I'm back to my early morning bike rides. Although the sun isn't fully awake, the sky is light and the birds have started their songs of praise. I am enjoying the crisp air biting at my ears, my hands, and knees. I have just reached my highest destination for the morning and have started the downward trail. As I am rounding the corner for the bike path, about forty feet in front me comes a skittish coyote. He's lanky, with short tan fur, and gallops with his hind legs lopping to the side. He's got a steady pace, although it looks uneven. He's not too sure about what to make of me, especially as I seem to be in hot pursuit of him. I decide to have some fun, after all I'm the one on the bike, so I speed up attempting to close the gain he has on me. But he keeps an eye out for me by peering over his right shoulder to make sure I am still in the distance. Up ahead he finds relief. There's a bridge to the other side of the trail and he quickly darts across. I had to chuckle, as now I have closed in on his lead, and find him giving up the chase as he stops to rest and probably get on with his task of scavenging for food. But I think I wore him out a bit and surprised him with my zeal. Oh, what fun to play and interact with nature, and chase my first coyote!
I had to pause for a moment, as I began reading the text this early morning. But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly: they became stubborn and would not listen to Thy commandments." (Nehemiah 9:18). How often do I find myself verbalizing "but? what about? what then? what if? really?" All the phrases that feed doubt and angst into my life are found in that one conjunction. Memory stands as the faithful argument against it, but when faced with future days all seems easily forgotten. This verse comes to a people who had returned to their homeland after being ravaged and exiled by foreign powers. Nehemiah is reminding them of who they are, and especially of their one and only God who has forever been faithful to them despite their faithlessness and wrongdoing. He reminds them how God is a God of forgiveness, slow to anger, longsuffering, overflowing with lovingkindness, never forsaking them even when He was totally forgott...
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