Note: I had elaborate plans for a grandiose blog post about all the things and people I miss from childhood, but it’s 11:46 and I’m way past too tired for anything requiring that much brain power.

I’m thinking that will come in the next few days, when I’ve had more sleep.

Instead, I’ll discuss my continuing Classic Doctor Who quest.

I’m on to the next doctor, Patrick Troughton. He’s decidedly different from William Hartnell. He’s much less stern and haughty, more warm-hearted yet at the same time more mysterious.

I can see how maybe Matt Smith’s 11th doctor was inspired by this particular doctor. There are many similarities.

I even get a kick out of the monsters. Of course, they’re all men in rubber suits or extremely fluffy versions of abominable snowmen. The BBC back in the day wasn’t known for big budgets or elaborate production value.

Still, the stories are good, and the acting is good. You just have to use your imagination to fill in the rest.

It’s a shame that so many episodes are missing from this particular period. I’m holding out hope that they’ll be found soon.

If Peanut could speak human, she’d say how glad she is that it’s almost Friday. Well, maybe not. She doesn’t have to get up before the crack of dawn at the ungodly hour of 5 am to go to work.

She gets to hang around the house all day, taking naps or snacks whenever she pleases.

But this human is thankful that Friday’s almost here. It means that for one glorious day I can shut off the alarm and roll over at the point when I’d normally be willing myself out of bed. I do love my sleep.

Until then, I’ll stick to counting my blessings (including the one where I get paid to work at a job that I really like). Tonight, I’m also thankful for having two sets of grandparents that helped shape me into who I am today.

Peanut would probably agree with all that, if she spoke people-ese.

I’m pretty sure this is what I look like every morning at 5 am. I avoid mirrors like the plague at that hour, so I can’t be for certain.

Still, I know that my soul is always blessed by that first sip of coffee (or in my case, coffee-flavored creamer).

Mornings are good because there is coffee. Otherwise, I’d probably not make it out of bed.

The end.

“Behold, how independent of outward circumstances the Holy Ghost can make the Christian! What a bright light may shine within us when it is all dark without! How firm, how happy, how calm, how peaceful we may be, when the world shakes to and fro, and the pillars of the earth are removed!

Even death itself, with all its terrible influences, has no power to suspend the music of a Christian’s heart, but rather makes that music become more sweet, more clear, more heavenly, till the last kind act which death can do is to let the earthly strain melt into the heavenly chorus, the temporal joy into the eternal bliss!

Let us have confidence, then, in the blessed Spirit’s power to comfort us. Dear reader, are you looking forward to poverty? Fear not; the divine Spirit can give you, in your want, a greater plenty than the rich have in their abundance. You know not what joys may be stored up for you in the cottage around which grace will plant the roses of content.

Are you conscious of a growing failure of your bodily powers? Do you expect to suffer long nights of languishing and days of pain? O be not sad! That bed may become a throne to you. You little know how every pang that shoots through your body may be a refining fire to consume your dross-a beam of glory to light up the secret parts of your soul.

Are the eyes growing dim? Jesus will be your light. Do the ears fail you? Jesus’ name will be your soul’s best music, and his person your dear delight. Socrates used to say, “Philosophers can be happy without music;” and Christians can be happier than philosophers when all outward causes of rejoicing are withdrawn. In thee, my God, my heart shall triumph, come what may of ills without! By thy power, O blessed Spirit, my heart shall be exceeding glad, though all things should fail me here below” (Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening).

“And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!'” (Revelation 14:13, New Living Translation).

I was there today when my grandmother took her last breath and entered into eternity.  It was an extremely sad moment in that I lost someone I loved, yet it was also a moment of great joy to know that she is fully alive and fully healed in the presence of Jesus her Lord.

I was blessed to have her as my grandmother. Her whole life was one of serving others and not thinking of herself. I imagine I’ll be half-expecting to see her show up in her Cadillac with a casserole at her own funeral to comfort and console her family and friends. She was just that kind of lady.

I’ve heard all my life that they just don’t make ’em like they used to in reference to cars and appliances and just about anything else you can think of. I believe this applied to my grandmother. Whatever she was made of, they don’t make em’ like her anymore. She was indeed one of a kind, very special, and tough as nails, fiercely loyal to her family.

The Bible says that those who have found hope in Jesus do not grieve as those who have no hope. We know that those we love who die in the Lord are with the Lord, and we will see them again some day.

I love that Billy Graham is quoted as saying about his own passing: “Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”

She simply went to sleep in a nursing home and woke up in a mansion in heaven, face to face with Jesus.

Ruby, this is not goodbye. This is a “see ya later, alligator.”

“Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen” (The Book of Common Prayer).

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable” (Brennan Manning)

My pastor has said on more than one occasion that if you don’t live it, you don’t believe it. In other words, if you profess to be a Christ-follower, then go out and live like anything but a believer, then your words mean nothing.

I don’t mean those who slip up now and then but those who deliberately choose on a daily basis to live contrary to the way of the Messiah.

May we strive every day to not be merely a professor of faith but a possessor of it, to go out every day and make every effort to live out our confession of Jesus as Lord.