dear daughters,
Spring has long ago sprung, and summer has already begun. But today at my house the spring storms are still in the air.
Last night, the storms were so severe I was in the closet for twenty minutes! The tornado and fire truck sirens howled, and my dog Moo eagerly joined the alarming chorus.
The tops of several of our trees were sheared straight off. Huge limbs lay in abundance around our house in both the front and back yards. As my mother used to say about my room, “It looks like a tornado came through.” And it may have.
When the storms quieted down, Papa Jeff and I were left sitting in the dark without any electricity. So we decided to venture out in the car to see what damage had been done. Fortunately, we saw lots of standing water and broken trees, but no displaced people or broken homes. Many storms are far worse.
As we drove around, I looked at the back side of the ferocious storm that had left its mark on our yard. Surprisingly, I saw a beautiful rainbow. It occurred to me the rainbow wasn’t on the front or in the middle of the storm. It came on its heels, following behind after the intensity of the storm had passed.
In Genesis, God promised Noah he would never again destroy “all flesh” of the earth by a flood, and the rainbow was his sign of this promise. But there is an even bigger message in the rainbow. It reminds us that God is in control of every storm. It is a symbol of his power to limit a storm’s impact, to determine its magnitude and decide its end.
We all face storms and many are of another kind – life storms that move in our direction seemingly out of nowhere. Like rain storms, they are dark and scary. They are beyond our control. They can cause damage and even threaten our lives. We wonder if they will ever end.
When you experience life storms like failure, loss and heartache, I pray today you will always remember God is at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of every storm that comes your way. He is always present and always in control.
Next time you find yourself in a storm, anticipate the rainbow. It will surely come!
living to love, loving to live,
momma b
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Lizards and Leaves
dear daughters,
The other day, Moo came running in the study and jumped up on the sofa next to me, barking her head off and hitting at my hand while I was typing. I thought she had to go outside. So I got up and walked with her in the hallway. There in front of me was this bright green lizard just staring at me. Of course I let out a blood-curdling scream!
I wasn’t going to touch him with my bare hands, so I got a big plastic cup, put a fresh green sprig inside it like bait on a fish hook, and tried to lure him. But I couldn’t tempt him for anything. He kept running away from my trap. Finally, I opened the back door and chased him that way. It worked! Outside he went!
We are a lot like that lizard. Sometimes we find ourselves in places we shouldn’t be. We go through an open door that wasn’t meant for us, and then we have this sense that we are not meant to be there. We run around not knowing what to do. There are choices in this place. There are temptations to try new things – like the cup with the fresh green leaves that look really good for eating. Or we can choose the open door of escape, to get back to where we came from, back where we belong.
This is just like life with God. When we go through the wrong door, we run around in circles; but God always gives us a way out.
This promise is in the Bible in 1Corinthians 10:13. “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
In other words, you’ll never be in a situation that others haven’t been in before. And God will never let you be in a situation you can’t get out of, because He’ll always give you a way out of your mess. He wants you living in freedom, not trapped in a plastic cup!
living to love, loving to live,
momma b
The other day, Moo came running in the study and jumped up on the sofa next to me, barking her head off and hitting at my hand while I was typing. I thought she had to go outside. So I got up and walked with her in the hallway. There in front of me was this bright green lizard just staring at me. Of course I let out a blood-curdling scream!
I wasn’t going to touch him with my bare hands, so I got a big plastic cup, put a fresh green sprig inside it like bait on a fish hook, and tried to lure him. But I couldn’t tempt him for anything. He kept running away from my trap. Finally, I opened the back door and chased him that way. It worked! Outside he went!
We are a lot like that lizard. Sometimes we find ourselves in places we shouldn’t be. We go through an open door that wasn’t meant for us, and then we have this sense that we are not meant to be there. We run around not knowing what to do. There are choices in this place. There are temptations to try new things – like the cup with the fresh green leaves that look really good for eating. Or we can choose the open door of escape, to get back to where we came from, back where we belong.
This is just like life with God. When we go through the wrong door, we run around in circles; but God always gives us a way out.
This promise is in the Bible in 1Corinthians 10:13. “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
In other words, you’ll never be in a situation that others haven’t been in before. And God will never let you be in a situation you can’t get out of, because He’ll always give you a way out of your mess. He wants you living in freedom, not trapped in a plastic cup!
living to love, loving to live,
momma b
Friday, April 10, 2009
Fake Fruit
dear daughters,
You know that I believe God speaks to me in strange ways. Well, the other day while reading, I got so sleepy I just had to take a nap! I felt a little guilty, but when I awoke, I had to wonder if it wasn’t God who made me sleepy just so He could wake me up!
I woke up to the strangest sound. A bird had landed in my wreath on the front door, and the sound of his fluttering wings next to the glass window was startling. When I realized it was only a bird and nothing to fear, I began to watch him (or her) to see what he was doing. He was eating the berries! It might sound cute, but the berries are not real and I realized he could get really ill if he kept eating them. So I hurriedly knocked on the glass, startling him as he had startled me, and he flew away.
In that moment, I heard God say to me, “You do this. You are like that bird, so often clinging to the wrong vines, eating fake fruit rather than mine.” OMG! I didn’t want to hear that. But I knew it was true! How often I feast on the fake things of this world instead of what is real and good for me to eat!
Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser” (John 15:1). This Easter weekend, remember that because of Jesus the Son, we can have a relationship with God the Father, one that satisfies and nourishes us like nothing else can. God is tending to a garden of goodness for us to enjoy, but it is up to us to eat from the right Vine.
living to love, loving to live,
momma b
You know that I believe God speaks to me in strange ways. Well, the other day while reading, I got so sleepy I just had to take a nap! I felt a little guilty, but when I awoke, I had to wonder if it wasn’t God who made me sleepy just so He could wake me up!
I woke up to the strangest sound. A bird had landed in my wreath on the front door, and the sound of his fluttering wings next to the glass window was startling. When I realized it was only a bird and nothing to fear, I began to watch him (or her) to see what he was doing. He was eating the berries! It might sound cute, but the berries are not real and I realized he could get really ill if he kept eating them. So I hurriedly knocked on the glass, startling him as he had startled me, and he flew away.
In that moment, I heard God say to me, “You do this. You are like that bird, so often clinging to the wrong vines, eating fake fruit rather than mine.” OMG! I didn’t want to hear that. But I knew it was true! How often I feast on the fake things of this world instead of what is real and good for me to eat!
Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser” (John 15:1). This Easter weekend, remember that because of Jesus the Son, we can have a relationship with God the Father, one that satisfies and nourishes us like nothing else can. God is tending to a garden of goodness for us to enjoy, but it is up to us to eat from the right Vine.
living to love, loving to live,
momma b
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