Healthy U on December 7

Healthy U presents: “Survivor Stories: The Gift of Health” from Healthy U guest presenters.  A warm and inviting “fireside” dinner will be served.

At the end of the year we can take time to reflect upon our own health — body, mind, and spirit.  Our stories bring us closer and help us realize we are not alone in our struggles or triumphs!  Healthy U is dedicated to education and healthy lifestyle choices.  Hear the choices made by others and how their lives have changed.

Healthy U welcomes your support, both in attendance, learning, sharing and giving.  When you consider your year end gifts, please know that a gift to Healthy U will enable us to participate in community health events and bring new speakers and classes to Sacramento in 2010.  Your tax deductible gift will be much appreciated.  Envelopes will be available at our December 7 meeting, or you can mail your contribution to: Healthy U, 4011 Pasadena Ave, Sacramento, CA 95821.

Dinner service begins at 6:30 p.m. followed by the presentation at 7:00 p.m.  Please note the location: 1101-A National Drive (southwest corner of National and North Market).  Space is limited and cost is $10 per person.  Please call 916-482-8123 for reservations by Thursday, December 3.

[PhotoCredit:AndrewEick]

A Small Reminder

“From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” Acts 17:26-27

My first memory of a hummingbird comes from my childhood. My paternal grandparents had two hummingbird feeders on their back porch. I can remember standing in the kitchen and watching my grandpa make the sugar solution for the feeders. He would heat up a small pot of water and add the right amount of sugar, plus just a bit of red food coloring. Then he would wash out the two feeders and refill them with the fresh solution after it cooled. I would walk out on the porch with him and watch as he hung the feeders up. Back inside it wouldn’t be but just a couple of minutes before a couple hummingbirds would show up at each feeder.

It was always pretty hard to see a hummingbird away from the feeders on the porch. There was a wilderness park along the river near their house. Our family would take walks there and I would look for the hummingbirds. I would look and look for them, but rarely saw any. A hummingbird is a very small bird and very hard to see way up in a tree. Sometimes I would catch a glimpse of one flying, but even that was pretty rare. They dart about so quickly that they would be gone before my eyes could even focus on them. I knew there had to be hummingbirds around because they would come to the feeders back on the porch. Yet based on the number of times I actually saw a hummingbird out in the park, I might have concluded they were a rare bird in danger of extinction.

Some time later I learned the sound a hummingbird makes. It isn’t a sing-song kind of call like a warbler or a bluebird. It sounds more like a chattering buzz. Learning to recognize the sound of the hummingbird changed my walks with family out in the wilderness park. The hummingbirds that I suspected must be around somewhere really were everywhere. I would hear the telltale buzz call and then strain my ears in the direction of the call. I would try to train my eyes on the spot to see the tiny little bird that was making so much noise. In all my efforts I still rarely saw a hummingbird, but I knew they were there. I could hear one or two every time I went walking.

I suppose it is easy to think about God in the same way I first thought about hummingbirds. When I depend on my eyes it is pretty rare to see Him working in the world. From time to time I hear about a friend of a friend who survived cancer with no good medical explanation; a miracle apparently. I hear a story from a missionary in a distant country, a story about lives spared in impossible circumstances. They are fleeting glimpses of God at work in the world. But the reality is that every day you and I are alive is another miracle of God’s grace and mercy. This is easy to forget when I get busy with work and relationships and hobbies. What I need is a reminder that God is present even when I don’t see Him working in a physically visible way.

Just recently I was out doing some shopping, and walked out of a store to return to my car. Right there as I was walking through the parking lot I heard the sound of a hummingbird. I didn’t even try to figure out exactly where the little bird was sitting. But that experience got me to thinking about God’s work in the world. I decided that every time I hear a hummingbird I am going to remember that God isn’t rare or distant. I realized that I just have to learn how to hear Him. And once I learn how to hear God, I am sure that I will begin seeing Him all around me in everything I do and experience.

[PhotoCredit:Noël Zia Lee & seanmcgrath & khsolomon]

My Own Unique Color

“Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:11-12

The road in front of my home has a row of maple trees on each side. During the summer they all look pretty much the same. They were all planted the same year so they are all approximately the same width and height. During hot summer months they are all the same dark shade of green. Now that fall has arrived they no longer look the same. A few of them have just a little color showing on top, a nice shade of red. A few more are turning color all over, but it looks more the leaves are fading to a light green. One tree has all of its leaves turned a uniform dark red.

The last place I lived was an apartment that looked out on a courtyard. In the courtyard were elm trees that were all the same species. They also started turning color at different times during the fall. What is more, each one turned a different color. A couple would fade from green to a bright gold or a cheery yellow. Several more would turn shades from orange to amber. The last couple of them would darken to a deep red. Each year I was amazed all over again that nine trees could create such a wonderful variety of different fall colors.

I am really glad that God made so many different kinds of trees and flowers and animals. The world is just more interesting to live in when it is full of such splendid variety. To see a flower that I have never seen before. To see a bird do something I have never observed before. The variety spices up life, and if I keep my eyes open, the variety keeps each day from being exactly like every other day that has come before. I would have to say that I have embraced the idea that God must be a God of variety when I consider all that He created.

For a long time I have thought that people must be a lot like the rest of God’s creation. There are people from Africa, and from Asia, and from Europe. There are tall people and short people. People with lots of hair and people with almost no hair. I would look out at a crowd of people and measure variety by hair color, skin color, height, and a half dozen other measures. But I am beginning to think that God’s idea of variety goes far beyond what I can see when I look at another person.

I am beginning to see that God intends for me to grow up and mature in a way that is unique to me. He has planted specific spiritual strengths in me that don’t exist in the same way inside any other person. For a long time I thought that I was supposed to become like this pastor or that church leader. Now I see that I am supposed to become who God planned for me to become before I was even born. It is an idea that has brought much freedom to my life. I am now free to become who God intends me to become instead of trying to fit into the mold of someone else. I know God is offering you that same freedom too.

[PhotoCredit:Ctd 2005 & blakeimeson & Grantsview]