BeLOnGings

We had some excitement at The Big Green House a few weeks ago.

‘Fire! Fire! Call 911! Call 911! ‘

Robin had discovered the clothes dryer in the basement was ablaze!!!.

We had a houseful of guests. I dashed to the smoke filled basement where Robin was frantically pouring water into the flaming appliance. Realizing that water alone was not going to quench the fire, Hilary sprinted (Yes,I mean sprinted!) up the stairs to the top apartment, that she had just been cleaning. She knew for sure there was a fire extinguisher there.

She ‘passed the baton’ to Rudy who was following close behind, and who then rushed down the three flights to dowse the smoking appliance and kill the flames’

‘I’ve had to do that a few times before, on my truck.’ He said calmly

Sirens blaring and lights flashing the emergency services arrived Holywood style. The whole neighborhood turning out to watch the spectacle. The crisis however had already been happily resolved.

Adrenaline flowing, the extended household congregated around the kitchen island, with rapid fire colorful personal accounts complementing one another, all punctuated with relieved laughter and expressions of deep gratitude to God!

With a little more distance the fiery dots began connecting for me…..……

I had been flowing in unity and prayer with Rudy and Tanner, the two brothers pictured above, in the Upper Room, when the fire fell. Now where have I heard that before?

Then there was the recent blog about Ashland and the prayer and the promise about the fire arising in America ‘…..and once again God’s love proclaim, a burning heart in Jesus name.’

And of course the new song ‘Light the Fire.’ by Dana that had arrived fresh from Ireland via Paul McAree.

God promises ‘Call on me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify me.’ (Ps.50:15)

God will continue be true to his word both on a personal level and on a national level, until His holy fire which is his glorious love, covers the whole earth, as the waters cover the sea.

Father’s Day, in the absence of my children in our home, I got to do my favorite thing – make my wife happy😀

I helped her clean.

As I was doing it, as a bonus I got this next blog. Father said,

‘It’s a clean up operation”

Yes no matter how bad things may appear to be in the world out there we know it was all sorted, 2000 years, i.e. 2 Days ago.(2 Pet.3:8)

As Johnny Enlow says repeatedly in his Unfiltered series, we as God’s people have just been slow on the uptake to exercise the ‘All authority in heaven and earth’ that he received and passed on to us. Stephen Jones complements Johnny’s perspective with his amazing studies at Godskingdom.org about timing, as time did need to elapse for the kingdom to be fully given to ‘the saints of the Most High.’ as we now happily enter ‘the third day’

Now we are at that monumental time in history and it is time for God’s people to ‘get up to speed’ and ‘get with the program’, a they become the answer to the prayer, “Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’

I won’t elaborate because Johnny and Stephen (see my previous blogs for links) teach the ins and outs of this stuff much better than I do.

I’m happy to just be ‘an encourager’ …..just as I am when I am changing the chair covers or tablecloth or vacuuming the floor for my beloved😀

Make your heavenly Father happy, by engaging fully with Him in His ‘clean up operation’ ‘on earth… as it is in heaven.’ – first in your own life and then as He gives opportunity in the lives and world he has placed around you, ‘for such a time as this.’

We now realize that one of the reasons we were lead to come to ‘Turtle Island’ was so that we could learn from the First Nations, who were given to be the original stewards of this piece of God’s real estate (Acts 17;26)

Last Friday we had the privilege of attending a ceremony where two young girls took the step into womanhood. This involved a time of preparation including fasting and prayer and instruction by the older women. It is said to be the most important of the 7 traditional Dakota ceremonies because everyone is ‘set in their place’ e.g. the men as the guardians outside the tepee where the girls come aside for three days.

There is not a corresponding ceremony for the boys, however I recalled the book Initiation by Jeffrey Prather that had a profound influence on my spiritual life a few years ago when I first read it while in Ireland.

I pulled it off the shelf again to review all the underlined parts and my margin notes.
Therein was a section where the Apache Medicine Man who trained the young Prather, echoed from their tradition what I had just been learning in my Dakota family…..

