The last thing she wanted to do was flip that switch.
The warning siren warbled at an even higher intensity and the cockpit lights dimmed ominously.
Jasmine raked her hands through her hair and glared daggers at the navigation panel and refused to believe it would all end like this. No more time for hesitation though. She reached over to the awkwardly positioned and boldly lettered ejection lever and caressed it for a brief second before giving it a firm flick. The restraining belts snapped into place as her head was slammed backwards. There was a song of screeching metal and gasping wind and flashes of lights across the sky in purest symphony of calamitous fate. And then her eyes rolled back in her head and she only had the time for briefest thought. Home sweet home. Blackness.
******
Why was it so light outside? Had she missed her alarm? And why was there a giant tree root jabbing her insistently? Wait, tree roots were in her bed?
Hazy waking up thoughts fled as Jasmine bolted upright. Coughing violently, she looked around wildly. Grass stains on her jumpsuit and the taste of blood in her mouth. Yet, it was beautiful. The sun – the sun! – shone down on her like a mother’s smile. The trees swayed magnanimously around the meadow she had apparently ended up in. Leaves of red and orange and yellow fluttered down as the wind sighed around her. Jasmine supposed she could have landed somewhere worse. And it appeared all her limbs were functional. Mostly. She pushed up against the soft grass and lurched to her feet. Wavering, she looked up. Blue sky. Never, never had sky looked so beautiful. She took a few steps across the meadow, limping as she went. Everything hurt. She didn’t even want to see the bruises she’d ended up with. But she was alive. Alive.
Her ejection pod was still slightly smoking a few meters away. It had done its job and delivered her safely down. She should probably retrieve her survival gear and weapons, but for now…
Jasmine wobbled around the grass like a toddler learning to walk and marveled in the feel of the sun upon her skin. It was so warm. So real. Her pale skin soaked in the heat and Jasmine sighed in joy. What a wonderful planet. What a wonderful world. She should probably scout out the area and set up camp, but…
A piercing cry echoed across the sky. Jasmine’s head jerked up. They were here. No more time to rest. She walked towards the pod, determination in her limp. There was work to do. Her destiny was at hand. There were enemies to slay.
Month: October 2013
Conquerors
For I am convinced
that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present,
nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other created thing,
will be able to separate us from
the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Blackberries
And I thought I’d be silly and just write a couple words tonight. My hamburgers are sizzling away on the stove – and potatoes baking in the oven!! It’s the end of a long and busy week(but to work is good, I’m not complaining!) and now time to enjoy a restful evening. God is good in giving me such a night as this. True that, y’all!
Tomorrow hopefully I can write a bit more, we’ll see. I do feel like I’m settling in Houston, but do I still miss my Scotland friends? Absolutely. And I always will. But right now, I’m living in Houston and my life is here. God has placed me here – for what purposes I know not. But we shall see. The road goes ever on and on.
Now – just added the green beans to the frying pan – dinner is smelling good. Time for dinner, my friends. Farewell.
Curious
Good evening my friends! My dinner(chicken parm!) is in the oven and I’m looking forward to a nice relaxing evening involving aforesaid dinner and possibly a little Redskins/Cowboys game action as well! Because I’m actually eating dinner early for once, I hope to have some good reading time(possibly involving chocolate and coffee? I say yes) before I go to bed.
But I did not write this post just to talk about my evening plans – no – I wanted to celebrate the birth of Chris and Jo’s baby girl!
Elizabeth(Lily) Aria George was born early this morning to some very happy and very weary parents! And she is just beautiful. And they are pretty much one of the most awesome families ever, let it be written! I couldn’t express my joy enough this morning when I discovered the news. Now as I think of Chris and Jo and Lily…I simply praise our God from whom all blessings flow. I love you guys!!!
And now, time to sprinkle some cheese on my chicken parm before putting it back in the oven. Mmm, dinner.
Peace and love.
