Conservator

Rules Of Invisibility

Juan Zapatero — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 14:23:42 +0000

In the midst of controversy and divisiveness, both sides tend to completely overlook the obvious. In the recent kerfuffle over Clint Eastwood’s remarks, or better phrased, performance at the Republican National Convention there were all sorts of arguments engendered over whether he was drunk or not, whether
there were really 23 million Americans out of work, or whether the number was closer to U.S. government numbers of 12 million, whether Clint Eastwood should have implied that the invisible president had sworn at him, or not, whether Mr. Obama was up to the job, or, as Clint Eastwood had stated, “we’ve got to let him go.”, whether the Romney camp should have given him an extra chair, or not. There was debate over whether the Romney camp was completely upstaged and embarrassed by Clint Eastwood’s speech or not.

At the Convention the participants cheered and applauded at various junctures of Clint Eastwood’s one act play, and they provided a full-bodied ascent when he stated, “When somebody is not doing the job, we’ve got to let him go.”
There was, of course, debate over whether he should have drawn a slashing mark across his throat when he stated, “we’ve got to let him go.”
In all of this, however, that which was painfully obvious was completely overlooked. If you’ve ever seen the movie, “The Invisible Man,” the original, with Claude Rains, then you know that there are certain rules about invisibility.
Clearly, Invisible Obama has become ubiquitous, achieving that which the original invisible man, in his attempt to dominate, never was able to fully achieve.
Yet, there is an important fact about invisibility that most learned people, or at least movie goers, know. It’s this:
You can only become completely invisible if you remove all of your clothing. In other words, if you are jaunting down the street, or through a field, like the Invisible Man, with a pair of pants on, then everyone will see the pants. In the movie, the Invisible man, which should be required viewing at this point in history, the film creators went to great pains to show the tape being removed from the face of the invisible man. While his shirt and pants remained totally visible, the place which should have been occupied by a face was completely empty as the tape was removed. You saw the backdrop behind him, not a nose, a cheek or an eyeball.
It was such an achievement of cinematography to see that man in pajamas walk towards his bed, and yet, the hands, the face, revealed the backdrop, completely visible and in tact. One can only conclude that this was not due to the ability of cinematographers, who had no computers back then. One can only conclude that this is one of those technologies we received from Aliens (Wait, no, that film was before Roswell…) or, the plain truth is that Claude Rains was truly invisible.

That brings us back to Mr. Eastwood, and the conversation with the President. By all of the rules of Invisibility, and also, after careful examination of the video, one can only conclude that the complete absence of any ‘covering over’ or ‘obscuring’ of objects behind the President as he sat in the chair (and he’s
a tall man) can only lead us to one conclusion… You guessed it.
The President, Mr. Obama, was sitting in that chair completely naked.

BREAD AND OTHER MYSTERIES

John P. Schumake — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 17:42:37 +0000

Many years ago, well, okay… many, many years ago when I was young I visited a Synagogue with other students in our class. The Rabbi was a fascinating and very engaging person. He said one thing, though, that troubled me a bit. He said, “Ya know, under the sea of Galilee there is a break-water wall, and at certain times it’s just below the water, and at other times it is visible.” The implication of course, was that Jesus didn’t really walk on water; he walked on a wall that was just under the water.
Well, I got to thinking about the entire story. You see, in the version of the story that I have read, Peter tries to walk on water as well, and proceeds out of the boat, stepping towards Jesus, and at some point, of course, he falls in. It occurred to me that this was very strange indeed. You see, between the two of them, Peter was the fisherman who lived his life and made his money out on the Sea of Galilee. His father before him was probably a fisherman. Jesus was not a fisherman by trade. He was a carpenter. He made his living on land. So the question is, “How is it that the fisherman didn’t know that the break-water wall was there, but the carpenter did?” An even more important question is, “How is it that this fisherman avoided wrecking his boat against that wall that sat just below the surface of the sea, considering that he didn’t know it was there?” In short, the rabbi’s view, or intimation that Jesus didn’t actually walk on water, is not really sensible. It may be true that there is a breakwater wall. There may be many, but Peter would have known more about its location than Jesus.

