So it is good to wait quietly…

Hi friends,

A quiet week in this space because the rest of life has been so full.  My hero returns this evening from a week away.  Kids are waiting anxiously for hugs and wrestles and to share a thousand stories.  I’ll gladly shrink into the background when he arrives. ~smile~

I’ve used up all my words for the week, but here are a few photos of His beauty and a few words from His truth from today’s reading in the One Year Bible…so precious that these familiar words of hope are actually nestled right in the middle of  a book of grief.  It’s what He does – brings Light to darkness, Hope to a mess.  He Redeems…

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!

His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”

The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.

So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.

Lamentations 3:22-26

photos:  from a weekend retreat in Nebraska City – thank you, my kindred friend…and the sky He painted for us on the drive home

Picture this…

…Inspired by Look What I Did with a Leaf! by Morteza E. Sohi.  We’ve admired the leaf art in this library book each fall for a number of years now.  This year, we finally tried it!  Pressed leaves, rubber cement, sticky fingers, and a little help from Mama for the little one ~smile~.  Young artists (and one young at heart) imitating the creativity of the Great Artist.

engaged

“…the only way to go through life properly is to understand that we are engaged.  We have been betrothed to Christ, and our life now is preparation for the great wedding to come…

The difficulties now, the suffering now, the disappointments now, and the blessings now are all preparation for the wedding then.

Our experiences today do not reflect God’s inattention or unfaithfulness, but his jealous love.  He is exposing our wandering hearts and foolish minds and the ways we trust our passions more than the principles of his Word.

He is calling us to forsake our own glory for his, and teaching us that the idols we pursue will never satisfy us.

He is making us wise to temptation and aware of a lurking enemy.

He is teaching us to live for treasures that moth and rust can’t destroy and that thieves can’t steal.

He is teaching us what it means to live in a way that recognizes our identity as his children.

He is teaching us to live open, approachable, and humble lives.

In other words, your whole life is premarital counseling!  You belong to a groom whose name is Immanuel, and God is preparing you for the wedding for which you were created and redeemed.”

-Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands

change of season

“Come, little leaves,” said the wind one day,

“Come o’er the meadows with me and play;

Put on your dresses of red and gold,

For summer is gone and the days grow cold.”

Soon as the leaves heard the wind’s loud call,

Down they came fluttering, one and all;

Over the brown fields they danced and flew,

Singing the glad little songs they knew…

-George Cooper

…from a poem that brings smiles here.  So thankful to be well again.  We’ve said goodbye to fever and hello to fall.  And now we’re just trying to sort out what the order of seasons really is, “Mama, last week, when it was winter, there was ice on the pond, and…” ~smile~

Healer

I’m a little weepy

three days of fever and aches will do that

but these tears

these are tears of gratefulness

for a man who keeps his promise

in sickness and in health

and points me always

to the One who is the source of all kept Promises

“Here’s a new song I think you might like,” he says.  Because he knows that this weepy heart needs a new song.

(Follow the link and click on “Healer” to listen…)