Ruby Hayes - Ruby's Kitchen Table

A Sunday school room just after class, the circle of chairs disturbed, felt fish and loaves on the board and crayons scattered on the table.

There was a boy in the circle

"Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear." — Isaiah 65:24 There was a boy in the circle this morning that I did not know was coming, and he was my grandson. I teach the third and fourth graders at Trinity. Eight

A farmhouse upstairs hallway in near-darkness, bare floorboards and open doorways barely visible in faint blue light.

The watches of the night

"When I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy." — Psalm 63:6-7 I was awake at three and I did not

An old apple tree with a gnarled lichened trunk carrying red fruit, a weathered barn and flat pasture behind it.

Full of sap

"The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap." — Psalm 92:

An old kitchen window seen from inside at first light, looking east over a garden edge, pasture and a distant tree line.

She is on the list

"The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry, and saves them." — Psalm 145:18-19 Hannah did not call back and I have decided

Small green tomatoes hanging on a spent, yellowing vine, with bare soil and flat pasture behind.

Eleven that will not make it

"Whoever observes the wind will not sow; and whoever regards the clouds will not reap... In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hands be idle; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

A worn canvas barn jacket hanging from an iron hook beside a back door, in thin morning light.

The jacket is the news

"I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live." — Psalm 116:1-2 I wore a jacket to the mailbox this morning and that is the

An empty gravel driveway curving away downhill between old trees toward a distant county road, with mountains low on the horizon.

Sixteen and eight

"Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward." — Psalm 127:3 Two of my grandchildren have a birthday today and there are eight years between them. Emma is sixteen. Caleb is eight. Same date, eight years apart, and every year since

A dark living room at night seen from within, light falling through an open doorway from a lit kitchen across the floorboards.

Sunday Evening

"The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced." — Psalm 126:3 It is Sunday evening and the first full week of September is behind us. It was a week with a holiday at the front of it, which always makes a week feel like it

An empty Sunday school room with eight folding chairs set in a circle, a can of crayons on a table and a felt board on an easel.

The room is ready

"Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs." — Mark 10:14 I went into the room this afternoon and got it ready, and it took an hour, and I could have done

An old yellow Labrador asleep on a braided rag rug, morning light climbing the plaster wall behind him.

I did not say anything

"For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation." — Psalm 62:1 Saturday morning and I have not said anything out loud yet today. That is not unusual in this house. There has not been anybody to say anything to for seven years, unless

Braided rag rugs hung over a clothesline in a back yard, lifting in the wind, with a wire rug beater on a post and a house behind.

She was singing

"One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts." — Psalm 145:4 My mother turned the house upside down every September and I have not done it once since she died. Fall cleaning, she called it, and she meant it the way a

A stack of split firewood in an old barn, the top rows pale and fresh, the bottom rows dark and cobwebbed, a splitting maul leaning against it.

September was Earl's

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." — Psalm 23:4 September was Earl's favorite and he never once said so. He would not