As my wife and I got off the car, we noticed a praying mantis (I’m not sure if it is but it looks like it) on top of the car. I took a shot. Why do I take interest in such things? Well, I guess God has wired me to love photography—and take shots of his creation—showing the wonders of what he has created.
Praying Mantis Pose
I thought it was interesting that this mantis didn’t take off and leave as I pointed my camera and took several shots. It posed for my camera. I really have no idea how it got there. Did it cling on to the car while I was driving from our home to the mall? I don’t know. I’m not so sure if it can do that. Anyway, it was an opportunity not to be missed for photography enthusiasts like me haha!
I have been reading C. Baxter Kruger’s book, The Great Dance: The Christian Vision Revisited and I don’t know but it seems like I have already read his book. Maybe because I’ve heard him in video interviews, heard him personally in a conference in 2007 in the US, and I have read many of his short articles through the years. Or maybe, I’ve already read excerpts of this book somewhere—quoted by others. I got this book as a gift from my daughter which surprised me to my delight.
I’m almost done with the book and I’m reading that part where Baxter talks about the reality of our being in union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Being in union with the Triune God is our reality—our home. Deep inside us we yearn for home. Aligning ourselves with this reality gives us joy. To deviate from this truth is to experience sorrow and pain.
The Great Dance and Our Union with God
Knowing, embracing, believing the truth about our union with God through Christ gives us peace, joy and happiness. To be away from home, to be separated and lost in a big city as Baxter experienced when he was a young boy, is to experience fear, anxiety, sorrow and pain.
We belong to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are in union with our God. This is the truth. This is our reality. That is why we long for home. And it pains us to be away from home. If we are not in reality in union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then it wouldn’t matter at all if we’re apart from them. We wouldn’t be hurt. We won’t be longing for home. But the fact is, we all long to be home. This is evidence we are in union with our loving God. We were created for adoption into the inner circle of the life and love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—to be part of that great banquet, that great dance throughout eternity.
As usual every year, firecrackers light up the street in our neighborhood to welcome the new year. It’s quite a dangerous thing nowadays to be exposed to it knowing that some firecrackers have become more highly explosive than it was during my boyhood years.
Firecrackers and Casualties on New Years
A lot of casualties and even death are reported yearly. But thankfully, there were less casualties this year than in previous years. Maybe the intensified advertising campaign by the health government authorities and media has paid off and people are beginning to become more extra careful. Anyway, I took some shots but from a safe distance.
Whew! What a day it’s been today! Just a few days before the year 2012 ended, I was busy moving my blog from the more complicated content management system (CMS) called Joomla! to WordPress which is I feel easier to work with and more appropriate for my blog — since it’s just a blog. This blog site is now in WordPress platform. I think that I’ll move some more of my other websites to WordPress soon.
Maintaining and Updating Websites
For today and yesterday, I was busy trying to update our national church’s website since its contents has really been outdated for some years. It’s not finished yet but it sure does take a lot of work. It’s in Joomla! CMS.
A few days earlier, some church friends have begun to take interest in translating some of our English articles into the various local dialects. That is why I have begun updating our GCI Philippines website — getting it ready. Besides, it’s a new year and a time to update the website.
It was interesting for me to look back and to “discover” back again my previous work of some 7 years in that site! It was the first website I created using FrontPage. For a good number of years, I was sending weekly updates through email worldwide to our church membership. Back then, sometime in 2001, I started an e-mail newsletter just for the fun I get out of doing it not knowing it will become a “web ministry” for years to come where the Lord has placed me. I was brought back down into memory lane when I “found” the page again at this link!
And I’m back doing the same thing again since 2010. I stopped for a while in 2009. Thank you Lord for allowing me participate in this way through creating and maintaining websites. What a day!
Last night, the last day of the year 2012, just less than an hour before the new year, we had a chance to talk to our daughter working abroad. We missed Christmas this year with her. But thanks to modern technology we can get in touch with our loved ones anytime no matter how far they may be. What a great difference the way it was during my younger days.
During the Seventies
Back then, during my college days in Manila, I had to write a letter then go to the post office to send it to my parents in Mindanao. We had no phones, no TV, no laptops, no ATM cards—just plain and simple student life without much of the conveniences taken for granted by many young ones today.
When I needed tuition money and allowance I had to send a telegram and wait for my parents’ response. And then after 3 days you go and check the bank if the tuition money has already arrived through telegraphic transfer. You go back to the bank the following day if it has not yet arrived and hope again. What a big difference it is nowadays. For a teenage freshman from the province who has newly arrived in the big city, it was always kind of lonely for many months without hearing from loved ones so far away. But those were the days.
I’m just glad communication is easy nowadays. We can talk and even see our loved ones each and everyday if we want to even if they’re so far away. I salute all the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are sacrificing their lives to support their families at home.
Welcome to the new year! Happy new year everyone and to all OFWs out there!
