This is my morning view from the window of the cabin at WaterBrooks.
There’s something about snow that speaks silence into my soul.
Even a thin blanket of the white stuff muffles the grinding sounds of the chaotic world as it grumblingly awakens then frantically tumbles headlong into a new day.
I took my cup of hot coffee out on the porch for a few minutes to just breathe in the crisp stillness. The steam was rising from my mug and my breath lingered visibly in the air for a few moments.
It was good to be still.
And to reflect on the snow. In Job chapter 38, the Lord Himself tells us that it is His Treasury of Snow!
Kind of like a Children’s Book Treasury. A compilation of all the best stories to be read and enjoyed over and over again.
Or perhaps like a Government Treasury…the financial seat of strength and power, where all the resources are kept that bolster the country.
I have discovered that even in just a single moment of stillness there is renewing of strength.
It’s good to take that moment to reflect on the One Who sends the snow. (Job 37.6)
When I feel overwhelmed, to remind myself that the Ancient of Days is still seated on His throne wearing garments that are brilliantly whiter than snow. (Daniel 7.9)
When I feel like a mess, to hold on to His promise that He will wash me whiter than snow, too. (Isaiah 1.18)
Yes, as I look out at the white covered ground and trees heavy with snow, I pause to breathe in the truth that His Mercies are indeed new every morning!
Great is Your faithfulness to me, O my Lord Jesus!
Yesterday and today a film producer is having me do some narration here at WaterBrooks to fill in the gaps of a project he’s been working on for the last 2 years. It is a documentary of Sue Thomas’s life!
Sue was really excited and very involved from the beginning by telling stories and bringing out photos. So pray, dear friends! Pray as we are nearing the ending of gathering data and filming, that our all-creative God will give Nickolas Barris the time and creativity to bring to the screen the true story of Sue Thomas for the glory of God!
(PS. He was also a writer for some of the episodes of Sue Thomas FBEye)
We use and enjoy many aspects of the creation around us. This event is a reminder for us to take care of it and be good stewards of it.
The creation of God is a Theater of His Glory. He is the Master Artist whose mind is so incredibly creative that all He had to do was speak things into existence! “Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers?Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?” Isaiah 40
He pronounced it all “good” at the very beginning of time, and then placed man and woman in an incredibly beautiful paradise with the purpose of them caring for it.
It had to be breathtaking because it was designed to be a place for perfect harmony and fellowship of all Created Things.
If that wasn’t amazing enough, according to Genesis 3:8 It was also where the Creator, the Lord God Himself, would come down and walk in the garden in the cool of the day and enjoy His mind-blowing creativity!
Because of the fall and sin having dominion in our hearts and lives we as a human race have gotten off track. We get into survival mode, heads down, running like hamsters on a wheel, and forget what it’s all meant to be about.
WaterBrooks, the vision that God impressed on Sue’s heart, is a place set apart where weary and tired people can come and sit alone with the Lord surrounded by His Creation. It is a garden, a small taste of that first garden He created for us. It’s meant to be a small reminder of what once was, and what once again will be.
“The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Those who trust in the LORD will find new strength.” (Isaiah 40)
Perhaps, it will give you a fleeting glimpse and a deeper longing for the Eternal Garden that He has gone ahead to prepare for us.
I love thinking of that Garden, that place filled with the work of His fingers but untainted and undamaged by sinful choices.
Some people call it Heaven. Some might call it Paradise. Some might call it the New Earth.
What I’m excited about, is knowing how incredibly creative our God is, that it’s going to be the most amazing place ever!
I was babysitting my pastor’s younguns earlier this week. Of course, they know Sue Thomas, but only the real one, the white haired lady stuck in the wheelchair who would sit in the back of the church and sing off key, but who always opened her arms wide with a big grin asking them for hugs whenever they would slip by during the worship service.
