Sandra Heska King

daring to open doors

  • Home
  • About
  • DISCLOSURES
    • Amazon Affiliate
    • Book Reviews
  • Published
  • Contact
  • Blog
    • Commit Poetry
    • Dared

Never Too Late To Laugh

August 10, 2010 By Sandra Heska King

Whew!

An unexpected meal whipped out in the heat of the day.

Hard work for anyone, let alone someone pushing against the ninth decade. Even if just supervising servants.

Sweat dripped down her face and neck, trickled between her breasts.

Who were these visitors, and why was Abraham so beside himself to see them?

She stopped at the door of the tent to eavesdrop on the conversation. Maybe she took a big swig of water to quench her desert thirst.

“Next year when I come back, Sarah will have a son.”

SPEWWWW!

They named him Isaac. Laughter in their old age. And an ever-present reminder that nothing is impossible for God.

Our pastor recounted that story in his sermon yesterday.

And I thought about the recent AARP commercial.

“When I grow up, I’m going to run a marathon.”

“When I grow up, I going to work with kids.”

“When I grow up, I’m going to start a band.”

And I thought of one of my favorite quotes by George Eliot.

It’s never too late to become what you might have been.

It’s never too late to respond to God’s call.

It’s never too late for God to work out His plan.

Sarah was 30 years older than I am when God gave her Laughter in her old age.

When it was impossible.

In His timing.

He brought us laughter when we had done everything we could to have a family.

When we had given up and given over.

In His timing.

And I wonder.

Is it possible, could it be that I could birth a book by this time next year?

Could that be in His timing?

Could He visit me with laughter?

Again?

Nothing is impossible.

With God.

It’s never too late.

To laugh.

” . . . he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 (NIV)

Linking up with Bridget Chumbley’s One Word at a Time Blog Carnival on Laughter. Read about others who are laughing today.

“

Share this:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: stories and reflections

Comments

  1. katdish says

    August 10, 2010 at 11:44 am

    You’re only too old for anything if you truly believe you are, with the notable exception of fashion choices.

    • Sandra says

      August 10, 2010 at 1:52 pm

      Does that mean I shouldn’t wear my daughter’s hand-me-downs?

  2. Glynn says

    August 10, 2010 at 11:56 am

    Oh, Sandra, this is good. And I really like the George Eliot quote.

    • Sandra says

      August 10, 2010 at 1:52 pm

      🙂

  3. Jeannine (jerseygal) says

    August 10, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    I have been pondering those same thoughts,”What do I want to be when I grow up?” In 3 weeks I will reach #53 and I think I have decided what I really want to be when I grow up and that is a photographer. I haven’t liked my real job for a while and since I haven’t worked now in over 6 weeks, I think that it was God’s hand moving me ever so gently into a different world, a different line of work, and a different eye. I really think he wants me to see life through the end of my camera lens and with his gentle encouragement (beautiful night skies, beautiful flowers, and gorgeous grandchildren), photography is the wind of change he is bringing into my life!!! Thanks for all the encouraging words you write!!! <3

    • Sandra says

      August 10, 2010 at 2:01 pm

      I have seen Him working that in you and out through you, too. And I’m excited. What a long way we’ve come since we first met on an MT help board.

      You should go to my Solace post (the one just before this one) and check out those 3 photographers (Kelly, Claire B, and Sarah.) Such gentle beauty in their photos.

      I keep forgetting to tell you. Abby framed several “First Days” Lillee pictures–and your Lillee photo claims the center of the frame. 🙂

      Love you!

  4. HisFireFly says

    August 10, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    Sandy:

    Amen to “all things are possible”.

    Let Him continue to birth desire in your spirit, surrender it all back to Him, and He will bring to pass what He desires in you.

    • Sandra says

      August 10, 2010 at 2:02 pm

      And that’s what it’s all about!

  5. Faith Barista Bonnie says

    August 10, 2010 at 1:10 pm

    Like Glynn, I too love that quote.

    I hope it’s true for me..:)

    That is so exciting Sandra! Keep me in the loop if there’s any preview to nibble on. Go, Sandra!

    • Sandra says

      August 10, 2010 at 2:03 pm

      Hi, sweet Bonnie. I know it’s true for you. You are off script. 🙂 I better go see if I’m addicted to goals . . .

