A Friend of Mine

I have been remembering a song I heard a few times my sophomore year in college when my roommate would play it (hi Catherwood!). I don't really know why this song has returned to me after many years but I share it here: 

Here are the lyrics if you'd rather read than listen, though the music is gentle and loving:

A friend of mine is going blind
But through the dimness
He sees so much better than me
And how he cherishes each new thing that he sees
They are locked in his head he will save them for when
He's in darkness again

He can't read books
And he can't paint pretty pictures
But he understands so much clearer than I
For he knows that all he's missing with his eyes
Is more vivid in the mind of the man who's going blind
And that's why he doesn't mind.

Won't you sing Tommy Davidson of
Things that you have seen
Sing of winter's bite and summer nights
And places you have been
Of dew drops and forget-me-nots and
Silver silky sheen
Lain across the morning meadow on the hillside

And this friend of mine, he plays guitar
And he sings so much better than I
He can sing you any pictures in your mind
He will sketch them out in rhyme draw the details in the lines
And he'll color it in time

And oh how he loves his guitar
And it loves him
And they play much sweeter than I
As if to say that come the day that he can't see
He will have at his command so much beauty in his hands
That the loss won't come so hard

Won't you sing Tommy Davidson of
Things that you have done
Sing of silver seagulls sailing into evening's golden sun
Sing of city streets and villages and people on the run
Tell the people how you know it
Tommy Davidson

In any case, I've been thinking about this song and Job and wondering why Job didn't have friends who loved him like this and were able to see at least a glimpse of what God was doing in his life. I have been blessed the last few years to watch several friends walk faithfully through cancer and all the Valley of the Shadow and suffering that entails, and come out with their faith intact, a beautiful walk. 

I once heard a sermon about Job and the pastor talked about the way Satan came to God and God said, "Have you considered my servant Job?," then went on to talk about perhaps sometimes God asks if Satan has considered others of His servants. If that still goes on, I may know some who Satan has been asked to consider -- and by God's grace, they have stood the test.  

Luke 5, So Far

I'm working my way through Luke slowly, more or less memorizing it (certainly less on that geneology). Anyhow. I have the great blessing of having been churched all my life, and am struck by memories as I work through the miracles of Christ: I am pretty sure my Sunday School in kindergarten must have worked through the miracles in Luke. 

Each time I read one of them slowly, I notice I have the sense of being in the room that was our church's kindergarten classroom. Last week ago I was there, in that room, being amazed when Jesus taught the crowds from a boat and then had Simon Peter let down the nets for a catch: today I am there to see the paralyzed man's friends let him down through the roof! to be healed and have his sins forgiven. I feel some of the same wow! as I did as a little child with layers of new understanding on top of it, and I can almost feel the lacy gloves, scratchy slip, and church hat I wore in those days.

~ ~ ~

I just love Simon Peter's "at your word I will let down the nets"
and then to see all those fish flopping in the nets. 

bleh and ahhhhhhh. AKA March

mid-March 

sleet icicles on

empty birdfeeder. Dryer

 fluffs warm towels inside.