From the mouths of children

My wife babysits our grandchildren and this past Friday as she was getting four year old Grace ready to go to pre-K I gave Grace a hug.  It was then I realized that because I hadn’t shaved (my day off) I might have been a bit rough when my cheek pressed against her, and so I apologized for being rough.  Grace said; “that’s ok we won’t give up on you because you’re family”.

Now isn’t that the essence of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ?  God won’t give up on us; God won’t give up on humanity, because we’re family.  In the apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus he writes that there is one God and one Father of us all.

A Farmer's 23rd Psalm

A Farmer’s 23rd Psalm

By: David A. Bigley

The Lord is like a good and wise farmer,

for he plants my soul in the rich soil of his love and care for me.

The roots of my faith reach for the life giving waters,

 that he irrigates my spirit with, in the hot dry months of summer.

 He plants me in straight rows,

 and cultivates my character for his name’s sake.

I will not fear the drought or storms of life,

for he tenaciously watches over me and is with me at all times.

It is quite evident that he is proud of me,

 for he lovingly nurtures my growth, celebrating my progress.

And I will dwell with God forever as his precious grain of wheat,

when comes the time of harvest. 

Loving God’s Variety

One of the small pleasures in life for me is sitting on my back patio and enjoying nature.  As I look at the beauty all around me, I’m convinced that God is not only very creative, but that God loves uniqueness and variety.  My wife has many different kinds of flowers in our yard and no rose bush is the same.  She has red roses, yellow roses, pink roses, multicolored roses, big roses, and petite roses.  In our backyard we have all kinds of birds, from the common sparrow to blue jays, black birds, cardinals, finch, robins, Baltimore orioles, redhead woodpeckers and many other kinds of birds.  So it’s a good thing that we are different and unique in our own special way.  That’s the way God made us.  Each of us reflect a bit of God’s glory, because we are created in God’s image.  Therefore; to appreciate our gifts and the unique persons that we are, is to give thanks and praise to God.  Wouldn’t it be kind of weird for a cardinal to spend its days wishing it was more like a Baltimore oriole, instead of living in its special cardinalness?  May God grant us the grace each day to fly with the gifts and abilities that God has given us!         

Bleeding Hearts

My hope is that today and in all of our tomorrows we will sense our Heavenly Father embracing us and holding us close to His heart.  Of course He holds us close to His heart every day, because we are IN His heart.  Even though this is true, a lot of the time we are unaware of our Heavenly Father's embrace and the great love and care that he has for us.  So my hope, my prayer is that God will grant us the grace to sense and to feel His embrace that envelops us always!  We may feel it in the gentle hug of a family member or dear friend.  We may sense it in the joy and excitement of life we see in our children or grandchildren.  We may even sense it in the wonder and beauty of nature as it springs forth in response to the love and care of its Creator.  May we also feel it in the drop of every tear we shed, be they tears of sorrow and sadness or tears of joy, for it is our Heavenly Father who is gentling holding our heart and crying with us!

Living Waters

This is a picture of a small waterfall in Watkins Glen State Park in NY.  What’s kind of neat is that with a good camera you can slow the shutter speed down so that it captures the movement of the water over the falls, and that’s what I did in this shot.  I think it looks cool.  Jesus told the women at the well that he had living water to give.  As we drink in of the living water of God’s Spirit and love, Jesus said that this living water within us becomes a fresh, bubbling spring.  It’s in the movements of our day, and in the everyday rhythms of our lives, that this bubbling spring splashes out on to others as our lives intersect with theirs.  That’s what’s cool about this journey of faith, the reality of God’s love is captured and conveyed through ordinary people in the everyday circumstances of life…and that’s the beauty of it! 

Love Never Fails

This picture of a house in York Beach, Maine is not our summer home.  Our home is a bit more modest.  Recently we redid the office/piano/grandchildren’s playroom.  Patched all the cracks, retextured the ceiling, repainted the walls and put up new blinds and drapes. Redoing a room is not one of my favorite things to do, so maybe that’s why I put it off as long as I did.  But, I’m down right pleased with how it turned out.  It looks like a totally different room.  So why did I wait so long? Sometimes we might wonder what’s taking God so long in restoring our broken world.  I don’t know the answer.  Maybe it’s because God has chosen to make us active participants in what God is doing on earth, and sometimes we’re a bit slow and don’t always cooperate with what God is doing.  However; time is on God’s side and God has assured us that love (God is love) never fails.  Maybe that’s why I was so slow in starting the project of redoing the room, I didn’t want to fail.  And quite frankly I’m surprised how well it turned out…oh me of little faith.  I can’t begin to imagine how excited God must be about God’s restoration project, because God can’t fail.  No wonder Jesus said that all things are possible with God.  The more we hang around with God the more of God’s possibilities become a part of who we are as God’s children.  Wow, all this talk of restoration and possibilities almost makes me want to put on my tool belt and tackle another room, almost...maybe this fall or maybe next year…..  

Nantucket

Pictured is a lighthouse in the harbor of the island of Nantucket that we visited last October.  Today, on the 30^th of January it was just as warm (66 degrees) and sunny as it was the day we visited Nantucket.  I don’t know about you, but if the groundhog sees his shadow on Thursday, I’m ok with that, because I think I can take six more weeks of the kind of winter we’ve been having!  It's days like today that make it easy to agree with the Psalmist when he writes; “This is the day that the Lord hath made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Of course, not everyone in the world had a good day today.  The important thing to remember is that regardless of the weather, regardless of our circumstances, the love of God and God’s Son is always shining upon us.  So our joy is not dependent upon our circumstances or the temperature outside, for we have the promise of God’s presence, grace and strength each and every day.  That’s something to rejoice and be glad about, and if it happens to be 65 degrees in the middle of winter, that's just a nice bonus!    

Portland Head Lighthouse

It was a windy, foggy and cloudy morning when we visited Portland Head Lighthouse in Portland, Maine.  The foghorn sounded periodically as it warned approaching boats and ships that the rocky shore was near, even if they couldn’t see it yet because of the fog.  Wouldn’t it be great if we had a foghorn for the soul that would warn us when we’re about to enter into treacherous waters?  I think we do, but it’s not a loud blaring horn.  It’s the unspoken voice of our conscience and also the nudging of the Holy Spirit.  The two are not the same; our conscience is developed over the years, based on what we believe and what our life experiences have taught us.  As followers of Christ, God has given us the Holy Spirit to teach us and to help us navigate through life.  Not just so we can avoid shipwrecking our souls, but so we can experience living life as God’s beloved children.  We were told that the Portland Head Lighthouse is the most picturesque and photographed lighthouse in America.  I don’t know about that, but I know that living loved helps one to see life differently!    

The Friend of Sinners

I don’t know who deserves the credit for it, but I came across what I think is a beautiful definition of a friend.  “A friend is someone who reaches out to touch your hand and they touch your heart.”  Isn’t that great?  I hope we all have some friends like that, and are a friend like that to others.  Those who touch our hearts with their kind words and thoughtful actions make life richer and fuller.  Life at times can seem as cold and barren as a winter landscape.  Thank God for friends who warm our hearts with their presence, they’re like a cup of hot chocolate for the weary soul on a spiritually frigid day.  That’s why I’m so glad Jesus was called the friend of sinners.  The religious leaders, who called Jesus this, thought they were giving him the greatest of all insults.  How little did they realize they were communicating the best news possible to this world of sinners, like you and me!