  6. Jeff Jordan says

    August 10, 2010 at 1:30 pm

    Really needed this today…so encouraging. Love the looks of the new site too!

  7. Sandra says

    August 10, 2010 at 2:04 pm

    Good to see you here, Jeff! Thanks.

  8. Monica Sharman says

    August 10, 2010 at 2:32 pm

    Oh, Sandra, this is awesome. And that Eliot quote…

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 11:19 pm

      Thanks, Monica. I love that quote. A lot. 🙂

  9. Melissa | Madabella: made beautiful says

    August 10, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    Oh, so sweet…we tend to laugh at God’s plan for our lives because they are so much bigger than ourselves…we can’t possibly…..BUT He, is His strength and sufficiency is able to birth so much more than we can fathom.

    Remember, it’s God who plants those desires in our hearts in the first place…a book…His story…YES, YES, YES! It is so possible!

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 11:22 pm

      Birthing the impossible is His specialty–Isaac, Samuel, John, Jesus . . . And even in our lives.

      I love how we can trust our heart’s desires when He is our first love.

      So blessed to have you visit.

  10. Jay Cookingham says

    August 10, 2010 at 5:24 pm

    SPEWWWW!…..I almost SPEWWWW!ed when I read that! Thanks for the laugh!

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 11:23 pm

      You crack me up. 😉

  11. Bridget says

    August 10, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    Such encouraging thoughts, Sandra. I love possibilities…

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 11:24 pm

      Thanks, Bridget. I love possibilities, too–especially impossible possibilities.

  12. Michelle DeRusha says

    August 11, 2010 at 7:55 am

    Love this, Sandra. You are inspiring me today! And you go, girl, on that book — we are cheering for you every step of the way!

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 11:24 pm

      😀 😀 😀

  13. Lynn Mosher says

    August 11, 2010 at 9:23 am

    Woo-hoo! Love this, Sandy! We do sometimes chortle at God’s plans, don’t we? “What? You want me to do what?” “Who me?” But God’s plans are always the best…if we fall in line with them! I never want it to be too late for anything He says! Great post, sweetie! Blessings to you!

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 11:26 pm

      Thanks, sweet Lynn. Sometimes I feel I’m falling in line dragging seaweed with me. I’m so glad He’s patient.

  14. deidra says

    August 11, 2010 at 2:09 pm

    Yes! The answer is yes! You can do it!

    As for ol’ Sarah there…yesterday I received an email inviting me to join AARP. I laughed out loud right in the middle of a downtown shop when I read it.

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 11:29 pm

      Too funny. My own mother signed me up for AARP–I think when I was only 40!

  15. Janis@Open My Ears Lord says

    August 11, 2010 at 10:01 pm

    I love your positive approach and your sense of humor! You’ve given me confidence that I can accomplish those desires in my heart that the Lord has put there.

    Blessings,
    Janis

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 11:30 pm

      Yes you can! We can!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Meet Sandra

I’m Sandra, a camera-toting, recovering doer who’s learning to be. still. Read more…

Get updates from the stillness by email

Your personal information is safe and will never be shared.

Archives

Categories

Instagram Inspiration

sandraheskaking

Time out for a little #berniememes fun. Time out for a little #berniememes fun.
“We don’t know when he will act. In his time, “We don’t know when he will act. In his time, no doubt, not ours.” ~ Peter in Prince Caspian
🌱
It’s Inauguration Morning. Prayers for the incoming and the outgoing. Prayers for all of us because we are all exhausted. Prayers for peace and patience and safety and wisdom and more compassion and more kindness and more love and unity. And, please Lord, no more virus.
“Courage, dear heart.” 🌱 “. . . I am the “Courage, dear heart.”
🌱
“. . . I am the great Bridge Builder”
~ Aslan in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
🌱
A plea... can we stop with the caustic criticism and the tearing down and the canceling and the division and focus on listening and compassionate conversation and love and generosity and unity? Can we take courage, dear hearts, and become bridge builders?
“To know what *would* have happened, child?” s “To know what *would* have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No. Nobody is ever told that.”
🌱
“Oh dear,” said Lucy.
🌱
“But anyone can find out what *will* happen,” said Aslan.
. . . 
“Go and wake the others and tell them to follow. If they will not, then you at least must follow me alone.”
🌱
~ from Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. ~ Psalm 133:1
🌱
I expect that goes for sisters, too.
One of my favorite poems in friend @jody_lee_colli One of my favorite poems in friend @jody_lee_collins new book is the last one, "What My Grandkids Will Say About Me on Oprah." I sent it to my daughter @aeking8511 and asked what she (or her kids) would say about me. She sent this back to me and clarified that it was a quick flow without proofing. It made me laugh and also made me teary. I did *not* ask permission to share it. But I just had to.