Violetta
Happy Saturday!! I’m here at Beans Cafe – already had my breakfast an hour ago or so, and now I have my Earl Grey sitting in front of me and I thought – no better time to write a bit! I wanted to begin this morning by something I’ve been reading – thought it was simply wonderful and I couldn’t not share. I’ve been reading in Acts lately. This is such a fantastic book, one that I always enjoy reading, because the power and Spirit of God is working mightily in the early church – and seeing how God works through His people is something to behold. So encouraging. And so I come to Acts chapter ten today. This is one of the first recorded instances of a Jew preaching to a Gentile audience. Shocking!! So God calls Peter to go and share His gospel with Cornelius. Peter obeys God. Peter goes to the house of a non-Jew, and there – he preaches the Word of God. This is truly remarkable. It’s a bit hard to convey how earth-shattering this moment is. But for a Jew who had considered Gentiles to be implacable enemies of God and totally undeserving of any grace, the fact that Peter would share the gospel of God with ones such as these…this account is stunning. Let me just share Peter’s words, because I think they are far better than any words I could say! From Acts 10, verse 34 on –
Opening his mouth, Peter said:
“I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality,
but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is
welcome to Him. The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching
peace through Jesus Christ(He is Lord of all) – you yourselves know
the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the
baptism which John proclaimed. You know of Jesus of Nazareth,
how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He
went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for
God was with Him. We are witnesses of all the things He did both
in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by
hanging Him up on a cross. God raised Him up on the third day and granted
that He become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were
chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He
arose from the dead. And He ordered us to preach to the people, and
solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as
Judge of the living and the dead. Of Him all the prophets bear witness that
through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”
And this is the gospel of God. Love it. And just the fact that this inaugurates the preaching of the gospel of God to all peoples makes it even more awesome. Right after Peter says the above words, the Spirit falls upon all who were listening to His message and they believed and were baptised and were rejoicing and praising God. Hallelujah!
And now that I’ve written the above, I’m not sure what else I can write, but I suppose I can let you know that yes – I’m still settling in to Houston life! Me and Alex hit up the opera last night and well…it was quite good. Just because I don’t want to plagiarise myself – I’ll excerpt a review I wrote on another forum:
La Traviata dir. Enrique Carreon-Robledo. So, my first few weeks back in Houston, and I was able to get a ticket to see my very first opera! Background info – I’ve always said I never like opera, mostly because my only exposure to it has been random video clips or music on my iTunes that I’ve just..never found enjoyable. So I said yes to my friend’s invite, but went in expecting not to like this. Instead…the only word I could think of to describe it at the time – magnificent.
I didn’t know the story ahead of time, and so watched it with my heart in my mouth, wondering what was going to happen – and how it would end. The venue was a small theatre(probably less than 200 people, but we were at full capacity), and somehow me and my friend had scored front row tickets. Not quite ideal, since the translation screen was a bit hard to see from our angle, but in actuality, this was perfect. Being front row(touching the stage with my feet!!), I felt part of the performance – totally enthralled by it. I didn’t always know the exact words they were saying, but it didn’t even matter. All of the talent was simply top-notch. I was stunned by how good the performance was – Violetta was simply amazing – and I was in love with the way her voice spiraled and dueled with the orchestra. Magnificent.
I really shouldn’t make this review any longer, but just know that my opinion of the opera has been changed. I think I’m going to have to see more. I also really loved the intimate nature of the venue – afterwards, some of the cast came down to greet us – I really should have gone up and thanked them for their performance, but was too shy! As Americans are wont to do, we gave a standing ovation as well. I thought it was deserved.
So there you go – magnificent. Beautiful. I really should make a point to go to more fine art performances, whether it be music or theater. My problem is, I never like to go to things like this alone, but I simply will have to find people to come with me!! Anyways, it was great fun being with Alex again, and enjoying a fine performance…I can’t complain, even if it was a late Friday night!
And I don’t think I wrote about last weekend – I spent Saturday night last week at Abby and Claire and Charlotte’s house! It was grand – they threw a “Welcome back to America” party – slash game night. Really, just a good excuse for a party. I actually didn’t know half the people there, but that wasn’t a bad thing. I also saw again some people I haven’t seen in over three years! So we played lots of games(Signs, Balderdash, etc…) and laughed heaps, and enjoyed quality time together. I have good friends, what can I say? God is good to me. Always.
