"Trouble? Couldn't have been more perfect, June!"

For this past trip, my drawing activity consisted, not in actual sketching as much as in handing out drawings I'd already done--I gave away about 45. Of course, they were not portraits done by a professional artist, but they were sketches tailored to individuals' interests and experiences.

One of them, I had no way of knowing, because I didn't even know her when I was in Iwatsuki. May I tell you about this one?

I'd made plans to meet a Bible-loving college friend so had drawn pictures from the Old Testament, pretty sure she'd be able to guess what stories they illustrated. Here's one of them, from 2 Chron. 28. The other was Baby Moses.

The day we were to meet--I'd been staying with my sister in Minnesota willing to drive south to visit some relatives near Iowa, where my friend is, who drove north to rendezvous with us.

Car trouble kept us from meeting, but God led my friend to a Jewish person plus enabled my sister to spend time with her relatives that day.

To top it off, later that week, I formed an unusual bond with my sister's neighbor Lynne and decided to give her the drawings I'd intended to give my friend I couldn't meet (we discussed via phone to do this). Old Testament pictures turned out to be perfect, as Lynne was Jewish!

SEEING

My friend said her workday was changed to today, so I don't get to see her. But may I share some things we talked about in previous visits?

"Can you actually see God?" she'd asked me. And we talked about how reading things He's sent me in the Bible are just as alive as seeing it with my eyes. No doubt those who've received love letters can SEE vividly the sender of the letter as if he were standing on the other side of the paper speaking straight to them. Old books can ring true even across miles and passing of time.

It wasn't only what I didn't actually SEE. I grew up with music you HEAR. You enjoy music, not with your eyes, but with your ears. I'm going to switch languages here, referring to the April 11 post "Eyeful or Earful":

公園の裏の池に行った時、カメラマンが皆、三脚に乗っている、デカいカメラで何かを狙っているのが見えた。鮮やかな青のカワセミ鳥が現れたに違いないと、わかった。池の橋のずっと向こう側、皆がいない所に行った。ちょっとびっくりしたのが、そこに、自分のように、うるさい連中から離れて、その鳥のキレイな姿が見えなくてもいいから、別の鳥のキレイな鳴き声を聞いて楽しんでいる人が数人いた。（４月１１日ブログより）

Not only is it possible to enjoy without seeing, I told my Buddhist friend about something I'd seen here at the park that made me realize how unreliable sight is! One day, I saw a floating candle burning in the pond! Impossible, right? I took a photograph of it, but even my husband couldn't figure it out at first. It turned out to be the bottom of a curled water lily leaf reflecting light like wax. The "burning flame"? An orange carp swimming nearby.

THEY KEEP ME ON THE BALL

When I went to the park, I habitually mouthed the words, "Lord, empower EVERY ENCOUNTER." But when I saw the people inside, I almost felt my bones shriveling. There were high schoolers clowning around with a ball. Senior citizens, children, foreigners, even people of other religions or cults don't bother me...but I don't know what to do with teenagers that just laugh at you!

"POOM!" A misdirected kick sent the ball sailing behind the youths' backs and to the left of where I was walking.

I found myself taking a few quick steps to stop the ball after it had taken several bounces, then I lightly kicked it back to them.

"Did you see that," one of them said, and kicked it back to me, wanting a replay. The unruly group I had been afraid of had my full attention. God showed me again He could make inroads for me if necessary.

So, did I see this as an opportunity to "share my faith"? Not hardly. I think God was just trying to coax this timid turtle-like blogger out of her shell. But if I keep meeting up with my new teen friends, I will talk more with them.

Like someone else who came later. We'd talked last week about my drawings and the Kawasemi. 

This time however, we not only talked about park things; she asked me questions that led to my telling her how my real desire was to communicate through art, God's Love for us.

We ended up talking a long time before she had to go home for dinner--"home"--an hour's walk away!

LOOK! SERPENT'S LOOKING DOWN

I finally colored something I had an idea of in 2022. 

  

2 years ago, I had an image of Moses hoisting up the bronze serpent on a cross in the wilderness and encouraging his viper-afflicted people to gaze on it for healing. A youth is seen pulling on the arm of an elderly man, wanting him to avail himself of its curative powers.

