Snoopy......a favorite anytime of the year!

Just trying something new......It's been a day of new things! =)

Grateful for Tender Care

Luke 12:6-7

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.




Psalm 84

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD Almighty!

2 My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.

3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

Each day, I am seeing new things. After my hubbie lovingly created a bird feeder for my kitchen window, I have been delighted by little birds. I have been delighted by growing young men and their deepening love for His creation. The giggles and awe of watching flying creatures, with personalities, sustain themselves.... a daily grace. Sparrows are precious. Little. Ordinary. I can relate. No bright showy red to catch the eye. No size to admire greatness. No food for a meal. Just a bird. A plain 'ole bird. I like them.

"The sparrow has found a home." Home. That's what holidays stir in these days. The beckoning of coming home. Planning for it. Dreaming of it. Yearning for it. A beautifully set table, steaming bowls of love ready for the consuming, happy chatter with loved ones. I think of earthly home. I want to dream, plan, yearn for the home that never fades away.....heaven. Home with beloved saints of old and those treading this dirt today. Oh how lovely to be home! What peace! Oh the comfort!

This little sparrow, so lovingly held in my son's boy/man hands and cared for gently for a time, went home. It's nest close to the altar. The picture, a reminder of His tender care, love for His created ones, and that we share His attention. He knows when the sparrow will fall to the ground and where........and He let this sweet, little one touch us, showing great and mighty things we know not, in new ways.......His tender care.

Tiny buds

Throughout the winter months, I look at the trees and imagine what they looked like with leaves. I anticipate the leaves emerging. Since we moved almost a year ago, I've been watching the face of this town I live in change. I like it. It's a bit flatter than were we used to live, but still intriguing to me. I love little towns. Watching the different moods of the area, I keep coming back to the Bradford Pear tree in my front yard. I've never watched the life of a tree such as this. It's fall colors captured me and I gazed on it often. The fiery leaves danced in the cold wind. After all the leaves coated the ground with color, a skeleton remained. For months, I didn't seem to give notice to the tree that seemed to greet me with it's splendor and I marveled at. I began to wonder when the leaves would return. Time passed. Bare tree. Nothingness. Has my tree made it through this drought we've had? Then, before I realized it, these showed up. Proof that the tree was still alive, thriving. I just didn't know it. Dormancy fools the onlooker.

This is true in my life. The things that seem dead maybe dormant instead. I have to wait and see what He will do with these things. Trust that He is working. Moving. He's for me. Allowing painful time to pass and be Protector, Provider, Perfect. I just feel the length of all of it. I feel the loneliness. But I'm not alone. I just forget what the leaves of His fruit looked like in the winters of life. The hope of spring is still there. The waters to nourish new life fall fresh. My plants desperately need rain. My heart desperately needs the rain of His mercy, grace, love falling and sinking deep into my soul. I drink it in. I am refreshed. There are tiny buds in my life.

Gardener of my soul, thank you for the delicate care You tend our lives with.~Jules

Time

"And he shall bring it to pass" (Ps. 37:5).

It takes God time to answer prayer. We often fail to give God a chance in this respect. It takes time for God to paint a rose. It takes time for God to grow an oak. It takes time for God to make bread from wheat fields. He takes the earth. He pulverizes. He softens. He enriches. He wets with showers and dews. He warms with life. He gives the blade, the stock, the amber grain, and then at last the bread for the hungry.

All this takes time. Therefore we sow, and till, and wait, and trust, until all God's purpose has been wrought out. We give God a chance in this matter of time. We need to learn this same lesson in our prayer life. It takes God time to answer prayer. --J. H. M.

Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Source: Streams in the Desert

Time heals........if we let it.....if we let Him. ~Jules

From the Outside

I love old churches. I love the architecture, the history, the purpose. I've always loved stained glass and the colors coming alive as sunlight radiates through carefully pieced glass. From the outside most stained glass seems flat, dull, almost like a mistake. Once inside the sanctuary, it's a world of glowing artwork full of life and light. I think people are like this. Outwardly, they seem cold, plain, existing. Yet, if time were taken to see, be allowed inside, we could see the shattered pieces of glass actually making artwork of a life. It's only when the light is shining in that it makes sense.

The Light of the cross, that is.

Our Creator scooping up the shards of glass and delicately piecing a life together in hope. The glass makes no sense to the onlooker, but to the Creator, He sees the picture, the life. Loving fingers sliced from the task at hand, purifying burning fire, and steady time in faith, a new creation emerges. Different in appearance, yet, all the original bits in new place. A smile emerges, the sin that once gripped and strangled this little life, now is broken, crushed. Freedom. To shine. To radiate life. The Light of life. Though pieces once were, peace now reigns, alive.

Lord, create in me a new heart that will radiate your love to other shattered, hurting lives that they may hope in You.

New Years and The Past

How funny to look back and realize all that has past since I last blogged. My how the days are full of life! After many travels in the fall, from Rolla, MO to Harrodsburg, KY, our days quickly filled with Anniversary, holidays and birthdays. It was a good season. (Even in the respect that my precious Granna was admitted into the hospital for a few days with a nasty virus, God's goodness has continued to renew her strength little by little.)

I am pondering on prayer these days. The importance of it, the rhythm of daily stops for it, and just what to say.......I'm tiring of the littleness of my prayers and, honestly, the flatness of them. I want to be a little servant with big faith. Mountains can move if they must, I just want to pray the heart of my Father.

School tends to move along well. Why does it seem that I can't fit in the things that are so important to me like fine arts & classical music and somehow view them as optional? Oh to be stirred by the beauty of God inspired art and music! It sets the soul to dance with wonder and happiness. I am choosing this year to be more intentional in this. We are going to The Kimball Art Museum on Wed! We are looking forward to it!

Well, today is a new day.....and I'm glad. I love the newness of the year and how fresh it seems. I'm so thankful for a new start. Whether it is the new year or a new day, I'm so grateful to begin again. This poor soul desperately needs it!

His mercies are new every morning,
Jules