Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Florida. Oh, the weather was nice, but it was glorious because of a baptism. I'm single, never married, no children, but yesterday I felt like a Grandmother in Christ. Here's why:

Back in the early 1980s I helped lead a young lady who worked in the same office as I did to the truth (she was raised Catholic, while I was fortunate to be raised by Christian parents). It was my first time, and I was so thrilled I could hardly stay on the ground. She has remained totally faithful ever since (and my very best friend forever). It's been wonderful to see her grow and stretch her wings. Her husband is agnostic and at first was very against what she was doing. She stood up to him and (very nicely) told him that she felt she had to do it for her soul. She has worked through the years from coming to services once a week, to every service. She has had two children, both of whom were baptized young (although both left the church at adulthood, one has returned and has since married a Christian in our congregation). Well, yesterday a neighbor that she has been talking to for about a year and who has been coming with her to services periodically during that time, decided she needed to be baptized. This neighbor had been raised Morman, and she had some difficult questions to get straight in her mind. My BFF asked me to answer some of the questions over the past few weeks, so I got into the discussion, but just at services. The two of them were talking daily otherwise.

She is VERY shy and waited until after everyone else had left to talk with our preacher. He was satisfied that she knew what she was doing and why she wanted to be baptized, so we did it right then, with just her and the three of us and her middle-school daughter. It was so wonderful to see her afterwards. She kept wanting to hug us all and repeated over and over how wonderful she felt. Knowing her background, which contained horrible stories of abuse as a child and an adult, I just couldn't keep from tearing up. I know she will have a difficult road ahead but, as I told her, now she is surrounded by love, not only of God, but of her new family in Christ, all of whom are ready and wanting to help her.

I know the angels are rejoicing in heaven, but I wanted all of you to be able to rejoice, too. My BFF asked if it was all right for her to feel so happy (it was her first time to lead someone to Christ). She knew it was the work of God, but she couldn't help being happy. I told her that she SHOULD be happy -- not only for her neighbor, but for the joy of a new sister in Christ, and knowing that she had been an instrument of God in salvation.

That's why I feel like a Grandmother: I helped Carol and Carol helped Melanie. Now, we're all children of the same God and sisters to each other and the same Lord and Christ. Jesus said that all who obeyed his father's will are his mothers and brothers and sisters. If this is what it feels like, I can understand why parents are so happy when they see their children doing well. And it's also wonderful to know that you've made your Father so happy.

Rejoice, and again I say, Rejoice.

At the congregation where I worship, we have a "younger" preacher working with us for the year, Brian Messerli. He is doing an amazingly wonderful job for being so new to preaching. His enthusiasm, zeal, and dedication or so evident in everything he says. His sermon last week was on the miracle where Jesus healed a blind man in two stages (Mark 8:22-26). He said that some people interpret that miracle to mean that Jesus didn't get it right the first time, so he had to do more. How ridiculous! Ironically, he was able to use the description of himself to show what the blind man was apparently seeing after being healed. Brian's hair is very thick and curly. He pointed out that if someone had only heard descriptions of trees and then for the first time saw him, he would look like a short tree, the nearest thing the blind man could associate with a picture. When Jesus put His hands on him a second time, it was to cure the preception problems the man was having. After that, the man could see clearly.

That reminded me of a movie about 13 years ago staring Val Kilmer and Miro Sorvino called, "At First Sight." It was the true story of a man who had been blind from (or nearly) birth who underwent an operation in his 30s that allowed him to see. The movie tried to show the audience what it was like for a person to visually see something that they had never been able to see before. I remember the first thing he saw was a Coke can, and he could not figure out what it was until he held it in his hand. His hands "knew" what it was. He was very disoriented and ultimately was very disappointed in being able to see. He was used to "seeing" with his hands and was very good at it.

That led me to remember an episode of an old TV series (this will date me) called "Simon and Simon." The older brother had a date with a blind woman (again, blind since birth) who asked him to describe colors to her. He used the grass to describe green, heat of a candle flame to describe red, the coolness of a glass of ice water to describe blue, and his corduroy coat to describe brown. I've always wondered what blind people see when they dream, but I hadn't considered the whole issue with colors.

Which leads to another realization: When heaven is described to us in the Bible, we have no true concept of what it will really be. God caters to our preceptions by describing things we consider valuable, grand, and precious. When mankind tries to envision heaven, it's usually with things that bring pleasure in this world, either emotionally or physically. We need to understand that we don't have the capacity on this level to understand God and His Home on His level. When we are told we'll have a different body, all man can come up with is white, wings, and harps. We need to trust God and just accept that we can't know what it will be like in heaven. We know that we will be with God, He will provide the light, there will be no night, we will be able to sing praises continually, and there will be no sorrow or pain -- and I think that means emotional as well as physical pain.

