What I Saw Today

Every day is a new day of discovery! God’s world, both physical and spiritual, is filled with wonder. Come explore God’s world with me as I see it for the first time.

April 11, 2018 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Clouds In The Sky and the Reality of God

I saw clouds in the sky today.

Did you ever lay on your back on the warm prickly grass, face up to the warmth of the sun, and imagine shapes within the clouds in the sky? Well, maybe as a child. Now, only when we’re with our children, grandchildren, or Sunday School class do we allow our imaginations to roam outside the boundaries of decorum. We cup our hands over our eyes to guard from the sun’s glare, sway our backs till we look like sideways donkeys, and take on the imagination of a child once again.

Remember this conversation between Lucy, Charlie Brown, and Linus?

“Aren’t the clouds beautiful? They look like big balls of cotton… I could just lie here all day, and watch them drift by… If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations… What do you think you see, Linus?“
“Well, those clouds up there look like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean… That cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor… And that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the stoning of Stephen… I can see the apostle Paul standing there to one side…”
“Uh huh… That’s very good… What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?”
“Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but I changed my mind!”

Try as I might, I was like Charlie Brown when I was a child. My two-dimensional eyesight couldn’t make out the shapes other kids saw. I just saw smears of white on a blue background, like some minion had extra fun with a can of white and purple spray paint. I had a pre-Renascence mentality about the atmosphere. The sky was flat and so were the clouds. That’s what my eyes saw, so let it be written. To not look like I was lost in the fourteenth century, I played along with my childhood friends. I let my mind fill in the blanks and convinced everyone I had an over-active if not quirky imagination when it came to shapes of clouds.

My practical husband has said he could see rain squalls and snow bands in the clouds. That’s not possible, I often scoffed. You can’t see rain that far away. Rain are these clear little droplets, snow is white, and those clouds are dark and solid. I still saw bunny rabbits. I temporarily forgot he could see better than I can.

As airplanes in which I sat rose above billowing columns of white vapor, I tried to connect what I saw in the air with the view from the ground. Seeing clouds from the earth was like looking at the tip of an inverted iceberg. Earthlings could see only the bottoms and my lack of depth perception didn’t clue in that some clouds were at a higher elevation than other clouds.

Then I had the eye surgery that gave me better vision than I’ve ever had before.

[Read more…]

March 9, 2018 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Platelets Donation: It’s What I Saw Today

I look comfortable and relaxed, don’t I?

Guess what I saw today? I saw two bags holding yellow color platelets. I felt the warmth of an electric blanket and the softness of a padded chair. I heard the care of a technicians voice, concerned for my every need and whim. I tasted yummy oatmeal raisin cookies.And I felt the emotion of unworthiness.

I’ve donated blood several times but this was my first time to donate platelets. Recently, spurred on by a national shortage of blood and impressed with my high-profile veins, the blood donor staff encouraged me to take the test for platelet donation. The test results showed I have an extremely high level of platelets; would I donate? Can I say they begged?

Platelets donation is a lot more involved than blood donation.

The process takes about two hours. The donor is hooked up to a computer and other machinery that draws blood out, separates the platelets from the red blood cells, and then returns the red blood cells back into the body. Platelets are used for cancer patients and some surgical procedures, helping to prevent massive blood loss. You can read more about platelet donation here.

After the usual number of questions that interrogated my drug use, travel habits and sexual activity, the staff escorted me to a padded chair and immediately covered me with a warmed electric blanket. The tech placed a neck pillow under my head and a bed pillow under my donor arm. When I commented that I didn’t even feel the needle go into my arm, she giggled with glee. “That’s the way we want it to be. I want your first time to be as comfortable as possible.”

It became a cushy experience.

The tech encouraged me to tell her if anything bothered me. I tried to explain that as a writer, I might make comments on my observations, but it wasn’t complaining. I guess she didn’t get the memo. As soon as I commented about a tingling around my mouth, she whipped out a bottle of Tums and dialed down the saline solution dripping into my arm. The tingling was a common side effect, but for some crazy reason, Tums reduces the sensation. It did.

Could she get anything for me? Water? Juice? Snacks? At first, I accepted a bottle of water, but she persisted. I agreed to some apple juice and one oatmeal cookie. She brought me four large luscious cookies. She replenished my half empty juice cup. At the mention of one hand becoming cold (another common effect), she produced a chemical pack that warmed my hand.

Apple juice. Cookies. Comfy chair. Warm blanket. Gratitude for my time and donation.

