Sandra Heska King

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Spring Fling on the Farm

May 21, 2012 By Sandra Heska King

We load up the grand girls (and my artist child–just in case she and I don’t get away alone this week) and pay a visit to a Spring Fling on the Farm where we can bask in the fragrance of sheep urine and donkey dung.

But the sheep don’t smell, and the donkey doesn’t ding.

We just inhale the scent of grass baked in hot sun that mingles with the aroma of roasted hog.

We do have to watch our step, though, as we crunch through weeds to pet the horse.

The Farm Bureau cohosts this free annual affair with a local centennial farm to provide educational and fun activities for the whole family.

We spend a couple of hours just petting animals, oogling cheeses (and learn that more cheese is produced per pound of sheep milk than goat or cow), chatting with friends, resting on hay bales, and chugging pink lemonade.

The big girl camera and I are in our own world.

As we approach the donkey, I remember Mike the burro. He used to eat bull thistles and butt you with his head when he wanted a good scratch behind the ears. I tried to ride him once, but he trotted right up to the cement milk house and wedged my leg between it and his side. There was no going forward. Or backward. He was not the humblest creature. He was, in fact, quite stubborn.

I consider this as I remember that Israel was commanded to redeem every firstborn donkey with a lamb or a goat. How the donkey was considered an unclean animal who faced death without redemption. By breaking its neck. (Exodus 13:13, 34:20)

How God called Israel a stiff-necked people. Stubborn.

Death comes to the stiff-necked and the stubborn.

The Bible doesn’t tell us that the in-utero Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem to enter the world.

But Jesus chose a donkey to carry Him into Jerusalem to die for the world.

The redeemed carried the Redeemer.

The Redeemer carries the redeemed.

I don’t remember if Mike had a cross on his back. But this one does. And apparently that’s pretty typical.

Legend of the Donkey’s Cross

” Bring me the colt of a donkey,”
was the Master’s request.

A young donkey was brought to Jesus
to carry Him into Jerusalem.

A week later Jesus was ordered
to be crucified.

The little donkey so loved the Lord
that he wanted to help Him carry the cross.

But, alas, he was pushed away.

The sad little donkey waited to say
goodbye until nearly all had left.

As he turned to leave, the shadow of
the cross fell upon the
back and shoulders of
the little donkey.

And there it has remained,
a tribute to the loyalty
and love of the humblest of
Gods creatures.

by Mary Singer

And now my eyes cross again.

Joining Laura and Laura and Jen and Michelle.

On In Around button

And with Jennifer, my cross-eyed sister.

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Filed Under: stories and reflections

Comments

  1. Martha Orlando says

    May 22, 2012 at 5:49 pm

    Oh, this reflection is marvelous! I love the legend of the donkey, your original thoughts about this, and your amazing photos.
    Blessings, Sandy!

    • Sandra says

      May 23, 2012 at 12:02 am

      Thanks so much, Martha.

  2. Linda says

    May 22, 2012 at 8:18 pm

    I have never heard that before Sandy. It is so touching and such a perfect picture of what Jesus has done for us. I think it wonderful that you see glimpses of Him wherever you are.

    • Sandra says

      May 23, 2012 at 12:02 am

      Trying to keep those lenses clean. 🙂

  3. laura says

    May 22, 2012 at 8:37 pm

    This looks like such a sweet and wonderful day spent. You sure outdid yourself with that big girl camera :).

    • Sandra says

      May 23, 2012 at 12:03 am

      It was just a couple hours, but tons of fun. 🙂

  4. Joe Pote says

    May 23, 2012 at 6:59 am

    Sounds like a wonderful day with the grandkids!

    I just love watching ours enjoy God’s creation.

    Somehow, in watching the grandkids learn, I usually see a new perspective myself…like the one you presented here about the donkeys and the redeemed carrying the redeemer.

    Thank you!

  5. kd sullivan says

    May 23, 2012 at 6:59 am

    Lovely, lovely day….I love those days.

  6. Dea Moore says

    May 23, 2012 at 10:38 am

    I woke up this morning with a stiff neck and I have been feeling a little stubborn myself. I had a pony that loved to try to take my leg off when I rode near posts or trees or anything available. Love this insight.

    Sure hope I it doesn’t take a break to whip me back into shape. So grateful the shadow of the cross fell on me.

  7. Jennifer@GDWJ says

    May 23, 2012 at 11:40 am

    Girl, you are chronically cross-eyed. There’s no cure. Aren’t you glad about that? Love you…

    I spy a Y in your last picture. You’re a cross-eyed Ys guy.

  8. Shelly Miller says

    May 23, 2012 at 4:45 pm

    Wow, what perspective you gave me in this post.And you had way too much fun with that big girl camera. Love it!

