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I Know He Watches Me

Posted in GOD, life, Nature/Creation, Walking with God, tagged #godinthegarden, #hiseyeisonthesparrow, #iknowhewatchesme, Hope on July 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

sparrow

I had a great morning yesterday.

I spent the morning in the garden, cleaning up an area where the roses needed a trim.

I had, intentionally, planned to do anything that resembled work (though the garbage can full of clippings and weeds might indicate that work did occur).

It was in the garden that I experienced the most joy. Earlier in the day, I had listened to a song produced by my daughter’s friend, that I loved in my youth, “His Eye is on the Sparrow”. As I wandered through the thorns of the roses the song was still in my mind, on my lips (thank goodness not a human pair of ears were within listening range, for I am only a large group singer).

The garden was a mess. The last time I had weeded and trimmed was mid March. The weeds had gone to seed, the roses were bundles of withered mess.

I sing, because I’m happy
I sing, because I’m free
For his eye is on the sparrow,
And I know he watches me.

The words played in my mind the whole time. The longer they played, the more daringly I sang (no one was home, and our neighbours live a safe distance to avoid ear damage from my version of singing). As the moments ticked on, the affirmation of security in the truth of those lyrics created the beauty of sanctuary in my weeds.

And that is what my life is often full of … weeds, and the need to have what is withered, what is worn and draining energy snipped, pruned and carried away. But, whatever state my heart and life are in, I have a heavenly father who is also the master gardener of my soul and life, and he watches over me.

“Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me”

“Are not two sparrows sold for a cent?
And yet not one of them will fall to the ground
apart from your Father.
“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
“So do not fear;
you are more valuable than many sparrows.”
Matthew 10:29-31

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Golden Summer Days

Posted in GOD, life, WONDER, tagged #bestill, #goldenmoments, #goldensummerdays, #lessmondaymoresummer on July 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »

It isn’t until summer that I remember how very much I love the colour of the walls in our bedroom.

They are a soft, pale yellow, like butter. I had painted the ensuite bath, in our previous house, with the same colour, and I loved it so much, that I immediately painted our bedroom with the same buttercream yellow, once we moved … thirteen years ago!

It is in the late afternoon, when the sun is shining into the south and west windows of our bedroom that the colour comes alive, and emits not just a brightness, but a sense of delight that brings a smile to my face.

The thing is, I never have or take the time to enjoy this glorious, sacred space.

But, in summer, I sometimes wander into my bedroom, and realize that it is a place of visual magic. I lay on the bed (or get totally irresponsible and slide into the bedsheets … in the middle of the day … gasp!) and my eyes wander as the light is reflected off of my golden walls and into my sun-starved soul.

Pure delight!

As I enjoy yet another summer of such opportunities, I am learning to not take these golden opportunities for granted. These summer days are complete blessings, full of so many opportunities to fill one’s cup.

I think I am finally reaching the point of maturity that I am learning to drop what I think I must do, and just “be still … and know that I am NOT God” (Psalm 46:10 … with edit 😉 ).

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One Job or Three Hobbies?

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #morethanonesided, #onejoborthreehobbies, #threeloves, #varietyisthespiceoflife on July 13, 2017| Leave a Comment »

hobbies

EVERYTHING hurts!

Yesterday I worked at trimming a tree, two shrubs and clearing rock away from a pathway that hubby and I will install brick.

And today, EVERYTHING hurts!

Usually when I spend a day of physical labor, I am wise, and take an anti inflammatory medication at the end of that day. This usually ensures that I sleep well that night and that I do not awaken the next day in agony … yesterday I was not wise!

That said, I love that summer avails me the time and opportunity to get some physical labor done around our property … in the most creative of ways.

Often we look at that activity, which pays the bills, as our one and only. We invest one hundred percent of our time, energy and creativity into that one thing.

But we humans are more than one dimensional.

We can be injured (physically), deal with a mental illness or suffer with spiritual starvation … three parts of who we are.

In the same way, we are healthier when we work hard our bodies, work for money and participate in creating things. Not one is more important, and all make for a healthier whole.

