Author: Ian Bothwell

Hummingbirds arrived at our house today.  We did not yet have a feeder in place on the breakfast room window but the hummingbirds came to the very place at the window where the feeder had been last year.   I continue to be amazed.  They are looking good.  I should think they would be tattered and ratty looking after their journey of thousands of miles.  I wonder where they spent the winter.  They were smart to leave this year.  Did they cross the Caribbean and lounge about on a Costa Rican beach while we shoveled snow?

Humans seem to be superior animals but we don’t have all the gifts.  I could never make that trip without a jet plane.  It would be a challenge for me to find the same house and go to the same spot on the same window.  My dog with ear flaps that cover her ears can hear the mailman coming several houses away while I hear nothing.  Bees can go back to the hive and via a sophisticated dance tell the other bees where to find flowers.  I should not be so very smug about being human.

William Bryant said it so well in “To a Waterfowl.”

There is a Power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,–
The desert and illimitable air,–
Lone wandering, but not lost.

He, who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright.

In Matthew 6 Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 6, 2014

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

I was looking out the window of St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MA this noon peering across a street at Worcester’s Korean War Memorial when a car pulled up to the curb.   A sixtyish looking man got out, went around to the passenger’s door and helped an elderly lady across the walkway to the large wall inscribed with the names of Worcester’s sacrifice so many years ago.  Long she stood looking at a particular name and then leaning forward she kissed it, turned to go back to the car, fumbled in her purse as the younger man guided her back.  I almost felt guilty that by watching I had violated a sacred moment.

Often I have heard people say once in heaven we will not remember those we have lost.  How can that be?   Jesus wears the scars forever so we do not forget.  Forgetting would mean that all of this is in vain.  The nation of Israel has holocaust museums so we do not forget lest it happen again.  Well, I am told, we just wouldn’t remember specific people.  Really?   The Kingdom is about loving more not loving less. If one of my loved ones is not there I will understand why, that is what the records are for.  They are not for God.  They are for us that we should understand God’s love and justice.

If one of my loved is not with me I will still love them.  I will kiss their name inscribed in the record books.   We sometimes say time heals all wounds.  We will have all the time that makes forever. Yes, our tears will be wiped away.  My wife and I have a son buried in Iowa.  After fifty years we still love him but we do not cry when we speak of him.  Should heaven be any different?

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 1, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

Do you ever feel like someone has hacked into your brain and is stealing information?   Names of people you really do know cannot be recalled.  Yesterday I couldn’t remember my social security number.  I had to look it up.  Someone asked me for my telephone number and I inadvertently gave them one I had in California over twenty years ago.  Then there is the opposite issue.  Someone puts thoughts into my brain that I really don’t want to be there.

Paul said in Philippians, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”  So I try.  However, I can be driving down the road and suddenly realize what I am thinking doesn’t even come close to that noble standard.

It’s like someone stole the password to my thoughts and took over.  Have you ever had your computer need to be repaired and so you connected to a repair person who literally took over your computer?  You sit back and watch your mouse arrow move about your screen clicking here and clicking there and you aren’t touching your keyboard or mouse.  It’s a bit scary.

The Living Translation renders I Peter 1:13 like this.  “So think clearly and exercise self-control.”  And Psalm 19:14 says, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”  I have come to think of I Corinthians 15 where Paul speaks of this corruption putting on incorruption as a hard drive reformat.  The bad stuff is removed and the good stuff retained.  In the meantime grace is so important.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 28, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

At least ten times this week I have heard the expression “Take it to the next level.” It’s the current way to say, “Up your game.”  It’s a call to excellence.  It inspires us to not be satisfied with present attainments, no matter how good, and to get even better.

Paul said it in Romans 12:2.  He wrote, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Peter said it in I Peter 1:15.  “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.”

Jesus said it in the Sermon on the Mount.  “Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  Matthew 5:48.

