Danny's Doting(s)

 Two or three summers when I was little, Mom would take Polly and I to Sudbury with her for the summer. I positively HATED it. There's no other way to put it. I wanted to spend my summer vacation with Dad on the farm. I didn't want to be in a city. I wanted the smell of curing hay, the taste of fresh wild strawberries from the lane, and the feel of powdered Queens Line clay under my bare feet. I wanted DAD.  Even though my favorite aunt, Aunt Pansy, lived in Sudbury, and we mostly stayed with her, I wanted to be home. Her husband, my Uncle Gordon Scott, was away for long periods of time in the mines up there. He was a good uncle with a great sense of humour and a heart for kids. He had four of his own; John (Sonny), Chris, Meryl, and Sharon, all old enough to be my uncle and aunts themselves. His grandchildren, scattered throughout the somewhat nearby Copper Cliff and Lively, were roughly Polly's and my age. One of the worst bawling's out Mom ever got came from Uncle Go...

 I had a strange upbringing. I have made it my life's mission to be as steady and ordinary and mundane and boring as I can be.  Christmases were an odd mix when I was young. Yes, there was the hope of toys that would thrill me and keep me occupied. Maybe a better word for that would be 'distracted'.  Family would pour into our humble farmhouse from all over. My Mom's sisters and one remaining brother descended on us. Uncle Basil was great. He was quiet and unassuming. He was the (most noticeable) family drunk, and treated with shame by the rest because they exhibited their dysfunction in other ways that they considered higher than alcoholism. Uncle Basil never pummeled a defenseless, innocent child. In his very soft, patient voice, he taught me how to play checkers, and we played many games together. He taught me the best way to remove the peeling from an orange is to firmly roll it around under the palm of your hand on a table or countertop.  Uncle Basil became...

  I really learned something this week. Maybe you could say I relearned it. Or learned it better. Deeper, more profoundly.  We went to a funeral for a Pastor up near North Bay on the Hwy 11 side. I never knew him or met him, but Sharon knew him and his wife very well. As a matter of fact, many years ago, during the time he was Pastor of an Eganville church, when he'd be out making his rounds, he'd drop in at Sharon's house and she'd make him a lunch, then he'd have a nap on her couch where he was for once peacefully out of reach. So he was very, very much at home there.  The same couldn't be said for everywhere. As much as Sharon and her first husband Richard, welcomed him at their home, there were other people from the very same church that didn't welcome him or his wife. At all. In fact, there was one such person that made Pastors feel so unwelcome and unworthy, that he proudly branded himself as "The Pastor Axer". When I first heard that term ch...

Exodus 20:   And God spake all these words, saying, 2  I am the  Lord  thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3  Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the   Lord   thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; If you know me, you know I will weigh whatever is going on in the world and whatever anyone with any influence says against the Word of God. If it does not mesh with what the Bible says I will summarily dismiss it because I know for certain it isn't going to happen.  Luke 12 :25  And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one ...

"Heaven got another angel". "Heaven has received a new angel". "Heaven needed another angel". We hear those phrases often when someone dies. It's just not true, no matter how it is worded. Especially the "Heaven needed another angel" one. Heaven, the perfect Home and Throne of God, doesn't need anything. It is complete and perfect. Nobody becomes an angel when they die. Nobody. You might not like that but that's the way it is. The truth is actually much better than that. Angels are beings created by God. And we are too. So what separates us from angels? One very, VERY distinct thing: When we sinned, and fell short of the glory of God, Jesus came and gave His life for us that we may be saved. When angels sinned and fell, they became demons and can never be redeemed. Ever. They are eternally condemned with no path to Salvation available to them because they saw and lived in the Glory of God and then foolishly rejected Him. People also ...