"Just a metal snake? I'm dying here;" the man objects. "Get me real help, not superstition!" And in a smaller voice: "Besides, it was a snake that bit me..."

He probably felt something else...

Maybe it was to avoid getting seasick.

That thought never crossed my mind until this year. When my sisters and I took the ferry to the island of Izena, our cousin told us the ocean crossing can get rather choppy at times. She advised us to go up to the open room with carpeting and lie down there and sleep for the hour ride. You can completely avoid any discomfort that way, she said. And it was so true.

The story about Jonah being asleep in the ship...I wondered if he'd decided to catch a nap when his ship hoisted anchor and tried to avoid seasickness that way? Nah--he was probably feeling something else in the pit of his stomach.

Strange prophet, running from the God He knew so well and daring Him to prove Himself True!

JERUSALEM DONKEY PLATES

I see my front teeth in the mirror and think about how that little Jerusalem donkey must've felt....

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I wonder if Jesus walked up to that mule's mother and told it to give up its foal to Him because He was the Son of God, and it was the privilege of any animal to let Him ride it. And the poor little colt, shivering, was approached by its mother. Be strong. This is a duty. And a privilege. No, no, no; a thousand times no! My Savior wouldn't have done it that way.

Wouldn't Jesus have smiled at the tiny squirt and even pet it a little, saying in a gentle voice, "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you, really.

Will you let me ride on your back a little bit? Please? That would mean so much to me. I'm sorry for springing something on you all of a sudden like this. I know it's not natural to put burdens back there, and you haven't ever done that before, not since the day you came out of your mother's womb! 

If you're not sure, I'll ask around for someone else who might be able to help until you think you can, 'cuz...what, you can and you will?! You sure? Thank you!"

The day of the Trumphal Entry. I picture Jesus leaning down to that little donkey, reminding him, "I need you today! You can't know how grateful I am you're doing this for me! I wish I could repay you." And the little guy, snorting out feelings of pride and happiness mixed with love, found himself determined not to wobble as he walked that day!

The village children were amazed. Yes, it was the  timid little fry that brayed all the time but turned tails and ran if you even touched its back. It looked like the one that had been bullied by the bigger ones so was too scared to come out with the others anymore. But it was letting Jesus ride it! What had Jesus done?

There were hurt people too timid to come out into normal life. Could Jesus do something for them too?

"Hosanna!" (That means "Save us!") It started out with one youth's cry. An echo sounded. Soon, the donkey heard it from a gravelly alley, from the steps winding down the middle of Jerusalem, and soon it seemed lampposts were lighting up and waving palm branches and crying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!"

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Hm; mebbe I oughta wear these teeth with pride, like a license plate proclaiming: "the King rides here."

Huh? Baby in Basket?

I just remembered a picture drawn 2 years ago and felt a need to post it.

It was of an Egyptian steer finding a basket floating in the reeds of the Nile. A frog has leaped up on its forehead, surprised at the gurgling coming from inside. A locust looks on as the basket passes by, and a fly and flea peer down at the baby's face in the floating bassinet.

Moses. Drawn out of the waters. The offspring of these animals will hear of him...and 80 years later help lead his people into freedom. I imagine they never guessed, by looking at that little baby in that basket in the water, what God was planning.

We can't tell what God is going to do by what it looks like at first. Maybe we should just be faithful in whatever it is we're supposed to do, no matter how humble it looks.

WHOSE IS THIS?

That question was asked several times in the Old Testament.

When Boaz saw Ruth in his fields, his first reaction wasn't: "Get that gaudy-looking foreigner off my property--everyone knows Moabites are only trouble!"

No; he'd heard of all Ruth had done, the discrimination she'd risked for Naomi and was impressed with her unselfishness and industriousness. 

He asked the reapers, "Whose damsel is this?" (Ruth 2:5)

King Saul saw the shepherd David unable to bear a giant's taunts of his God...and then that boy gallantly did away with that pagan warrior!

He found himself wondering "whose son the stripling was" (Sam. 17:56) This was no average young man before his eyes.

Do we live in such a way people around us ask right away whose we are?