They are telling us to “Take it to the next level.”  Life is about growth, learning new things, honing talents and “going where no man has gone before.”

Perhaps age is taking its toll and we cannot do as well some of the things we used to be able to do really well. That doesn’t mean we stop doing them.  We don’t have to think “Take it to the next level” means the next level down.   It is just the next level “different.”  A song sung from the heart is so much better than a song sung with pitch perfect tones without soul.  A twenty minute mile is so much better than a four minute mile if we smell the violets along the way.  Our passions and desires can burn just as intensely as when we were teens.  The next level is now we can control them and savoring them is all the better.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 30, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

I recently received an email from a reader complimenting me on the almost perfect grammar and punctuation in these devotionals day after day.  I was appreciative but could not take credit.  I have to acknowledge my wife’s careful proofing and two well used style manuals without which these devotionals would be embarrassing displays of ignorance on the part of someone using his native tongue.  And yet even with that backup sometimes an error slips in.

Grammar is a tricky thing because it is fluid.  As culture moves so moves language.  The proper use of something fades into obscurity and is eventually replaced by something newly made proper.  Take the “ly” on the word “newly” in the previous sentence.  It is becoming rarer for people to put the “ly” on their adverbs. “I want it so bad.” Then there is the use of “me” and “I”.  “Me and Tom are going to church.”  People claim it is difficult to know how to use this.  But if you mentally drop the other person out of the sentence it becomes easy.  You wouldn’t say, “Me am going to church.”  Then there is the period after the “I” in an above sentence.  Should it be inside the quotation marks or outside?   My wife isn’t home this evening so I have to rely on a style manual which says the quotation marks should go outside the period like “I.”  Somehow that doesn’t look right.

I am so glad salvation isn’t this difficult though I have heard sermons that make it seem so.  Jesus wants everyone to understand so He plainly made it plain.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  Now that’s easy.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 29, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

The stage was set for a wonderful moment; an empty high school parking lot, a helmeted little boy, an anxious father and a tiny bicycle with no training wheels.  With just a few running steps dad let go and a life milestone was passed.  The little boy was on his way toward manhood.  He was not my little boy.  I did not know who they were.  Yet, I found myself happy to have seen this passage.  Surely heavenly beings are equally happy when they witness our passages.  There is something contagious about the joy and wonder of accomplishment.  I am happy when my students do well.

Jesus told us, “Lo, I am with you always.”  Does that mean, unlike the little boy’s father, He never lets go?  I like the idea that He is watching and yet I find myself wanting Him to “let me.”  Surely as we learn new skills and new proficiencies He steps back and allows us to flourish.  He is the scaffolding while building us.  But there is a time for the scaffolding to be removed.  As a father I scaffolded for my sons who then scaffolded for their children.

Our heavenly Father will never be able to step back and let go in terms of our eternal salvation.  That is something we can never do ourselves.  We have not the competence.  However, there are so many other arenas of life where He must glow with joy as He sees us do it ourselves.  Forever there will be new things to learn and forever there will be opportunities for us to say “let me.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 27, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

Knowing why we are here, not as a race but as a unique person, is without a doubt one of the most complex and disturbing questions we ponder. Each of us is so very unique. We are the complicated product of a baby born with our DNA and traits then mixed with relationships and experiences. I have heard people opine about being born when Jesus was here. Had that occurred for you, you would have been someone else. The times would have made you a different person.

When God said to Jeremiah, “Before you were born I knew you” He knew when, who and where the baby that became Jeremiah would grow up. Had we not married the people we did, had we not had the children we had, we would be someone else. Only the name would be the same. We are creatures in flux. The process never stops. I am not the same person who graduated from college nor will I be the same person when I am tottering and ancient.

When I speak of my father to my grandchildren I have a choice of which father to tell about. I can speak of the hard working caring young man or the aged, pain filled man who knew very little joy other than that of an old boxer dog.