There are many attempts by people to explain away miracles. Some of these attempts are by the very people who profess to teach us the scriptures, people within our own religions. A couple of weeks ago, at the Church service which I partook in, the gospel being read was the one where Jesus fed multitudes with a few loaves and fishes. The deacon proceeded to present, as though it were a novel and fresh idea, that it was possibly not really a miracle wherein Jesus multiplied loaves and fishes, but, no: it was really a miracle of the heart where the multitudes began pitching in their own surplus of loaves and fishes that they had brought along. After all, isn’t the miracle of the softened heart, the greedy heart made generous a far greater miracle than simply multiplying loaves and fishes?

Priests, deacons and others must have a book they go to called, ‘Used Sermons’. The fact that they present these sermons as though it is the fresh new revelation from God that they were just endowed with that very morning is even more troubling.

About fifteen years ago there was an interesting discovery made in the area of genetics. It was discovered that the DNA of yeast, though much simpler than that of humans, has a startling similarity to the DNA of humans in many respects. I don’t remember who did the study, but the thought of it has stayed with me, and when I think of Jesus words, “I am the bread of life,” it has even more depth and mystery for me. I must conclude that his miracle of salvation, the shed blood that somehow not only saves us, but is capable of transforming us even as we walk the earth, is a far greater miracle than any, and is even greater than any miracle of the heart, because all other miracles are made possible by this one miracle. This is the miracle that is, in fact, shared with us in the breaking of the bread, when he fed the five thousand, and again when he fed the four thousand, and again at the last supper, and again, after the resurrection on the road to Emmaus, and again when Saint Paul shares the message to break the bread, and again and again, over and over, he multiplies himself for us. There is no greater miracle.
In fact, after Jesus performed the miracle, the crowds who followed him sought him out, and he said to them, “You seek me not because you saw miracles, you seek me because you did eat of the loaves and were filled… the bread of God is he who has come down from heaven.” I don’t recall anyone saying to him, “Well, no Lord, actually, it really wasn’t you who fed us, you see, Isaac here brought a little satchel of loaves and fishes, and so did Joseph, and well, we just started sharing…” Didn’t anyone bring potatoes or wine? How come when the baskets were gathered up with the left-overs, there wasn’t a surprising collection of barley, knishes, figs and salt beef?

The miracle of walking on the waters occurs shortly after Jesus feeds the five – thousand. Is it any surprise that a being so buoyed up with the Holy Spirit of God, a being who is the living bread moving above the waves can multiply loaves that he has blessed and broken? I suspect that on that day, any loaf of bread within 100 feet of Jesus was in danger of bursting into many loaves.

The Doubt Ceiling

John P. Schumake — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 14:49:12 +0000

An archaeologist in some far distant future digs up a fallen monument in what has now become a desert.
At last he is able to find some clues regarding the past of a once great nation.

Gently brushing away the clay and dirt that have filled in the chiseled stone he is able to read,

“,… and President Barack Obama…
…was a very mighty man…”
Nervously, the archaeologist brushes away the dirt, switching to a tinier and more accurate brush.
“…was a very mighty man of… G… O…”

Impatiently he scrapes away at what appears to be the last letter, and perhaps some punctuation…

“…a very mighty man..of.. G.. O.. L…”
The scientist is puzzled.
What is “G. O. L. F” ?

From a practical standpoint, the one thing that has made our nation great is the entrepreneurial spirit. It is the single most outstanding quality. Inventiveness, whether in industry or in business has caused the United States to stand out far above any other nation. It is also this inventiveness that stands to suffer the most by coerced redistribution of wealth, such as in Socialism.
It is important to know that most of the early American Industrialists and Inventors at last became great philanthropists, seeking, in fact to give away most, if not all of their wealth.
Most of them were generous individuals; some were evil, manipulative and controlling. Some were, at different times, both. A study of these great men is truly a study of the transformation of individuals as well as the transformation of a nation.
However, had these same inventors been suppressed by a system of extremely high taxes and massive government legislation regarding everything one does, they could never have become the great inventors, industrialists, and finally the philanthropists that they became. With all of the good and bad that both draw from the spirit of invention, the massive creation of American jobs in the burgeoning of new industries never would have happened.
What I think is more key is this: How does a person, or a nation transform, when it is boxed in by stringent parameters designed to keep everyone equal, parameters that dictate what you can say, what you can eat, whether or not you can defend yourself, what massive amounts you will pay in taxes to feed a bottomless government, whether or not you can even dream to start a business operation with all of the regulations you will face, whether or not you will have any choices in the health care you must provide your employees in your beginning business, whether or not you will have any choices in where you purchase your own health care, whether or not you will be able to borrow money for a house, school or a business? How do Cornelius Vanderbilt, George Westinghouse, John D. Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and T. Boone Pickens become the angry, avaricious, creative, dynamic inventors of whole realms of commerce and industry, the spinners of GOLD, the visionaries that caused new sorts of factories, different lines of communication, novel ways of conducting business, better ways of harnessing energy, amazing ways of working, and very individual ways of giving? I have a better question: who is the person who is not arriving at the forefront in our current time of crisis? Perhaps he or she would like to step forth, but can’t.

