Watching Paint Dry

This is a Scarlet Swallowtail, taken by Captain Moth-Butterfly. If you read through the blog, you will see why I have chosen it. The clue is in the world "scarlet".

It's the year for the World Cup, which has now started. And it seems that all teams have turned up at the very controversial venue.

Anyway, Captain Moth-Butterfly will be happily watching paint dry until - well, for about a month I think. England won on Monday. That is all I can say about it so far. Oh and so did Saudi Arabia, against the odds.
I try to remember to shout "Get your specs on Ref!" occasionally, just to show willing.

I am embarrassed to admit that I have been watching a show called "Tipping Point" - a quiz show that is totally banal and that I really enjoy. The Presenter is very likeable, and the Contestants are all lovely to each other.

Recently one of the contestants was asked this: "What is the name of the novel that begins:"Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful but..."

After much thought, the contestant decided that, as he had no idea, he would pass the question on to his opponent. After more thought, she decided it must be "Wuthering Heights".

And I must say that the thought of Scarlett O'Hara turning up in Wuthering Heights is an interesting one. For one thing, would Cathy have had a chance with Heathcliffe once Miss Scarlett had turned up?

Captain M-B - still down with a bad cough - had a funny turn on Monday night. He suddenly became so cold he was shivering. And while it was getting colder, it wasn't that cold. We live in a second floor flat, surrounded and insulated by other flats. We turned the heating on, he got a quilted thing to huddle under as he watched the current Paint Drying match, and I got him a hot water bottle. He was fine in a couple of hours, but it was odd.

We are not young any more. And yet, in our seventies, we have only had a short time on this lovely planet, and only the briefest of glimpses into the astounding universe in which we float.

Poets have lamented the shortness of our lives down the centuries. Don't we know that this is not right, that we were not meant to die?

In "In Memoriam", Tennyson, speaking to his Creator, says:

Thou wilt not leave us in the dust

Thou madest man, he knows not why,
He thinks he was not made to die;
And thou hast made him: thou art just.

We think we are not made to die.  And, according to the Bible, we are right to think that.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says. of our Creator: "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has even put eternity in their heart; yet mankind will never find out the work that the true God has made from start to finish."

Yes, according to the Bible, we were originally made to live forever, in happiness, not to get old, wither and die. And wonderfully, if we do accept the rescue Jehovah is offering to us and live forever, we will never stop learning about our Creator and his amazing, splendid creation.