“I don't know that I've ever watched Oprah, but I would say:

“When my kids talk to Oprah about their Nama, they will express her love for books, taking trips, and taking pictures of frozen iguanas.

“Our Nama would send us books all the time. She knew we needed to get off the electronics and get lost in our imaginations like she did. But the truth is, the books we received weren't even 1% of the books that Amazon sent to her house.

“She loved to take pictures, causing our car ride from point A to point B to randomly stop in the middle of the road. Papa learned very quickly to hit the brakes and pull over because maybe--just maybe--there might be a bird sitting on a fence near a weathered barn.

“Her love for trips was inspiring, because unlike our Mom's trips of margaritas and sunshine, our Nama's trips were to Haiti and places where she could love like Jesus loved. And write with other writers, to dig deep and write--wait, besides poems, what did she write again? Anyway, she met a lot of friends through writing and going to places like Haiti. Even if they had to be escorted by big men and guns to the orphanage in Haiti, or possibly die in a hurricane, she didn't care. She took those children back in her heart and never let them go. And if she didn't already have us, she may have physically brought them home.

“Our Nama was special. She made the best lasagna and goulash, and her scent emanates through her favorite perfume--Amazing Grace. She even bought us some so we can smell her any time we want.

“P.S. If you ever see a frozen iguana, stand still and take a picture.”
🌱

https://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Pilgrimage-Jody-L-Collins/dp/1736277413
Pondering words before speaking them. Pondering words before speaking them.
There was good in 2020. But most of it was awful. There was good in 2020. But most of it was awful. Awful. Awful. Awful. Yesterday was horrific. My prayer is that our leaders—that all of us—after sitting a short season in the ashes—can rise above the rubble, refined by the fire. That we can find more love, more compassion, more kindness. That all of us can work together to solve problems. That we can agree to disagree. That we can speak words that heal and not destroy. May 2021 be a year of new beginnings.
Reflecting on the past. Dreaming of the future. W Reflecting on the past. Dreaming of the future. 
What are you doing today?
D: Wow! Your foot is really black and blue. Me: I D: Wow! Your foot is really black and blue.

Me: It's yellow.

D: It's colorful. It's pretty. It looks almost like the northern lights.

Official diagnosis from my PT order: "Lateral malleolus avulsion fracture." That's a bright side. It could be worse. But apparently I still won't be running any marathons any time soon. He ordered PT 3x a week for 6 weeks. We will see about that. 

I will spare you a picture of my northern lights. But here’s some purple ones from a neighborhood walk when I *didn’t* fall. And how about this one of Kolbie and Brooks instead? This lights up my life. (Sorry @ryeruffking - I just had to steal-share it.) 

Also, I could be sitting up north cuddling Brooks, playing Legos with big brother Dax, and getting my makeup/hair/nails done by Kolbie. All in due time. Hopefully, before Brooks starts walking and Kolbie starts kindergarten.
In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIT MDCCCXXXIII: 106 BY ALFR In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIT MDCCCXXXIII: 106
BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
🔔
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
 The flying cloud, the frosty light:
 The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
 Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
 The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
  For those that here we see no more;
 Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
 And ancient forms of party strife;
 Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
 The faithless coldness of the times;
 Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
 The civic slander and the spite;
 Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
 Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
 Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
 The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
 Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
🔔
I hope your new year is filled with more sunshine than clouds, more joy than sadness, more laughter than tears.
#2020bestnine #bestnine2020 #topnine2020 #2020bestnine #bestnine2020 #topnine2020
Taken on December 19–technically still fall. Yes Taken on December 19–technically still fall. Yes, Virginia. There is fall in South Florida.
🍂
Speaking of fall. I took one Saturday night while out for a walk. We hadn’t been home for even an hour after celebrating Christmas with our son and family, including our new grand boy.
🍂
I fractured my ankle, so I’m guessing it will be a while before we are back in the Loxahatchee, and I will have to post old photos. 
🍂
The deal gives a whole new meaning to this ornament I ordered. It arrived while we were gone, and the neighbor brought it over with our mail on Sunday. I’m guessing there will still be places in 2021 where I won’t be going. But I’m hoping for lots of good things for all of us in the new year. 
🍂
Last night they flew east to west. This morning we Last night they flew east to west. This morning west to east. Where do they go? What are they? Starlings???
Every evening. Thousands of them. Heading to roost Every evening. Thousands of them. Heading to roost in the “swamp,” I guess.
I think I’ve posted this every year since I wrot I think I’ve posted this every year since I wrote it...