Speaking of words that start with G…O…L, I don’t know about you, but I am wondering: with all that has occurred these past few days regarding the debt ceiling, Congress’ and the President’s questionable efforts, the market’s response, why gold isn’t fast becoming the preferred safe haven. I’m not saying that I want it to be. I’d rather human kindness was the safe haven, but given the things you can buy and sell on the market, why aren’t people flocking to gold and silver?
You would think that the Treasuries of just about any nation at this point would not be considered a safe bet. So what, really is a safe bet?

Well…

Jesus said in the gospels, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” And he also said, “Do not heap up treasures where moth and rust will corrupt them and thieves will break in and steal.” Evidently, the same is true of nations, just as it is of individuals. We have been watching the national treasure being broken into and robbed, we have been witnessing the corruption of our worth as a nation, and I do not mean simply financial worth. This has been a dynamic, inventive, avaricious, yet kind, thoughtful and philanthropic nation. Those qualities arrive at a nation hitching a ride on the hearts of people. You cannot regulate them.

To See Things Through

John P. Schumake — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:29:33 +0000

A number of years ago I picked up a book entitled, Nostradamus, The Man Who Saw Through Time. Interestingly, the author, Lee McCann completed and published the book in 1941, so his speculations about Events of World War II, Hitler’s activities, and many future events are interesting when considering that the author did not know the outcome of the events. I purchased the book not knowing what to think about Nostradamus. Was he some itinerant soothsayer, an eight-ball prophet, someone with questionable religious beliefs? After looking into the book, I found myself talking out loud with regard to the author’s view or interpretation of Nostradamus’ writings. At various points I found myself saying, “No! Can’t you see! That’s Charles DeGaulle! He’s the one from Lille, France! …or, “those are the horrible lime pits. You poor man, you were unaware of the horrible things Hitler did.” In any case, I found myself participating in a historical match-up.

I hadn’t looked at the book for quite some time, but then, just the other day I pulled it off the shelf to have a casual look. On one of the very last pages there was reference to a particular writing of Nostradamus wherein he makes reference to the very last popes to be, supposedly, in the History of Christendom. Interestingly, the author Lee McCann makes reference to a prophet named Malachy (not the Biblical Malachi) who wrote also of the last popes, and both Nostradamus and Malachy seem to place this phenomenon, from what I can see, in the times that you and I are currently walking the earth. Now this may or may not be true, but one statement in particular caught my eye. It was this writing from a quatrain of Nostradamus,
“The last one but to be called pope,
Will take Diana for his day and repose,
He will wander far on account of his distracted head,
Seeking to deliver a great people from economic ruin.”

It was the ‘economic ruin’ part that caught my eye. I look at what’s being played out in Congress now with regard to the debt ceiling and the stand-off, almost wishing that I had the same sort of bird’s-eye view of history that I have reading this old Nostradamus book.
I hear pundits stating, “Since Franklin Roosevelt a President has never been re-elected who raised taxes, or, since Franklin Roosevelt, a president has never been re-elected with these staggering unemployment numbers.” But my answer to that is, “This should really be no-sweat for this President, since he has been reading and living from The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Playbook from day one of his presidency. In fact, it occurred to me that an avid and confirmed acolyte of the Saul Alinsky approach to overturning your capitalist society would actually welcome anything that pushes the stock markets, bond markets and economy in general into a state resembling the last Great Depression. The ensuing dependency on the still largest and most powerful organization in the World, The U.S. Government, would be almost immediate, and welcome by any advocate of Re-structuring. We’ve seen it done before.
There is no question that recently many nations throughout the world have been facing economic ruin. I now see what I could not see before. I see why that might concern a Pope; the evnt could plummet people all over the world into a strange and distasteful state, economically confusing and socially coerced by heartless intellectuals masquerading as ‘the concerned’. Just as the strange and distasteful state of Socialism in Russia left people in an oppressive social environment, a hopeless economic state and a generally depressing malaise for 70 years, so could government dependencies in nations around the world.
How convenient for a president who is a great advocate of redistribution, and a powerful and controlling central government to have someone to blame for the downgrading of our credit, the tumbling markets, the collapsing bond ratings, and… my, my… the need for higher taxes ala FDR, and the Big Federal Government to step in everywhere and see things through.

