I had a dream last night, a very beautiful dream. I awoke from my dream nearly in tears for its majesty. It was about butterflies. But you’ll have to read on to find out about it …
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Yesterday morning, I sent a QuickBooks message to our office staff that went something like this:
FYI: Eric and I will be at the bank this afternoon. Someone forged a check on our business account for $2,500, and although the bank caught it and put the money back in our account, they want us to close that account and open a new one. It is, of course, a lot of hassle, but since the ever-increasing need for security is grooming the whole world to eventually accept a perfect solution like a one-world government and the Mark of the Beast, … well, the time we’re living in is pretty exciting, right?
Amid the extra cost of new checks and the time we’ll spend inputting our new account information on dozens of different websites, the perspective above is comforting. The more lawless the world becomes, the more accepting it will be of the Capital L “Lawless One.” The time is short and God is Good!
How did I totally miss that someone had attempted to rob us of $2,500 on Tuesday until our bank called on Friday? It had something to do with the really busy schedule last week:
Praying without ceasing for a good friend arrested on false charges
Doing as much work as possible for the business so we didn’t have to do it on the weekend
Keeping an appointment with an accountant to hand over our company file
Trying to fit in getting our taxes done and trying to figure out why it wasn’t working
Attending and buying a gift for a baby shower for our “crown prince” on Saturday, an hour away, sharing a ride with three daughters
Making a hotel reservation for a family wedding in less than two weeks, while making sure the hotel is dog-friendly so we can bring our geriatric canine with us
Entertaining overnight guests on Saturday, but mostly doing financial stuff and cooking the whole time
Planning and hosting our church’s (early) Passover Seder Sunday night
Conducting the final rehearsal for the Sunday School kids’ song for Easter Sunday and making sure our sound guy has the flash drive with the music
How much of that surprised you? It actually isn’t everything. For one thing, in the evenings, I tried to make sure I had set aside some time to read our bedtime story so Eric could sleep better. That didn’t work a couple of nights because he was already asleep.
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I considered the arrest of my friend eerily coincidental since I had recently posted a meme on Facebook, along with “Are you ready to go to prison for your faith?”
The coming Lawless One will use the existing criminal justice system to commit gross injustice. How do I know? Because it’s already happening. And yet, we know the outcomes of several of these -- Peter had the help of a Jailbreak Angel. Paul (not listed) had the help of an earthquake that rattled everyone’s cage. Joseph was promoted to the second highest position in the land of Egypt. Jesus was promoted even higher than that.
Test question:
Where is God when we go through trials?
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The tax return was much harder this year than last year, and I thought last year was bad! My Quickbooks files are a bit messy in places, and I know that. There needs to be some cleanup done after all these years, and I haven’t even balanced the savings account in a few years. Like many Americans, checking online to find out the balance usually works just fine for that one.
But bringing an accountant who is also a busy mom into the picture two weeks before the dread “Ides of April” (Tax Day) is a bit futile for purposes of the LLC business taxes, so I need to spend more time on it this week and try to do it before 2:00 in the morning, while my eyes are still open. Ah, remember the days when Presidential candidates were promising that they would make taxes so simple they would be on a form the size of a 3” X 5” card? Pretty sure that wasn’t talking about limited liability corporations, but oh well, it ain’t happened yet.
Tax Day is even more painful when you don’t know how “they” will actually spend your particular nickels. In some areas of life in 21st Century America, it is best not to ask, but to do what is required. It is only our discretionary spending that we should be held accountable for. What entertainment, what hobbies, what pots and pans and jewelry? Who’s benefiting from my purchases? But we can’t just not pay taxes because we don’t like where the money’s going. We can, however, be certain to not overpay taxes.
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I have mentioned the coming “Lawless One” above. But thankfully, as Christians, we are not looking for him. The Crown Prince? We are expectantly waiting for him, for sure (especially his mom!) Amos James Haley will be the very first Haley grandson among our descendants. We have other grandsons and even great-grandsons, but this one can carry on the family name, so we’re pretty excited about him. The shower game was the one about Don’t Say ‘Baby,’ so in order to not lose the game, we had to use other synonyms for the term, such as rug rat, fetus, young one, newby, or in this case, The Crown Prince.
We actually have three grandchildren due in 2022. Is that cool or what?
One of our sons-in-law mentioned this week that some of his friends have said the world is too messed up to have children. The question: How could anybody intentionally bring more kids into this mess-of-a-world? But we know that after God commanded righteous Noah’s family to be fruitful and multiply, there was never a command to stop. And Jesus Himself promised that He would be with us till the end of the age, so what could we fear?
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
~Matthew 28:19-20
Did you get the test question right? The answer's underlined for ya’!
We have a Blessed Hope, and children are still a blessing!
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The Passover Seder was really wonderful, in person after two Covid years. I mean, I may be a Mean Old Mom, but I really enjoyed telling the story of the Plagues of Egypt to the kids, and I wore my “boils” -- the red dot stickers -- with pride the rest of the evening. The food was good, too, and I had a chance to bond with brothers and sisters in Christ who love coming alongside you to serve in Jesus’ Name. Calvary Chapel of Lafayette is an exceptional church, or at least it feels that way.
Teaching the children about the plagues in Egypt. This was the frog plague.
For extra credit, see how many grandkids you can spot!
Me with painful boils.
No, we are not waiting for the “Lawless One” -- we are waiting for the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus (Yeshua) is God’s Lamb, the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, and John the Baptist said so. We see Him again in Revelation, and those in Heaven proclaiming the Lamb of God to be the rightful owner of the earth, which He will come to claim as His own. We’re on the lookout for Jesus!
As the Four Cups in The Passover signify, Jesus is the one who:
Sanctifies Us
Delivers Us
Redeems Us
Is Worthy of our Praise
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The Sunday School kids are ready to sing a five-verse song for Easter, and they know what to do with their streamers, rather than hitting one another. They know the Paschal Greeting and will shout the answer on cue as follows:
Me: “Christ is Risen!”
Children: “HE IS RISEN INDEED!”
And now I will tell you about my dream.
The dream was long and I don’t remember most of it, only that we were practicing for the abovementioned song for Sunday. Some of the kids weren’t getting the song right and I was a little frustrated and tired. I was also teaching music theory, but even the concept of “this is a note” was going over their heads. So since I was tired and the kids had to leave for a while (recess?) I took a break and slept, thinking my nap would be brief.
But apparently it was longer than I thought. For when I awoke from my sleep break (still in my dream), I was shocked because I had been asleep so long that the kids had come and gone. They and their parents had quietly sneaked into my room and left me a gift.
Arranged neatly all over the room were at least two dozen glass bowls containing butterflies, exotically colored and sparkly bright. It was impossibly beautiful, and I was delighted.
The children, ohhh, the children! They did get it! They understood that the Resurrection was about New Life in Jesus. As the caterpillar’s metamorphosis transforms him from a multi-footed creeping thing to a tomb-like cocoon, and then he breaks out as a six-legged gorgeous flying creature, so the death, resurrection, and glorification of our Savior promises the resurrection and glorification of our own bodies, for the purpose of that higher promotion -- to live with Christ for eternity.
It has been an overall glorious week. The occupant of the White House is predicting a ridiculously burdensome inflation rate and worldwide famine, which he blames on Putin. (Of course!) We may not get a leg of lamb next year, and that’s okay. Even some Orthodox Jews believe a bit of chicken with a neck bone is okay to put on your Seder plate, and if need be, we’ll go with that. But always, always, we will look forward to tomorrow without fear because
CHRIST IS RISEN!
(Now what do you say?)
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