Soon weather diviners will uncover the den of Punxutawney Phil, the famous groundhog, and give their prognosis of how many more weeks of winter lie before those of us who live in these parts of the United States.  No matter the wishes for an early Spring, a few more days of true Winter will await the Spring equinox as our planet spins and tilts on God’s perfect timetable. Alas, I am no different from all others in anticipating the warmer days of Spring.  My past years of living in the woodlands have given me a kinship with all the creatures who exult in anticipation of freedom, sunlight, warmth, March winds and April rains.  It is February and nothing less than love is in the hemisphere.  What mystery, wonder and magic inhabits this month that bridges Winter with Spring?

Elsewhere in these journals, I have written about my several mentors and quoted their wisdom.  These days I have been listening with great interest to Dr. Edwin Lutzer, pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.  Weekday mornings his sermons are broadcast in a series called Running to Win.  And, via the internet, I can become a member of his Sunday morning parish on Sunday afternoons after I have returned from my own church, Brown Memorial.   Pastor Lutzer’s sermon texts recently have been taken from Jeremiah.  He is drawing a remarkable parallel between Israel’s apostasy in the years before they were taken to Babylon in captivity and the present apostasy of our nation.  It is a wake-up call for all Americans who value freedom but do not understand that even mindless idolatry in its many forms can be forgiven by the grace of a loving God.  Jeremiah is one of the Old Testament’s most tragic characters because he was called of God to warn the nation of Judah to repent, yet would in his own lifetime see his nation Judah taken into captivity.  Lutzer points out that our nation, like Judah, is already under judgment with twenty million children living in single parent households, the family unit tragically broken.

"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6.16

God is wholly present in all creation, in every corner, behind you and before you.  Do you think God is sleeping on a pillow in heaven?  God is watching over you and protecting you.  Martin Luther (1483-1546) Quoted from the book Song of Creation

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.  Mark Twain

The measure of your life will not be in what you accumulate but in what you give away.  Wayne Dyer

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.  Robert Louis Stevenson

The only people without problems are those in cemeteries.  Tony Robbins.