The Hidden Hand by E.D.E.N. Southworth

I have finished reading The Hidden Hand by Mrs. Southworth and I can say that it is easily one of the best books I have ever read. The book was originally a serial in the New York Ledger and then first published in book form in 1888. It was one of Mrs. Southworth's most popular books. The E.D.E.N. in her name stands for Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte if you are wondering. I won't go into a lot about her.

There were a lot of words that I needed to look up in a dictionary to see what they meant because of the era the book was written. Even so, reading flowed nicely.

I think the book is a treasure. The characters are wonderfully memorable and the adventures, joys and tragedies of their lives and how they connect to one another made it a book I could not put down. I was drawn into the unfolding drama in a powerful way. There was a thread through the book of most of the characters faith in an Almighty God and His sovereign control over even the most disastrous events in their lives and a deep faith that He is good through it all.

I liked that very much as I have in my own life had nothing to hang onto except that I know that God is in control of everything. He is the creator and sustainer of all things and never loses track of little old me! The Hidden Hand, of course, is God's hand moving in their lives. The word Providence was used a lot.

Wayne Grudem, in his book, Systematic Theology, defines God's providence as follows: God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he (1)keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them; (2) cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do; and (3) directs them to fulfill his purposes.

There is an exchange between two of the women in the story that really touched me so I will share it here. The younger was watching her father die due to an accident and an older friend was comforting her in her grief:

pg. 217 - Then she(Clara) arose and left the room, saying to Mrs. Rocke as she went: "Oh, Mrs. Rocke, only last evening we were so happy! - But if we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil?"

"Yes, my child; but remember, nothing is really evil that comes from His good hand," as she attended Clara to the door.

Now that is difficult to ponder, is it not?

Later on the father died and the author does not dwell on that for she writes, "Sweet, beautiful, and lovely as is the deathbed of a Christian, we will not linger too long beside it." pg. 222.

I don't think I have ever seen those adjectives used in a sentence with the word deathbed! But it is so true of the Christian who goes home to with their Savior!

Please read in the Bible Romans chapter 5 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

I think I will read another book by Mrs. Southworth.

Blessings

Beauty in the clouds

Have you paused for a moment lately to gaze up at the clouds? I think that in today's busy, on the go, way of life not many people stop to appreciate the natural world around them. Even in cities it is possible to pause and watch nature in the trees of your neighborhood, the birds, or the bugs. I was considering the beauty of the clouds last week and took these pictures. The pictures show the landscape of where I live and together with the clouds on that day it was beautiful. Unfortunately this is not my everyday view; I took these photos from a high point of my property. I wish I could see this out of my kitchen window each morning!

Have you ever thought about what a wonder the clouds are?I am not going to wax poetic about them but consider a cumulus cloud; they can be miles tall and the weight of them measures in the tons! I have read that the typical weight of a cumulus cloud can equal the weight of 100 elephants! But yet they float gracefully over our heads.

I love the book of Job. It has a lot of fascinating insights about the world around us. Also fascinating is that the book of Job may be the oldest writing in the Bible with the first 11 chapters of Genesis being the oldest. Some scholars estimate that the book of Job can be placed at around 2000 B.C. In Job 28:24-27 it is written,"For (God) looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; to make the weight for the winds; and He weigheth the waters by measure. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder. Then He did see it, and declare it; He prepared it, yea, and stretched it out."

Here we see an Almighty God who creates the weather of the globe and sustains it all by His power.

Now it is not all that obvious to the physical senses that air and wind have weight. It was not scientifically confirmed until about 300 years ago. We know now from all of our studies of weather patterns that the global weights of air and water are in critical relationship to each other and produce our global weather patterns. The weight of the warm air rushing upwards from the earth helps buoy up the massive clouds that are formed by evaporation and transports them over the continents to drop their rain. God knows the balancing of the clouds (Job 37:16). In Job 26:8 it is written, "He bindeth up the waters in His thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them."

What neat insights into our world directly from the One who created it, given to us in His word!

So look up and wonder at the clouds!

Blessings!

Teacher Home Visit

Yesterday Brooke's 8th grade teacher came out for a visit. The teachers at Trinity Lutheran School have always visited the homes of all thier new students just before the start of a new school year. Brooke has gone to the school since kindergarten. I can hardly believe this is her last year there. It has been a great school for my kids. It really is like part of my family. They have a website: http://www.trinitylutheranpaso.org/


I think this year will be a good one for both my kids. Wyatt is going into 7th grade there.


Ms Loper is the 8th grage teacher. She is very dynamic and energetic. I guess you need to be to teach 8th graders. She loves science and has a lot of challenging things and fun trips lined up for her students.

I just finished reading Fossil Hunter by John B. Olson. It was a fun book to read. It was a fast paced action/mystery/love story about a couple of paleontologists and their quest for an ancient whale fossil in the deserts of Iraq. They get caught in a mess of politics and evolutiuonary deception and scandal. A nice summer read.

