The Hound of Heaven: A Modern Adaptation

The Hound of Heaven has been calling me today, reminding me of his relentless pursuit of humankind. Despite the old English Francis Thompson used in his enduring poem, The Hound of Heaven, when he wrote it over a hundred years ago, even the modern day reader cannot miss the meaning of the story. Propelled forward at a heart-pounding pace, the poem tells of a soul being chased through life by One who will not give up the quest. Finally the hounded hears the Voice of Love as the Hound moves in:

All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for they harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.
All which they child's mistake
Fancies as lost,
I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come.

I have written before about this poem that captured my imagination when I was a teenager. I write again today because I want to share an updated version of The Hound of Heaven by Oxvision Films. This animated modern adaptation is beautifully done, telling the story in word and image that connects well with 21st century young people.

As you watch the video below and sense in your heart that God is following hard after someone in your life, pray for your loved one and ask the Lord to help them yield to the God who wants only their best. Share the video with the young people in your life. Do you see in this video your own story? Why not post it on your social media, and include your own testimony.

Father, use this updated version of The Hound of Heaven and whatever other means you choose to draw people to yourself. Help us be sensitive to the needs of those around us and might we be faithful to take advantage of any opportunity you give us to share the truth of your love with others. May it all be for your glory. Amen.

See the video here.

What's Better Than a Chocolate Bar? Making It Yourself!

When you walk into Salt & Thistle, a cute little shop close to Subway in the Stanwood Camano Plaza, you will notice local handmade goods and other sustainable products. Cute, bright, practical, fun items to buy for gifts or keep for yourself. You'll also find baked goods, soups, quiche, and smoothies, made fresh daily on site.

Melissa Tarkington, owner of Salt & Thistle, has a dream to provide small, local farmers and producers an outlet for their goods. Besides offering retail space and creating tasty treats, she also makes Salt & Thistle's community kitchen available to local vendors who need a place to prepare their goods. And she offers a variety of classes—pretty much whatever you want to learn—to groups of four or more.

A list of the chocolates Melissa makes and sells at Salt & Thistle 

"Do you offer chocolate making?" I asked Melissa one day. I had already discovered the delicious chocolate bars she makes and had purchased them on several occasions. "Sure! If you want to make some chocolate I can do a class for you."

The birthday of my friend Joan offered the perfect excuse for a chocolate making class. We gathered some friends and set the date. When we arrived the table was set for six, with food as scrumptious as it was beautiful. When we'd had the last bite of salad and hors d'oeuvres that we could fit in, Melissa brought out the bowls of chocolate for a taste test.

Joan, the Birthday Girl, and our lovely dinner

"This one was..."

For loving chocolate like I do, I discovered that I'm not too discerning about what I'm eating! I had few words to describe the chocolate pieces and I wasn't even sure which ones I preferred. But Melissa gave us several words to apply to the confection—such as bitter or smooth finish, dark fruit notes, coffee and vanilla bean flavor, and hard snap. which is how top grade chocolate responds when being broken. She also instructed us in the world of chocolate making, such as where cacao beans come from (ten degrees on either side of the Equator); the sad reality that many growers and producers use child labor in their businesses; and what it means when chocolate "blooms." (When the oil separates from the chocolate the top of he bar looks dark, like an oil slick; when the sugar separates it gets powdery. Don't worry, though. The taste of the chocolate is not degraded.)

Then we were ready to make our own bars. Melissa had two pots of chocolate waiting for us, a pot of dark and a pot of milk chocolate. She also had a tray of nuts, berries, coconut, sea salt and other goodies that we could add to our bars.

Stirring the dark chocolate

Once we chose our ingredients we poured a ladle of chocolate into a mold and added our goodies. Here's Joan pouring hers. Mine was harder to pour because the dark chocolate had begun to harden.

I added "date bacon" to my candy bar. I did NOT want bacon in my chocolate but Melissa assured me that it was actually chopped dates, fried briefly in a pan with olive oil, a bit of maple syrup, and smoked salt. The mold below shows my date bacon bar on the left with two chocolate bars that were tempered by hand on a cold steel table. You have to work fast in this business or things don't turn out too pretty!

A few of the chocolate bars were ready to take home at the end of the evening. Melissa popped them out the molds and wrapped them for us. I took mine home to share it with m family. Not too beautiful, but it tasted just fine!

My friends and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. Thanks, Melissa, for a great evening. We wish you success in your venture with Salt & Thistle and the many ways you serve the community.

Stop by Salt & Thistle for a little shopping and a bite to eat. They are open Tuesday through Saturday. If you are looking for a commercial kitchen, check with Melissa. And if you are looking for a class on canning, making scones, chocolate, or pretty much whatever you can think of, give this versatile young woman a call. You'll be glad you did.

Consider it Pure Joy?

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-4).

Have we ever considered the trials we pass through "pure joy"? Has there ever been a time when the end results of the faith-testing—perseverance, maturity, completeness, lacking nothing—have captivated us so thoroughly that we not only endured the trial but delighted in it?

If you are like me, you hear James's words in your head, but your internal auto-correct turns them into, "Don't kick and scream, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Grit your teeth and bear up, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." After all, what is perseverance if it isn't slogging through a difficulty all the way to its completion?

