Because Dunoon, Scotland, averages 185 days of rain a year—folks flock outside when the sun shines. But winter sun lies.
Actually, the summer sun here isn’t much better than the winter sun—but winter sun lies. I should have known this morning when folks passed by along the street outside our window wearing winter coats and woolly hats. I should have realized that the sun drawing lines through the clouds in the sky was fickle and false.
But out the door went I with body warmer and winter coat unzipped—no woolly hat, no gloves to take our collie dog Savannah (who has enough hair for both of us) on a walk. By the time I made it to the end of our street, my cold ears zinged, my cold hands turned numb, and I was angry at the winter sun who finds it so easy to practice falsehood.
Grass grew greenly pleasing cows. Dogs proudly walked owners with tails curled and prancing steps—but the winter sun did not mend its false ways and send heat. Remote and cold in the sky, the winter sun lied.
However, we human earth dwellers have no justification for judging the winter sun. From little “white” ones to criminally culpable ones—we tell lies. The Bible warns that, “The lip of truth shall be established for ever: But a lying tongue is but for a moment.” And…still…we lie. Just like the winter sun.
The Bible also states that there is one thing God cannot do. “It is impossible for God to lie,” Hebrews 6:18. God does not lie and He promises a return to warmth and spring. Therefore, I can throw on another layer of clothes, smile, and walk under the winter sun in hope.
When stores here in Dunoon, Scotland, opened again after covid, I was amazed to see so many folks—men and women—flooding into the high-end jewelry store in town. With all the things we did without when the world around us closed down, I wondered why it was suddenly vital to buy something from a jewelry store.
Today I was in that store to get a battery for my watch. While I waited, I walked around the shop gazing at everything in every case and realizing with shock that I not only didn’t need anything, but also, that I didn’t want anything. Had someone ushered me into the shop and said, “Here, get something nice for yourself. Something you really like,” I would have left empty handed. I knew I wasn’t a jewelry person, but my complete apathy surprised me. Of course, had the person handed me money and said, “Get something you really like,” I would have gone for chocolate.
I never have liked diamonds. To me, they are empty, cold, colorless stones. I like ordinary rocks. And I love God’s diamonds—the glistening raindrops sparkling on the edges of leaves after a rain…the diamonds shimmering under street lights after a hard frost; diamonds that radiate with life and color—and point to God, the Creator.
My favorite jewelry is Native American silver and turquoise. I admire the polished blue-hued rocks and the craftsmanship that created each piece. However, I don’t wear jewelry, not even turquoise, and I am equally moved to awe at finding a vein of turquoise in rock cliffs or finding sparkling quartz crystals in the desert indicating nests of hidden gold nuggets.
One of my joys is building with rocks. Two different Texas ranchers near our home gave me access to their properties to collect rocks. Driving around those pastures loading the truck with beautifully colored rocks of the right shape and size filled me with joy that—even as a writer—I am unable to adequately describe. Then the sheer delight of fitting the rocks together like a jigsaw puzzle (I had a rock hammer but never used it) to skirt around houses and buildings, to create a flower bed and rock the columns at our church, and to build raised flower beds and pave between them on our property—moments of heaven on earth. On Super Bowl Sundays while most folks were watching “The Game,” I was enjoying sparsely trafficked roads as I looked for rocks and brought more home. Ecstasy and bliss.
There are two reasons I eschew jewelry and jewelry stores. One, I find beauty in God’s world; the jewel-like orange buds of spring trees, the fragile beauty of brave flowers raising their heads up to paint the land with color. The other reason—God has blessed me with an extraordinary life…but that life is dwindling. If I were to walk into a high-end jewelry store and purchase everything in it…I would be separated from it when I drew my last breath here on earth. My spirit would instantly go to be with Father God. Everything else would be left behind. So at this stage of my life—my focus is less on temporary things I can’t take with me and more on Jesus and His Holy Spirit.
