http://www.jeffreytlarson.com/image_list.asp?g=Still%20Life

big fan ... sometimes it's just as simple as that.  

So ... today has turned in to bedtime and I rarely write at night (btw ... Moon/Jupiter thing pretty cool).  But tonight I will.
Some serendipitous chain of events took me back to see ... just a picture that I knew I had posted on my blog.  Well ... I was reading something ... some words and I felt a tear slid down my cheek and it surprised me.  Where did this tear begin and why does it move along my cheek and drop to my chest as an announcement ... hey, you ... you are fully feeling something.  

Yet if dreams hold an answer, as flowers clasp fog,


they must answer with breath, and, if they answer,


must move among stars, and have their own songs


of the body and blood, and must sing them.... (VANDERLEUN)

And it started before those words, before even the first phrase ... of warp without weft ... pattern that is only interval ... song that is shaped by the silence of "rest" ... and in that rest, a dream ... ahh so real surreal the tension of where "this" alerts one to "missing that", the tear plunked down wet (and rippled) ... hmmm, 50 years later?  I looked back to find a picture of little me (the version without the scarred knees and ... scarred soul ... sweet little knees blissfully unaware of how hard a fall) riding high on the shoulders of ... one of my giants and found ... this:

He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, 

and he prepares the way so that I may show 

him the salvation of God.  ~ Psalm 50:23

and I wondered exactly what do we think SALVATION means?  

sal·va·tion  

/salˈvāSHən/

Noun Deliverance from sin and its consequences. Preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss.

Synonyms rescue - saving - deliverance - redemption - escape I don't think many of the preachers I've heard would agree that salvation delivers one from the consequences of their actions ... while they are still alive at least.   My husband answers my question thus "It is reconciliation with God", a clearer definition I think  ... the relationship was breached, salvation is a bridge, built, I would say by Christ's actions and provides an opportunity for the choice of redemption ... an escape from eternal separation from GOD.  So ... deliverance from "sin" (acts which separate us from God) and it's consequences (eternal separation ... irrevocable separation).  Preservation or deliverance from harm ... ruin ... loss.  Hmmm.  On a grand scale ...yes, I see it.  Down here on the ground ... ?  The salvation of God.   He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me,  and he prepares the way so that I may show  him the salvation of God.  ~ Psalm 50:23 I think salvation may also be about a change of perspective, a change of heart which tweaks how one "sees" things. My husband says this verse is all about something specific "a thank offering" ... an Old Testament thing and maybe that is entirely correct.  I do not know.  But I'm thinking about it.  I do know when I am thankful something about my attitude changes ... and sometimes a thankful attitude involves a sacrifice.  I don't want to cherry pick the scriptures out of context ... . And ... not only the definition, but the ... grace of it ...  the cost of it ... just thinking it is a bigger word then "an event".  ... if sin is separation from God, salvation must be the avenue of reconciliation ... and it seems to me that salvation is an event and a process ... as in preservation, deliverance from harm, ruin or loss. .