Beneath the Clouds

I started out my walk bundled with a heavy heart. The clouds hung like sheer gray drapes over the mountain peaks, and the cool breeze matched my deary mood. I walked on in step with Goldyn at my side. But along our morning trek, we were met with cheery colors of blooming pansies, snapdragons, tulips and buttercup daffodils. We even brushed against red bushes bursting with clusters of berries. In fact, the colors were so vivid and vibrant against the darkened sky, that all I could do was smile. Isn't that just like our Creator to give us bouquets beneath the clouds to remind us that He cares and always loves us?

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But . . .

I had to pause for a moment, as I began reading the text this early morning. But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly: they became stubborn and would not listen to Thy commandments." (Nehemiah 9:18). How often do I find myself verbalizing "but? what about? what then? what if? really?" All the phrases that feed doubt and angst into my life are found in that one conjunction. Memory stands as the faithful argument against it, but when faced with future days all seems easily forgotten. This verse comes to a people who had returned to their homeland after being ravaged and exiled by foreign powers. Nehemiah is reminding them of who they are, and especially of their one and only God who has forever been faithful to them despite their faithlessness and wrongdoing. He reminds them how God is a God of forgiveness, slow to anger, longsuffering, overflowing with lovingkindness, never forsaking them even when He was totally forgott...

Summer Breeze

Gypsy Rose immediately prances to the back door as she hears her name. We are ready for our morning walk, which has started later than usual, since I have some of these summer days off. But it is still early enough to catch the morning breeze. Walking south, I am refreshed by feeling the gentle wind all around me, it's a cool wrap in contrast to the summer sun. But it all seems to disappear as I turn the corner and head west, my summer breeze is gone. I am at a loss for it even as I continue north and east. It's only as I begin the southern sidewalks back home that I am met with the blissful breeze. I realize that though I wasn't feeling it for most of my steps, it was there all along, I just had to turn the right direction to get relief . . . Sometimes, that is how my relationship with God seems. Yes, I know He is ever near and is with me, but I don't feel that fact. Sometimes my prayers seem to be in a vacuum, and I'm ...

Brief Moments of Grace

"But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage." (Ezra 9:8) Summer welcomes me today with a cloudy cool morning and a subtle fresh breeze. The day is probably teasing me with moderate temperatures before it will launch into more robust sunlight and heat. The scorching temperatures have given an abundance of tomatoes, bush beans and yellow squash in my garden, while tormenting the kale, cilantro, spinach and herbs. My refreshment is found swimming laps in the pool and teaching or rather reminding Gypsy Rose to stay in her lane while we swim together. Days seem to run together, slip away too fast, as I often feel locked in a routine of sleep, work, cook, repeat. I know that I need to pause and reflect, because even in that daily ritual are God's brief moments of gr...

Mary's Heartbeats

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