today’s sermon had an interesting take to it. the pastor talked about the validty of the ten commandments (why every pastor always goes ‘not the ten suggestions ah’ is beyond me! they got standard joke book is it?) in our modern world and then provided the context for why God instituted the ten commandments in the first place.

it began with God reminding Moses and the folksies about His great love for them, which was proven time and time again. “‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”. (exodus 19)

and then the pastor then went on to talk about what it meant to be carried on eagle’s wings. he didn’t explain it spectacularly, with great flourish etcetc. but he told it like a father, together with all the flappityflappitywingsthings of eaglets (eagle chickees are eaglets yeah?). and it was something that never struck me before.

I always thought ‘eagles wings’ meant zooming around, paragliding au naturel, very whee-ish. but it actually meant that when the chickeee was learning how to fly and free-falling (hence, 10m per s per s. i am my father’s daughter), the mummy eagle would swoop down at the CRITICAL moment to save the chickee from um, becoming chickee smoosh. and then the process repeats itself until the chickee learns to fly.

very much like trusting God ain’t it. the chickee cannot see when the mummy is coming to save it. even in the second/third/fourth time, the chickee never knows when. but the mummy is always there, watching from a (seemingly far off) distance, and can always be depended upon to come in to save, at the right time, never abandoning the chickee to become chickee smoosh.

and because the pastor told explained this whole thing in a fatherly way, it spoke to me in a way a sermon has not in a very long while. About God’s love, that wants His lil chickees to obey Him because He loves them and has the best plans, and they can rest in the full assurance that even in times when it feels like they are travelling at 10mpersecondpersecond to the ground and are about the crash, God will pick them up at the critical point.

now, even if that is only head knowledge that hasn’t translated into something the heart can understand, it is still comforting yo.

If my heart has grown cold,
There Your love will unfold;
As You open my eyes to the work of Your hand.
When I’m blind to my way,
There Your Spirit will pray;
As You open my eyes to the work of Your hand,
As You open my eyes to the work of Your hand.

Oceans will part; nations come
At the whisper of Your call.
Hope will rise; glory shown.
In my life, Your will be done.

so grad school starts tomorrow. i know i should be excited about it but i ain’t. to think, for the first time in my life I chose the school, and I chose the programme, and now I am so blase about it. something is wrong. must be the meds (argh! whoever passed me this wretched virus i will shake my fists in your face!).

*moseys around*

maybe it is because i never had great ambitions. hearing about other people’s plans for grad school just scares the wits out of me. seriously. in school i never cared much about getting somewhere wherever the heck that somewhere may be, just study and coast along. but now, everyone plans this and wants that and tries for this and all i want to do is do what i love most. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR?

yeah. apparently so. ho-hum.