When I discovered they had never watched Sue Thomas FBEYE, we quickly discovered it on one of their streaming platforms and with an assortment of salties, (Sue always insisted that fans watch the show with her all-time favorite movie snack, hot buttered popcorn) and a bevy of blankets (In mid August?) we settled down and watched the first couple of episodes.
The first two episodes are the original Pilot, and are always fun to watch with others because many of those details of Sue’s growing up years are spot on with her true life story. The kids kept asking me, “Did that really happen?”
Then she moves to DC to work for the FBI, and Charlie, who owns the garage, is the first Washingtonian that she meets. Dear Charlie. I actually think he’s my favorite character in the whole series. His gravelly personality covers a very tender and hurting heart.
‘Sue’ might be missing one of her five senses, hearing, but it just means that her other senses have become sharper. As she is watching Charlie’s lips to see what he is saying, she is also able to read what Charlie is not saying.
I often saw this in the real Sue. She had a sixth sense about people. Somewhere and somehow she could read between the lines. Those casual chattery things we all say create the script of life. We are all more comfortable talking about Chef Raul’s Burritos and pork rinds. As long as we can fill the awkward moments with some kind of vocal vibrations, it can become a good cover up for what’s really going on inside.
But, in this episode, ‘Sue’ was not only reading Charlie’s lips, but his heart. When she asked how long his wife had been gone, he knew exactly to the day. (Does anyone remember off the top of their head what he said?)
And what makes Sue so special is that she does not shy away from bringing up subjects that really matter. As I watched with the kids it was this next scene that spoke volumes to me and brought tears to my eyes.
Once more, and just like what the real Sue Thomas often did, the character ‘Sue’ spoke what she saw. “You must really miss her.”
“Yes,” Charlie replied. “Only from the time I wake up in the morning until I fall asleep.”
Many times we fill the air with unimportant surface talk, when inside we are crying out for someone to notice and acknowledge something that we are feeling very deeply.
It can be terrifying, though. Terrifying for both the asker and the asked. It’s opening the emotional door to an unknown room and you don’t know what you’re going to find on the other side.
But Sue goes for it. “You must really miss her.”
It’s not only Sue’s keen observation but also on her part it’s a stab in the dark. She is shooting from the hip and it is a shot in the silence. She doesn’t know how he will respond but she says it anyway.
And Charlie? He could have denied it, or shrugged it off as unimportant. After all, Sue is just a customer who came to the garage with a problem of her own. He is Mr Fix-It, after all.
Plus, it’s too deep and too personal. What difference would it even make to tell this new customer who just walked through the door about his sweet Thelma? This stranger had never even met her!
But he was bursting to share with someone who genuinely cared. He didn’t fall apart. He replied with one line. And it contained his whole heart.
“Only from the time I wake up in the morning until I fall asleep.” Yes. He missed her.
Although the real Sue Thomas was profoundly deaf and could not hear a single sound, she really was a great listener. She read between the lines, and was not afraid to dig in there and find out what was really going on in the recesses of the heart.
It’s something I sorely miss about her. She was real about her own struggles and joys, and she expected others to be real in return.
1st Corinthians 3.2 sums it up well. Why settle for milk when we could and should be enjoying rich meat in our relationships with each other, and with Jesus!
Listen to Jesus’ own words, “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me.”
Or, as another translation puts it, “We will share a meal together as friends.” NLT Revelation 3.20
The invitation is there. To be real, with Jesus and with our friends. We just have to open the door.
It’s like the line by ‘Sue’ near the end of the episode, “Why settle for pork rinds when you can have meatloaf?”
Except the real Sue Thomas didn’t even like meatloaf! She would rather eat ribeye steak!
As the flowers follow the sun, and silently hold up their petals to be tinted and enlarged by its shining, so must we, if we would know the joyof God, hold our souls, wills, hearts, and minds, still before Him. God speaks for the most part in such silence only. If the soul be full of tumult and jangling voices, His voice is little likely to be heard.
~ Alexander MacLaren, Scottish Baptist minister who lived from 1826-1910