It gives me perspective into looking at when work/school begin in the fall. I need to remember that my whole is not defined simply by what brings home a paycheque, but also what keeps me moving, and what keeps me dreaming and creating.

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Lord Hear our Prayers

Posted in GOD, life, WONDER, tagged #lordhearourprayers, #morecommomthandifferent, #prayingtogether, #unityofbelievers on July 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Driving down the road, listening to the news about the increasing numbers of forest fires overnight, I found myself whispering Lord hear our prayers.

Though I was driving by myself, I had a sense that anyone of faith, listening to the destructive power of the fires in British Columbia was making the same petition.

Lord hear our prayers, is a prayer of intercession and of faith.

The beauty of it is that it is simplistic and unifying.

This petition, this intercession is a reminder that there is so much more that we share in common, than that which we differ. We share in our love for those dear to us, our concern for the health and safety for our fellow humans, our desire for peace, that we would be good caretakers of our world and it’s resources, and our hope for eternity.

So today, I am praying, but I am so aware that I am not praying alone, or in my own steam.

Lord, care for our loved ones.

Lord hear our prayers.

Lord, for those who are ill, please bring healing.

Lord hear our prayers.

Lord, bring peace to our world.

Lord hear our prayers.

Lord, guide us in being good stewards of this world and all that is on it.

Lord hear our prayers.

Lord, we rest in the reassuring knowledge that our forever is with you.

Lord hear our prayers.

And Lord, please be with those affecting by the forest fires. The fire fighters, emergency personal, those displaced, those fearful. Please bring refreshing rains to these fire endangered lands.

Lord hear our prayers.

Amen.

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Come Home

Posted in GOD, life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #comehome, #heavenisourhome, #thevalleyoftheshadow, eternity, heaven on July 9, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Screen Shot 2017-07-09 at 8.16.34 AM

Death and taxes, those two fatalistic certainties of life. Neither desirable, but both inevitable.

It is a difficult thing to walk in the shadow of the valley of death with someone.

I say this mostly at a distance from experiencing it, as my walks with the dying have been rather few. My hubby, though, is a pastor, and he has walked this road much more frequently.

When death is imminent, daily life gets postponed, for to live with the dying can be the most real of living life.

I often think of this valley walk as one on holy ground … living in the space between no longer and not yet.

Throughout the ministry of Jesus, he would preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17). As Jesus gave his famous Sermon on the Mount, he spoke of the kingdom of God/heaven. It would seem that the kingdom of God/heaven is wherever He was/is. So, when he was walking this Earth, as a man, he was delivering the Kingdom, just as we, who live with the Spirit of God in our lives, also bring the kingdom with us where we go (“for the kingdom of God is within you” Luke 17:21).

But, Philippians 3:20 also tells us:

our citizenship is in heaven.
And we eagerly await a Savior from there,
the Lord Jesus Christ.”

You see, our residence is here, and we bring the kingdom of God and heaven wherever we go, but our passport … we are citizens of the eternal kingdom of heaven, ruled by the God of all time.

For the believer, “we do not grieve as those who have no hope”. Our hope is in the promise of Jesus, himself, who said, “if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:3).

“Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.

Come home, come home,
You who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!”

Will L. Thompson

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God will Rush Toward You

Posted in GOD, life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #godpursuesus, #godwillrushtowardyou, #youcanneveroutrungod, forgiven, Redemption on July 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

i-have-swept-away-your-offenses-like-a-cloud-your-13947067

“I know that I’ll come back to my faith, I just need to figure it out for myself first.”

I am not sure whether those words made my heart sink (for the intentional turning away from God) or start to sing (for the door is not closed).

This person had grown up in a home of faith and in the church. They had received the love, acceptance and blessings of such a life. Having a time of evaluating and reevaluating the dogma that one grows up in, is a normal and even a good process. It is a pruning of what is and isn’t absolute and a polishing of what never changes. It is a process of choosing whether one’s faith is personal, or simply hereditary.

