Archives

From the Way Back journal 3

Jul7

July 7, 1992

More Adventures with Three Kids

Today, I took my children horseback riding. At first, I thought it was going to be a disaster but it turned out well. Katie rode with me and I will never ride two in a single saddle again. I don’t think Katie will either.

Our horses’ names were E.T. (mine), Joker (Sean), and Comanche (Christy). Firstly, our horses didn’t want to leave the stable. When we finally got them to go, it was hard for all of us to turn the horses without pulling back on the reins.

There seemed to be a pecking order. Joker had to be in front, then E.T. with Comanche bringing up the rear. Just as in bicycles, Christy was behind. I think that suited her just fine. Her being on a beast she seemed unable to control made her nervous.

Katie lost her hat twice and wanted to get down to get it. I knew I would never get her back on if she did, so I got down. E.T. realizing I was in control while on his back, also realized I was less so on the ground. He would start up in his chosen direction when I tried to get back on. I made it. I also had to get off to hand Christy her reins. I think I had some hand in her losing them too. For a while, we were confused.

When Sean finally learned the signals for turning and stopping, and got the hang of holding the knot close to the mane, he seemed to control his just fine.

If Katie gets her own horse next time, we will need at least one and preferably two other adult experienced riders.

From the Way Back journal 2

Jun23

June 23, 1992

Do Everything at Least Once

Today was Operation Save the Tadpoles. Christy and Ashley found tadpoles yesterday in a mud hole. One good hot dry day the puddle will dry up and all the polliwogs will die.

It was very confusing. Christy brought home twenty to thirty tadpoles, wanting to keep them all.

“There’s no way we can keep twenty to thirty tadpoles!” I insisted.

We went to the lake to get water, then decided to return them to their birthplace until we found out what to feed them. That was when I found that their home was a mud hole.

“Operation Tadpole Rescue is commencing!” I cried throughout the house at 07:00 the next morning. I turned on every light in the house. We got on our bikes laden with jars, water thermoses and a tea strainer. Off we went.

Oh how muddy it was! We had to park the bikes about a quarter mile away and walk. We reached the pond and after much scraping around, collected several hundred tadpoles. We collected some clear water to keep a few for pets. Everyone understood that we would have to release them as soon as they became frogs.

Finally, covered in mud from nose to toes, we hiked back to our bikes and decided to take our charges on over to the pond. We should never have done it. I was so grouchy when we got there that the kids stayed far away and picked me a bouquet of wild flowers. Sean had already stirred up the mud in the pond so I couldn’t see through the water. The tadpoles weren’t moving in the jars and I had wanted to see them swim away in the pond but I saw nothing. It was an anticlimactic end to a morning’s hard exertions. I felt horribly let down. Ah well, one is not often rewarded for sacrifice. My only consolation is that our pets started moving around again after we got home and still.

From the Way Back journal 1

Apr28

This morning, I found this in an old journal of mine and I think it is apropos of my new blog. I should comment here that I think Carl Sagan was a good scientist and a good teacher of science. I learned a lot from Cosmos. My comment about him in the following piece simply referred to his not sticking to science.

 

Thanksgiving 1985

I received a book, These Were God’s People, A Bible History, which had a very apt remark concerning science which especially hit home with me because my father is a geophysicist and I grew up with science in the home constantly.

Historically, the initial reactions of the church, or at least part of it, has been either to condemn those who set forth new views and close the mind to further investigation or else to go into panic over the new discovery, feeling that everything will crumble if we are forced to change views that religious men have previously held. Neither of these reactions are to any avail, however, for they do not change the facts, if they are facts. (e.g. sixteenth and seventeenth centuries–the earth being the center of the universe)

It goes on to say we need to avoid a couple of pitfalls, one being

an anti-scientific attitude that treats scientists as enemies of the faith. The scientist is seeking the truth about the world, basing his conclusions on the best information available to him. This should also be the desire of every student of the Bible. If the Bible is a hoax and the universe is not dependent on God, condemning the scientist will not change matters. On the other hand, if God does rule over it as sovereign Lord, we need not be afraid of anything we may learn about it.

Last Wednesday (11-20-85), we video-taped a program on PBS The Creation of the Universe which I thought quite refreshing after the glut of Carl Sagan we have had the past several years… They said that, as unbelievable as it may sound, we can understand the universe’s operation back to one ten billionth of a second after the Big Bang but that the Bang itself is not comprehensible mathematically and that we would probably never solve that mystery; that the entire universe came from a piece smaller than a quark; that matter was created from void and that they are looking for an equation that governs all the forces of the universe (Unified Field Theory). Many believe it exists and want it to because of the simplicity and beauty of it. They even mentioned the ultimate essence as being God.

Several of the scientists interviewed stated that we were not here by mere chance, that everything was too well-ordered for that to be the case. I thought of the verse that says our God is a God of order. And when they said they could understand this order back to but not including the Big Bang, I thought of Revelation 4:11.

Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created.