January 21 – “Blue Norther”

I got to see Kel's new church yesterday.  I helped him move some of his books from his office at First Baptist.  Well, my Dad's hand truck helped him a lot more than I did.  We just piled the boxes on and wheeled them in.  He was supposed to start there on February 1st, but that's a Tuesday, so they asked if he would come a Sunday early and preach on the 30th.  He seems excited about all the challenges.  And he already has a laundry list of ideas.    I did something yesterday that I haven't done in a long time.  I ran.  It wasn't far and it certainly wasn't fast.  I just wanted to see what it felt like.  I haven't even made an attempt since I started having trouble with the rheumatoid arthritis, so I approached the whole thing with fear and trembling.  And I waited until Chris was gone.  She went over to Kel's to babysit while Jachin went in for allergy testing.  It wasn't near as bad as I expected it to be.  Our route for walking takes us up all four streets in our subdivision.  That's one mile.  I made it one whole street before I stopped to walk.  No real serious pain.  Then I ran almost one more.  This time I started to feel some twinges in my knees, so I walked the rest of the way.  Lord, thank you for Celebrex.   I also saw a real blue norther blow in.  I was on my way to Randall's to pick up a prescription.  The dark clouds filled the Northern half of the sky, and they were slowly advancing toward the causeway.  I knew I had to hurry or risk being trapped in the oncoming attack.  And of course there was a little old lady in line in front of me at the pharmacy counter.  She had called her doctor's office on her phone because there was some insurance problem.  She finally handed the phone to the pharmacist and everything was straightened out.  My transaction didn't take all that long, but I still had to get gas and go to WalMart.  The temperature was still the same when I got into the car, but by the time I drove across the parking lot to the gas station, the wind hit.  It was hard to open the car door, and there was just enough rain mixed in to make it hurt when it hit.  I debated about whether to even make the WalMart stop, but finally decided to brave the storm.  The only thing was, it didn't really rain all that much.  But it sure was cold when I came back out of WalMart.  It's supposed to be in the low 30's tonight.  Now that's a Blue Norther.   We're heading to San Antonio today to see Josh and Christi and their boys.  The plan is to come back tomorrow.  We have a big day at Seaside Sunday.  Planning for the future.  It should be exciting.   2 Peter 1:3 says, "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."    Father, thank you for the chance to see another of your natural wonders yesterday.  Weather is amazing.  Amen.