When is the last time you stopped to gaze...at anything?  I mean really took a moment to soak in the awe and beauty of….something?  A softly falling snow. A wild daffodil smiling at the sun. A mountain mist.  A wistful waterfall.  A glowing red sky.  An ocean swell.  

Beauty all around us, but are you capturing it? Captivated by it? Or missing it?

 “See beauty and we know it in the marrow, even if we have no words for it:  Someone is behind it. Beauty Himself completes.”  AnnVoskamp

The catch?  We have to “see” it.  To know genuine undeniable beauty, to know it in our bones so that it moves us and mesmerizes us...draws us to worship Beauty Himself, we have to see it.  And there’s so much...so very much that gets in the way.  

What’s keeping you from “seeing” clearly?  What’s today’s death of distraction?  A crying toddler that you can’t seem to console?  A mountain of paperwork?  Finances out of control? Relationship on the rocks? Does looking ahead look daunting?  

Exhausted much?  Mentally drained much?  Disillusioned much?  

Stop and smell the coffee.  Stop and see the daffodils bobbing their bells in the breeze.  Catch a glimpse of that bright, beautiful cardinal flitting through the tree branches, flashes of red in the gray.  And remember, Jesus is there.  Beauty Himself is there.  You’re not alone.  

I can’t explain how it makes a difference but it does.  Maybe it’s because Beauty is so full of Love.  And Love compels and completes.  

The madness may not go away anytime soon.  The paperwork will be waiting.  The toddler will still be throwing a tantrum.  The finances will always need attention.  The relationship matters and requires work, lots of work.And the future couldn’t be more uncertain.  But Jesus wants you to know He’s there, waiting for your wistful eye to cast it’s gaze upon Him and be stirred.  Strengthened.  Encouraged.  Awed.  Lifted above all the noise to a moment of immeasurable peace. A moment with Him.  

“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek:

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, 

To gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.”  

                                                                          Psalm 27:4

In a moment, the Maker can make your day with His unexplainable beauty.  

Don’t miss it.  

Promises for the New Year

As my faith journey takes me into another year there are some thoughts that encourage and comfort me, and I don’t know about you but I need that.  This past year was not the kindest, but it held all God allowed and His grace was sufficient to carry us through to this point. At different times yesterday as I sat down with my Bible and various devotional books, these truths spoke volumes to me.  As I move into all the tomorrows God will give this new year, I cling to them.  

“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”  1 Samuel 7:12  

What a wonderful verse to end and begin the year!  The NLT says, “Samuel then took a large stone...and named it Ebenezer (which means ‘the stone of help’), for he said, ‘Up to this point the Lord has helped us!’”  He literally found a large stone and placed it in a specific location as a visible reminder that the Lord had brought them by His help to this point. I love that old KJV word “Hitherto”.  The entirety of the past is held in that one word. I can look back over this past year in its “unkindness” and yes, see the hardship, the hurt, the loss and grief. But I also see a great and good God, faithful in every way, having guided, protected, provided and answered both personal prayers and prayers for others.  I think especially of a friend that saw her Dad come to know Jesus at age 92 just hours before he died. God honored and answered prayers and broke the strongholds that had hardened his heart toward God. What a glorious work of grace! I have no reason to doubt that God’s grace and mercy will follow me into this new year because He is unchanging.  He will continue to be faithful to Himself and His Word, and that means I can count on His faithfulness and unfailing love to me. I will continue to have His help, not because of who I am but because of who He is.  

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19

It was as if the Lord shouted when I read this, “Pay attention!! You need to be looking 

forward with excitement and anticipation...and faith! Because I am doing something new. And it’s going to be like a way being made in the wilderness, where there seems to be no way; or like a river of life-giving water would be to a desert.  Look back, but only to be reminded of His faithfulness to this point, not to lament and labor over things that can’t be changed now. They’re in the past. I want to be greeting each day with a keen perception of God’s presence and what He may be doing in my life at any given moment.  This year will bring change, some unexpected and even unwanted, just like last year. But not without the blessed hand of God in it all! So I will take courage and rejoice in that, and look forward to all this year holds, not dread it or fear it. It is no doubt we will experience disappointment, but God never disappoints when I choose to see things through His eyes.

“And when He puts forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know His voice." John 10:4

The Psalms tell us that “we are his people and the sheep of His pasture" (100:3). We follow a Great Shepherd that leads us with care and compassion.  But in this particular verse I am comforted to know that as I move into this new year, He has already gone before me! I am not being thrust into the great unknown without a careful and compassionate Guide!  There is uncertainty for sure. Life can change and change drastically in a moment. And some change is inevitable. But He is leading. I will follow. And again...I will keep saying it!!! He is great, and good, and faithful.  

I have had His help to this point, I will have it as I move forward.  He is doing something new and I will see it as good or trust Him to bring good from it because He is great and good.  And, I can know that whatever it is I will face, He has already gone before me, and I can embrace it by His grace with courage and confidence because He is faithful.  

Find your “Ebenezer” today, and Happy New Year!  

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

So, perhaps you are evaluating the year past, looking back reflectively, or looking forward wondering if 2019 will bring change or the same-old same-old.  If you are like me, you are hoping and anticipating some positive things ahead, things you have prayed about for years, looked forward to. The wait lengthens to see plans and purposes come to fruition, yet you trust a Sovereign God to work and move in His perfect time.  The transition has begun, but there seem to be some pauses on the path.

It’s easy to get impatient in the pauses, to begin fretting when things don’t seem to be moving along. Or maybe 2018 brought drastic changes and you’ve not even begun to deal with them yet in all the many emotions and challenges. We experienced that as well.  Life can change on a dime as the saying goes. And then even the dime disappears.

I am encouraged today as I go the Scripture; it quiets my heart as it always does.  As I move into a new year, eager to possess all that waits me, yet considering all the uncertainties, I am promised that the Lord God cares for all of it and He is already there.  

“But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” Deuteronomy 11:11-12

As the children of Israel stood on the threshold of entering into their long promised home, they were reminded that this was a land God cared for. It was His, gifted to them.  He nourished it with rains from heaven and kept a watchful eye over it always, “from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” Replace that word “land” with the words “new year”, and consider the parallel.  A land of opportunity and possibilities lay before the children of Israel. A year of opportunity and possibilities lies before us. God had personally and directly led them to where they were at this point in their lives.  So it is with us, He has brought us through the years, leading, guiding, providing. The New Year will no doubt be full of hills and valleys as well...ups and downs inevitable in this life. But grab hold of the amazing assurance of God’s care for your future.  From the beginning of the year to the end, our faithful God has His eyes on us and whatever will take place in this year. We don’t know, can’t know what this next year will bring, but it is comforting to be able to rest with confidence in the fact that Jesus knows. We don’t face it alone.  And it will be good because God is good and does only good for His own. Move with me into the new year with hope, faith, joy, and a peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) because God’s got this.

“Pray, hope, don’t worry!” ---Saint Padre Pio.

Happy New Year!