Morning Grace

     

       I love to watch morning arrive, especially in winter. It sneaks in almost unnoticed, as stars slowly give up their brilliance, and just as gently the silhouettes of naked trees appear like silent ink-strokes of the Master Artist against the slowly bluing sky. The day comes in gradually, not like a lightning flash harsh and shattering, until the moment when I realize the world is once again visible, rest is over, and activity begins. 

      In every season the river birch outside my front window is as graceful as a prima ballerina, but somehow it's more striking when it's stripped bare of its soft green leaves. Isn't that the way of with life? When we've been stripped bare of all the frills we add without thinking-- endless activity requiring a varied wardrobe, gallons of fuel, countless hours spent running to and fro, attention to appearances for what?-- maybe that's when grace shows up, silently and without flourish. Maybe that's when we truly get to know ourselves and our Maker, discover our purpose.

      That's certainly how grace dawns on me. I know it's been there all along, like the tree branches that didn't disappear at night just because I couldn't see them. God's unmerited favor has been there for you and for me since the beginning of time. He ordained it for all of us, all humankind whom He created simply to have fellowship with Him. ["Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.'" Genesis 1:26 CSB]

      Why that perfect fellowship wasn't enough for Adam and Eve I'll never understand, but I certainly experience the consequences of their poor choice by continuing in my own rebellious nature. How can I be so blind to His grace, which is so obvious every day in my life? I have no idea. It begins just two verses later: "God blessed them...."  [Genesis 1:28 CSB] Like the tree which does nothing on its own to "deserve" to be there and give beauty and shade to all who gaze on it, grace is not something I can earn. God sends the sunshine and rain on the tree, even though it can't get up and walk around "doing something" to earn what it needs for its very existence. 

      At this late stage in life, I think I am truly coming to grasp just how great is God's grace to give me each new day simply to enjoy this beautiful but broken world and even more importantly to fellowship with Him. I know I will have eternity to experience an even closer walk with Him, but my eternity will be richer for each day I'm allowed to walk this miraculous planet with my fellow creatures. Let us never forget that this Lenten season commemorates God's greatest display of His grace to us: He came to this earth which He created perfect in every way but which we broke with our sin; He gave up His heavenly home to become a frail human like us and have His body broken by our sin, then died in the cruelest way possible, the perfect sacrifice for ALL our sins. But the story doesn't end there: after three days in the grave He rose again so that we could join Him as originally intended, in perfect fellowship for eternity!

"He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, and yet the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name...." [John 1:10-12 CSB]

      I pray that everyone reading this has accepted that gift, turned away from sin, and is living in that unfathomable grace. If not, may today be the day, because I want to meet you all at our Savior's feet! 💗

NOTE: During this Lenten season, and simply to learn more about Jesus and feel closer to Him, I highly recommend reading the Gospel of John, written by the one called "the beloved disciple," who was closer to Jesus than a brother.

 "He must increase, but I must decrease"  (John 3:30)

♱

Making Rainbows

       

      There's a crystal ball (not the fortune-telling kind!) hanging in the bay window at the lake. I think I gave it to my mother after purchasing it on one of my first trips to St.Thomas, so it's probably hung there 30 years or so. I love sitting in my comfy chair in the morning, drinking my coffee and spending time with God, and on sunny days watching the rainbows appear in the room around me, on floor, walls, furniture. But last week I happened to look up and notice them splayed across the ceiling. I've delighted in them often, but after a string of cloudy days their brightness struck me especially, as they seemed to shimmer with a light of their own. Of course I knew the source of their light was over my shoulder, and so brilliant that I shouldn't look at it directly, but I began thinking about what it took to make those rainbows. In fact, just about then a cloud passing between the source and the crystal momentarily made the rainbows fade. They reappeared after the cloud passed, but eventually, the sun rose so high that the rainbows disappeared until the next day when the sun shone through the crystal again.

      I took down the crystal and began to examine it and think about just what it took to make those little rainbows I enjoyed so much. Crystals form from a combination of heat and pressure acting on naturally-occurring chemicals in the earth. Then they are mined, just like diamonds (which are really a particular type of crystal). They are often left natural for use in healing or ornamentation, but my crystal ball had been precisely cut and polished (like a diamond) to give it the many facets which produced the rainbows I was enjoying. This crystal had been through a lot in order to give me so much pleasure!

      How like God to teach us such a lesson in the things we often take for granted! When I think of the people who have shone brightest in my life, I know that their brightness came at a cost. 

      (1) Like that crystal heated and pressed in the earth, then cut and polished by a master gemologist, the pressure of adversity makes us resilient.

      (2) The cutting away of all that's not beautiful by the Master Creator of us all, painful though it may be, makes us send out His brilliance in a myriad of colors upon all we encounter. 

      (3) The higher the position of the Son in our lives, the more brilliantly we shine, until He reaches His apex and shines so brilliantly there's no need for rainbows, because the Source is our focus.

"For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed. We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that Jesus’s life may also be displayed in our mortal flesh. So then, death is at work in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith in keeping with what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we also believe, and therefore speak. For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you. Indeed, everything is for your benefit so that, as grace extends through more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God. Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

(2 Corinthians 4:5-18 CSB)

And,

"No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it give light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." 

(Matthew 5:15-16 CSB)

      I can't help thinking what I've been missing by not looking UP! 💗

A rainbow of rainbows on my ceiling!

                             

 "He must increase, but I must decrease"  (John 3:30)

♱