Reflection

What I Did on My Summer Vacation (part 2) “The Trajectory of a Life”

Published on August 13, 2023August 12, 2023 by marycatherinethomas4 Comments

“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” Psalm 56:8 (NLT)

Forty two years ago we left Winter Harbor.

We left this home. A home of a young family, Mom, Dad, Daughter. In this home we had much laughter and tears. This home is where we were overjoyed to find out we were having a second child. Months later, we lost that child.

This home was filled with teens from our youth group, The Harbor Lights. It was comprised of Navy kids and town kids. They would pile into our living room, most of them on the floor, and always crowded with very little room to walk between them. Each Sunday night it was the same thing, put our daughter to bed, and wait for the kids, our kids. They would be boisterous, loud, talking all at once. They would also wait for hearing a bottle thrown from a crib onto the floor and then the sound of a two year old attempting to climb out of the crib, mostly landing with a thud and a cry. They would all jump up to get the baby and be told to sit down. They wanted to play with her, and I wanted her to sleep. They thought us grown and mature, we were only a few years apart actually.

When we drove away from this home, it was with the promise that we would return shortly. We drove off to California, thinking we would return for good in six years. That was where our heart was. This was the direction we thought we would go.

Life changes.

Going to Winter Harbor for our summer vacation I thought would just be an easy trip. Enjoy the scenery, the food, the people. Have some memories and relax.

I did all of the above, but something I wasn’t expecting happened. The easy trip was a beautiful one but the Lord had other plans for me.

Sitting in our little home we rented I looked across the street to a former home of a friend. Both are with the Lord now. Beside them the home of another couple. We talk often, but not as often as we should. We share what age is doing. How it is affecting us. Looking at their home I thought of the easy laughter we shared. The time her husband walked up the path between our homes (now overgrown and non existent) mooing at the cows grazing. I watched from my back door as he realized that there was also a bull present and a chase began. The bull sounding out and defending territory and this man running faster than I had seen a man run uphill.

Each turn in the road brought back memories. They danced with the thoughts, hopes and prayers of my younger self.

My heart stirred with echoes of prayers said so long ago while I questioned if my current life reflected the perfect will of God or if I was living the permissive will of God while He’s waited for me to catch up with what His plans truly are for me.

The questions still remain. The awesome thing about Winter Harbor is the presence of God. His majesty reflected in the coast, in the water, the rocks, the fog, the beauty. It all calls out to me. In the voice of the fog horns I hear the voice of my God. Calling out to me, guiding me in the clouds of my life.

Pensive reflection joined me on this trip. I thought of the trajectory of lives. Some remain steady, slowly gaining momentum. Some see a destination and fly to it, sharing the Lord as they go.

I have seen mine like the tides. It ebbs and flows. Always pounding the same heart, the same mind. I have wondered if my life is like the rocks on Schoodic Point, strong, present, barely showing signs of erosion, or if my life is like the bay where pluff mud is visible and noticed by the smelly scent.

I have often said that I left part of my heart in Maine. What I didn’t realize the part I left was so much of my heart.

I know we will never live there permanently, but I am so very blessed to have been able to live there for a season. A season when I grew to know my Lord in a stronger way. A time when I was taught the majesty and splendor of the Living God. A place where waves crash loudly on rock, the fog moves quickly and hovers it’s dense blanket on the homes and shores. A place that yells the glory and might of God and yet, He comes into my heart quietly there and whispers to me. He urges me and nudges me to draw closer to Him. He welcomes me back home there, and then continues on this journey with me.

Flying Towards a Reflection

Published on October 19, 2022October 19, 2022 by marycatherinethomasLeave a comment

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? ²⁷Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” Matthew 6:25-27 (NLT)

This morning I was in the kitchen and out of the corner of my eye I saw something hit the window. I stopped what I was doing and looked out the window. What I saw confirmed what I thought, a bird had flown into the window.

As I looked outside I saw the bird laying on the ground, it’s talons twitching and then stopping. My heart sank.

I finished what I was doing and went outside to check on the bird. It lay motionless on the ground. I was hoping there was something I could have done. Figuring it might just be passed out, I prayed asking the Lord to restore this bird.

I looked at the window and saw the reflection of the sky and the trees on the opposite side of the driveway. It actually looked like it was part of the sky. The poor bird thought it was going to continue flying freely in the air. Instead, it hit the reflection in the window.

I know that birds have shorter life spans and the circle of life, and so on, but I felt so bad for this little creature. I finished up my chores inside and walked out the door to do my morning walk. I glanced on the ground, thinking that I would somehow at least bury this bird.

The bird was gone. I looked everywhere. No bird. The bird recovered from it’s shock and flew away without my notice.

How often do we look at a reflection of something we want, or somewhere we think we should go? Often times we are looking at a reflection, not the real thing. I thought of all the times I thought I needed something and saw a reflection only to reach out and grasp it and hitting what it was reflected on.

I return to the scripture above in Matthew. I may worry and fret and ponder about the next few days, weeks, months. But our Lord, knows exactly what is going to happen. He is there in my tomorrows. Today I had a tangible lesson. I saw a bird hurling itself into a reflection. It was stunned. It lay on the ground with the wind knocked out of it. But, our Lord cares for the birds of the air, how much more is He going to care for us?

Published on April 29, 2022April 28, 2022 by marycatherinethomasLeave a comment

Reflections are wonderful to look at. Seeing inverted trees from a shoreline reflecting in the water, hillsides going down in the waterline mirroring the shore. We stand mesmerized, watching the beauty of nature.

“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror,” I Corinthians 13:12a (NLT)

Each day as we look in the mirror we see a reflection of ourselves. Sometimes we may see beauty, but often we just see flaws. We study our outward man in the reflection.

People in our lives see the outward man, but those around us also see the reflection of our inner man. What do we reflect? How is our reflection affecting those in our lives?

The rest of I Corinthians 13:12 talks about how we see imperfectly, but then when we are with the Lord we will see in totality. How we now know in part, and ends like this, “but then I shall know just as I also am known”

What is our reflection saying to others? How are we known to those in our lives?