All Jesus got was vinegar.

Instead of a neck pillow, he got a backboard of splintered wood. Gratitude would come later; for that moment, all he received were barbed comments from his oppressors and abandonment from his closest friends. And I had the audacity to cry when my husband told me last minute he was too busy to take me to my appointment. Some willing tenacious sufferer I am!

That stack of cookies didn’t look so appealing anymore.

The tech who attended me wanted me to be comfortable in every way. At one point I felt like saying, “I want it to hurt. I want my mouth and legs to tingle. I want to get as cold as death. I don’t deserve this comfort. Giving should hurt – like it did for Jesus.”

Jesus and I both gave our life blood to give life to others.

I got mine back. I was in a sterile, comfortable environment where everyone lauded my generosity. Jesus gave his to the point of death and to the point of pain, agonizing pain, getting sympathy, gratitude, or understanding from no one for what He was trying to do. My blood will help save one life. His blood saves all who put their trust in Him.

“Thank you for coming in today,” my tech told me for about the third time.

What could I say? Telling her it was my pleasure and privilege sounded so trite. Two hours of laying around drinking apple juice and scarfing oatmeal cookies? Lounging about the rest of the day, reading, napping and telling my husband he had to take out the dog because I wasn’t supposed to lift or exert too much?

I didn’t begin to know the meaning of the word sacrifice. I walked away feeling so small, that my service was a mere drop compared to the life flow my Savior gave for me. As I reflected on His gift of life-blood, I felt so unworthy, yet so loved.

Mine was a donation. His was a sacrifice. He gave his all.

If you are interested in donating blood, platelets, or plasma, contact your nearest Red Cross location.

For those of you in the Missouri, Illinois and Iowa Region, check out the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center for a center or mobile unit near you.

February 22, 2018 by Karen Wingate 2 Comments

The Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony: A Big Picture View of Hope

The 2018 Winter Olympics are almost over. I’m still thinking about the Opening Ceremony.

How exhilarating to watch 3,000 athletes from a vast array of nations file into the stadium at the 2018 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, their faces fill of happiness and hope. Of particular surprise were the number of countries who had never sent athletes to a Winter Olympics, especially those from warm weather climates. The pressure of competition wouldn’t start until the next day; for today, all are equal, excited and having a great time, waving to the cameras and crowds and taking selfies with new found friends.

What a special moment of hope when North Korea and South Korea wrapped hands around the Olympic torch in a rare moment of solidarity. If athletes can get along together in friendly rivalry, can’t nations drop their differences as well? It was idealistic and simplistic, all of us know that the political quagmire of differences is far more complex than who wins a Giant Slalom or bobsled race, but hope fuels the flame of the attempt to try.

The most memorable moment for me came in the first performance. Digital technology has transformed the already lavish Opening Ceremony production. Lights, fireworks and laser shows exploded from center stage. 1200 synchronized drones hovered far above the pentagon shaped stadium to send into our living rooms 3-D digitized images with a skateboarder, symbolic dove and the Olympic rings. It was the largest drone performance to date.

What did it look like to those who were there?

As I watched the amazing display, Katie Couric, NBC commentator, added this interesting perspective. “We don’t see the technology display you viewers at home can see.” She explained that, sitting in the stands, she could only see the ground show and, I can imagine, that was limited by her own vision.

Shortly after her comment, the camera zoomed in on one of the Korean dancers, clad in white and maroon. What must be her perspective of the Winter Olympics? What must it be like to be in this lavish performance with so much happening and only be able to see the back of the dancer in front?

If you were a participant in that dance, that would be your experience of the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Games. The back of the dancer in front of you. Your next move. If you or your colleague made a major faux pas, that would be your take-away of the Opening Ceremonies. You would go home discouraged, wondering whether you would want to participate in a national dance performance again. Unless you watched a Youttube video later, you would never catch the God’s Eye grandeur television viewers saw.

The average Christ follower living seventy years after Christ’s resurrection was discouraged. Hostility reigned from without; corruption in the church corroded from within. In their ordinary life, Christians could only see the missteps of the person in front of them and their own insecurity. Church leaders perceived a bit more of the action; they saw how as a whole, congregations were flailing and failing. Was this all there was to this new religion called Christianity?