On Sunday morning we had a Kyle family birthday celebration and as we sat around the table honoring one of the mothers, I felt I should read the above quotation. Then Asher (6) raised his hand.

‘Yes Asher’ I said inviting his comment.

“ But what about the sperm?’ He asked earnestly.

After the uproarious laughter died down we continued our family education with several wise inputs offered in answer to his great question😀

This ancient wisdom is so relevant in today’s ‘world’ which would force us to accept that a man can have a baby!

Another profound quote I came across was this piece of conversation between Jeffrey and his Apache teacher……

‘How timely!’ I thought……..in the light of what is now coming to light!…….as articulated for example here by Tucker Carlson…….

After the ceremony some new friends from the Reservation spent a few days with us at The Big Green House. Sounding them out about the last few years in conversation one said of ‘the jab’ They offered us a big pay increase if we would take it, but I said,’The government have been lying to us and trying to wipe us out for 500 years, so why should weI trust them now?!’

When I later relayed this to our friend Bill, He said,’ Yes. Now we’re discovering we’ve all been living on the Reservation’!’

Wakan Tanka means the Great Spirit. John writes about the Spirit that has been given to believers. “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.”(1 John‬ ‭2‬:‭27‬ ‭ESV)‬‬

As Tucker Carlson points out, deception is ripe everywhere with shifting characters all the time. How are we to know who and what is true (even Tucker?) and what is manipulative propaganda?

John advises we abide in him and stay close to the one who walked in humility and openness and we will move beyond mere opinions to true discernment as we seek to hear His teaching, no matter through whom whatever vessel it may come.

One more lesson we learned in the school of Wakan Tanka is illustrated below……

The girls are taught that moving from childhood to adulthood means that you moves from being a ‘taker’ to being a ‘giver’. Therefore for months before the ceremony they and their mothers spend time and money making gifts for ‘The Give Away’ to honor those who attend who have had a helpful influence in the lives of the girls.

Hilary and I were so blessed to receive this spread from our ‘adopted daughter’ Raine and her daughter, Mni who is pictured above with another of our granddaughters, Saachi, who grew up, together with Mni, in The Big Green House. They are enjoying their traditional feast of wild rice, buffalo, fruit……and fry bread (shucks you can’t get everything healthy😀)

Following my last post inspired at our grandchildren’s school Rivertree, our English cousin, Barry, who ‘co-incidentally’ lives ‘just down the road’ from The Bard’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon, sent me a ‘co-incidental’ article about Education.

it was a BBC report on how a Utah school district had just banned the Bible because of ‘violent and vulgar’ content. I have learned that when the Babylon Brainwashing Corporation chooses to report something as ‘news’ it is often because under the veneer of objective reporting there is in fact a dark agenda of advancing the very thing they want you to focus on. In this case, the banning of the Bible.

I chuckled because what is described as ‘vulgarity and violence’ is simply the earthiness of real life that neither Shakespeare nor scripture shy away from anymore than they shy away from the issues of morality, of what is right and what is wrong. Both texts are therefore an excellent preparation for young people in learning about the ‘not so nice’ aspects of ‘real life’ and how to best handle them.

I recommended the Johnny Enlow Unfiltered series, especially from Episode 55 onwards. Here Episode 60 deals with The Mountain of Education in the ‘Seven Mountains’ revelation, and how it has been usurped by ‘the enemy.

https://www.elijahstreams.com/watch/watch.php?ID=1358

Isaiah 60 begins, ‘Arise and shine’ Johnny’s latest book RISE is an acronym for Reformers Influencing Society Every day.

Plandemic 3. The Great Awakening* by Mikki Willis at Plandemicseries.com also gives helpful insights into how, by the ‘capture’ of this mountain we have ended up in such ‘dire straights’ as the human race.

Johnny’s spiritual biblical insights give the divine foundation and Mikki Willis’ historical, political and psychological insights give a practical foundation for a way forward.

As we Awake and Arise we have a unique opportunity to co-operate with God’s rescue plan to bring his creation, ‘Back to the Future………beyond Eden’

Both of these perspectives helped me understand why so many highly ‘educated’ intelligent, Bible believers have been ‘hoodwinked’ over the last few years revealing a greater trust in a Lying World than in the Living Word.