When we see each other in heaven we will not be us anymore than we are what we were decades ago. The elements I have not yet added to the mix of our being are our choices. We are amazing creatures who can by the will given us forge the kind of person we want to become. Choose this day to be spectacular. We can be if we will to be and work to be.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 24, 2015
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org

 

Most little (sometimes not so little) boys dream of being a super hero.  I cannot speak about what little girls dream.  Doing deeds of daring, bringing justice, \ righting wrongs, bringing super powers to earthly needs fill many minds with desire.  James, John, Matthew, Peter and the others were little different from people.  They did not have Superman and Batman but they did have Samson.

Then Jesus came into their lives.  Suddenly there was this super hero with them who did all of the above.  He did deeds of daring by driving the money changers from the temple.  He brought justice by telling the self-righteous to dare to throw the first stone at the fallen woman.  He righted wrongs by telling the criticizers to leave Mary alone when she was washing His feet with her tears.  He brought super powers to earthly needs when He commanded the winds and waves to stop, when He walked on water, when He put His fingers in a deaf man’s ears to restore hearing and speech.  There is no question in their minds.  Jesus was a super hero.  And unlike flawed Samson this Jesus was morally perfect.

Maybe this is why it is so difficult for so many to believe.  The pragmatist in us drives us to say it couldn’t be so.  But Peter and the others knew it was so.   Peter wrote, “We have not followed cunningly devised fables.”   John wrote, “We saw with our eyes and touched with our hands the Lord of Glory.”  They would never have given their lives for something unreal.  They died horrible deaths because they knew how real He was and is.  Jesus is the epitome of all super heroes because He is.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 22, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

It is still April.  The buds on the trees have not yet burst.   There are just a few daffodils popped up here and there.  So you can imagine my unfettered delight to hear the sounds of “Turkey in the Straw” floating up the street.  Could it be?  It was.  There I was walking my dog when before my awestruck eyes was, you guessed it, the ICE CREAM MAN.  And to think I almost left my wallet on my desk.  That would have been a tragedy.   The moral of the story is never leave home without your wallet.  I did have my American Express card with me.

It was shades of Matthew 25.  “The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise.  The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.”   The moral of the story is never leave home without being ready to meet our bridegroom Jesus.

It is true.  We never know when.  According to Peter He will come as a thief in the night.  The best Bible scholars in the world do not know when He will come.  For almost two thousand years people have been making time charts and filling them with events that have to occur.  It is totally unnecessary.  If we have a great one on one loving relationship with Jesus we are ready.  His coming will be filled with all the joy of small children being surprised by their parents returning from military service.  While we wait enjoy the fruits of citizenship in His kingdom.   They are many.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 22, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell. org

We came out of a store today and I had to look for my car’s emblem to be sure I was getting in the right car.  That would never have occurred fifty years ago when a Ford was a Ford, a Chevy a Chevy and one could never mistake a Studebaker for a Desoto.  We had fins.  We had two tone paint and white wall tires.  The hood of a Fleetwood Cadillac looked like the flight deck on an aircraft carrier.

You know you are getting old when you pine for the “good old days” which most likely were not that good.  Today’s cars are safer, more efficient, and more durable.  I have over 200,000 miles on my car.  That would never have happened to one of those old beautiful cars.   We have cures for certain kinds of leukemia and HIV can be contained.  Our children are not hiding under their school desks fearing a nuclear attack.  It is true we have shootings in schools but many of those are copycat crimes inspired by the 24 hour news broadcasters who make demented people famous.

Lest I sound like a Pollyanna I know our world with terrorism is not Utopia.  But, if we exclude the madness of the Middle East from the picture, things are not so horrible.  Life expectancies continue to lengthen.  That brings me to the life expectancies of those who accept Jesus’ gift of grace.  We are talking about 90 years followed by an infinite number of zeros.  If you love life you have to love those zeros.  If you love Jesus it’s a done deal.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 21, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org