*Note: I do not necessarily wholly concur with nor endorse the web-links that I point to. They provide an interesting look, perspective, or reference. The context of my writing must be in all cases considered.

Recovery Room

John P. Schumake — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:38:09 +0000

I am currently recovering from an injury which, while it is not the worst thing I have ever been through in my life, is absolutely no fun. It will take a long time to heal. I am fortunate in that I am living at a time when medical technology is at its high-point, and is well able to deal with the sort of muscle injury that I had received. If all of the recommendations and plans of the new Obama Health Plan are to be read and believed, then its fortunate that I had this surgery now, albeit paying for my own insurance and deductibles. For, under a very socialized, regulated plan where participants, like my insurance company would be forced to follow certain guidelines impacting my age group, it is a question, to me at least, as to whether I would have been a candidate for this surgery. You see, the surgery wasn’t absolutely necessary, and I could have lived my life with considerably depleted strength in my arm, and reduced use, but I could have done it.

This brings me to an even more important question. Why is it that we want to be healthy? Why is it that we want to have all of our parts functioning as well as can be? I will submit, that if you are a person who has a family, it is so you can continue to serve your family in the ways that they need, to provide for them, to do the tasks that keep the household functioning. I remember many years ago falling off of a scaffold and landing on my back; while laying there, scared to try to move my fingers, I prayed, “Please God, let me be okay, I have three little children.”
A couple of days ago, a fan at a Rangers Game in Arlington, Texas reached for a ball and flipped out of the stands. He was injured, but conscious when he told the paramedics to please get his little son who was still up in the stands. Sadly, the man died on the way to the hospital.
Something in our minds shifts its focus when we become parents from an internal statement of, “This is My World.” to “This Is Our World.” An internal photograph of ourselves is replaced by a family photo, in the healthiest of circumstances. Sometimes that doesn’t seem to happen. Sometimes, we have mothers or fathers who lose sight of that internal image. Sometimes this happens to the great detriment of the other family members.
About 10 days before I tore the muscle in my arm, I was putting up a cabinet in the basement that my wife had wanted. I started the project singing and talking to myself in various cartoon voices. (Okay, you have your little idiosyncrasies, I have mine.) After about 3 hours I wasn’t singing or having a good time. I was cussing, yelling, and even getting mad at God for not helping me find a screwdriver or something. At the end of the project I told my wife, “Don’t ever ask me to do anything like this again. I don’t want to do it. If you need something done, just don’t ask me.” My diatribe was even longer, with justifications, but that’s the short version. About a week later I was sitting with my arm in a sling watching my wife and daughter trying to put a window back on track that had come out of its guides. In the Old Days I would have rolled up my sleeves and said something like, “Get out of the way,” and proceeded to fix the window. With my arm all bandaged I had resorted to pointing at different mechanisms on the side of the window, saying, “Put it, there… No! No! To the left! Up a little!” Finally they looked at me, and I believe one of them thought out real loudly, “Don’t you have a book to read, or something?” It’s a drag not being able to help your family.
Don’t lose sight of that internal picture, even if it gets a little old and curled at the edges, even if you can’t quite be the person you feel you need to be. This is where prayer absolutely comes in. If you are accustomed to using it, do it even more. If not, then discover it. You will once again become powerful and strong, more than you had ever imagined.

When You Grow Up

John P. Schumake — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 16:28:07 +0000

What did you want to be when you grew up? I had friends who wanted to be firemen, doctors, lawyers. I was a little bit different, in that I wanted to be something along the lines of being a Prophet. The idea of being able to cast a staff out on the ground in front of some wicked pharaoh, and watch it turn into a snake was attractive to me. It seemed like a good job. Maybe it was a bit of a power thing, I must sadly confess, because the idea of calling a bear out of the wilderness to attack the people who might ridicule me was what I considered true clout. Now, I’ll tell you that my guardian angel was probably happy as a clam that I had chosen this future avocation, because it would mean that he wouldn’t have to get up a lot. He could relax while people were clubbing me over the head as a child, or surrounding me and pounding my head against concrete because I was sticking up for a young lady who was being ridiculed. (Getting surrounded by multiple people and clubbed or beaten was becoming a little bit of a theme in my life. As time went on, it seemed that I was escaping the ‘getting beaten part’, but I was still getting surrounded.)

