The LORD is...

Aren't we thankful He is all this--and so much more????

His Prayer; Our Prayer

I love the prayers found in the Bible, don't you? One of my favorites is found in the Old Testament book of 1 Chronicles, chapter 29. (I urge you to read all of it so as to understand the setting for the story and to savor the profound truths spoken so beautifully.) It’s a prayer spoken by King David in the hearing of the leaders of Israel whom he had summoned for a major announcement about the building of a magnificent temple, a “house for God.”

May David's prayer be our prayer!

Wonderfully Made

Butterflies can't see their wings. 

They can't see how beautiful they are, 

but everyone else can. 

People are like that.

~Unknown

You [my God] created my inmost being; 
you knit me together in my mother's womb. 
I praise you because 
I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
your works are wonderful, 
I know that full well.

~ David, Psalm 139:13-14, NIV

Sing!

The LORD Is Near...

Taken at Woody Pond in the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Townsend, Georgia (near Darien)

A Good Life

I couldn’t help overhearing the conversation between two ladies who were sitting across from me at the doctor’s office. Although they conversed as if they were old friends, they were strangers, or so I learned as they openly discussed their current health problems and reminisced about the past.

The heavy-set woman, who was wearing a loose-fitting floral dress and a floppy hat with an upturned brim, spoke with an easy drawl, even though she was describing experiences that had been extremely hard.

As she continued to talk to the tall, thin woman seated beside her, she stared straight ahead; focusing, I assumed, on people and places of the past. She said softly, “I planned to have lots of children, but ended up with only three.” After a short pause, she offered this explanation: “I got the fibroids early.”

The gaunt but regal-looking woman whispered, “We don’t always get what we want.”

“No, but the good Lord knows what He’s doing.”

They nodded in mutual agreement and then sat in silence for a moment,as if reflecting on that truth.

When they began to talk about their childhood experiences, I smiled at them and listened openly as they described a world about which I, also a country girl, had a smattering of knowledge: butchering hogs, eating from a table loaded with the bounty of the land, going barefoot in the Spring and Summer, sleeping with windows opened and doors unlocked….

A gentle smile spread slowly across the thin woman’s face and stayed there, as she said, “It was a good life.”

The heavy-set woman chuckled. “Yes. But I didn’t know it at the time!”

As soon as she said that, I remembered reading these words of another woman: “What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.”

How true! Why, each of us would be so happy if only we’d savor the current moments of our lives.

Someday you and I, like these three ladies, will look back on this time in our life—with its challenges and stresses—and long for it again. But, we won’t get to re-live it. We’ll only be able to look back on it and wish we had realized the preciousness of people and places that have been relegated to the past. We, too, will get a faraway look in our eyes and realize, too late, that we spent far too much time complaining about our circumstances—and yearning for the next phase of our lives—instead of enjoying the blessings that were ours at that time.

If only we’d reflect on our lives and savor the moments of each day, how quickly we would acknowledge, “I have a good life.” How quickly joy and gratitude would fill us! How quickly we would echo the words of the psalmist, “Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name.  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits” (Psalm 103:1, 2, New American Standard Bible). How quickly we would give thanks for all the blessings that are ours this day, this season of our lives. 

Yes!

As I write these words, today is my birthday. The schedule is full, so I set the alarm last night so that I’d be sure to have plenty of time to pray, to read God’s Word, to write, to sing praises to Him, etc.

Why are those activities so important to me?

I realize that, apart from Him, I’d have no life, no blessings, no abilities, no opportunities, no resources for study, and no time to sit at His feet and learn about Him so that I can love Him more and serve Him better.

My daily Bible reading brought me to Psalm 108. As I read those ancient words, written by King David, my whole being said, “Yes!” and “Amen!” to the glorious truths found in those 13 verses.

• My heart is steadfast, O God, because day by day You’re teaching me to love You and trust You.

• I will sing (and I do!) and make melody with all my being.

• I will give thanks (and I do!) to You, O LORD, among all the people (in casual conversations and in my writings, which are on my blog and in a local magazine).

• I am beginning to understand more and more that Your steadfast love and faithfulness extend higher than the heavens, far beyond where the human eye can see.

• I want You to be exalted above the heavens.

• I want Your glory to be spread over all the earth.

• I know that You alone give victory in all of life’s battles; thus I can courageously face whatever You allow to come my way.

Will I have a happy birthday—no matter what happens or doesn’t happen? Yes!

