A Social Distancing God?

Hi Everyone!

Wow!  How fast our lives-- for all of us--have changed!  Until two weeks ago, I heard occasionally about the COVID-19, and I felt bad for the parts of the world where it was prevalent, but quite honestly it really didn't effect me or my day to day life.  Well, all that changed immediately, when within just a few days the college where my husband works closed and sent all the dorm students home, the area public and private elementary as well as high schools all closed, and all the churches also ceased holding services.  Boom.  Everything stopped.  People were told to stop meeting together, stay home, and when you have to go out, keep at least six feet distance from each other.

As homeschoolers, quite a lot of our day to day is still the same.  My husband is now working from home, and that is different but we still have our regular math, science, and history books.  My daughter still gets up in the morning and practices her violin, eats breakfast, and practices piano.  I am still behind in grading her math, and I still try and sit down with her each day to read the Bible as well as some other books that we are going through together.

But one thing that is quite different for us is not being able to go to music lessons, and music is a HUGE part of my daughter's life! Well, praise God for creative teachers, and for teachers who are willing to truly go the extra mile to invest in our children's lives!  My daughter's violin teacher learned how to use Zoom and started teaching lessons that way. I thought for SURE her piano lessons would have to quit, but her piano teacher started using FaceTime and so we had a FaceTime piano lesson this week!  Yes, the sound quality left much to be desired, but it was a whole lot better than no lesson!  In the picture above, my daughter is holding up one of her music books for her piano teacher to look at the table of contents, so she could help guide my daughter in choosing another music piece to learn.  I was so touched by this effort and investment in my daughter, that it brought tears to my eyes and I snapped the picture!  If we were able to have face to face lessons, the teacher would be able to hand my daughter a book of music, but in today's situation we have to work with the materials we already have in our house.  I appreciate both of my daughter's creative music teachers so very very much! I don't like "Social Distancing" at all, and am looking forward to a future time when it will not be necessary!

This all has me thinking of how much we humans love and need each other. . . and I couldn't help but think--is our God a "Social Distancing" God?  Did He simply make us humans, and then walk away and leave us on our own--putting distance between us and Him?

If we go back to the beginning--the VERY beginning of our earth's history and the history of humans, we find in Genesis that God made us in His own image:

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

But did He walk away from them then, and leave them on their own?  No--it was actually we humans that walked away from God, and God still wanted to be with us:

Genesis 3:8, 9 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"

It was sin that caused Adam and Eve to feel ashamed, to feel like they needed to run and hide from their sin-less and perfect God.  Sin--and God--do not mix together. But God still loved His people. He still wanted to be with us.

Genesis 5:24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took Him.

2 Kings 2:11, 12 And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, "My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" And he saw him no more.

So is it only Enoch and Elijah that God cares about? That He doesn't "Socially Distance" Himself from?

Isaiah 40:11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

Hummm.....carry them in His bosom.  That doesn't sound like He is obeying the keep six feet away from all others directive. But He has so MANY people on this old earth right now, so does He really care about ME?  About YOU?

Isaiah 49:15, 16 Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

But what if I die?  What if, just what if, I contract this COVID-19 and I am one of those people who just don't make it out of the hospital alive?

Psalm 49:15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave; for he shall receive me.

John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

No, my Friend. God's Word is clear. There is no question about it at all.  Our God is NOT a social distancing God.  He never was, and He never will be.  His deepest desire is to be reunited with us once again!

Revelation 21:3-7 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."  And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son."

I told my daughter this morning, that just like we are currently looking back and saying "Wow! How fast things have changed in just two weeks!", some day we will look back and remember how last month at this time we were still on earth, but now we are with our God in heaven. Never more to part.

The forever end of "Social Distancing."

I can't wait--and God feels the same way!

~Susan

Frugal Friday! Week of February 23-29, 2020

Hi Everyone!

How was you past week? Mine was busy like always, but good! I managed to write down some of my savings things, so I have some to share. I am sure there are more that I did, but many things are simply lifestyle actions that I do all the time.

