Que Sera Sera

Iceland photo by Davide Cantelli
on Unsplash.com

Toward the conclusion of a particularly moving sermon yesterday, our minister mentioned one of our elders who has had a tough struggle with cancer. He is not responding to the treatments and has decided to discontinue them and rest at home with family for the time that is left to him on this earth. Apparently his doctors have stated that as 6-8 weeks. Though that is very sad, this man of God's attituded is phenomenal.

He always has a big, friendly smile along with words of encouragement for all. The children know him as the Candyman. He is seldom at church without his plastic box filled with hard candies of all kinds, shapes, and colors. Knowing the power of prayer and the membership at our congregation, I can state confidently that the prayers for his full recovery will continue to flow up to the Lord during this time.

This reminded me of a song I used to sing in my preteen years long ago. Que Sera Sera was first recorded by Doris Day in 1956. I was probably about eight years old when I first heard it. I used to change the character in the song to a little boy. Here are the [slightly edited] lyrics:

When I was just a little [boy] I asked my mother, "What will I be?

Will I be [handsome]? Will I be rich?" Here's what she said to me:

Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see

Que sera, sera. What will be, will be.

[When I was] just a boy at school I asked my teacher, "What should I try?

Should I paint pictures? Should I sing songs?" This was her wise reply:

Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see

Que sera, sera. What will be, will be.

When I grew up and fell in love I asked my [sweetheart], "What lies ahead?

Will we have rainbows day after day?" Guess what my [sweetheart] said:

Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see

Que sera, sera. What will be, will be.

Now I have [grand] children of my own; they ask their [Grandpa], "What will I be?

Will I be pretty? Will I be rich?" I tell them, "Wait and see."

Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see

Que sera, sera. What will be, will be.

I'm pretty sure that's the outlook of the man who is the subject of this blog. What will be, will be. I imagine his testimony would be similar to the Apostle Paul's in Philippians 1:22-26 (MSG): As long as I’m alive in this body, there is good work for me to do. If I had to choose right now, I hardly know which I’d choose. Hard choice! The desire to break camp here and be with Christ is powerful. Some days I can think of nothing better. But most days, because of what you are going through, I am sure that it’s better for me to stick it out here. So I plan to be around awhile, companion to you as your growth and joy in this life of trusting God continues. You can start looking forward to a great reunion when I come visit you again. We’ll be praising Christ, enjoying each other.

My other blog, Imagine! is all about what I imagine heaven was/is like for Jesus and subsequently for us. I like to imagine...so allow me to do that for a moment as I close these thoughts.

I imagine someday walking the streets of gold, crossing the bridge over the River of Life, and there in the distance spying a man standing in the shade of the Tree of Life. He is surrounded by children. They are happily singing and dancing as they enjoy his smiling countenance and the treats of varied fruits and candies he is dispensing from the plastic box he holds in his hand. Both he and they are joyful in the moment as they relish this new life. Thriving in the light of God's love in this most beautiful place called Heaven. Can you imagine?

Awesome Wonder! What joy!

Awesome Wonder!
photo by Tomas Sobek/unsplash.com

Sometimes the lyrics of an old familiar hymn take me by surprise. That happened this morning with How Great Thou Art. I can't explain it. I've probably sung it hundreds of times. There's no rhyme or reason to that song's touching me on this particular dawning except that it seems to coincide with my fantasy serial blog's posting this morning. Imagine! is describing Day Six of Creation as the angelic host witnesses the Father and Son interacting to create the animals and man. The recording of those events begins in Genesis 1:24.

Ponder these words or sing along:

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made;

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

When through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.

When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze.

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in.

That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin.

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!

Then I shall bow in humble adoration and their proclaim, "My God, how great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, "How great Thou art! How great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, "How great Thou art! How great Thou art!"

Better Late Than Never

Better late than never! That's how I feel about finally beginning my new blog of the book (more like a novella) I've been working on since 2006. That's right, I started that effort 14 years ago. It's still a work in progress. I'm not at all sure it will ever come to a conclusion. To be a real book/novel it would probably need to triple in length, and I don't think I have that much life left in me. It took me so long to get this far. At that same rate of writing pages, I would be 99 at completion.

At least I finally landed on a doable method for self-publication. Imagine! is a fantasy novella in serial blog format about heaven, Jesus, and "in the beginning." Over those 14 years my nose to the grindstone toiling has been sporadic at best. Keying the thoughts and words has been an on and off process with more off than on most weeks. Remember I was working full time and traveling a lot. I had to visit our 11 grandchildren regularly who live in four different states none of which is Tennessee. All of that takes time. Now that I'm retired, I'm back at it with a vengeance! It's taken me nearly three more years of leisure to actually transform this dream into a reality without adding a single page to the manuscript. Oh, well!

That doesn't surprise me much. I was generally one to need a deadline to approach before getting out my grindstone. Except when my heart was really in a project, I would procrastinate until the zero hour was imminent. Two times in my life my actions varied from that wait until it's almost too late scenario with remarkable results.

The first was in my college British History class. When assigned Prime Minister Clement Atlee as my research paper topic, I jumped all over it. Except for some eating and sleeping, I spent the next 36 hours totally absorbed in that assignment mostly in the college library. I guess I wanted to prove something to myself and to my favorite professor Dr. Ray Muncy. I was not a history major, but I could research and write. My diligence paid off with a grade of "A" on the paper. Additionally I won the history research award at semester's end much to the chagrin of all my history-major friends.

The other memory I have of dusting off the grindstone was in planning my Arctic Ocean Road Trip in 2011. With my copy of the Milepost, other maps, and tour guides opened around me, I detailed the 12,000 mile 28-day journey as though my life depended on it. That May/June I had an amazing, once in a lifetime, solo road trip from Columbia, TN, to Deadhorse, AK, on the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay. A main trivia fact I learned first hand. It takes five days to enter Alaska from Tennessee if you average driving 1,100 miles a day. Call me Crazy!

Those two life-changing times aside, my track record is that I work better when a meaningful deadline looms on the immediate horizon. But as with yesterday's start of my serial blog Imagine!, better late than never. Much better!