“So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name. ‘They shall be Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts, on the day that I make them My jewels.’” Malachi 3:17.
When can be a dangerous word. I will start eating less when… I will start exercising more when… I will get that done when…
As a child, “when” was scary. When my father was in a bad mood he donned a white glove and gave the deteriorating antebellum house which was more than a hundred years old and falling apart around us from age and neglect (bees lived in the walls upstairs and the roof was missing from one of the downstairs rooms) the “white glove test.” He would run the tips of his fingers over the top of the mantel where none of us could reach except for him and then blast all of us—including my petite, overworked mother—for our slovenly housekeeping.
Then he employed a deplorable method of punishment for us children who ranged in age from teenage me down to about four. He ordered us into a straight line and made us stand on that line until one of us would confess to whatever other infractions he imagined we had committed. Being the oldest and strongest, I was fairly immune to the belting that targeted the first child to become too tired to stand any longer.
The adult me looks back on those marathons of abuse and deplores my apathy. I wish had been stronger and possessed more integrity; that I had stood in the gap for my younger siblings and had taken the punishment for them or defended them from the injustice. Unfortunately, I did neither. Instead, I was relieved to have escaped the belt welts…this time. It was a short-lived relief. “When” came again and again.
“When” still challenges me. Sometimes it frustrates me. When spring comes again—but it’s so slow. When it’s summer—but it never is summer here in Scotland. When it warms up—which it doesn’t here in Scotland. But “when” no longer frightens me, because I know God now and I trust Him as the good and kind Heavenly Father He is; a Father who does not abuse and whose timing is always perfect.
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven; a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted…a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has put eternity in their hearts.” Ecclesiastes, Chapter Three.
While I am alive, God is with me. He lives in my heart. When I die, I will be with God. That takes the danger and fear out of the word “when.”
At first glance, the movement was a lizard skittering across the top of the fence plank—only this is Scotland and there are no lizards. The tripping motion across the fence turned out to be gale-force wind pushing one of the limbs down the board.
At first glance, or after a quick glance, I often spot things that aren’t there. When I visited son Luke and wife Delight in Florida one Christmas, I marveled at the Christmas lights in the shape of Texas on the end of a house in their neighborhood. I thought to myself, “Even folks who don’t live in Texas are proud of Texas.” By daylight, I discovered that the lights were bunched around a small window and were not intentionally fashioned to honor my home state.
Tall strangers hanging out around street signs or beside street lights; off-leash dogs circling trash bins; western covered wagons trains that turn out to be old camper van shells—even eyes, faces, and strange shapes amid the laundry in the basket.
At first glance.
One thing I got exactly right at first glance. The timeless, eternal story of Jesus Christ, Lord, Savior, and King above all kings.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son what whoever believes in Him should not perish but should have eternal life. John 3:16.
Every glance at the CHRISTmas story reveals God’s love for us and it never changes.
Over the past six years, I’ve had major back surgery, a knee replacement, and a hip replacement. The replaced hip became infected, so it had to be taken out and replaced again…followed by three months of hospitalization while it healed. I spent four of those six years on crutches waiting for surgeries. All those things hurt.
My thumb hurts. I don’t need a doctor’s appointment. I don’t need a surgery. It’s a small cut on the outside of my right thumb going down into the nail. But it hurts. It hurts to open Alan’s pill bottles—and between the blood cancer and the Parkinson’s disease he takes a lot of pills five times a day. It hurts to fasten my jeans, to wash my hair, to type (hitting the space bar), to cook, and to clean. And when I accidentally hit it on something—ouch!
How often, I wonder, do we unknowingly judge others because we feel they have never suffered the same things or suffered as much as we have? How often do we think or say, “that person is so filled with self-pity—and they haven’t even experienced all the bad things I have.” Yes, that might be true. But give them a break. Their thumb hurts.