  9. Dolly says

    May 23, 2012 at 9:05 pm

    I won’t look at a donkey the same any more…Thanks for sharing the lovely photos and insights 🙂

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

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“Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to “Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. . . Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment and bow their heads.” ~ Mary Oliver in “Mysteries, Yes”
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No way could anyone ever convince me that this world in all its beauty and creativity and mysteries is here by accident.
Food truck night with a newcomer—@crepstick. So Food truck night with a newcomer—@crepstick. So yummy! I hope they come back.  But maybe not too often or I’ll have to do double time on the exercise.
“Embrace this day knowing and showing the world “Embrace this day knowing and showing the world that your God is more than enough for you.”
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@tamiheim @tonibirdsong 
In @stickyJesus: How to Live Out Your Faith Online
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the str My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion.” Psalm 73:26 (ESV)
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I’d almost forgotten what quiet mornings on the patio were like. (Quiet except for the birds and the sound of the neighbor’s AC.)
So yesterday I saw my cardiologist. It was the fir So yesterday I saw my cardiologist. It was the first time he wanted to see me in 6 months instead of a year. He said my aortic stenosis had gotten worse. Like on the cusp of moderate to severe. 😬

So the first thing he asks me is, "How's you daughter?" Wait. Isn't this supposed to be about ME?

Then he asks if I've had any symptoms. "Well, I don't know. Maybe. I felt a little dizzy out of the blue a couple times. And felt like I couldn't catch my breath. I wouldn't have paid any attention if I didn't know I was supposed to be watching for symptoms. I DID walk all over Israel and up a bunch of steep hills, even all the way up to the Golan Heights--against the wind--without anything but normal fatigue.

He laughs. "I created a monster." Ummm, yeah.

"Have you been exercising?" 

"Well, yeah. We walk a couple miles a day. I'm back on my Nordictrack Strider." I didn't tell him I'd been lifting some light weights and some very heavy boxes and other items during this renovation, though I was told in December not to.

So he listens to the beating of my heart. Then he says, "Well, I don't think the valve is ripe yet. I don't expect you to have symptoms for three or four years. You don't need to come back for a year."

Wait! So you ask if I have symptoms. But you don't expect symptoms--yet. And when I do have symptoms, someone is gonna do something. And then I'll be older and maybe weaker. Or what if I have some sudden and silent symptom and boom! And now I have to worry about that. 

(In other news, my oldest grand texts me the other day, and our conversation runs like this...
Last weekend we were in northern Michigan. And the Last weekend we were in northern Michigan. And there were lilacs. They even shook their heads over tornado-induced devastation. Look for the beauty and sweet scents in the midst of the mess. I miss the lilacs.
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If not, take a peek at @mlivenews .

My great-nephew, not quite 12, had just gotten home from school when the EF-3 came down the street and left its mark on every home. My niece frantically tried to find her way from work through debris and blocked roads. My sister was 30 miles away visiting my dad in rehab. I don't want to know how fast my brother-in-law drove. 

The house and yard took a hit, worse than some, not as bad as others. A mobile home park was demolished--two deaths there. I heard one person is still missing. So many injured. So much awful. But the town is coming together for each other. Pray for them.

We plan to fly up Thursday--already planned to celebrate my dad's 95th birthday. 

Also, if anyone feels led to help, the Otsego Community Foundation and Otsego County United Way are accepting donations. Note “Tornado Relief.” Beware of any other fundraising requests.
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The world’s a mess, but His mercies are new. The world’s a mess, but His mercies are new.
When we were in Israel last month, we visited @yad When we were in Israel last month, we visited @yadvashem - the World Holocaust Center in Jerusalem. There wasn't enough time to spend nearly enough time. 

The Valley of the Communities was very moving. It's a labyrinth of stone from which there seems no way out. Our guide said It gives an idea of the endlessness of the horror. His parents emigrated from Vilna (the Jerusalem of Lithuania), before the Holocaust. In 1935, thirteen of his family members still remained there. By 1945 only one--an uncle--had survived. He wrote a book about them from a bundle of old letters. "One story out of millions."

"This memorial commemorates the Jewish communities destroyed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and the few which suffered but survived in the shadow of the Holocaust."
#Israel2022 #HolocaustRemembranceDay
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"It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.” ~ Primo Levi

From a post I wrote for @tspoetry after a visit to the @holocaustcenter.

https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2016/07/27/regional-tour-holocaust-memorial-center-farmington-hills-michigan/
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Speaking of birds... bluejay in my backyard this a Speaking of birds... bluejay in my backyard this afternoon. I thought he was hurt, but I think he was just trying to cool off. (Maybe it's a young one.... unless it's the light?)
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“Now in the place where he was crucified there w “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.” ~ John 19:41

“But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay…’”~ Matthew 28:5-6

Many wonder if this tomb, which lies just a few yards west of Golgotha could be the place where Jesus lay and rose. I wish we could have lingered longer here in this garden and in the tomb itself. It was easier for me to imagine the events of that weekend happening here than in the heavily incensed, decorated, dark and crowded Church of the Holy Sepulchre… though my hairdresser said her old boyfriend “got chills”’when he entered that tomb. We did not go inside that one because the line was way too long. 

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HAPPY EASTER!
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“And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” ~ Luke 22:41-44

Garden of Gethsemane and Church of the Nations

#Israel2022
A "blue preacher" right outside my door, nearly as A "blue preacher" right outside my door, nearly as tall as I am. I wonder what he's wondering. Is he finding the answer blowing in the wind?

"Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness." ~ Mary Oliver in "Why I Wake Early"
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