The scripture, ‘unless you become as a little child you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven‘ is alive to me in a new way, as we value the ‘’childlike’ right brain, the Hebraic way of thought, and escape the Mass Formation as described by Mattius Desmet, not just of the last few years, but of millennia!

I appreciated being taught clinical medicine at Med. School, but never heard about The Flexner Report and the influence of Big Pharma in the training of doctors, nor about the Prussian model of education to train up good assembly line workers, both to serve the wealthy elite of the day rather than the people or practitioners.

Thankfully learning about these things now, I can appreciate more fully the blessing my grandchildren are receiving through a different educational model at Rivertree.

The Rivertree man of Psalm 1 knows the secret to fruitfulness is learning the art of meditating on God’s word day and night’ to apprehend God’s ways for God’s world. From first grade Shakespeare sonnets are part of the Rivertree curriculum.

Let me share with you a most encouraging encounter I had at the Shakespeare festival.

Peter and his wife and family had been lead several years ago to ‘launch out in faith’ from their safe and comfortable existence in Minneapolis, just as we had launched out from Ireland 28 years ago. Their destination was the northern Wisconsin city of Ashland.

There they have by God’s grace been establishing another school like Rivertree, based on the Ambleside model. They gave a glowing report of how God was on the move in that area and new life was springing forth!

A few months before they moved north, through an amazing sequence of ‘God-incidences’ we had been invited to go to Ashland. When we arrived doors opened for us to bring a message to three of the denominational churches, including Salem Baptist Church that Sunday.

On the long drive north, Father had given me the message. Again it was a ‘childlike’ play on words. I was to sing an ‘O Ashland’ version of my song, ‘O Ireland’ ………as a prayer, that ‘out of the ashes’, God’s glory would again shine forth from Ashland.

The last verse goes……

‘The dove now hovers o’er your head

Only in Jesus could you ever be

One in heart completely free,

And once again God’s love proclaim

A burning heart in Jesus name’.

I shared the message again at a breakfast on the Monday morning. After singing the above verse, the Tribal chairman from the Bad River Indian reservation who had been listening attentively, picked up a paper napkin and began to draw on it.

‘What is that?’ He asked me.

’It looks like a dove.’ I replied.

“Yes.’ He said. ‘But can you see it is also the shape of Lake Superior?
And here is Ashland, where we are sitting……..with the dove hovering o’er our heads!’

He continued ,’Our creation story says this is where the world began as fire came out of the sun rose up in this place…………..Do you see now how significant the words you have just sung are?’

The week after our visit, Salem Baptist Church sanctuary was literally ‘turned to ashes’ by an arson attack. All of it that is, except for the cross. One of the firemen had directed his hose toward the cross throughout the blaze.

The cross alone came through the fire.

“So where does the new school meet in Ashland?’ I asked Peter.

‘ In the ‘new’ Salem church building ‘ He replied.

‘Wow!’ I responded

(I noticed that around that time the church name changed, to simply, Salem Church Ashland…..representing a transition from our abominable denominationalism to becoming the answer to Jesus prayer, ‘…….that they might be one.’)

I’ve often heard the phrase recently, ‘Everything they told us is a lie’

Certainly everything we have been and are told needs to be questioned. When we are secure in our identity as Sons of the Most High God we can do that without feeling threatened and with confidence knowing he will, as he has promised, lead us into ‘all truth’ ……at least all the truth I need to know to fulfill my calling as a faithful son, and you need to know about the Script-u-are

A few days ago Stephen Jones wrote on his in depth blog series on the meaning of the numbers 40-80 in the context of the book of Psalms…….

https://godskingdom.org/blog/2023/05/the-meaning-of-45-part-1/

‘As a side note, when the KJV was being edited in the year 1611, Francis Bacon was the final editor. Bacon was also the author of the plays that were published under the name of William Shakespeare. When Bacon came to Psalm 46, he took note that this was the center chapter of the Bible. He put his cryptic mark upon it—his signature, of sorts. The 46th word in the psalm is “shake” (Psalm 46:3 KJV), and the word “spear” is the 46th word from the end of the psalm (in Psalm 46:9 KJV). The King James Version, of course, is written in Shakespearean English.’