Yet, it still can be like a kick in the gut to hear that one is choosing to turn their back on the faith, even just for a season.

Then, weeks after this conversation, as I was driving to a meeting, a song came on the radio that reminded me of the never-ending pursuit of our heavenly father for our hearts, souls, lives.

“You will never outrun my love
There’s no distance too far, that I can’t reach you
There’s no place that’s so dark, that I can’t find you
Anywhere that you are, if you need proof
Take a look at these scars, and know I love you
Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter what you’ve done
You are never, you are never, never too far gone”

And these words are not just for those who are figuring out where God fits into their life. They are also for those who feel that their choices, their actions and behaviours are far too vile for God to forgive. God forgives. That is why his son had to die, because the debt of the sins of humanity needed a pure atonement, a propitiation, which is literally “a falling or rushing toward” (www.etymonline.com).

We will never do anything, go anywhere, that God is not rushing toward us, offering his forgiveness. It is offered, because he knows we will need it.

If you want to check out the entire song, check out Jordan Felix.

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Wandering Aimlessly

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #changeisgood, #nomorerushing, #seasonofsummer, #summerishere, #wanderingaimlessly on June 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

It is now the season of summer, bonfires, swimming, late nights outside, road trips and vacations.

Of all the many things I am looking most forward to this summer season, the thing I am yearning for the most is wandering aimlessly.

I will wander aimlessly around my neighborhood, in thrift, hardware and antique stores, at the beach, on trails and throughout my garden. For there will be little schedule, little pressing on my time, less ‘must dos’ and more freedom to do and go as I please.

For one, such as myself, who loves to fill my time with intentional, purposeful activities, this change of pace can seem to be quite the departure from the norm of the rest of the year, but it is as life-giving as the busyness of the rest of the year.

It is in this season of wandering aimlessly, that my creative batteries get re-charged, that my soul gets re-filled, and my mind gets cleared.

I bet I am not alone in this yearning!

This yin and yang is present in the lives of most of us. It is the daily living of opposites and extremes. We sleep, we work. We eat, we fast. We create, we do the mundane. We love, we … sounds like the juxtaposition of life’s experiences in Ecclesiastes 3.

born, die
born, uproot
kill, heal
tear down, build,
weep, laugh
mourn, dance
scatter stones, gather them
embrace, refrain from embracing
search, give up
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
tear, mend
be silent, speak
love, hate
war, peace.

a time to be busy, and a time to wander aimlessly.

The season of wandering aimlessly is upon us.

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I’ve Got a Good Father

Posted in FAMILY, life, WONDER, tagged #fathersday, #fathersday2017, #goodgoodfather, #ivegotagoodfather, #loveisachoice on June 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

good father

I do have a good father.

He has been one who has loved and been committed to me. His expressions of fatherly love have made my personal acceptance of God as my heavenly father easy and natural.

When my father proposed to my mother, he did so with one condition, that she allow him to adopt her two year old daughter (me) as his own. I actually think that it was always in the plan of my heavenly father, that my dad be … my dad, and that I be his daughter.

“See how very much our Father loves us,
for he calls us his children,
and that is what we are”
1 John 3:1a

Love is a choice. It was the choice of my father to love me, it has been my choice to love him. Blood relation does not change that reality, because love is always a choice, or it is not love, but obligation.

I think all of us reach point in our lives when we realize that loving others, loving our children, loving our parents, is a choice that is in our hands.

I remember reaching the developmental stage when I became aware of the faults and mistakes that my parents have made. The things said that stung. The time not given. The things that were important to me that were critiqued and rejected. But I also realized that they were, they are human (I might have come to that realization around the time that I became a parent). They have not done it all right. They did not always comfort me as I desired or needed, they did not always do things with me when I so wanted them to, they did not always say (or not say) what I needed. But, I know that when I look at the big picture (from our beginning to today) they chose to love me.

For many, Father’s Day is a tough day. We may have very valid reasons for feeling unloved, abused or unchosen, and for those who must keep apart from the earthly man who is your father. What I am saying does not apply to you, for your story is one of self preservation.