Seed of Yahweh

I’ve been thinking about this seed of Yahweh
conceived in love, then planted in the cave of a woman-child,
confined and nurtured in her soft dark womb,
nourished with her every heartbeat.
.
How cells of cell multiplied until he fluttered light,
then stretched and rose like yeast bread in her warm belly
until her body could no longer contain him.
.
How the walls closed in, contracted, kneaded,
and she expelled him down that painful passage toward the light.
How with a gush of blood and water he slid wet into the night
and was laid in a cold stone trough.
.
Whose hands touched him first, this son of man?
His earthly father’s?
Some midwife's?
Did his parents count his perfect fingers–
the fingers of God himself?
.
I think about those tiny hands that fisted around their fingers,
that held their hands as he grew,
about those hands that planted seeds in soil,
shaped wood, chiseled stone,
hands that touched and healed and held a scroll,
fingers that wrote in dirt.
.
How one day he, light of lights,
staggered down another narrow, painful passage,
toward the darkness, pummeled and beaten by hands of others as his own slivered palms quivered
with the weight of a heavy cross.
.
How he was stretched wide, this bread of life.
How this one whose hands pounded nails to build
accepted pounded nails meant to break Creator by created,
and how his mother’s heart exploded
with the pain of it and for the love of him.
.
I think of how his own limp body could not hold him,
how with a gush of blood and water he slipped his earthly life,
and how his mother may have caressed
and kissed those blood-stained hands.
.
I think about this seed of Yahweh,
this son of man, planted in a cave of earth,
confined to cold, dark stone
until the tomb could not contain him,
how he stretched and rose, this bread of life,
and how he comes to us still and plants himself in our hearts,
becomes our heartbeat for the love of us.
So our hearts explode with the pain of it and for the love of him.
.
And we cannot contain him.
.
~SHK, 2011
“Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother si “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him. The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”~ Luke 17:3-4
🌱
“They thought this command for forgiveness was a demand for more faith, when all along it is actually an invitation to obedience . . . Forgiveness will be their [disciples] new yoke.”
~ Michael Card in Luke: The Gospel of Amazement
🌱
I guess that becomes our yoke, our work, too.
“No servant can serve two masters, for either he “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” ~ Luke 16:13
🌱
“But the second half of verse 13 reveals that Jesus has been speaking metaphorically. *We* are the slaves who must decide if our devotion will be solely placed in God or in worldly things. In the end, it is a matter of which value system you accept. Things are of minimal importance. People matter more. Our devotion to God matters most.” ~ Michael Card in Luke: The Gospel of Amazement
“‘For this my son was dead, and is alive again “‘For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” ~ Luke 15:24
🌱
“It is the kind of radical reversal Luke loves most. The hopeless son, who deserves slavery, is mercifully restored to full sonship, while the stunning revelation comes that it is the older son who has really been a slave all along—a slave to his hatred for the loving kindness of his generous and noble father.” ~ Michael Card in Luke: The Gospel of Amazement
🌱
It’s all so upside down.
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost his taste, h “Salt is good, but if salt has lost his taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” ~ Luke 14:34-35
🌱
“Jesus’ closing statement about salt seems abrupt. But it is perfectly in keeping with all that has gone before. The salt in Jesus’ area came from the Dead Sea and could contain impurities that would cause it to become rancid. This explains the notion of how salt could ‘lose its saltiness.’ It must remain pure to fulfill its purpose.” ~ Michael Card in Luke: The Gospel of Amazement
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Get the Mug

Embrace the life you have t s poetry mug

Privacy Policy

Full privacy policy is available HERE.

I Read Light

TSP-Red button

bibledude-net



Sponsor a Child

Join the Compassion Blogger Network

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2021 Sandra Heska King · Site by The Willingham Enterprise, LLC on the Genesis Framework by StudioPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.