Years later, I cannot tell you how disappointed I am that the closest I became to being a prophet is being a programmer. They do, however, both begin with P-R-O. Maybe someone in heaven was going down the list and they stopped at P-R-O-G. I can’t imagine that the Prophet job was filled up. In any case, I still aspire to prophecy. There’s plenty of wicked pharaohs to go around, and there are even pharaoh wannabees. Even our own President’s behavior toward Benjamin Netanyahu this past year has been pretty tantamount to saying, “get thee hence!” Like all pharaohs, he just doesn’t comprehend the signs: oil spills, massive river valley flooding, spiraling debt crises, national credit rating being downgraded, and increased involvement in foreign war activities, instead of decreased commitment. Are there any good areas for this current administration? He’s even had to tap into the stored silos of corn, or oil, stored up in good times because… guess what’s here: The lean cattle, the blasted ears of corn! A sign of prophets is that they end up living out, on a smaller scope, what the nation at large (whom they happen to be warning) will end up going through. Hosea married a woman who was unfaithful, and it brought him grief. This would become God’s grief with Israel. Jeremiah was imprisoned for many days in a well, standing up, unable to move, unable to rise up out of that deep hole until he was pulled out. That would be very much the fate of his people.

Many people have been called to be prophets, perhaps millions. Perhaps I have been called to speak a few words in a timely fashion. At this juncture, I will take a moment to apologize to my guardian angel. I hope he (or she) has a sense of humor. He or she has been very successful in protecting me in many cases, though I can’t lie, there have been times when I feel the creature has been noticeably recumbent, but I suppose that that is ether my fault, or simply by design.
Yes we are called to be pastors, prophets, priests, apostles, missionaries, healers, givers of charity, and interpreters of the words of life. Including the fact that I invested in the stock market at what may be turning out to be a bad time, and also including the fact that I tore my bicep trying to lift something too heavy for me alone, I, like all messengers, am living out on a small scale the hapless fate of the people I would hope to warn, or at least advise. I have concluded that a fairly consistent sign that one may be a messenger with a true warning is this: No one seems to listen. That’s in anything: at work, at home, anywhere. If that’s the case in your life, maybe God’s preparing you. Did you hear what I said? I said, Were you listening? Oh forget it…

The Life Is In the Blood

John P. Schumake — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:43:32 +0000

It was not my intention that any should die. Of course, I knew before we opened the vent that it was possible. I didn’t know the time of their nesting; in fact I didn’t even know what type of birds they were. They had made this a traditional nesting spot, and I had let it happen, forcing everyone in my household to endure birds jetting past them as they opened the door, even occasionally flying in to the house. It seemed reasonable that we would have to remove the birds. Still, it would have been far more fair if I had prepared their removal earlier in the season, before they began laying eggs.
When the eggs came tumbling accidentally out of the nesting, three of the four cracked. I heard my son say, “shi…it”. It wasn’t the sort of “sh…it” one says when one is disgusted or even angry. It was a more or less sonorous yet downhearted sort of expression, indicating some sort of sorrow, or disappointment.
“well,” I said, “at least they weren’t born yet. He looked up in total disbelief that I had even said that. Notwithstanding the fact that birds are hatched, and not born, it was clear from the blood that this was life, and it was well on its way to being next year’s pain in the neck dive-bombing around our front door.
It’s true enough that bird guano ends up attracting flies and subsequently maggots, and that’s reason enough to want them out. However, in some Franciscan sense they do have a right to a life, and if they are swallows, which I think we conjectured they might be, they eat their own weight (daily, I think) in mosquitoes, hornets, and wasps. It doesn’t take a mystic to know that Yin and Yang were at work here, and I had possibly upset a balance.
My son was just trying to help me out with a project I couldn’t quite get to myself, and Father’s Day seemed to be a good day to do it. (I’m thinking of writing a book on things to do with your children on Father’s day). While one swallow more or less might only impact a local eco-system, it became abundantly clear to me, if it had not been clear before, that , as the ancient scriptures say, “The life is in the blood.”
If a bird is worthless, which these were not, then clearly the egg is just as worthless, but, if a bird is of great value to the environment, the earth at large, then clearly, the egg and it’s developing embryo are of great value. Where and when did this great disparity evolve, that, a creature can be of ‘Inestimable Value!’ but it’s embryo is worthless. Logically, this cannot be so.
Fortunately, I believe in the power of forgiveness, so I believe that God, his ecosystem, my son, and the birds will all forgive me my lapse in judgment and timing. Humans, like other mammals, are capable of mutual learning.
I am glad for the time I get to spend with my children, the time when we joke and debate, do some tasks together, or sip coffee, plan and dream, or rest and muse, the time that proceeds from my parents, and proceeds from theirs, and flows, even now, from the beginning of time, from that first moment when God indicated, “Let there be Life on Earth.”

