Martha's Birthday 28

Our daughter Martha celebrating her birthday today. we've talked with her several times and it has been so good. She is wonderful and me and the world are a better place for her being her. She has always been an incredibly compassionate person. while on a mission trip with a group from the church, Martha came along and she was about 5. One of the young men got a sore throat and didn't feel well. She and I went in to see him. He looked and asked why she was crying...and she pointed to Dan... she felt bad for Dan.
Every day in every way our family is blessed by her. She is living in Bethlehem, PA and we are most certainly proud of what work she is doing but we are mostly grateful to the bone for who she is.

Happy Birthday Martha Elizabeth McGarey

I love you mom

God Abides

Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2009

2 am

2 a.m.
and I am
wakeful after storm
so loud so bright

candles found
by stove lighted
flicker light teasing night

lost connection
modem sleeping in the storm
outside window
now door open
a new frog churps
welcomes rain
suddenly summer
may be passing
marked by change
of heated earth
summer still will
heat us warmly
temperatures not so high
this time
rain and thunder distant echo
still the storm around us creeps
why am i waking
to the lightening
thunder bumping with the flash
think of other
summers passing seem so close
yet far away
in the mountains on the beaches
in the desert with the heat
not like monsoons
do our rains come
those with rain
that fills the streets
ours more gentle
drunk by dry land
grain still waiting in the field
when the rains come
after waiting
all the sweeter is the smell
life returing
hope abiding
baptized by the heaven’s hand


bobbie bane giltz mcgarey august 27, 2009 Oklahoma

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2009

Are you not amazed?

Are you not amazed by something in your life just now. Something that has come to you or people told you or you have felt in all you do? Have you not seen something Awesome in the truest sense of the word...something that pointed you to God's creative hand?

There are moments when I visit with folks or talk to folks and I find that somehow in the midst of the conversation I notice something amazing about them. It could be that they have beautiful eyes or hands or a smile that is gentle and reassuring. Sometimes I remember to tell them what about them I've observed. Yes, I'm still listening but part of that is absorbing the person to whom I'm listening.

Try it. Today, sometime today, as you greet someone or someone serves you at a table or there is a family that walks by all looking happy tell them so. For example I was happy when after the dad, daughter son and mom walked by as I was eating lunch in Atlanta Bread company I said to the mom, What a handsome family. She smiled. They were you could tell, or it felt like you could tell they were happy.

Is not one of the jobs of the church to help people recognize the wonder around them? I believe it is. To marvel at a sunset or a rainbow or a face or a puppy and know that life is good. I believe that we miss the wonder with schedules and cell phones and... and...and...

Look for amazement it will surely find you.

And leave me a note what happened. You can do that by registering on comments below... lets share eh? what did you see that amazed you?

God abides
keep watching
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2009