A few years ago I might have dismissed such an idea that it was Francis Bacon who authored “Shakespeare’s’ plays as a nonsensical ‘conspiracy theory.’ Now so many ‘conspiracies’ have proven to be factual, I am open to anything, and in particular to listening to people with proven character and a good track record who challenge my current belief system, because the one thing I do know is how very little I know, and how I need to keep asking questions and looking for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…….so help me God!🙂

Thankfully, “Everything He told us in Scripture is true.’

……Including the promise that, ‘The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.’ (Hab.2;14).

Then our Education will be complete😀

Sir Francis Bacon (I presume?)

I sat with the last blog, ‘Homlette’ for a few months before releasing it. Little did I know that last Friday Father would reveal it was the first in at least a 2 part ‘Shakespeare Series’.!

We attended The Shakespeare Festival at RiverTree, our Grandchildren’s school.

Hamlet was playing that night, but in the afternoon, our grandson Ivan was playing the Shepherd’s Son in ‘The Winter’s Tale’. I was not familiar with this, a lesser known work than Hamlet, but as one of the final lines was uttered, it all ‘came together’ for me………

‘You precious WINNERS ALL’

And so Father gave me for this play to an equally quirky title as ‘Homlette’ rather than Hamlet, in “The Winners Tale’ rather than ‘The Winter’s Tale!’

For just as Hamlet ended with all the lead characters dead, so in contrast, this play ends with all the characters, alive, nay!….. even risen from the dead!!!**

Hence the ‘‘Yeshua“ Reprise came to mind that I opened this blog with.

The song identifies the broad swath of humanity, those ‘the world’ deems ‘successes’ or ‘failures’ but which contains a line that asserts YESHUA’S victory …….even over death……on behalf of us ALL.

……….’a song that can make us ALL WINNERS tonight.’

That in turn tied in with the ‘Good Masters. Sweet Ladies’ recitation that our granddaughter Isla participated in which had each of the children play the part of a particular medieval child from the daughter of the Lord to the professional beggar, from the flea ridden dog keeper’s daughter to the miller’s son, each with an earthy, real life story, full of pathos (and not a little humour)

At the end they lined up and together recited ‘Quoting Shakespeare’ illustrating how ubiquitous in our everyday speech are phrases originating from The Bard……

………and now, for your further education, edification, encouragement and enjoyment is the rest of the song…….

** Queen Hermione

‘What would you like for lunch?’ Lyn asked. ‘What about an omelette?’

‘Sounds great’ We replied.

Hilary and I had just arrived in Belfast again from the US. A tasty omelette and a walk at Seapark later, and we were ready for bed.

That night I wakened and our Dad who is ‘hooked on phonics’ jokingly whispered, ‘Homlette’

I realized he was pointing me back to the one movie I had been lead to watch on the transatlantic flight, Kenneth Branagh’s rendering of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’……..all 4+ hours of it!

I recalled the final scene where all the major actors in the tragedy lay dead on the stage. …….and then remembered the childhood joke,

Q. “What did the mother hen say when she saw the omelette?’

A. ‘There go my crazy mixed up kids’

Fast forward a few months, and back in Minneapolis we get a notification that Hamlet is playing at the local Guthrie theatre. The same day we hear that Hamlet is also due to be performed at RiverTree, our grandchildren’s school!

I realize ‘Father is not done with Homlette yet🙂!’

Rush tickets bought, we make our way to our row 17 balcony seats, ready for another Homlette refresher.

‘To be or not to be, that is the question.’ …reminded me of my first acquaintance with the play as often quipped by the 12 year olds in our 2B (or not 2B) form in Grosvenor High School.

‘………..something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ – was another quote that has often come again over the past few years.

As a child when I would watch my father tune in to the BBC News my inward response would be, ‘How boring!…….same old, same old!’ I would look to escape the boredom in the imaginary world of fiction.

