Saturday, Class and Isaiah

I meet with my mentee and we were both really glad to connect again after a month. I need to get permission to give her my phone number because there has been too much

miscommunication as we try to get a hold of each other through other people. There was a break through in that both times as we meet and as she left, she came to me to get a hug. Then after that I talked her ear off and she talked mine off. We are planning a outing. We talked about a trip to the Meadows. I want her mom and little sister to come. On my way home as I was driving I decide to do this in December, take them to lunch and make it very special. I am completely excited. She said her mother would love to get out and do something, so would I. But I need to make it after finals.

She told me there was an event today she wanted to go with me to, an all day art event, but she wasn’t able to contact me.

The next class was fun. I had two ladies and then a group of kids who were brother and sisters and cousins. They razzed each other and cut up and I felt like I was in the middle of their family room. Man, I was tired when I got home. Lots of fun. There was a five year old boy, an eight year old boy, a ten year old girl and boy and two thirteen year old girls.

I am fasting again because the occasion seems to call for it and I have renewed strength in doing so. (But I am really wanting to eat black eyed peas w/own beef broth, mashed tat's w/skin on, smoked pork chops, & brownies w/fresh strawberries & whipped cream... SHANNON!)
I digress and I really was going to write something important, but I think I will go to Walmart and buy a video and lunch for next week. I can’t decide

I read from Isaiah this a.m. and I wanted to comment on that. I am reading through Isaiah in my quiet time.

“Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.” Isaiah 4:5-6

This struck me because of the image. The cloud of smoke and the pillar of fire as reference to the Exodus and wandering. It being a shelter from the storm and a hiding place.

For me these two images, God’s presence and guidance and God’s sheltering and hiding are two very real and powerful images in my life. That is what He has been doing with me. Sometimes I get frustrated with the hiding. When you are in hiding you are isolated, but protected. I know God loves me, but sometimes it seems cruel, although I know it isn’t. I look back and know he protected me.

So I know I have written about this in the Window Text as I call it. So I look it up. I last wrote about the Element of the Cloud. The following note, not even finished text but ideas, is the last thing I wrote.

“These texts give an additional image of the Cloud of God’s presence as a shelter from the heat and the raging of the storm. What the people needed to be reminded of and what we forget in our personal wilderness journeys is that we are not only dependent on the Lord for our provision, water and the manna from heaven, but we are also in reality dependent on the Lord for our very life. Each breath we take is a gift from above. Psalm 22 reminds us that we cannot even keep ourselves alive. It is in times of duress that we see this the most clearly. It is then that the illusion that we are independent and have a sense of contentment and control is removed that we recognize that He is …. a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.”