Just think about it:
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
(James 1:17, NASB)
How can we doubt His goodness? How can we not see His light every day? How can we not live in and out of thanksgiving?
~lg
The other day I was reading about Solomon and thinking about nursery rhymes. This is what happened:
Solomon, Solomon
King of the land
Your wisdom is golden
Your palace is grand
The temple is sparkling
And so is your smile
Your words bring you praise
On the banks of the Nile
Solomon, Solomon
King of great fame
Egypt and Sheba
Are singing your name
The fig trees are growing
To shade every man
With riches and safety
By royal command
Solomon, Solomon
Plated in gold
Your heart is divided
Your love has gone cold
Tear your fine velvet
Repent now and mourn
From splendor to ashes
The kingdom is torn
~lg
When we garden
We remember the beauty of an Eden morning
Naked as the lilies in all their splendor
We were born with dirt under our fingernails
And we spend too much time scrubbing it off
When we should be digging with the worms
Joining our toil with God’s imagination
The violets whisper the ancient garden’s song
Nodding their heads in purple chorus
Forget-me-not
Forget-me-not
~lg
Put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him. . . (Col 3:10)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom 12:2)
Renewal is a choice, a way of thinking, an opening of the mind to the pattern of Truth. It doesn’t happen automatically. Renewal happens when we make a regular habit of facing ourselves with the mirror of God’s image. It seems to be glass at first, but as we look further up and further in the glass melts into a pool of unfathomable depth and beauty. We need habits of renewal which cause us to gaze intently, drink deeply, and dive joyfully into all that God is.
Brother Lawrence speaks to this habit-making:
“We cannot escape the dangers which abound in life without the actual and continual help of God. Let us, then, pray to Him for it continually. How can we pray to Him without being with Him? How can we be with Him but in thinking of Him often? And how can we think of Him but by a holy habit which we should form of it? You will tell me that I am always saying the same thing. It is true, for this is the best and easiest method I know; and as I use no other, I advise all the world to do it. We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure. This is an argument which well deserved your consideration.”
~lg
Weeping willows cry green tears of joy,
dripping into the silver creek,
for spring.
Fair forests are wrapped in ethereal emerald gauze,
dressed for an evening dance
with spring.
What is this naive colour,
defying old man winter’s mothballs,
rippling secret laughter through sleepy forests
racing to the horizon to catch up with the sun?
This is green,
green so new God must have thought it up only moments ago.
~lg