Interesting how things have reversed!

Scrolling through the scores of options on the airlines fictional movie menu I found myself bored……until the Holy Spirit nudged me towards ‘Hamlet’, where I discovered the ‘fiction’ come alive in real world events in our time…….

Now the BBC News is being uncovered as one of the arch villains in our human ‘tragedy’ Check out for example regular, serious, in depth analysis of the culprits at https://www.ukcolumn.org/

The Beeb is of course just one example of the globalist propaganda machine that gets exposed in this clip from Ivor Cummins,

And yet it is also a heavenly ‘comedy’ with the exposure of real life villainy being juxtaposed with the emergence of real life heroism in His-story…….. the One story of ‘the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’, which is unfolding day by day as prophecy is fulfilled. In the final act we ‘Arise and shine’ with Him who is the true One…..for Heroes, for He – rose!

If you still doubt the depths of evil and the height of good going on outside The Truman Show or Matrix bubble, be prepared to be awakened. This ‘Silver Chair’ moment is revealing the predatory giants who have been seeking to consume humanity.

In the next few weeks. Plandemic3 will be screened for the first time. You can sign up for the livestream here…

Homepage

Then on July 4th the long awaited Sound of Freedom premiers. More information here.

https://www.angel.com/pay-it-forward/sound-of-freedom?utm_medium=direct&utm_source=angel-freedom&utm_campaign=sound-of-freedom-theatrical

Get ready for the pain, but as Johnny Enlow says, ‘The pain is for the awakening and the awakening is for the children.’

In expounding Revelation 6:2 Johnny explains how the Greek word for ‘bow’ as carried by the evil rider on a white horse, who seeks to bring death to humanity, is only used one time in scripture. It is the word ‘toxon’ from which we get the word toxin. It can also be translated ‘needle’. The Greeks had a unique way of dipping their arrows into poison before shooting them into the flesh of their enemies. This shockingly describes how the Covid shots have been used as a depopulation weapon!

Here is the link to this teaching …..

https://www.elijahstreams.com/watch/watch.php?ID=1343

I recommend you watch 10 minutes from 1hr 17 min mark………….and see if this does not whet your appetite for more! Episodes 55 and onward are filled with the hope of our position in Christ to become the change agents in the midst of these worldly horrors!

Echoes again of Hamlet, were the blood poisoning (With snake venom? Metaphorical or real? ) takes out all 5 of the lead characters.

Hamlet’s loyal friend Horatio (meaning ‘hour’) remains alone to tell the tale…….to be the ‘‘Hornblower’ ‘For such a time as this’

Echoes in the real world where just last week the heroic Dr Rashid Buttar who spoke truth fearlessly was also likely poisoned.

And yet above it all our ‘mother hen’ Father God, who says, ‘there go my crazy mixed up kids’ does not despair for He has it all scripted …….right up to the glorious end.

Above all the play reminds us of the title of my brother Chris` album, ‘Temporary Residence’, for death comes to all…..from ‘poor Yorik’ whose jestless skull skulks beneath a chair to that black bird pretender perched for a moment upon a throne, from Hamlet senior, to Hamlet junior.…from you to me!

But what a time to be alive…….and to be dialing in to a new and terrible and yet terrific reality, for as with all the actors when the final curtain falls and the play is done, we know God has promised that ‘every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father….. for from Him and through Him and to Him are ALL things’

………..for I AM is indeed the Author……..who wrote even Shakespeare’s book.

Dr. Stephen Jones ‘just happened’ to post a blog this morning on the meaning of the number 41, leading into the meaning of 42. This was the theme of my blog yesterday. Here is the link…..

https://godskingdom.org/blog/2023/05/the-meaning-of-41/

As I lay listening this morning, Father again spoke to me about connections between personal experiences recent and more distant, world events and biblical truth.

Thank you for your prayers for our Freedom! Retreat last weekend! As usual we began the happy event singing Come On On On In😃

As I reflected about God’s hospitable heart, I began thinking about, what I later discovered, was today’s headline news, on The Epoch Times…. The expiration of Title 42. This legislation has to do with foreigners entering the USA. We were once there…. and are grateful for the (supernatural) way in which God’s hospitable heart opened that particular door for us.