But here are some of the things specifically to this past week:

*I was able to receive two free washcloths from Kohl’s. 😁 Free is always the right price in my opinion, and I didn’t even owe anything for tax! It happened because Kohl’s sent me a free $5.00 coupon. I thought for sure that I would need to make a purchase of over $5.00 in order to be able to use it, but I found wash clothes on sale for $2.49 each so decided to try the coupon on two of them—and it worked! I can always use a few more washcloths! I need to replace the washcloths in the main bathroom as well, so I am hoping I end up with more coupons like this from Kohl’s! I did choose in store pickup, to avoid a shipping charge, so I guess Kohl’s did get me physically inside their store, but I resisted purchasing anything else.

*I continued adding freezer meals using the new containers that I bought the previous week.  This time, I had some various things left from a meal we had eaten several times.  I am all for leftovers--or planned overs, as I like to call them--but after eating the same meal for two or three days in a row one can get a bit tired of it.  So I packaged up some leftover brown rice, black beans, and topped them all with a home made corn tortilla.  Into the freezer they went!  Later, when I am especially busy some day, I can pull these freezer meals out and heat them in the microwave, and they will be a huge blessing!

*I started some garden seeds inside, under lights. I always have Valentine’s Day as my target date to start my tomato seeds early inside. I didn’t quite make it on Valentine’s Day itself, but this wasn’t too far afterwards. Like last year, I am concentrating on using up some of my older seeds left from other years in the garden. When I went through the seeds that I had, I discovered that I had used all of my cherry tomato seeds last year. I had plenty of larger tomato seeds, but I do enjoy having some cherry tomatoes my family can just eat right in the garden—yummy! So I knew that would be one seed packet that I would go ahead and purchase this year. There is also one particular flower—a Calendula—that I want to grow for using the flower petals in my soap making, so there is a second seed packet that I needed to purchase. I found cherry tomato seeds easily enough at Walmart, but could not find the variety of Calendula that I wanted. Calendula is a type of Marigold, so I had hoped to find seeds at Walmart, but no luck. BUT, I did find a place to order from online, and they even had free shipping—even if ordering only one seed packet! So I ordered my flower seeds, plus one packet of soybeans that I thought it would be fun to try—and when my order arrived, they had included a free seed packet of Yellow Pear cherry tomatoes! If I had known I would receive a cherry tomato variety free, I might not have purchased the cherry tomato seeds at Walmart, but oh well! My hubby likes the red cherry tomatoes better anyway, and I like them all, so I guess the more the better!

So I started—mostly with older seeds—two types of lettuce, spinach, collards, cherry tomatoes, yellow pear cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, Rutger tomatoes, Banana peppers (from seeds saved from the peppers themselves, we will see if they sprout), Butternut squash, Calendulas—and I “think” that is it! My garden is rather small, and a good half if it at least is taken up with perineal flowers, so I really don’t have a lot of room for planting, so many things that I started I only start a little four pack. But the Calendulas I started lots of, since I want some to remain in my garden, plus some that I can pick for my soap making. 🙂

So far, I have coming up already one variety of lettuce, collards, cherry tomatoes, and the Calendulas. I think there is a spinach coming up as well. I love seeing the seeds sprout!

*I picked daffodils from our woods. I have mentioned these flowers before.  I planted them myself, over several years right after we moved to this house.  I choose daffodils because we have quite the deer population, so tulips are definitely out unless I want to grow them specifically as deer food! But I love looking out my kitchen window and seeing the little specks of yellow sunshine scattered throughout the woods!  And whenever I pick some to bring inside, I chose carefully so as to not pick any that I would have been seeing from my kitchen window--I want to still be able to enjoy those as part of my view!  Isn't Jesus good to give us flowers?!

Well, that was my week!  What did you do this past week to save money and to bless your family? I would love to hear and to gain new ideas!

~Susan