God’s Big Picture

God gave the apostle John the vision of Revelation. He showed John the God’s Eye digital technology view of the grand and glorious scheme of God’s plan for the ages. It was intense. It was beautiful. The theme was obvious. God painted across the heavens the unquestionable certainty. God would deal with evil. God would protect the believer. And in the end, God would bring healing to the nations as no one else in their own strength could. Do you hear that, North and South Korea?

In your day-to-day life, you might see only the back of your next event. You might see the stage lights flicker, the glare of hostile onlookers, and the self-absorption of dance mates who don’t seem to care about their future as much as you do. The performance is going badly, you suspect, and you are helpless, you think, to change anything and rectify the situation. Life looks like it will only get worse.

Be assured. You are part of a grand Heaven-sized scale scheme to redeem the earth from the mess it has made. There is much you cannot see but you do see the one who is at the controls and He will end the end with a blaze of glory that ushers us into a glorious forever. For now, we content ourselves with a peek behind the curtain at the epic picture John paints for us at the end of the Bible. The theme is obvious. We won! Jesus reigns!

Faith is confident hope, Hebrews 11:1 says. Knowing what’s ahead and getting an exclusive look at the stadium view of time and space gives me a reason to hope in confidence. God is in control. He’s got it all figured out. And He will protect me and other believers through all of it.

January 5, 2018 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Winter Mindset: Three Ways of Looking at a Frosty Morning

What kind of winter morning would you choose?

An early morning moon on winter snow – a beautiful sight!

As light gathered in the eastern sky, I bundled into my winter coat, donned my gloves, and debated whether to wear my furry hat or ski mask. I hooked the leash to Baxter’s collar and opened the side door of my house. A blast of bitter cold seeped through the fiber of my gloves and my over-eager Pembroke Welsh Corgi pulled me toward mounds of snow lining the driveway. The temperature was at -10 degrees and the breeze against my cheek told me I didn’t want to know an actual wind-chill number.

A nearly full moon at midpoint in the western sky, cast a flourescent glow over the snow-smeared landscape. The random sound of highway traffic a mile away sounded like nothing more than a muffled whisper. All was calm. All was quiet.

I love the peace of a pre-dawn morning.

So which did I focus on – the beauty of the moonlit scene or the bitter cold seeping through my coat?

Which would you choose?

We’d like to appear put together enough to say, “Why, the beauty of the early morning moon of course.”

Here’s the tell-tale answer. If you walked back into the house, what would you say to your family?

“Brr, it’s cold out there.”

“Wow, what a beautiful morning!”

Transparency says we’d probably mention the cold. It’s protocol, you know. It’s what everyone talks about. You’re either sick, senseless, or stoic if you don’t act cold in minus ten degree weather.

Why not the moon?

We can focus on the cold. Or we can mention the moon and the serene morning.

Oh yeah, right. I can just imagine my husband’s sleep filled eyes rolling back in his head as I, with my frost-bitten nose, bebop into the kitchen, side-stepping the proffered cup of coffee. “Oh! The moon was so pretty. You should see it!” Right, Sweetheart. Are you crazy? I’m not moving two feet away from this coffee pot.

Why not?

Let him think I’m crazy. After all, doesn’t the Bible say to think on the good stuff? Check out Philippians 4:8. Whatever is good and lovely. Think on these things.

No doubt. It’s been a cold winter in much of the nation.

I’m just being honest. Baby it’s cold out there.

Why are we only being honest and transparent when we mention the negative stuff? Isn’t it just as honest and transparent to share with others our love of the landscape? Besides, we’re doing everyone else a favor by not mentioning the cold. It makes everyone else feel, well, less cold.

Believe me, as central Illinois heads into the second week of below zero low temperatures, it’s tempting to focus on the cold. To talk about the cold. To think about the cold instead of the moon. When my husband asked me this morning, “How are you?” I had to admit to him. I was getting cranky because of the cold.

The moon was still out there.

And it was beautiful. It reminded me of the One who made it, the One who is in charge of the moon’s orbit. Temperatures may rise and fall, but the moon never changes. Clouds may obliterate its light; snow may pour from the sky, but the moon is still there. Its routine is as reliable as the rising of the sun and as durable as the existence of the earth. The same God also made the cold temperatures and, while they aren’t pleasant, they won’t last forever. They won’t last because God holds His hand over control of the seasons.

“As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.” – Genesis 9:22

The cold and the moon remind me of God’s faithfulness. I think I’ll choose to focus on the Creator of both.

How about you?

Try it. Watch your family react. Take the cup of coffee first though. You wouldn’t want them to spill a good cup of warm coffee.