“So why would God not give those thousands waiting on the boarders the same access as us?” I thought.

The line from the song brought the answer…….

“Come on on on in………Sure it’s wonderful timing for a wee cuppa tea in yer hand.”

I saw tea as a T …….representing the cross on which Christ died….. as the nails where driven through his hands!

This, and this alone, is what gives us legal access into our Father’s house.

We had done everything ‘according to the book’ in order to enter the US and become legal citizens. So too for access to the kingdom of God we must do it legally and therefore legitimately by faith in the saving work of Christ. He is the only door by which we may enter the sheepfold.

The first house Father provided for us to live in for the first 7 years of our American sojourn was on 42nd Avenue. The significance was not lost on us for the entrance into “the promised land” occurred after 41 encampments in the wilderness, as with the unnamed 42nd generation of Matthew.1 comes the Christ.

So again this morning’s headline prophecies as did our house number of where we find ourselves in the progress of His- story which is fulfilled prophecy.

This mornings blog at God’s Kingdom illustrates this relationship between history and prophecy, making sense and bringing peace in the midst of the present ‘insanity’😃

https://godskingdom.org/blog/2023/05/how-to-live-in-insane-times/

P.S……..and ‘Yes’ our prayers were answered as our gracious Heavenly Father once again made himself known to his children at the weekend. One participant shared how as I sang “On The Day You Were Born” she was taken to the place of her birth (which she had left when a few months old). She saw herself being held up by the Father, Son and Spirit to their delight, like Simba in The Lion King, then her vision shifted to the sun, and out of the Sun there came roaring the Lion of the tribe of Judah!

Hallelujah! The sons of the Living God are being called forth to Arise and Shine😃

Above is a photo of my Dad, Chris holding Laurie, and myself with Robin on my shoulders.

I realized recently how our Heavenly Father does not just cause our lives to overlap, but has woven 3 of our songs together.

When the first of the next generation of Kyles arrived in 1978, my brother Chris wrote a beautiful song for his beloved baby nephew, “Robin’s Song”

Robin’s Song began,

“It’s a long, long road that you’ll travel on.”

Then I realized one of Robin’s recent songs that was born out of that long journey begins,

“It’s the long game now.”

This song of Robin’s proved in turn to be prophetic for Chris, who along with his family bravely battled cancer for more than 12 years.

Several years ago, at this time of the year, the seed of a song began to grow in me as the bus from Dublin airport carried us north through the Irish countryside.

“A rising sun o’er sparkling dew

Hillside clothed in yellow hue

Skipping lambs.

A wisp of cloud in boundless blue.”

We made that same journey three times this year, and watched those yellow win bushes gradually blooming until on the final trip they had burst forth into their full glory!

I knew that although the song had been given many years before, it was for this time, and this person.

It was Chris’ Song!

It was another thread of the Master-weavers handiwork.

Here are verses 1 and 4 of A Rising Sun, (or was that A Rising Son?)

This year I was puzzled when for the first time in many years I had to pay federal taxes! The odd sum was $167. I asked Father if there was some significance to this amount. He pointed out to me that the day after Chris’ funeral would have been his 67th birthday!

Then the significance of the ‘win’ bushes dawned on me. Chris had sung in Robin’s Song,

“And I hope you WIN, I couldn’t bear to see you fall.

That’s all that really matters after all.”

I realized…….. “Chris WON at 67!” (167)………in the sense that death has been conquered, and we have the promise from Jesus that “he who believes in me will never die.”

On the flight home from Ireland I found myself watching a movie on a screen in the row in front of me. It was ‘the win bushes’ in the Irish countryside that caught my attention.

Although I couldn’t hear the dialogue, it wasn’t difficult to figure our the plot in this romantic comedy. A wealthy New York debutante in search of the ‘perfect’ corresponding husband finds herself stranded in rural Ireland. She has one after another, “stiletto heel in cow pat” type humiliating experiences, trying to get out of the country in the company of a poor young Irish bartender who remains unflustered and supportive even as she falls apart!

