A comfy spot, microscope training, Wednesday

Since the weather has turned pleasant, Grandma and Grandpa have setup chairs on our front sidewalk just outside their bedroom window and are spending the majority of their day in those chairs. It began with the birth of the baby goats. Grandpa, who does not always feel up to doing anything more physical than moving from one chair to another, set up a chair at the corner of the house to watch the goats scamper around in their paddock. It is, after all, very entertaining. But that position of the chair catches the evening sun and can become uncomfortably hot.

To compensate for the evening sunlight, the chair was moved to the sidewalk in front of the house and very soon after that spot was identified, Grandma began to join Grandpa in his vigil over the goats and the property. Thus, for the past two weeks or so, since then have had no rainfall and the weather has stayed in the high eighties and low nineties, you will find the two of them spending the majority of the day enjoying their comfy spot supervising the farm in their own unique way.  

It puts me in mind of the two characters in Second-hand Lions, who spent their day sitting on the front porch anticipating the mail carrier or a traveling salesman driving by the house. Unlike those characters, Grandpa is not armed with a loaded shotgun to pepper the car of any trespassing salesman, but the principle is about the same. Timing wise, they will have a several more weeks to enjoy the out of doors before the weather gets too cold, but they are making the most of it, especially early in the morning and in the cool of the evenings.

I spent the day yesterday driving to and from the Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose – about two hours each way – to participate in a six-hour training session given to a group of volunteers on the operation of the electron microscope that was just assembled and put into service in a special lab within the museum. Dr. Baugh is looking to me to spend time there coordinating the operation of that equipment. I am not sure how that is going to work out since the Lord has placed us two hours from the museum, but God has done some pretty spectacular things in Mama’s and my lives, so I wanted to get as much operational training as I could in the function and capabilities of the electron microscope if, in fact, I can be available to be the primary operator.

It was time well-spent. We got a thorough overview of the capabilities of the microscope as those functions might apply to the specific experiments we will be attempting, since the electron microscope does not necessarily lend itself to inspection of organic samples (bones and tissue) as well as it does to inorganic samples (fossils and rocks). In the very near future, I will be tasked with designing experiments that Dr. Baugh is wanting to do. The interesting part of the work is that, if we are successful in making the unique discoveries he is looking for, we will have the proofs required to publish those findings in several scientific journals as evidence of the Biblical Creation account. That would be outstanding to be a part of discovering the means of providing those proofs.  

Every time I see Dr. Baugh, he asks me about my retirement plans. When exactly am I retiring? How many days per week could I spend at the museum? He has assembled a high-quality team to coordinate experiments in sonoluminescence, an operational biosphere which mirrors the conditions of the pre-flood earth, polarizing microscopes and the electron microscope to verify the Bible account of Creation. I really would like to be a member of that team if the Lord tarries. I am just not sure how to go about it at this point in time. Fortunately, I do not have to know the details, I simply have to make myself available. God will do the rest.

Over the last several years – almost thirty, in fact – I have prayed for each of our seven children on a specific day of the week. Wednesday was always Becky’s day. For almost a decade those Wednesday prayers have included Mike and then Bridgette. Now, I am at a loss on my particular focus for that day of the week. I am praying about how to refocus that prayer time and on whom to focus those prayers. It serves as a weekly reminder of the loss of Becky and Bridgette. Though that is not a hardship, it is an example of how each change in one particular constant of our lives can overflow into many areas of our lives. Each part affecting multiple other parts of our lives for months and years that follow. Soon our lives will be forever changed, and we will know as we are known, but for now, we have a mighty arm to lean on and a blessed hope of a bright future in Heaven.

One Becky and Bridgette are already enjoying.