Ancient Truth | Modern Sound

As we walk from our kitchen, through the glass doors to our covered patio we enter a different world. The vertical blinds brush across our faces like the fur coats in the wardrobe that lead to Narnia, but this is better.

Like Narnia we have trees and lamp posts, but does Narnia have a Post Office inside a Mobile Station? Does Narnia have a DQ, a Blockbuster Video, a Payless ShoeSource, a Starbucks, a good Mexican restaurant and a great Chinese restaurant, McDonalds, Sonic, Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger, a liquor store, a deli, a UPS Store, a Brake Shop, a Body Shop, Burger King, Denny’s, Waffle House, and a Victor’s Mexican Restaurant (honestly I could go on and on) all within walking distance? No, Narnia has none of those. And our backyard does not have scheming fauns or evil witches to deal with either. Our Narnia is a predictable pocket of the sprawling urbanization of the suburban world. Our Narnia is the line between Houston and Katy, Texas.

My Dad (Bob) and my brother in law (Randy) came down for a visit on Thanksgiving in 2007. They are friends and work together up in Illinois as carpenters, so while they were here I asked them to help with a few projects around our new house. There is a tall privacy fence around our property, and there was no gate leading to the promise of our greater backyard. If we wanted to walk to any of the establishments that I have mentioned, we had to go out the front door and detour two blocks through our neighborhood, then walk in the grass beside the very busy Fry road for most of a city block before we would reach the Mobile station that is just on the other side of our privacy fence. The first project they went to work on (I like to think of it as “arts and crafts” for grown-ups) was the building of a gate that would lead from our backyard to the Mobile Station parking lot on the other side of the fence.

Why am I telling you all of this? Mostly because it makes me happy.

Just tonight Kim, Von Behr, Angel and I opened the gate that leads into Narnia, mailed a package to Kim’s sister at the PO inside the Mobile Station, returned some DVDs that we had rented from Blockbuster, ate Quesadillas for supper at Texas Borders, rented STAR WARS Episode IV “A New Hope,” bought small chocolate milkshakes at DQ on the way back to the house, and then sat on the couch together and looked for smudges on Darth Vadar’s plastic helmit. It was a great night.

Deuteronomy 28
Blessings for Obedience

1“And^(A) if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. 3Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we have been amazing in our faithfulness and obedience, but I am saying that God has been completely amazing in His blessings. I look around my life and I see His fingerprints on everything good. I thank God for our city, for our family, for our bountiful provision, for our coming in and our going out.