So I was looking at my drafts and I have ten things in there I've started and never finished. Story of my life. I'm great at dreaming and planning, but when I start to do it, the details always bog me down. Like the thing about posting pictures of my garden. Mike found my camera a few days ago, so I've taken some representative pics and planned out how to arrange them and what to say about each one, but now I can't find the cable so that I can upload the pics onto my computer!

(N.B. this post was originally composed at 4 this afternoon, then posted as... you guessed, a draft!)

To continue my randomness. Most of the family has gone to the chapel for supper, Bible study, and evening prayers. My 3 year old never took a nap today and I didn't think he would be equal to the entire evening, so we're skipping the supper and Bible study and going for prayers.

The Wednesday night Bible study was started by the LCMS chaplain, so we always use the Lutheran Hymnal for evening prayers, and I can't tell you how much I love Lutheran worship services. Most of the Evening Prayer service is sung, including the opening prayer (congregational response is in bold):

Jesus Christ is the Light of the world,
the light no darkness can overcome.
Stay with us, Lord, for it is evening,
and the day is almost over.
Let your light scatter the darkness
and illumine your Church.

Sometimes we use the Compline service instead. This is the last prayer in that service, which is also sung:

Guide us waking, O Lord,
and guard us sleeping
that awake we may watch with Christ
and asleep we may rest in peace.

This melody of this prayer is particularly beautiful, drifting downward at the end.

Well, it's time to go to prayers now, so TTFN!

**Update**
Well, Lutheran liturgy is beautiful, but the theology is downright schizophrenic. I arrived early enough to hear the last 15 minutes or so of the lesson. We're studying through the Augsberg Confession and tonight we covered Articles VII and VIII, the Invisible and Visible Church, respectively.

Maybe it's not the theology that's the problem - the Augsberg Confession seems sound - but it's the way it gets put into practice that I find so confusing. Without going into any details, let me just say that I would no more attend a joint worship service with Jews and Muslims than I would with worshippers of Molech and Ashteroth, but I am more than glad to receive Holy Communion with Christians of other denominations.

I guess this wouldn't bother me so much, except that, being without a faithful Reformed church to join here, we had hoped that the LCMS would work out, and it's not - because of the communion issue. And I do so love their worship services!