Friday Thoughts

Several weeks ago I was talking with a niece who teaches lower elementary.  She mentioned some training her school did with the kids that week: lockdown exercises: what to do if an intruder came into the elementary school.   I remember now, sighing and commenting, "My gosh, what is this world coming to?  We only used to have fire and tornado drills."  She explained what was involved in a classroom lockdown situation, having to herd her 1st grade students into a safe area of their classroom, and have them huddle and be as still as they can be.

What has been on my mind today are my three kids - now all adults, but in my mind's eye I can see them when they were in Kindergarten, 1st grade. Winsome, shy smiles.  Soft voices.  Funny, silly senses of humor.  Typical little kids.  Blessedly, now, typical young adults.

What a tough day for so many.

"How precious is your steadfast love, Oh God!  The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings."  Psalm 36:6-8

I took a walk in the woods this evening.  I saw a big white-tail deer about-facing away from me.  And up in the sky there were hundreds - yes, hundreds of ducks flying over in V-formations.  And yes, they were ducks, not geese.  Ducks have a different wing movement than geese when they fly.  I learned that from my Dad when I was a kid.   He showed me ducks flying and  how their wings go flap-flap-flap, whereas geese's wings go up-down, pause, up-down, pause.  And these birds were quacking, not honking.  We saw ducks in this number a few months ago, and that Spouse o' Mine commented that he had not seen such huge teams since he was a young kid growing up in South Dakota.


I think of the parents who have lost their children: here in the States: Newtown, and also the parents in China whose children also came under attack the same morning,  by some deranged attacker with a pitchfork. And the families in Syria, whose school children have been killed the past couple of weeks by Assad's regime.   There are tears of loss - complete loss and sadness.  I am so sorry for the world-wide loss of children this month.  I cannot fathom, not one minute, one iota, what the all those families in this world are experiencing.           

It is sprinkling this evening, and that is something we have not seen for months and months.  I can say, "Thanks be to God."