Spring....

Spring....

This  devotional caught my eye recently....and it was worth sharing....the joy of waiting, discovery, beauty, hard work, patience, little eyes....

“How to Biblically Celebrate New Life in the Spring

Bible / Bible Study / Topical Studies / How to Biblically Celebrate New Life in the Spring

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April Motl

 Wednesday, April 11, 2018

“Daffodils!!! Momma look! Daffodils!” These words have been ringing out loudly in our car the last few weeks from my little three year old son.

Last Fall, he and I planted 150 bulbs. I told him we would have to wait and then in a few months we would have a beautiful surprise! It was a lot of work. We have ground that is very rocky, and where it isn’t rocky, it’s clay. I was just hoping the gophers wouldn’t steal our labors when we finally got them all in - and that those bulbs would actually deliver on what I’d promised!

He couldn’t quite fathom “months” to wait for them to grow and so when he'd go look for some sign of life where we toiled, he was a bit unimpressed, for quite some time. When those bulbs eventually sprouted their little green tops about a month ago, I ran inside to get him and show him they were finally growing up. They didn’t look like much. He wasn’t that thrilled.

But once the driveway was lined with smiling yellow flowers that he helped plant, he was very proud and has been more than a little excited. And he also began loudly and urgently pointing out all the other daffodils along the roadside ever since, as if some how he knows and celebrates the work and waiting that went into those flowers too.

Our little daffodil planting taught him a small, but valuable lesson. Life is precious! It takes work and it takes patience.

O LORD, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; The earth is full of Your possessions. Psalm 104:24”

Last year I too planted a bunch of trees, bulbs, bushes in my new yard...after a long winter, it was with rejoicing, I saw new little leaves poke through the mulched ground to delight us with blooms of various colors...then the trees bloomed to begin their eventual harvest of promised fruit...I showed one of my 4 year old grandsons around the yard, my daughter even took videos to send me as I travelled...

But, as I was traveling, in a foreign land, Israel, I found a vast array of new flowers as well.  They had had an abundant rainfall this spring, so the hills and valleys were covered with flowers of all kinds amid tall grasses, blooming trees and bushes...I was blessed to be amongst the beauty of a new spring at home and abroad...thank YOU for the gift of seasons....the beauty of the array colors and variety...

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. ” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning —the third day.

Genesis 1:11-13

It is time to write....capernaum...

It is time to write....

I sit on the 19 th floor in Tiberias, overlooking the Sea of Galilee....some mornings a mist covers the sea... haziness covering the mystery of area....but yesterday it was crystal clear as we stepped aboard a wooden boat to cross to a kibbutz along the other side...

The owner/captain of the boat is a messianic Jew who sang praise songs in Hebrew and English.... as we glided peacefully on glassy water....

Tears began to flow from heartfelt praise and deep thankfulness....awe that we were stepping on places that our Saviour stood, walked, healed, comforted, confronted, blessed, taught...not to worship the place but the deep sense of connection...it fills your soul...

We viewed an ancient boat they call a Jesus boat, it’s called. Found and Brought out of the sea, preserved from Jesus time.... like one he may have sat in and taught the multitudes...,his voice carrying across the water, teaching of the kingdom...

Then on to Capernaum...Nahum’s village, the village of the “comforter”, how fitting the Jesus started his ministry here...we sat under a tree on stone benches, on the edge of the Galilean sea, soaking in the word of a Hebrew Christian pastor...exhorting to dig deep into the Word...find what God is saying to each of us...

 ( under a close by tree sat another group, chanting ritual songs and sayings, covered with ornate vestments, complaining that we were preaching about Jesus!)

Whom do we serve?  How do I serve? Am I digging deep? Do I trust? 

A living Creator. Who loved us so much that he sent his son....thank YOU...

Lord, let this land, this light, this :Savior permeate my soul to it depths...

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:1-5 

Open my eyes 2....

Open my eyes 2....

Yesterday I sat through a visual kaleidoscope of  a man’s pictures from a life time of work...he has published over a hundred photography books of all subjects, worked with a multitude of organizations all over the world...and is still learning new things and teaching others how to see the world with open eyes from the minute sea foam bubble prisms on the Oregon beach to the panoramic mountains of Patagonia...from the rust patterns on old box cars to the painted elephants in Asia....what a privilege to be a part of this class...(his first time to teach in this “smaller” town with 150+ students), widening the visual horizons of each person in attendance....seeing art in life...

I just know God must love color...he created it after all...in the thoughts of the night I was reminded of microscope slides my husband made of the rocks from his thesis area to look at to find the type of crystal structures found within....or the pictures taken by the Hubble spacecraft of the systems it was traveling through...

We delight in seeing the beauty of the first flower that peeks through the  brown soil in the early spring...or the scrunched up face of a newborn baby...taking as many pictures as possible....

Thank YOU for eyes to see...help us to delight in the creation You have given us...to see with new eyes, new hearts...open each to Your salvation through the beauty of your plan...Jesus...

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Romans 1:20

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning —the first day. And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning —the second day. And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. ” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning —the third day. And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning —the fourth day. And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning —the fifth day. And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. ” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food. ” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning —the sixth day.

Genesis 1:1-31