Bottom line; she isn’t imprisoned in Ireland but in her own vanity which the Irish guy helps her discover as he demonstrates in their relationship what love really is. (Actually the plane landed before the film ended, but I am imagining that is the way it should have gone.😃)

Chris was that sort of Irishman. A true lover.

I noticed the Irish Tourist board advertisement at the Belfast City airport…….

Chris will be sadly missed on earth, but joyfully welcomed in heaven at, as my song says, “the perfect time to catch the wave and rise above.”

……..in accordance with the good and gentle Shepherd’s Clock.

Setting out for Belfast I had ‘randomly’ picked a book from my shelf to read on the flight over.

It was “A Shepherd looks at Psalm 23”, by Philip Keller, a book I had read many years ago. Opening it on the plane to begin the read I realized it was my mum’s copy. By the time we neared Belfast I turned another page near the end of the book and discovered this scrap of paper……

When I told the story to my grandsons they exclaimed, “It was a time capsule!”

The note has been written decades ago, the book been carried from Ireland to the US where it sat untouched on a shelf for many years. Then I ‘just happened’ to pick it up on this trip, to discover this message of grace (That is the meaning of Anna)…..that the Lord was the shepherd of her three ‘boys’ my John, my Paul and my Christopher. This was the significance of the three underscores !

The day John had called to tell me Chris had rapidly deteriorated, just as I hung up, a remarkable thing had happened. There came a knock on the door, and when I opened it, there stood two police officers!

“Did you call 911?” They asked.

“No” I answered.

“Huh!” The officer continued. “ We got a 911 call to come to this address. Must have been some kids playing a prank! Thank you sir.” And the two cops left.

“Now what was the meaning of that Father?” I asked.

I realized 911 (the US equivalent of the British 999)was a call for help. But it is also the gematria for ‘charis’ the Greek word for grace!

I knew the timing was perfect, for Chris was now walking through ‘the valley of the shadow of death’. The message from mum and from heaven was clear, he need “fear no evil”, for the gracious shepherd was with him.

On our way to Ireland our flight was delayed. We missed our connection, we missed our bus, we missed our rental car. On our way home the rental car was returned early, the bus arrived early, the flight left early, the connecting flight was early, and we arrived home early!

The contrast was so stark I knew it was meant to confirm the message that appeared on the bottle of Australian wine our friend Norah had bought for communion in Belfast.

From a human point of view we make judgements about ‘what is late’ and what is ‘early’, but as Psalm 139 says, every one of our days is written in the Shepherd’s book. Everything in our lives will happen precisely when it is meant to from the moment of our birth to the moment of our death. It is all perfectly according to, “The Shepherd’s Clock.”

The symbol on the wine bottle is of a Laughing Kookaburra bird. ‘The Shepherd’s Clock’ is a synonym for a ‘laughing kookaburra.’The Aboriginal story goes….

“As the sun rose for the very first time, Baiame (creator god and Sky Father) wanted all to witness. He elected just the bird for the job. 

After a raucous “GUU-GUU-BERR-AA-AA!!!”, everyone was awake. 

When the people rose, sunlight met Earth. A display of warm hues blanketed the lands — for all to see, thanks to the laughing kookaburra. “

Chris rallied in March, and encouraged us to return to the U..S. for a planned visit to Florida. It wasn’t his time……quite yet.

Here in St. Augustine, Florida, we heard the news of his going home to be with the Lord. That day we visited a local coffee shop. We then realized the significance of it’s name……

Neither was the significance of the number of the coffee shop lost on me, for as Psalm 133 says, “Where brothers dwell together in unity, there God commands the blessing- even life!”

Chris had said after our deeply meaningful time in Belfast, “We three are together again now, the way we were always meant to be.”

Today we return to Belfast for a third time this year, to give thanks for a life well lived, where “goodness and mercy” have followed, both as the overshadowing of the gentle and gracious shepherd and the legacy of this one sheep of his.