Zooking

My sister called today and in the course of our conversation she asked if I knew what "zooking" was. I told her I didn't. She was laughing as she began to remind me of our mother's phone. Now, for those who are young you may not really understand this. But for those of my age you will know exactly what I'm talking about. Before there were touch tone phones we had what was called a rotary dial. My mother still has one of those phones. Anyway, whenever you made a call it made this sound after each dialed number. And that sound went something like this:

Zooking, zooking, zooking, zooking, zooking, zoooking, zooking....

Now, the length of the zooking sound was determined by which number you were dialing. Nine was a stretched out zooooking, while one was more like zking. Boy, those were the days, huh? Our excitement revolved around the sound of a phone dialing. Woohoo! But I had to laugh. And it's even funnier when you hear my sister telling the story.

Wynonna Concert

Well, I went to see Wynonna in concert in Longwood, Florida this past Friday night. The venue was a large church called Northland. It was nice. Had a bookstore, cafe, and probably held a few thousand people.
The show started with William P. Young (author of The Shack) promoting his book, and his meeting the next morning. He then introduced Richie McDonald (formerly of Lonestar). Richie came out and played piano and sang. Wow! He is so talented. At one point he played guitar, but for the most part it was a piano gig. He sang this one song, Hey God that was very touching. I loved his voice.
Wynonna put on one incredible show. She not only has a powerful, pure voice, she's very personable. She interacted well with the audience. During the course of the evening several people went to the stage and gave her flowers and such. She was very receptive. When she started to sing I Can Only Imagine she started to tear up. She had the backup girl sing part of the song. Wynonna spoke freely about her relationship with God. I think that many of the band are people who used to play with Morningstar. I know Don Potter and Mike Maple did.
The evening was great...glad I got to see her live. I had a good time.

The Things Kids Say

The other day I went walking with my two grandsons and my mother (G.G.). Along their route they found many flowers to pick. G.G. kept telling them not to pick the flowers, that they would die. But, being kids, they wanted to pick them anyway. When we finished walking we stopped at Wendy's for a bite to eat. Of course, the flowers were left out in the car. When we got back to the car I saw the wilted flowers lying there. I told Jeremiah his flowers had died. He turned to me and asked, "Will they go to heaven?" I responded, "Sure, God probably likes flowers in heaven." Jeremiah looked at me with the most serious look and said, "Will roaches go to heaven too?" I had to laugh at the thought that those pesty little creatures would make it to heaven. But you know, it got me thinking about just how innocent our children are. They look at people and things and see the good in it when we can't. I'm sure that despite how pesty I think a roach is, there has to be some good there. After all, God created them for a reason, just as He created each one of us. It's time that we look at people through the lens of God's love and remember that all of us needed a Savior. I was reminded of this passage found in Luke 18:9-14:

Luk 18:9
Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
Luk 18:10
"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
Luk 18:11
"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
Luk 18:12
'I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'
Luk 18:13
"And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!'
Luk 18:14
"I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."


So, the next time we think we want to look down our noses in judgment at someone who we think is such a horrible sinner, we need to remember that we are equally guilty. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says: "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." It is only through Christ that we become righteous.