In Remembrance Of

John P. Schumake — Sun, 29 May 2011 21:29:51 +0000

God’s ability to remember someone (or some thing) has far more life-giving qualities than for you or I to remember someone. For me to recall a friend who has passed away, I might, with fond remembrance think about a time or two when we had been together. I might even merge those two moments. I might briefly even derive a bit of satisfaction almost reliving a moment when we were young together, and sat up on the roof of a building looking out across the city. I might remember a snowball fight, savoring the details of how I went sliding down to the lake. I might even almost feel the cold of the snow in that event. However, I can’t really bring that person back to life by somehow breathing him into a body, or forming flesh and bones around my thoughts.
This is not the case with God. When God remembers something, there is much more happening. When the Judaic – Christian scriptures speak of God remembering anyone, that being is brought back to life; he or she, or even it is brought before the presence of God, in consciousness and awareness of spirit. Jeremiah calls to God, “Remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in your longsuffering.” (vs. 15:15)
The Almighty’s remembering of one is always accompanied by the ability to actually bring that being to life, in order to stand before him. Perhaps one of the most intriguing of these cases of ‘Remembrance’ is God’s remembrance of the sparrows that are sold for a farthing. It’s worth pondering. It is phrased in such an interesting fashion in the Gospel of St. Luke, chapter 12, verse 6: “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows.” This is preceded by a few words back in verse four where Jesus warns them, “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that , they have no more that they can do.”
These are incredible statements. Without the ability to bring one back to life, consciousness and awareness, in the person of one’s same being, there is absolutely nothing comforting in the statement. What is even more incredible, however, is what is happening to the sparrows. The sparrows are provided as the example of why not to be afraid. Now, I have news for you, if the sparrows were sold, killed, plucked and cooked, and ‘God’s remembrance of them’ means nothing more than the fact that from time to time he sits back and muses about those five sparrows, then there is certainly no comfort for us, because all that really tells us, is that, after our death, God may sit back, and from time to time muse about us.
Let’s look at a more human analogy. Let’s say you go to your father, concerned that he might not pay for your first year’s living expenses at a University. He looks at you and says, “Did I not pay for your brother, Nathan’s tuition? What are you worried about?” Now if he didn’t, really pay for Nathan’s living quarters, you might have cause to worry. If Nathan is the pet goat, and is only affectionately referred to as your brother, you might have even more cause for worry, especially if he refused to fund Nathan’s stable fees. Let’s say he said, “Did I not pay for your mother’s two cocker spaniels and a beagle to go to obedience school? And that cost me a small fortune! My heavens! Aren’t you of much greater worth to me than those dogs?” Let’s suppose, for a second, that he didn’t really pay for the dogs’ obedience school. Let’s say his answer is, “Didn’t I briefly think about paying for obedience school for those dogs? What are you so worried about?” Now, you suddenly aren’t so comforted. You have no reason to be comforted. First, he has compared you to dogs, arguably a bit better than being compared to sparrows, but there was no favorable outcome for the dogs. If the sparrows likewise perished with no future flight, chirping or tree-hopping in sight, their fate was not an example of hope for anyone, other than the cook and those who dined.
I will submit to you that for the Almighty to bring anything back to remembrance it must have a far more revitalizing effect than anything we can imagine… and all of your imagining can’t bring a body up to clothe any mind, heart and spirit, but in a very short time indeed, on earth, or in your life, you will see that He can. However, there is one time and place where he gives us that ability to experience the real living presence of the person with the process of remembrance, and, it is, of course, in remembering Him.