Back Porch Break

Blessed by Bunnies

April 13, 2017 by Nancy 15 Comments

Since the time I was a very little girl watching them scamper around our grassy yard in East Tennessee, stopping only to munch on clover stems, I have loved those “wascally wabbits” also known as bunnies. In junior high school I actually raised rabbits, showing them in the Tennessee State Fair. I even served briefly as secretary of the Smoky Mountain Rabbit Breeders Association!

As Easter approaches our grandchildren know that the bunnies burrowed in storage bins most of the year will soon be hopping into position all around our house—joining the year-round bunnies on display. We have bunny bands, bunny families, and even an Easter egg tree with bunny ornaments. Bunnies, bunnies everywhere!

Of course, as a follower of Jesus Christ, I know that Easter is only about His glorious Resurrection. It’s about how He came to earth to close the gap between us and His Heavenly Father. It’s about how believers can exchange a life of sin for an eternal life with God! I know all that to be true, and I’m grateful to my soul for the true meaning of Easter. I would never begin to idolize or worship the Easter Bunny, but I’m hoping it’s OK to adore God’s fuzzy creatures that dart across the path in front of me on my walks, stopping just long enough to twitch an ear or wiggle a nose in my direction.

I’ve learned a lot from bunnies—including the facts of life after I ran to my grandmother crying, “one of my rabbits is playing too rough with the other one!” In my book Simply the Savior, I wrote about learning to abide by watching the little rabbit that lived in an overgrown juniper at the end of our driveway. Every morning when I opened the drapes to look out she would be nibbling dew-covered grass. But if the golden retriever next door came galloping by, or the wind and rain came up, the little rabbit would quickly retreat to her bush where she was safe. Seeing her abide in the bush helped me understand how Jesus wants us to abide in Him (John 15:4).

Many authors have personified bunnies. I decorated my grandchild nursery in prints and fabric depicting Beatrix Potter’s beloved Peter Rabbit and his friends. One year I read the novel Watership Down, a fictitious account of life in a rabbit warren, while riding a train through the British countryside. Gazing out the window I couldn’t help but fantasize that the bunnies I was reading about were out there somewhere.

Yet bunnies are just charming, sometimes aggravating (why do they eat just one bite of each ripe strawberry?) creatures. I believe God made them in part for our pleasure, so let it be to His glory that we enjoy them at Easter.

Which leads me to wonder if bunnies could have been present at the Cross. When the ground shook and the sky turned darker than dark, did they scurry under a rosemary bush for protection? Maybe they also watched from a distance that bright, early morning of the third day as the women ran to the tomb only to find it empty. We can only imagine…and be blessed.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
–Cecil F. Alexander

Kites Keep Us Looking Up!

March 31, 2017 by Nancy 9 Comments

This time of year they begin popping up just everywhere. One in a field next to the grocery store. One in a school yard. What are they? The first purple and yellow crocuses? No, the first thing to pop up and announce that spring is really here is the high-flying, fantasy-making kite.

Is there any activity that lifts our spirits like successfully flying a kite? When the trees and power lines are avoided and the wind is just right, even the novice can soar to success. Feeling the tug of the string and looking up as the kite battles the breeze like a bird flying into the wind lifts us above ourselves, above our daily responsibilities and worries.

No wonder kite flying is an international sport with associations and conventions to rival those of physicians, attorneys or engineers. For just $40 a year, serious kiters can join the American Kitefliers Association (aka: AKA) and receive regular newsletters, a magazine, instructional tips, and discounts on kites of every imaginable size and construction. Competitive Kite Festivals and Fun Flys are held all over the world, and you can keep up with these events on the organization’s website, www.kite.org.

Tradition tells us kites were discovered in China when the wind blew a hat off a farmer’s head. The hat was tethered to the ground by a string and so lofted into the air without blowing away. Kites were unknown in Europe for centuries until Marco Polo brought them back from his travels to the East. Then Europeans and later Americans used kites for all kinds of scientific and military purposes.

There are many famous kitefliers. Benjamin Franklin used kites to prove the existence of electricity in the air and then invented the lightning rod. The most well-known fictitious kiteflier is Charlie Brown of Peanuts. Who can forget his kite-eating tree?

One of the most celebrated kitefliers in Colorado was the late Frances Weaver. The famous author began her writing career by selling an article on flying kites to Vogue magazine after she founded the Beulah Valley Association for Tethered Flight. She even put “kitewriter” on her business cards.