All on the same day, my husband in Texas got sent home in an ambulance to die; our lovely sheepdog died; my mother died and I couldn’t plan on going to her memorial service because I had to stay home and take care of my dying husband, and my truck caught on fire in downtown San Antonio. It hurt. But I try not to judge anyone else who hasn’t been through all those same things—especially all in one day—because now…my thumb hurts. It’s not as major or intense as the other painful things that I’ve experienced—but the pain is just as real.
If you meet someone who lacks Christmas cheer this holiday season; someone who is a bit dour and apathetical—forgive them. Overlook the fault. Their thumb might hurt.
All I ever wanted to do in life since about the age nine was to write books. Ironically—and with much humor—the two things that constantly got me into trouble at school are the two things that have sustained me throughout my entire life: doodling and daydreaming. Doodling because some of my life has been spent painting signs to purchase time to write, and daydreaming because it feeds my writing.
The fuel for my writing comes straight from the heart of God. When the prophet Jeremiah was ordered to quit telling others about God, Jeremiah said, “But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.” Jeremiah 20:9.
And so it is with my writing. I live to write. I write to live.
Other writers—especially Christian writers—will understand this statement, but sadly others will think it false humility: I did not write my newest book, “Body, Be Gone.” (Not yet released—but should be out within a week.) God wrote, I typed. Often, I had a hard time keeping up with Him. The old laptop I use had a hard time keeping up with both of us.
For writers and non-writers, the encouragement contained in this blog is the truth that God put “Body, Be Gone” together. He is the best ever at putting things together. He created us. He created the world in which we live. You don’t need to be a writer to trust God to put things together in your life. He loves you. He is infinitely able to put thing together for you no matter who you are or what you have or have not done in life thus far. Even if you hate writing and have never written anything. God is the author of your life. He is writing it for you.
Folks sometimes battle depression during the Christmas season. Should you be feeling melancholy and blue—just remember that God is building your life. The dark places and dark times are as important as the silver and gold threads holding it together. In the end—your life will be beautiful and as unique as you are.
Joy to the world, the Lord has come—with all the tools needed to equip and complete us for getting through this life. Beautifully.
When friends of ours from Texas came to visit us here in Scotland they rented a B&B that they were somehow able to find. We, on the other hand, got lost.
Ironic that friends who had never been to Scotland before found the idyllic guest house, and we—with our six-year background of living in Dunoon—got lost. Our poor little car survived the experience of falling into such deep potholes in the road that it bottomed out and stalled. We survived the experience of being lost on a winding, wooded wilderness dirt road in the dark. And—out of that experience was born Christian cozy mystery-romance-suspense book number 43, “Lost for Murder,” which has found its way to 32 ratings and a 4.5 rating.
Often in my life, circumstances that seemed difficult or impossible have actually been God’s hidden blessings. When son Luke was four, we were walking around Carson City, Nevada, and an ugly black dog started following Luke. When we went into a restaurant to eat and came back out again, the dog followed Luke. When we started to drive away—the dog ran down the street after the truck. My impulse was to gun the engine and outrun the irritating critter, but Luke became hysterical. “Mom, stop! A car will hit him.”
We stopped and took him with us. I put up posters and ran an ad in the paper to let his owner know we had the dog. I penned the ad something like: Found: ugly short long-bodied male black dog with white star on chest and bat ears…Call…
No response. Carson was one of the stupidest dogs ever. He couldn’t learn anything. He got loose one day, ran down the street, tackled a Doberman, and came home dragging a back leg. The vet set the broken bone, but it didn’t heal and subsequently, the vet removed it. When we were driving home from the vet with our three-legged dog, Luke suddenly burst into tears. “Mom, we have to get another dog. There isn’t much left of Carson.”
About a year later, I moved to Great Falls, Montana. The area had such a depressed economy that even college professors who went to our church and taught in Luke’s Christian school worked two to three jobs to support their family. As a single parent—I had three jobs, one of them an all-nighter in a restaurant. It was nearly impossible to rent a place that allowed dogs. But one duplex owner looked at our three-legged dog and said, “Well, I guess I’ll make an exception for that one—no one else would want it.”
