A Blessing for You




























Sea World, Orlando, Florida, March 2012

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Staying Put and Moving On

Genesis 23-26 Among the many interesting aspects of these chapters is an incident that jumps out at me. This year I’m looking at my Scripture readings in the light of changes, adjustments, course corrections that have to be made, and what the Scriptures say about them. Abraham had died. Isaac was living in Gerar under the watchful eye of Abimelech. God blessed Isaac to the point that there simply wasn't room for him and all that he had gained to lived peaceable among the Philistines. There were issues of envy which resulted in some nasty events: “ So all the wells that his father’s servant had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth ” —Genesis 26:15. Abimelech asked Isaac to move a little farther away to prevent any more conflict. Isaac did what he was asked and moved, reopening the wells that the Philistines had stopped up when his father was alive—presumably the result of a different generation of envious neighbours at Abraham’s
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The Case of the Pilfering Peacock

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Such little things under ordinary circumstances: a few pots of lettuce and a little spinach. But in a country like Pakistan, and in the heart of the Sindh, anything resembling salad is as hard to find as hen’s teeth; well, in this case, peacock’s teeth. My friend, Hannah, is a retired missionary nurse. Actually she became a retreaded missionary nurse, having returned to Pakistan several times several times after retirement to fill a desperate need for nursing staff at the hospital she first went to serve in back in the 1960s.   A wall surrounds the hospital. On the grounds are the homes of the medical staff and some of the Pakistani people who work at the facility. It also seems to be the favourite place for the peacocks from the local Temple to hang out.    It had to be the lettuce and the spinach that attracted them. When she first noticed the peacocks, Hannah admired their beauty—until she noticed that they were lunching on the spinach. She tried to shoo them away. “Persistent” seem
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Worry Walks Alone

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