Sunrise at Crescent Beach, Florida

A Prayer for the Nations

O Father, all the nations of the world are in great, great need of You! Thus, I offer this prayer, based on Your Holy Word:

May Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, give thanks to You forever; from generation to generation may Your people in every nation recount Your praise, may we tell of all Your goodness to and Your great love for Your people. (Psalm 79:13)

May Your people who are called by Your name humble ourselves, and pray and seek Your face and turn away from our wicked ways so that You will hear from heaven and will forgive our sins and heal our land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

O Father, as Your Holy Word says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any nation.” (Proverbs 14:34). May people from every nation acknowledge, with great shame, that their nation is filled with sin because individual citizens are filled with sin. Therefore, You cannot—and will not—exalt any such nation, even our own nation. O Father, help us to cry out to You for cleansing and restoration, as David did in Psalm 51:1-2. May his prayer be our prayer:

Have mercy on me; have mercy on us, O God, according to Your steadfast love; 

according to Your abundant mercy 

blot out my transgressions; 

blot out our transgressions. 

Wash me, wash us, thoroughly 

from our individual and collective iniquity, 

and cleanse each and all of us from sin!

Surely the LORD Is In This Place...

Lassen Volcanic National Park in Mineral, California

When I photograph sunrises and sunsets, snow-capped mountains, giant Redwood trees in ancient forests, beautiful gardens, etc.  I often think of the words found in Genesis 28:16: “Surely the LORD is in this place.” But there’s more to that verse than I just quoted. I’ll share the rest of it a bit further down. But first let me remind us that God is present everywhere, not just in the beautiful places. For example, God is very present in hospitals, in homeless shelters, in war zones, and in all kinds of unlikely places.

David knew about the omnipresence of God, for he said to Him,

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is as bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

~Psalm 139:8-12, ESV

God is very present everywhere, even in places no human eye has ever seen, even in the darkest of places! The problem is that we, like Jacob, often fail to consider that He could be in unlikely places, specifically that He could be with us, especially when our lives are anything but beautiful. So, like Jacob, we must acknowledge, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it” (Genesis 28:16, ESV, emphasis added). Once we truly sense His presence, then we, like Jacob, will respond to Him in some way. Perhaps we'll praise Him or thank Him. Perhaps we'll beg Him to help us. 

Peaceful Sleep!

The Innermost Part

I’d photographed a small pot of tulips every other day or so for more than a week. 

I’d snapped picture after picture of them when they were tightly encased buds and when they were in full bloom. 

Those stages were a delight to my eyes, but I didn’t like the looks of the dying blooms. So…one day I thought, I’m going to throw them away. They’re way past their prime. 

I carried the pot from the sunroom/office to a counter near an outside door, intending to take the pot to the trash on my next trip outside. But when I took a closer look at their centers, I thought, Oooooh, they’re still beautiful.

Indeed, that part of them—the innermost part—had changed very little, though the petals were showing multiple signs of dying—curling, drying, shriveling, discoloring, drooping….

Upon realizing there was a “lesson” to be learned from the dying blooms, I returned the pot to the sunroom for more photographs. As I did so, I thought, What’s going on with these tulips is true of human life, too. In our youth and even middle age, we are beautiful and admired. But as the dying process takes increasingly heavy tolls on us, little remains of the vibrant person we once were—except for the innermost part! That stays alive and beautiful far longer than the more “showy” parts of us.

Therefore, Dear Reader, despite what’s happening on the outside of us, may we say, as did Horatio G. Spafford (1873), “It is well with my soul,” with that innermost part of us. Even when our physical strength wanes and our outward beauty diminishes, may we say, as did David in Psalm 57:7, ESV:

My heart is steadfast, O God,

my heart is steadfast!

I will sing and make melody!

Face Time

When Jena (my daughter) Face Timed me, my cell phone lit up, and I hurriedly accepted her invitation, although I had no experience with Face Time. Immediately, the screen displayed a large picture of her in her own home some 28 miles away and a smaller (inset) picture of me in my kitchen. (She told me her cell phone displayed a large picture of me and a smaller one of herself.) When we held our phones at various angles and distances, we could also see portions of the rooms and what we were doing. (In our case, we were walking around and around, logging in more steps on our Fitbits. But that’s another story!) As we walked and talked and laughed together, it was the next best thing to actually being in the same room.

Although I had fun learning how to use the Face Time feature on my new phone, I definitely don’t want to Face Time every call. (I only want people to see me when I am at my best.)But if I had to use it every time, perhaps I’d more fully understand the awesome concept that Jesus is with me all the time. He sees me when I’m at my best, when I’m at my worst, and all times in between. He wants me to talk with Him as naturally, as spontaneously, as eagerly, and as freely as I did my daughter. I wasn’t embarrassed that she saw me looking less than my best. After all, she loves me, and I love her. We’ve experienced life together and, thus, feel comfortable in each other’s presence, knowing that our love for each other isn’t affected by appearances.

Dear Reader, Jesus is with you and me all the time, whether we realize it or not. Happy are we when we become so aware of His presence that we talk freely (and often) throughout the day with Him, thanking Him for His goodness to us, admitting our sins and shortcomings, asking Him for wisdom, delighting in His love for us, …. 

O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

~David (in Psalm 139:1-4, ESV)

Reminder from the Leaves

LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered and that my life is fleeing away.

~David~

Psalm 39:4, New Living Translation