I didn’t want Carson either, but I couldn’t get rid of him. Praise the Lord for that. I had to leave Luke alone at night while I waitressed. I couldn’t afford a babysitter. The people on the other side of the duplex opened the connecting door when I left for work in case anything bad happened—but they wouldn’t watch Luke. Carson accepted the role of babysitter. Even though he was a small, totally worthless dog who wouldn’t have attacked any danger—except a Doberman (or buffalo—he chased a herd of buffalo once causing a stampede and sending tourists fleeing for the safety of their cars)—he made Luke feel safe enough to stay alone.
Sometimes lost becomes found.
A couple of years after our brief stint in Montana, I moved back to Lovelock, Nevada, during a blizzard to help friends of mine who owned a gold mine in the desert 40 miles from town. One day they sent me into town to pick up the mail. I parked in front of the post office and the gear shift fell through the floorboard and landed on the pavement. The truck wouldn’t move. A man from the church we attended came and fixed the truck. Some weeks later we were married. When Luke, Carson, and I moved into my new husband’s home, his large grey cat streaked down the hall and tackled Carson, sending him rolling across the floor. Four years later, Carson still would not venture any further in the house than the front room where the cat blitzed him. Two years after the cat died, Carson still refused to leave the front room.
We moved home to Bandera, Texas, Carson still in tow. When that stupid little dog died—it messed with my eyes and they watered for hours.
Many times in my life what I thought was loss and lost have actually been God’s hidden blessings. One reason my favorite Bible verse is: “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord.” Romans 8:28
He’s not the same man I married who would grab my hand and run up and down steps with me, camera in hand as he stopped to shoot the best possible angle or photograph a memory. Now he sits in his chair, and I do the running—get the shoes, get a glass of water, get a snack, bring the mail, get clean clothes—again. It must be love.
He’s not the same man I married who wrote five books in the first five years of our marriage. Now he asks me five times a day what day it is, and I attempt to respond patiently and gently five times a day—plus answer the same number of questions about what we are having for lunch, for dinner, and what the names are of family members across the water. It must be love.
He’s not the same man I married who used to walk along the firth with me collecting firewood to collect and take home to cut up for the fireplace. Who used to walk our dog while I fixed meals. Who took the trash and recycle out to the bin and drove into town to get groceries. He hasn’t driven in two years now and he can’t walk. I take out the trash and recycle, walk the dog several times a day, drive into town to pick up groceries and prescriptions. It must be love.
He’s not the same man I married who helped vacuum, dust, and even washed dishes occasionally. Now I do all the vacuuming, cooking, cleaning, dog-walking, shopping—plus all the new things that need to be done for a spouse who is unable to walk or do anything for himself. It must be love.
He’s not the same man I married who took me to visit hidden gems around Scotland, looked for the Loch Ness Monster with me, planned to take me to Rome, looked forward to vacations, decorated for Christmas. Now we can’t decorate for Christmas because there is not enough room to add decorations with the mobility equipment he needs. Now we stay at home and I plan and schedule doctor visits for him and make sure he gets his pills on time every time—five times a day. It must be love.
He’s not the man I married who enjoyed the intimacy of marriage. Now his body is bent over like a capital ‘C,’ and his knees have folded into frog legs and kissing him is a challenge because he can’t straighten up his head. It must be love.
Doctors call it Parkinson’s Disease. They call it myeloma—blood cancer. But I say—it must be love.
Love is not a mushy, gushy feeling with heart pounding, hands sweating, eyes sparkling. Love is being there. Love is putting the other person first.
Love is what the Bible says it is in 1 Corinthians 13: “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
My late brother Gregory Potter with our lion Ebenezer.
I’m different. So are you.
God created each of us as unique individuals with unique talents and abilities. Not everyone runs marathons. Not everyone writes books. Not everyone loves to cook, or sew, or drive race cars.