And tonight I’ll be going to the Jacobs for dinner! Will be awesome – was so great seeing them this past Sunday – and I’ve not been to their house in over three years! So looking forward to a good evening there(I’m quite positive there will be some ping-pong played, definitely ready for that!).
I could definitely write more, but I have suspicions this post is quite long enough as it is. Enjoy and God bless you all, my friends. Just know that despite my sometimes sighs as I think back on my time in Scotland and my dear friends there, I have no doubt that God is with me and leading me in every step I take. His Word is indeed a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path. He takes me by the hand when I stumble and leads me in paths everlasting. So I have no fear, no worries. Well actually, I do at times when my flesh is weak and feeble, but then my Lord reminds me that He is the one who holds my hand. Even youths may grow tired and weary, but those who wait on the Lord will gain new strength and will mount up on wings like eagles…y’all, like eagles! So let us – like eagles – soar on the wings of the dawn and look to the heavens, where Jesus sits at the right hand of God Himself. When we fret and sigh at the miseries of this world, look to Jesus and remember that He is Lord and He is God. Worship Him, and all else fades away like the early-morning fog into the grey of the sea with the rising of the sun…
Peace, my friends.
Straight Street
Good evening, my friends!! Thought I’d write a few words – I do promise I’ll write something more in depth at some point, but it is not this day! My pizza is in the oven and it’s only a few minutes away from delicious perfection, so I have a deadline. The Tigers/A’s game is on(winner advances to face the Red Sox…who the Rays were defeated by earlier this week. Sadness) and I’m enjoying a quiet evening!! It was great fun talking to Katheryn earlier – hadn’t had a proper chat with her in a while! One of the awesome things about living in America again…I can have long conversations with people here again! So yeah, we had a good talk. Then got to talk to Dad and now it’s dinner time. Hurrah!
Tomorrow is Friday and I will enjoy a good day working before going to the opera with Alex. Will be good to hang out with him again, even though my enjoyment of the opera is still an open question. We shall see!
Now I’m off. Oh and one more thing – in case you were unsure, title refers to my reading this morning – Paul’s conversion on the Damascus Road. Such a glorious moment. And it’s possible that our moments of salvation were not quite as dramatic, but the wonder that we have a God who loves us and saved us from our sins…this joyful wonder never ceases. Never ever. Peace, my friends!!
Many Waters
Good evening my friends!! I thought I’d write a few words this fine Wednesday night! The baseball game is on(Rays-Indians Wild Card game, Rays up 3-1 in the top of the fifth…plenty more baseball to play. Go Rays!) and soon I think I’m going to have a small cup of coffee – it won’t keep me up, I swear! I am now over two weeks in Houston, and while I’ll say I’m not yet settled here…I’m getting there. I just filed an application for an apartment yesterday! So crazy. I’m trying to think what else to write here, but I’m terribly distracted by the game at the moment!! Oh I know – happy birthday, Mom!!! Sadly I can’t be in the same place tonight, but hey – at least I’m within a time zone!!
Anyways – I think I’m apparently in not too much of a writing mood! Must be all the pizza I had for dinner! Now I’m going to get my coffee and enjoy watching a bit more baseball. But after this inning, think I’ll take a break and read for a bit. I have to say, I’ve thought a lot lately(well, mostly today!) about the importance of us all to keep our eyes on Jesus – always. Too easy is it for us to get distracted by the things of this world, even good things! We can get so caught up in thinking about ourselves. Or we think about dear friends and people that we love and let our longing for them carry us away from our passion for our Lord. May it never be! So let not our love for our God be diluted by the desire for things that do not matter. Let not our eyes wander far from the glory that is Christ.
I clearly had more words in me than I thought – my heart swirls this night. I definitely am going to have a little quiet time now – with my coffee! G’night, y’all.
Something Weird 