Closure (Tim Smith)

It occurred to me the other day that I do not know the name of this item. In fact, I do not know if it really has a name at all. All my life, I have been removing these from bread bags and immediately tossing them into the trash where they belong, and I do not know its'/their name.

They're unnecessary, of course. Everyone born with a y chromosome knows that to properly close a bread bag, you hold it up by the empty part at the open end of the bag, give it a mid-air twist, and fold the twisted part under the bag while setting it down on the counter. Problem solved. Fresh bread for all. No unnecessary, let alone unidentifiable, tiny plastic widgets.

But this anonymous little bit of plastic might in fact be a whole market unto itself. At least one company is attempting to make it's name and money by promoting an eco-friendly version. (www.ecoclip.com) To think I have been shamefully adding these to our landfills when I could have been saving the environment the overwhelming burden of an extra ounce of plastic each year!

Stands to reason that if someone is selling these, someone must be buying them. And there you have a whole other job connected with this item--"Hi, I'm Danny Finklestein, Chief Bread-bag Closure Buyer for Wonderbread, Central Region. ...Oh, you heard about the big Ecoclip deal? Yeah, well, I don't want to brag, but that was me."

I just think that if there is going to be a whole industry built around it, it should have a better name than 'bread bag closure.' So I am hereby commissioning the Bread Bag Closure Renaming Contest. I will give the grand prize of $1.00 to the person who contacts me with the best suggestion for a new name for this item. Use of the word 'sphincter' in your suggestion is prohibited. Good luck.

To delight in the Lord (Kyle)

What does this mean? A child will delight in the smallest and most innocent of things, such as a piece of candy or a trip to the park. Do we delight in anything anymore? To delight in the Lord – do we have the same youthful excitement at the gentlest of God’s touch? Do we ask and plead for it? Do we whine when we don’t get it? Do we jump for joy when God shows us something new? Do we even notice when he does reveal himself to us? I've discovered that we can find God in more than just those times that we are having our devotional. I have learned to see God and his fingerprints in creation. All of creation worships him because the universe operates according to the way that God has set it up. A good example is geese.

One day last summer, I witnessed something that I call majestic. I was sitting/praying alone down at the American River. The sun was going down. Everything was silent as I pressed into God and opened my ears and heart to hear his whisper. Silence. But then, 50 or so geese flew overhead. I wouldn't have noticed except for the sound that they created. It was not any kind of chirping, or calling, or honking or whatever it is that geese do, but it was the sound of their bodies and wings swiftly moving through the air, like the sound of someone softly moving between two bedsheets. As I experienced this, I immediately felt the closeness of God, and I was filled with joy the more I thought about it.

Geese know exactly when to embark on that long journey to fly south when it gets cold. How do they know south is the right way to go? How do they know they are even going south? I know they don’t have road signs, compasses, or built-in GPS units. But they still always end up where they need to go. God directs them and they bring Him glory by going south to enjoy the warm climate. It is their act of worship. The glory of a bird is for it to fly, and In this, I delight.

Maybe God was not speaking to me in that moment that the geese flew by, but for some reason, I found delight in these simple birds and their instinctive act of worship to their creator by doing exactly what he made them to do.