Describing her love affair with kites in her book Midlife Musings, Frances said, “There’s magic in a kite. There is also joy, serenity, challenge and frustration. (That describes most love affairs when you think about it).”

I once found a pink Barbie kite in our garage that was left over from a visit by two small granddaughters. Seeing it brought back happy kite-flying memories! I’m not sure what brought the loudest giggles of delight from them. Seeing the kite in the air, or watching Grancy and Papa running through the field trying to get it aloft!

Our house overlooks a large park and often we see kites of all shapes and construction dipping and climbing in the sun. April is National Kite Month. Maybe this year I’ll pick up a kite again and join those watching their colorful kites dancing against the blue Colorado sky. Happy spring!

Revisiting Church Basements

March 14, 2017 by Nancy 25 Comments

Some time ago, after the release of my first book Simply the Savior, I was invited to give a message to a fellowship of ladies in a small local congregation. I arrived before the appointed time and found my way down to the basement of the little church where they had their meetings.

You haven’t been there, but you’ve been there. Cinder block walls, linoleum floor, tiny windows letting in just a bit of natural light to supplement the fluorescent lighting, and brown folding chairs set up around collapsible banquet tables. Immediately my attention was drawn to the one feature of the room with the most promise: the big open window between the main room and the church kitchen. Coffee pots were already perking away on that spacious window counter when I arrived, the sound and the aroma taking me back to so many other church basements I’ve visited over the years.

At the church in East Tennessee where I grew up, the church basement was called the Fellowship Hall, but it was still the church basement. I remember everything from youth group meetings to Girl Scout fly-up ceremonies and talent shows being held in that basement—a center of community life for sure.

Many brides on a budget even opted to have their receptions there. As kids we’d stand on the stairs leading down to the basement in our finest clothes waiting our turn to go through the receiving line to see the beautiful bride and her handsome groom up close. Then we’d work our way through the crowd to the same folding tables used for every event—but now draped with lace tablecloths and festooned with ribbon garlands. There we’d find such delights as bowls of pastel-colored mints, nuts, wedding cake with sugary icing, and punch sweet enough to knock us right out of our patent leather shoes! On the counter under the big window, those coffee pots would be perking away.

As the ladies filtered in to that gathering where I was to speak, I noticed several of them were pulling portable oxygen tanks along behind them. Others had canes or walkers. A wave of sadness passed over me then as I thought, when these ladies are gone, no one will be gathering in church basements anymore. No one will be hosting potluck dinners and swapping recipes for tuna casserole or pineapple upside-down cake. It will be the end of an era.

But sometime after that I found out my “doom and gloom” prediction just wasn’t true! Due to a scheduling mix-up at our church, our women’s Bible study group had to move our closing potluck luncheon from the room we had planned on using to, you guessed it, the church basement. In keeping with our luau theme, my co-leader and I were taping grass skirts along the counter under the big window (where some wonderful potluck dishes would soon be arrayed) when I realized that, praise God, women’s fellowships and church basements are both still thriving! And oh, yes—there was coffee, too.

Just recently I learned that the church basement culture I cherish inspired a musical comedy! “Church Basement Ladies” premiered in 2005 and has six sequels to date. Long live the church basement!

Love Is a River

February 10, 2017 by Nancy 13 Comments

An old adage states that it’s better to be a river than a lake. That whatever resources come to us should not stop with us but flow through us on their way to bless others. Certainly this is true of any love we receive in our lives, from whatever source. Love mustn’t stop with us. It must move through us. Through our words, our actions, our thoughts, our touch, our caring, our hoping. It must move through us to others—and to the world as a whole.

I’m not proud of the fact that I have felt somewhat discouraged and hopeless in the past few weeks. My despair is because so much hate is being spewed into our world from many directions. Hate based on emotion and fear, not facts. I’m not proud of it because that’s not how my God would have me respond to this outpouring of hate. Rather He would ask me to flood it with an outpouring of His love, flowing through me.

So this Valentine’s Day, I’m going to take love more seriously than ever before. The romantic movies, the chocolates, the roses, the dinner out won’t cease to delight me, but they won’t fully satisfy me either. I want to seek love at the deepest level. I want to gorge on the love that knows no end. The love that sacrificed all. For only such profound love can wash away such a vast amount of hate and confusion.