We need a new understanding of this profound passage. How, indeed, can we consider trials a joy?

Here is how James 1:2-4 is rendered in The Voice:

Don't run from tests and hardships, brothers and sisters. As difficult as they are, you will ultimately find joy in them; if you embrace them, your faith will blossom under pressure and teach you true patience as you endure. And true patience brought on by endurance will equip you to complete the long journey and cross the finish line—mature, complete, and wanting nothing.

The joy James is talking about may not be our initial response to trials, but if we respond to them in faith (which blossoms under pressure) and learn to patiently endure, we will ultimately find joy in our hardships.

In my post entitled Surrendered I said that Jesus "was able to survive the experience of being surrendered [by Pilate] to the will of the crowd because he had already surrendered himself to the will of the Father." And so it is with us. If we are surrendered to the will of our loving Father, we can trust Him with anything that comes into our lives. Our faith and patience will grow as we trust him through our trials.

At the end of this long journey we will stand before the Lord; we'll be mature, complete, and wanting nothing. Knowing that each trial we endure along the way is preparing us for that great moment, we can rejoice. We are God's, and He using our trials for our good!


Read more about The Voice.

Surrendered

Recently I read the story of Jesus before Pilate. It was early on Friday morning of Holy Week. The religious leaders had arrested Jesus, tried him, and found him worthy of death. Because execution was forbidden for Jews, they took him to stand trial before Pilate.

After questioning Jesus, Pilate was convinced of his innocence. However, the religious leaders had aroused the crowds, and Pilate was afraid of them. "What shall I do with Jesus?" Pilate asked the people. "Crucify him!" they cried. Ignoring his own convictions and his wife's pleas for Jesus's life, he washed his hands of any guilt and released Barabbas, "the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one [the crowds] asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will" (Luke 23:25).

What a chilling thought, that the holy Son of God would be surrendered to the will of an angry mob.

I noticed a handwritten message in the margin of my Bible, pointing me back a chapter to Luke 22:42. We see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on Thursday night, just hours prior to his trial before Pilate. Hear him pray: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."

Jesus was able to survive the experience of being surrendered to the will of the crowd because he had already surrendered himself to the will of the Father.

This is how we, too, can be equipped for those experiences where we seem to have no control of our situation. Perhaps it is illness or a broken relationship, or maybe it is financial strain or the grief over a loved one's death. If we have submitted ourselves to the Father's will we can rest in His loving hands. Surrendered to God, we need not be afraid of "the will of the crowd" concerning us.

In God, whose word I praise—

in God I trust and am not afraid.

What can mere mortals do to me? 

Psalm 56:4

In Time of Trouble

When South African pastor Andrew Murray was visiting England in 1895, he began to suffer pain from a previous back injury. While he was recuperating, his hostess told him of a woman who was in great trouble and wanted to know if he had any counsel for her. Murray said, "Give her this paper which I have been writing for my own [encouragement]. It may be that she will find it helpful." This is what Murray wrote:

"In time of trouble say: 

God will keep us by His love. By His grace, we can rest in Him. 

First—God brought me here. It is by His will I am in this strait place. In that I will rest. 

Next—He will keep me in His love and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child. 

Then—He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He meant to bestow. 

Last—In His good time He can bring me out again—how and when He knows. 

I am here—by God's appointment, in His keeping, under His training, for His time."

* * * * * * * * *  

This story is from David Jeremiah's book, What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do and appeared recently in Our Daily Bread.

Sun Breaks

Taken at Cannon Beach, Oregon in October, 2015

When the sun breaks through a rip in the clouds and floods the vistas with golden light, heads go up and lungs expand. It's like a mini-vacation, a kiss of beauty from the heavens, a note of encouragement that brighter days are coming. 

~ Joan Husby, in the introduction to her blog, Sun Breaks

We've had record-breaking rainfalls this winter. Rain has come to us in buckets and sheets, and even a few cats and dogs. Yet we've had enough sun breaks these past three months to keep us from total madness.

In the past week Tom and I have taken advantage of these rare moments and gone out with our cameras in search of some beauty. We didn't have to go far. The photos below were all taken within twelve miles of our home.

Bonhoeffer Botanical Gardens, located at Freeborn Lutheran Church on 300th St NW, east of I-5 at exit 218, is clearly visible from the freeway. A work in progress, this gardens will eventually showcase a thousand plants native to the Pacific Northwest. With beautiful boardwalks, educational kiosks, grasses growing on the roofs, and native habitats, people will come from miles around to enjoy this marvelous botanical gardens.

Workers were at the park while we explored, preparing the security system for the many glass pieces that will be on display, creations of artists from nearby Pilchuck Glass School.

Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island has much to offer visitors but nothing more appealing than the warm sunshine and these apple blossoms that greeted us.

We wanted to check for eagles on Thomle Road, just off Marine Drive. Shortly after we turned on Thomle Road we saw an eagle sitting on a branch, not too far from his nest. Down the road we discovered two more adult birds and another nest, And then there were the cherry trees laden with blossoms in the late afternoon sun.

The forecast is for several more days of rain. Perhaps we'll get a few sun breaks. But even if we don't, the heavens have given us a kiss of beauty, and it's enough to keep me going until Spring is here to stay.