I am still working my way through the book
In the Steps of Moses. Some writers have a magic
way with words, and Louis Golding is one of those.
The pictures he creates are so beautiful that I
often go back and reread sections just so I can
retaste his delicious wording. He writes about
a place in the desert, Petra, and describes it
with the following words:

"There are moments when, gazing round a little
helplessly, you declare Petra a city of
claustrophobiacs. Intoxicated by those wild
draughts of color, the encircling summits pressing
home upon their skulls, they hacked and hacked
away at the mountains with the desperate re-
peatedness of madmen, making one facade and
another facade--facades only; they were not
interested in interiors, which they left meager
and monotonous; they moved on to the next mountain
and the next facade.

But, that mood over, you realize the Nabataean
impulse was, in fact, something grimmer and more
controlled; controlled, for you do not produce
such ordered beauty in sporadic frenzy; grim
enough, for all those carved mountains, or most
of them, were houses of the dead.

Dad by day the sun illumines them with gold and
fire, adn in its season the moon visits them with
pale terror. The tombmakers have gone long ago,
but the tombs seem likely to endure till the next
buckling of this planet's crust."

This reminds me of something Jesus said to those
who thought they were spiritual.

Matthew 23:27
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed
appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full
of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even
so you outwardly appear righteous to men, but
inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

I do not want to be all fur and feathers. My prayer
is that God would develop within me a true and
living following after Him. All I have to do is
think over what I read daily in His Word and I
know what it is He desires.
A gentle and quiet spirit.
A tongue that speaks sparingly.
A faithful and obedient wife.
A woman who looks to the ways of her home.
A compassionate friend to those in want.
A student of the Word.
I do not want to concern myself with facades. I want
to put my focus to the interior of my being. May it
not be meager and monotonous, but may it be a rich
garden for the King.