God IS love (1 John 4:16). So I’ll ask Him to help me show love in a million little ways. I’ll ask Him to help me hold my tongue. I’ll ask Him to remind me that without forgiveness I am nothing. And that I can forgive others because He first forgave me. I’ll remember all the lavish love He’s sent into my life and believe that I can love others because He first loved me. I’ll ask Him to help me spend time with people of all persuasions and beliefs in peace, because He tells me that all people are worthy of love.

I know. This isn’t the paper doily, construction-paper-heart kind of Valentine love. But it truly is the love the world needs now. May it flow through us all.

Puppy Tales

January 25, 2017 by Nancy 21 Comments

My guest blogger today is Finnegan, a 4-month old Australian Shepherd and Golden Retriever mix.

F-I-Double N-E, G-A-N spells Finnegan. That’s the name my family gave me when they rescued me from the adoption fair at Wag-n-Wash. My middle name is Tails because the adoption lady couldn’t decide which of two families to give me to so she flipped a coin. My human brother Liam called out “tails” and tails it was, so I got to go home with him and his family. I’m sure the other family was nice, too, but I’m very happy to be Finnegan Tails McConnell.

One of my favorite things to do is go on a walk. Someone named Grancy stayed with me and my human brothers while my human parents were away recently. When we went on walks she said I was a connoisseur of all of God’s creation. I don’t know what that means, I just know there is so much to sniff in this world!

My favorite things to put in my mouth are sticks and rocks, but everyone makes me drop the rocks. Sometimes I see a plane in the air, a magpie in the scrub oak, or a bunny crossing the road very fast. I’m fascinated by all these things and easily distracted by anything that moves or makes noise. I’m also very interested in the deer that come into our yard, but even better is the poop they leave behind! Deer poop is the most fascinating substance there is, but no one in my family will let me eat it for some reason.

I spend a lot of time in my crate where I can sleep or watch everything that goes on in my new household. When I’m out I get to play around the house with cool toys and my favorite thing: a plastic bottle. It’s amazing how easy it is to chew up a toy, however. They just don’t seem made to last. Grancy got me a Scooby-Do to play with and the stuffing is already coming out of it. Not sure how that happened!

I like to help around the house when I can. Once when Grancy was folding laundry, I grabbed a pair of underwear out of the laundry basket. Then I raced all around with it as fast as I could go! Eventually Grancy caught me and made me give the underwear back. I have to say she moves pretty well for a woman her age!

My day is made up of crate time, play time, walks, many potty breaks, and of course–meal time. I get fed twice a day and I never miss a meal. One of my favorite times of day is when I go to meet the school bus. I get so excited when I see my human brothers Peter and Liam get off the bus, and then we run up the hill to our house together. They play with me and try to train me to do things before it’s time for my afternoon nap. My other human brother, Jack, is good about taking me out for potty breaks late at night and sometimes takes me to visit his friends. Everyone says I’m something called a “chick magnet,” so maybe that’s why. I know my human sister, Ellie, thought I was pretty cute when she was home from college.

Well, that’s pretty much the story of my life so far. Finnegan, that’s me!

Mary, Did You Know?

December 19, 2016 by Nancy 9 Comments

"Kissing the Face of God" by Morgan Weistling — “Kissing the Face of God” by Morgan Weistling

“Mary, Did You Know?” is my husband’s very favorite Christmas song, and I love it, too. It was written in 1991 by Mark Lowry, with music by Buddy Greene, when both were part of the Gaither Vocal Band. Since then it has been recorded and performed beautifully by many artists.

One reason it captures us so is that it takes us right back to the moment described in Luke 1 when Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her, “Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:30-33).

The lyrics in the song go on to outline all the things Mary couldn’t possibly have known as a teenager in Nazareth, surprised and frightened by the appearance of God’s messenger. Things she couldn’t even know as she held her newborn son after he was born: That He would one day walk on water, save our sons and daughters, give sight to a blind man, calm the storm with His hand…that He was, in fact, the great I Am! Perhaps the most touching line in the song is, “When you kiss your little baby, you’ll kiss the face of God.”

No, Mary couldn’t possibly know all the joys and sorrows that this assignment from God would bring her. But she knew God, and she trusted Him. After asking just one quite reasonable question, “How will this be…since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34), Mary submitted herself completely to God’s will for her life. “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38).

Mary was called blessed among women. Yes, there was great heartache, but Mary’s assignment brought her many blessings as well. Is there an area of your life where you are struggling with something God is asking of you? Trust and submit to His will. The blessings will follow.

First published by Fellowship of the Rockies, Christmas 2016.