an emergency.  I turned my van around, no longer in a hurry, and prayed for the neighbors as I drove to Lowe’s.  Proverbs 21:2, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.” 

 

Westwood Manor

 

I have written stories about Miss Vogel, an old lady whom I worked for when I was in middle school, and her home: Westwood Manor, built in 1770 by one of Maryland’s signers of the Declaration of Independence for his daughter.  The mansion included fifty acres of prime land with seven acres of mowed lawns (which I mowed), gardens (which I cultivated), and ponds.  So, when I was writing this post, I looked on Google Images for a picture.  Nothing.  It was as if the mansion had not existed.  I opened Google Earth and entered the street address, but I couldn’t find it.  I searched the Harford County Historical Registry and could find no entry for Westwood Manor.  In the years since I left Miss Vogel’s employment (about 1963) the property must have been sold and the mansion razed by the new owner, who valued the land more than the old mansion.  What a shame!  My wife suggested that a fire could have destroyed the mansion.  Not possible, since the walls were solid stone two feet thick.  If the mansion was never listed as a historical structure, no one would have known if it had been bulldozed to make room for a modern house.  It was three stories high with rooms in the gables and a full basement, effectively five stories high.  Westwood Manor stood for 200 years, but now it is gone.  I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 3:3&5, “… a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together …”  There may be a few photos of Westwood Manor somewhere, but I can’t find them.  The stones are pulled down and have been used for fill somewhere on Glenville Rd in Harford County, Maryland.  Westwood Manor is barely a memory.  Hey, you will only be a faint memory in just a few years too.  What are you doing for the good Lord that will last for eternity?  Lay up treasures in heaven while you can.  It would be a good use of your time.