Urban Wanderings

 

 

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The Lore of the Bathtub

Last week, Ben woke before 4 am to go fishing.  In the darkness, I reached over to his bedside table and felt the cardboard box I had placed there the night before.  The orange box of Dramamine.  He forgot it.  I walked it out to the kitchen where the sleepy fisherman was.  Whether the medicine worked or not, I do not know, because Ben found the water calm but the fish jostling to get hooked. A good combination!

The day before, Ben told the kids he gets seasick in the bathtub.  Jane piped up, "But you don't take baths.  You take showers."  And the reply was,"That's why."

After seeing these Russian photos, bathtub lore is substantiated. The cat is looking a little green in the eyes.  I think he may be suffering temporary seasickness. 

About to give up...and something changes.  Perhaps the cat toweled off between photos and swallowed a Dramamine, because he valiantly dives under the rough water to

capture his dinner.  

Do this in Remembrance

This past Sunday, I was blessed to hear Alex administer the words of institution over communion.  With eyes outward, Alex held the plate of bread before the entire congregation and recited from heart,

"In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, and gave thanks; he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying: 'Take and eat; this is my body given for you.  Do this for the remembrance of me.'"
And then Alex went back to the altar and picked up the cup and returned to the pulpit to recite,

"Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks and gave it to them saying: 'This is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for the forgiveness of sin.  Do this for the remembrance of me.'"

A man over sixty in our Sunday school class was touched by how reverently Alex handled the elements.  In the first service Alex's voice was quiet in the microphone, but his earnest face spoke even to the back row.  The second service he leaned closer to the microphone.  Alex didn't appear nervous at all...that was a gift from God. 

Before we partook of communion, Alex led the congregation in the Lord's Prayer.  It will be a marker in my life the day I  received the cup of wine from the hand of my twelve-year-old son as he said to me, "Christ's blood shed for you."  When I swallowed the wine I felt like I better understood how precious Christ's blood was to his father and the pride of the Father in his obedient son. 

It was beautiful to watch after all who came forth to kneel and receive, Alex and another took the wine and bread to the aged who physically couldn't come forward.  May my son always be ready to carry the blood of redemption and the Bread of Life to a hungry people. 

The Dog that Comes Back to You

Meet the neighbor's dog, Boomer.  Alex expects it is short for boomerang.  Since the dog weighed 67 pounds we didn't try throwing him, but he likely would have come back to us because he was a slobbering gentle giant who seemed to enjoy our kids examining his loose jowls, our kids shaking his numerous folds and our kids directing him on leash across the lawn.  In an understatement, our kids fell in love and since Ben and I prefer a pet free house, this is about as close to dog ownership as our kids get. Pobrecitos!

 

Notice how photogenic the dog is. I think he could do commercials.

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