{"id":1991,"date":"2023-09-10T16:54:49","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T23:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/insideourgooeyminds\/?p=1991"},"modified":"2023-09-10T16:54:49","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T23:54:49","slug":"the-canopy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/insideourgooeyminds\/2023\/09\/the-canopy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Canopy"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1994\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1994\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1994\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1451\/2023\/09\/Tree-canopy-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1994\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">williams\/Williams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #333300;\">\u2026LOOKING UP\u2026.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>I got to spend an afternoon, looking up from a lounge chair into a canopy of oak and pine trees. The wind, making it indistinguishable between the noise of the trees and the creek below. I fell asleep, folding the book I had across my chest closing my eyes\u00a0<em>just to rest them.\u00a0<\/em>An hour later I woke up, looking up into the canopy covering where I was. The last time I had done this was when I was a small child. A memory still accessible, somehow, stored somewhere, in my brain. I was a child, small child, and I was in a crib my mother and father put out under the same type of trees at our cabin. They were part of a small group of trees which held our treehouse. I remember looking up into the throat of those trees and it was the same image from two days ago.<\/p>\n<p>There was a huge peace in that recent event. Laying on the lounge chair, no worries, no cares. Oh, don\u2019t get me wrong, they existed, just not then, not at that moment. God, somehow, saw an idea I needed that nap. To call a time out in the life I was living and rest. Simply rest. It is a gift I was given. A gift I did not know how wonderful it was until I opened my eyes and saw the trees. They were under a partially cloudy sky with the sun being blocked every few moments by the fluff of the cloud and the movement of the trees. The temperature was noticeably different and responding to the movements of the two. It got cooler. In Arizona, when things get cooler before Halloween, it is a gift.<\/p>\n<h3>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026NEVER REMEMERED<\/h3>\n<p>How something, which was never even remembered from the past and connected to this future, could see the orbit of things and the unseen hand of something constant, true, never faulting, always protective, and perfectly timed. It\u2019s funny, I didn\u2019t <em>know\u00a0<\/em>I needed that afternoon, to do exactly what I was doing-nothing, and had I of been younger, I would have not realized its source or intent.<\/p>\n<p>To let God love me. To let Him meet my needs, right where I was.<\/p>\n<h3>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u2026LETTING GOD\u2026.<\/h3>\n<p>I don\u2019t do that as a practice, letting God, or really anyone, meet my needs. <em>I can do my own needs meetin\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Until I can\u2019t. Then what? What happens when I don\u2019t let people help me is I rob them of goodness. If I am so standoffish and don\u2019t let anyone love me, then I rob them of what God has gifted them to do.<\/p>\n<p>Damn.<\/p>\n<h3>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026I WOULD PLOW THROUH LIFE\u2026<\/h3>\n<p>Years ago, I would plow through life, taking hits and feeling the pain but still plowing. Now that I am older, I have learned I want people to experience what I have learned. Letting the God of the Universe, find me, find them, and love us both.<\/p>\n<p>Right where we are. Maybe even under a canopy of Oaks and Pine trees.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Letting someone, especially God, love us, honors Him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4610,"featured_media":1994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[438],"tags":[441],"class_list":["post-1991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-enjoyment","tag-resting-in-god"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Canopy The Canopy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Letting someone, especially God, love us, honors Him. 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