But, for most of us, it is a matter of choice, our choice, to love the men in our lives who have chosen to love us … imperfectly, humanly.

Happy Father’s Day, to my dad, who I choose to love.

“Yet to all who did receive him,
to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God
children born not of natural descent,
nor of human decision or a husband’s will,
but born of God.
John 1:12-13

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A Well Feathered Story

Posted in life, Nature/Creation, WONDER, tagged #atimeforlife, #awellfeatheredstory, #babybirds, #birdsinanest, #blessingsandcurses, #ecclesiastes3, #joyhaltedbynature, #robinseggs on June 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »

I cannot even remember how we discovered it, but my first view of it will stay with me always.

On a sunny springtime day, peeking through the floorboards of our second story deck, at three perfect blue robin eggs, snug in their nest.

The only thing better than seeing them, was watching and listening to our kids as they caught their first glimpses of the little bird family.

The momma robin hovered in and around, under and over her littles, constantly reminding us of her protective maternal presence. We tried to give her space in her season of nesting, though the temptation to peek at the progress of the eggs was near impossible for our family of five.

We scanned the internet for information pertaining to the gestation of robin eggs.

What we didn’t read about, were not prepared for, was the sad day that started with a fluttering, squaring momma robin, fighting off the evil Steller Jay.

I remember our animal-loving daughter coming into the kitchen after standing on the deck and giving heck to the Jay, in support of the robin family … now reduced to one whole egg and two mounds of shells.

Then, when the school day came to an end, and our kids went out to look through the floorboards, anger mixed with sorrow, as the realization that the jay had gotten number three.

Our anticipated joy in nature halted by … nature.

This well-feathered story makes me think of the third chapter of Ecclesiastes:

“There’s … a right time for everything on the earth:
A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.”

I do not always appreciate how life goes. Yet, when I look back I see that the hardships, the sorrows and the defeats are intermixed with the delights, the joys, the wins.

Last week, fifteen or so years later, we made an unexpected discovery … a perfectly constructed nest, nestled into one of my hanging planters. Inside were four eggs, white with reddish spots.

The tiny little momma bird was vigilant in staying with her family, with short jaunts out of the nest to care for herself and check the premises for enemies.

As I led a friend to the nest, earlier this week, my heart sunk as there were no eggs. Instead there were … feathers. As I moved the leaf on a plant I saw four eager, wide opened beaks opened up as high as they could reach.

Now there’s still a neighbour cat who is thinking that we are providing fast, feathered food. So the threat of nature is still in the air.
the threat of nature is always in the air

But, maybe this is a time for birth, a time for life.

birds

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Grease for the Journey

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #alaboroflove, #greaseforthejourney, #lovethejourney, #nofinishline, #separatingrocksanddirt, #workingtogether, #workisanopportunity on June 13, 2017| Leave a Comment »

finish line

Sometimes the task before us is simply the opportunity to share time and space, life and breath, heart and soul with another human being.

A job that should have been completed weeks ago, was still undone, due to human procrastination and a lack of motivation … and providence.

I’m a momma who wants the task done … yesterday.

So I struck a deal, including my labor towards the completion of the task at hand.

We worked, momma and son, separating the rocks from the dirt, clearing the way for something new.

Music played loud, sweat poured down our brows, our minds filled with wordless contemplations that would stay our own, and the dirt was ground into the pores of our hands.

One hour, two, almost three and … silence. The task of a phone battery has no life and breath, heart or soul beating beside a human being. It has a time limit, an end.

Silence for one minute, two, three … voices.

One hour, almost two … we shared breath, heart and soul, human and human, momma and son. We talked, we laughed, we pondered and wondered.

We worked, momma and son, separating the rocks from the dirt, clearing the way for something new. In the physical clearing of rocks from the dirt, there was also clearing of our heads, sharing of our hearts.

Sometimes the task before us is simply the opportunity to share time and space, life and breath, heart and soul with another human being.

A little sweat between two humans might just be the grease that can fuel the next part of the journey. All we have is the task at hand, no finish line deadline.

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