Next, I am looking forward to reading an interesting looking book; The Hidden Hand by Mrs E.D.E.N. Southworth. It was written in 1859. It might take me a while to get through it, when I do I will post a review.

Blessings!

Visiting family says goodbye

All the visiting cousins have gone back home. I felt sad saying goodbye to Brittney. They grow up so fast and I don't see her that often. She will be a senior in High School this year!

Brooke

and Wyatt had fun with her and will miss her too.

Now I need to get down to the business of getting school supplies ready for my kids. I have my list from the teachers and Staples, here we come. Brooke loves to shop for supplies, but she doesn't want to go to school!

I have attached a couple pictures of our trip to Morro Bay where we celebrated the August birthdays (mine and Brittneys). We went kayaking and had dinner. Kayaking was fun but my arms are still sore from rowing!

Blessings!

Back to school

Coming up soon my fall Spanish class is going to start. I am looking forward to continuing to learn the language. I took Sanish 1 last spring. It is very challenging after so long out of school to get back into a class but I enjoy studying new things and am motivated by the challenge. Why learn it now? Well, I think it is a worthwhile to get out of your box and try something new no matter how old you are. I also live in a community that has a large Spanish speaking population and have been serving in a church that has a unique bi-lingual ministry. I think Spanish is a wonderfully logical language and I am understanding grammatical stuff now that I never really got in English. I discovered that I am not the only "older person" in the class and I have gotten some interesting insights on the young people of today by going back to class.
Anyway, I came across this video that I had saved on my computer, it always made be laugh.
Blessings!

Favorite Pets

Here at our house we have a variety of interesting animals. I thought I would share about one of my favorites, a hen named Paprika. Paprika came to us about a year ago, I got her from a friend. Paprika was a cute and very friendly young Sicilian Buttercup hen; much more friendly than any other I have had and I have had a lot of chickens over the years. She does not like to stay in the coop and when we let her out she comes and taps at the glass door to be let in. She comes in, gets her snacks then often takes naps on the top of the couch or the foot of a bed. She will fly up on my shoulder and ride around. She is an odd chicken, very cute, but odd!

Lots of fun in the last days of summer

These last few weeks of our summer have been packed with things to do. That is nice but I have always been a person that really likes a calmer, quieter schedule. I've been finding it difficult lately to work in "margins" into my days. Margins are just little bits of vacant time so my days aren't always filled to the edges. Times to gather my wits if I can find them! What is a wit anyway? According to Webster's wit is defined as: 1. powers of thinking, mental faculties 2. good sense 3. the ability to make clever remarks in an sharp, amusing way. I really don't care about being clever but the other two sound nice!

This week I had a chance to do something for the first time. I had never been on a train before and this week I rode the train with my kids from San Luis Obispo to Paso Robles. I have lived in the Paso Robles area all my life and as a kid I would look over at the tracks that wound through Cuesta Grade and thought it looked neat. So now at 39 years old I finally did it. It was fun to see the countryside from the perspective of the train tracks. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who gets motion sickness and it is rather slow. For the one trip it was fine and it was nice to share it with my kids.

My kids have been having fun with their cousins. One day we went to the water slides and another we went bowling. I am REALLY bad at bowling but I can handle floating around in a tube. We are looking forward to going to family game night tonight at our church, Paso Robles Bible Church. Check out their website at http://prbc.info/

The pictures are of my brother Darren and my niece Danielle enjoying the water, Brooke, Britney, Wyatt and Shane hiding in an umbrella fountain and Danielle splashing down from one of the slides.

Until later,

Blessings

Cousins visit for dinner

The last month of our summer has started off busy! There has been a lot of family visting from all over. Last night I had dinner at my house for My mom, my brother(Darren) and his daughter(Britney) who is visiting from San Diego, My mom and dad in law and with them were my niece and nephew (Danielle and Shane) who are visiting from Washington. We have not all been together for many years. My how the kids grow! Before I know it they will be driving themselves to visit family! It was great to enjoy dinner together. Then, as we do a lot around here, we wrapped it all up by shooting trap until dark. Britney's first time trying a shotgun ended up with a lot of successful shots! Yeah Britney!

In the photo of the kids sitting on the couch from left to right are: Shane, Wyatt, Danielle(on top of the couch), Brooke and Britney.

Well, we have a busy week planned, summer marches on.

Hi there

Whether you arrived here on purpose or by accident; Hello and welcome to my blog! This is just a beginning and I'm not sure where this will be going so check back for a visit from time to time and see what is new! I will mostly be posting comments and opinions about interests that I have or that my friends and family share. A short list of my interest include the study of God's Word, photography, music, biology and physics. Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing how this all works! Have a blessed day!