Stories — Small Stories of a Big God

Small Stories of a Big God

Slow Motion, Soft Focus

Slow Motion, Soft Focus

I wonder if it is my metabolism… my heart rate… my extreme ‘southerness’. Or is it something so hardwired into me before I was born that will never be anything other than what it is?

I dilly-dally. I linger. I reread paragraphs in books because I want to soak up one more time the loveliness of the words.

I eat slowly and slice my portions into tiny bits to make each taste last longer. And then there is the conversation – it can go on for hours, can’t it? My poor son-in-law has not figured out yet that coming over for dinner is a long, slow-moving affair. Or maybe he has…

Small StoriesGeorgia TannerAugust 18, 2018Comment

Radiant Diamonds Bursting Inside Us

Radiant Diamonds Bursting Inside Us

“My parents lived a charmed life,” she says as we dismantle it. We sit in her childhood bedroom, drawers open revealing stacks of unsent Christmas cards, paper-clipped newspaper articles with hand-written notes in the margin, photo albums of last century college days. Her twenty-year-old father looks up at us in black and white with a lazy smile - stopped in the middle of work at a drawing board.

“You should keep this one,” I say as I pull that photograph away from its place with the others. It is raining outside.

HomemadeGeorgia TannerAugust 14, 2018 Comments

Seriously, We Were Created for What?

Seriously, We Were Created for What?

What an amazing thought.

I tend to forget about God’s rights to me. He designed me. He created me. In His own image. There must have been some purpose for such an elaborately designed creature such as myself.

Oh, there it is…dominion. Over the fish and the birds and the livestock and the earth and let’s not forget about every creeping thing. And be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. All of that is in there if you keep reading.

GenesisGeorgia TannerAugust 11, 2018 Comments

Sour Milk and Baby Breath

Sour Milk and Baby Breath

I have baby spit-up on my black Ralph Lauren pajamas. The smell of freshly soured breast milk floats up to greet me. The baby rustles in the pee-damp sheets of the pack and play. He won’t be slipping back to sleep for just one more hour as we had planned.

My daughter rushes out the door, almost late for work, berating herself for making ‘the worst decisions’ in the middle of the night when the baby awoke, and she decided his impromptu 4 AM feeding could substitute for the 6.

HomemadeGeorgia TannerAugust 8, 2018Comment

The Wonderful Smallest Things

The Wonderful Smallest Things

The sun is stretching high into the sky, its light blinding and high already on this summer morning. White particles of dust float around me, reflecting the light as they dance between me and the dark leaves of the magnolias.

But looking longer, I realize they are not dust, but the tiniest flying insects, gifting me with morning entertainment.

Small StoriesGeorgia TannerAugust 4, 2018 Comments

The Wrong Answer

The Wrong Answer

What do you do when God gives you the worst possible answer? We had prayed for repentance, renewal, restoration – yet God has rained down death and destruction upon the children’s heads.

Why would God do that – if there really is even such a being as God of the Universe – a good and caring God? Why would He not tip the cup forward to overflow with the things He loves: justice and righteousness?

GenesisGeorgia TannerJuly 31, 2018Comment

Carry One Another

Carry One Another

The text comes in at 7AM. “Surgery today. Please pray.”

My nephew’s wife stood hard and fast onto her brake, trying to stop her car as the car from the opposing direction decided suddenly to turn left into her path. The children in the back seat were okay. Her foot was broken like the egg in the nursery rhyme and the doctors didn’t seem to know how to put it back together again. Small town in Mississippi. Eleven days. Three surgeries. And the pain continues.

Small StoriesGeorgia TannerJuly 27, 2018Comment

We Worship a Scarred God

We Worship a Scarred God

Lord, I do not even know how you have protected me. I am oblivious. Blind. Naïve. You gave us such limited sight and such hemmed in awareness.

We go through our days putting our hands on what is within arms-reach – completely unaware of the angel standing guard over us, sword drawn, eyes watchful.

Small StoriesGeorgia TannerJuly 25, 2018Comment

Female: My Idea of Feminism

Female: My Idea of Feminism

They invaded the beach chairs set up next to ours – colorful birds chattering in their songbird voices. Five or six of them in their 20’s, a couple of youthful grandmothers, and a handful of babies and toddlers in tow.

Small StoriesGeorgia TannerJuly 19, 2018 Comments

You Were Made for Me…

You Were Made for Me…

God and Adam had work to do on that first Saturday afternoon so long ago: the naming of the all the birds in the sky, the beasts, and the livestock. It was pretty sweet that God allowed Adam the honor of naming those living, breathing creations. I wonder if God was writing it all down in a thick bound book, His finger engraving their names in a godly calligraphy?

GenesisGeorgia TannerJuly 16, 2018 Comments

Watching the Playback

Watching the Playback

In my world of film and video, we have something called ‘playback’. After the “Roll camera,” “Speed,” “Action,” and “Cut,” the director can say, “I want to look at playback before we move on to the next scene.”

And the video assist technician, the script person, the client and agency, and director will gather around the video monitor to watch the favorite takes ‘play back’. Heads will nod in agreement. Or occasionally we will decide we need one more take with some minor adjustment.

Small StoriesGeorgia TannerJune 29, 2018 Comments

But You Picked Me…

But You Picked Me…

The sand would be cold in the morning, as I slipped my feet out of my flip-flops. The sky and the water and the sand blending together in shades of pale gray blue, waiting for the soon to rise sun to pierce through the darkness and bring it’s aquas and turquoises and brilliant shocking blues trailing behind it.

Small StoriesGeorgia TannerJune 25, 2018Comment

Slipping into Her Skin

Slipping into Her Skin

My friend Ann introduced me to Glyn Evan’s Daily with the King and most mornings as I read through the devotional for the day, some sentence he wrote will cut through my complacent spirit to find its mark. Here it is this morning:

“Is there any greater sensitivity to human need than ‘God so loved the world’? The tragedy is that often we become harder toward people as we walk with God. If so, something is terribly amiss.”

Small StoriesGeorgia TannerJune 22, 2018 Comments

Pools and Baptismals

Pools and Baptismals

Daddy built the pool when I was 18 months old. I am told when they opened it that both Kathy and Meadors learned how to swim that day. They, and every other kid in the family had stayed in that cold water all day long, and when our parents took their orange life jackets off, they both could swim.

Small StoriesGeorgia TannerJune 20, 2018Greenville Comments

So Why in the World did God Create that?

So Why in the World did God Create that?

I think of God’s winged creatures: the soaring hawks and the sweet melodies of the songbirds, conveniently forgetting the yellow jackets and the mosquitoes.

Until I look down at my left hand where my wedding band should be. Oh, yeah. That.

GenesisGeorgia TannerJune 15, 2018 Comments

The Winged Wonders of the Fifth Day

The Winged Wonders of the Fifth Day

How many thousands of years did we men and women look up into the heavens and wish that we too could fly?

When God wants to make a point to us about His power, His protection, His majesty, He parades out the wonders of His winged creations.

GenesisGeorgia TannerJune 11, 2018 Comments

Before the World was Brand New

“In the Beginning….”

It reads like the stuff of fairy tales. Can you hear it? Sit quietly and listen.

GenesisGeorgia TannerJune 8, 2018Comment

Fear of God and His Great Unknown

Fear of God and His Great Unknown

Fear of the Lord for this generation is a troublesome thing. We are busy casting out all fear and calling on God as good buddy and companion to do our bidding. We stand mistaken about God’s ways – for they are not our own.

GenesisGeorgia TannerJune 4, 2018Comment