All that also can apply to the oft-spoken words of Jesus about having ears to hear and eyes to see. We can choose to hear and see what God has revealed and accept the truth therein or we can shut our eyes and ears to the truth and only hear and see what we want to. I want to SEE God and Christ in all Their glory and share in the joys of heaven.

I guess that is what is meant by meditating on something. It took me much longer to write about it than it did to think it.

I don't know if any of you have seen the movie or read the book "Freedom Writers," but it's about a group of high school misfits that finally come to the attention of a teacher that really cares about them. Among the projects that she has them do to teach them about life is to read "Anne Frank." They respond so favorably that they want to have the German woman that hid Anne and her family come talk to them. Her name was Miep Gies. The scene was extremely moving as she describes what happened on the day the Franks were discovered. Well, I just read that she died on January 11, 2010, in the Netherlands. She was 100 years old. I know that the part in the movie was played by an actress (Pat Carroll), but Ms. Gies was still a very courageous woman. I saw where PBS is going to show an updated version of "The Diary of Anne Frank" on Masterpiece Classic in the next few weeks.

We just don't realize sometimes how good we have it here in the US in our lifetime. Yes, we are in economic hardtimes (don't get me started on that), but we are still blessed tremendously, just by not having to face the things people in Europe have had to face in the last century. I went to London in 1992 and went to the War Museum while I was there. It just can't be comprehended by someone who has lived a peaceful life what the people in Europe went through in two wars 20 years apart. And the section on the Holocaust was sickening. I couldn't stay in the room for very long with all the pictures and artifacts. We need to remember to thank God for the country we're living in right now, no matter what the problems are. There are so many worse places and times to be.

Hello, everyone. My name is Sherry and I'm the older sister of Mockinbird/Jo Ann. She has been bugging me to join Pleonast for about a year, so I finally gave in and went through the hoops to become a member. I live in Florida, as far from snowy, cold Chicago as I can get. I've never married and have no children (which, in my belief, goes hand-in-hand). I work in the legal world, originally as a paralegal and, since 1991, as a judicial assistant to two different circuit judges (the ones dealing with the divorces, big contract disputes, personal injury, and the nastiest felonies). Often I see references to the cases my judge works on in the papers, which is interesting to see the way the media looks at things when I know the background/behind-the-scenes information (the papers rarely get it right and usually have an agenda).

Obviously, from my screen name, you know I love to read. Besides the reading I do in the Bible and Biblical subjections, I read across multiple genres for recreation, except for horror and non-fiction (well, I occasionally read biographies and histories). I have a huge personal library (about 4,000 books, a portion of which are history non-fiction), but I'm trying to make myself use the library more, because of the cost and just running out of space. Just the past year (believe it or not), I have finally found audio books (it started with the trips I take to Tennessee to visit my parents. It's a 12-hour drive!). Fortunately, the library also has those to check out. The only problem is that I have to be very careful which books I choose. I can't skip over language or descriptions that I don't want to read when I'm listening to something in the car. Anybody that wants to talk about specific books, I'd welcome the opportunity.

Of course, the Bible is the most important book there is. I have a wonderful church family here where I've attended since 1973: Palm Springs Drive church of Christ in Altamonte Springs, FL. Bill Feist is our current preacher and we've just added a second (younger) preacher, Brian Messerli, who's more or less in-training, but is an awesome young man and excellent preacher. I've written a couple of books to teach for adult ladies classes, but they are suitable for all students. One of the books was taught by one of the men in a mixed adult class. I really enjoy that; just wish I had more time to do it. I have some ideas I'd love to try out.

The other recreation I have is crocheting. I make afghans as wedding presents, baby presents, and birthday or thank you presents. I've been doing it for years and now it's more or less expected of me from the people at church. I enjoy it though. Since I'm about to become a great-aunt for triplets, I've decided to try something new with crocheting. I'll let you know how it turns out.

While I'm extremely busy (having a second job working from home on the computer, because working for the State these days is economically challenging, especially for a single person), I hope I can find the time to make this a part of my life; I want to be closer to my family. I'm more tuned to the business way of doing things, but maybe this blogging thing will lead to wonderful new ways and experiences.

Until I get the hang of things, I hope you'll excuse any mistakes this newbie makes.