Desperate Joy

  When I was growing up, my mom kept a number of oil lamps around the house. As we used the lamps the glass that shielded the flame would slowly get covered with soot from the smoke. As the soot built up the light from the lamp would gradually grow dim. If that glass were not cleaned then eventually the glass would grow grey or even black and the lamp would give little, if any, light. Many times, the only reason you could see the soot on the glass is by lighting the lamp. If the lamp was never lit, you might never even know it was dirty. It is the light that shows the lamp is dirty. It is the light that reveals the darkness. When Adam and Eve ate of the Forbidden Fruit, they became aware of their nakedness for the first time, and then attempted to sew aprons of fig leaves to cover themselves. God came looking for them in the cool of the day, but they had hidden themselves. "And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou?” And he said, “I heard thy voice in...

  The hot, dry desert of Southern Arizona is where I currently reside, and it has been surprising in recent days to see several large toads hopping around in the evenings. Toads need some level of standing water to sustain them and lay their eggs in. As far as I know there is no standing water in the vicinity, no streams or ponds. But the other evening, I was distracted from a Bible study by a couple of toads hopping around who both ended up in a drainpipe filled with water that was in the concrete next to a building. It was a tight space, but they seemed happy enough. There must be enough standing water in these drainage pipes around the compound here for them to lay their eggs and survive the harsh desert heat. Toads have bodies that were designed to thrive in certain habitats. If it gets too cold or too dry, or if the water is polluted, they cannot survive. There are certain rules that a toad must live by if he is to survive and thrive, if he does not follow that plan, h...