Somehow, the feminine “shopping gene” missed me. I hate shopping. When I must shop, I rush into the required store, grab what I need, and get back home to write. All I’ve ever wanted to do since I was about nine-years-old is write books.
I’m not sure when I realized I was different. Possibly in childhood. I rode my bicycle with a snake wrapped around my neck to impress the boys. I impressed them. They thought I was crazy. They were as scared of me as they were of the snake.
The buzz word in the 60s was “Generation Gap.” We didn’t have a generation gap at our house. Our entire family sat down to dinner together and engaged in conversation. It was easy for us to eschew drugs when the drug culture swept though the generation—the kids in our family were so accustomed to being different that we were immune to peer pressure.
Rock music roared to life in the 60s drowning out singers like Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, John Davidson – and great musicals like “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Show Boat,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Flower Drum Song,” “Mary Poppins,” “South Pacific,” “Oklahoma,” and others. “Sound of Music” was the rare musical that held ground against rock music.
I never listened to Elvis Presley. When I was in high school, I lost a good friend I had made in the fifth grade because he asked me how I liked the Beetles. I told him I didn’t.
As an adult, I continued distancing myself from “normal” by climbing billboards to paint signs, mixing concrete, building with rocks—and I don’t personally know anyone else who has ever survived being bit in the stomach by an African lion or being bitten by a water moccasin—the lion because he was a “pet” and lions are wild animals, not pets, and the poisonous snake because picking snakes up by the tail in an effort to identify them is stupid.
The point is, I might be different—but we are all different. And yet we are all the same the world over because God loves all of us. Zephaniah 3:17 says of God, “He will rejoice over you with singing.”
The Lord employs the differences in me and in my life to weave into my writing. That’s my God-created blueprint. He uses and is using the differences in you and your life to construct you according to your God-created blueprint.
“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139: 13 & 14.
American author Joyce Kilmer wrote his most famous poem in 1913. “Poems are made in fools like me, but only God can make a tree.”
People who don’t believe the Biblical account that “in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth” set a thorny remit. How can the theory (because it is merely a theory and not a fact) of evolution explain why there are so many different varieties of trees? Evolution purports that species evolve into the best of each type. Wouldn’t the best kind of a tree be one with fruit to feed people? Or nuts for animals? So why pine trees, fir trees, palm trees, mesquite trees, Joshua trees, and the rest of the 73,300 species in the world?
The big bang theory is laughable; explosions don’t create—they destroy. And if a big bang did create a tree—again—why 73,300 types; trees with white bark, brown bark, pink bark, rainbow bark, grey bark. Tall trees, small trees—trees that are evergreen, trees that lose their leaves in the winter, trees that thrive in the desert, trees that grow in tropical forests.
Joyce Kilmer was inspired when he wrote the truth: “only God can make a tree.”
God is also the only One who can unmake a tree. People can cut trees down and use them for lumber, for furniture, or for firewood. They can dig them up by the roots and discard them. But these human actions do not unmake a tree. Trees that are cut down often spring up again around the stumps. Seeds dropped by the trees launch themselves up out of the soil.
Humans cannot make a tree. Humans cannot unmake a tree.
An extinct medicinal tree scientists hope holds the cure for cancer was successfully grown from a 1,000-year-old seed in Israel. Seven date palm trees from 2,000 year-old seeds found in the desert near Jerusalem have grown into a lovely oasis.
Humans cannot define, find, or duplicate the spark of life God put into a tree. Nor can they eliminate it. They cannot unmake a tree.
“For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease though its root may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches.” Job 14:7
God created us. He makes, heals, and restores us. He grows and matures us into what we are and what we become. Equally, God unmakes us. He removes selfishness, unkindness, anger, hate, and greed and replaces them with His love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy.
Books are written by fools like me, but only God can make a tree—or a human.
Stephanie Parker McKean 