Lessons from nature photograghy

Shift a bit, re-frame, and refocus. I’m learning . . .
Not~ pack up everything, pull up stakes, and move.
Just shift a bit, re-frame, and refocus.
Not~ throw it all out and start over completely with something or somewhere new.
Just shift a bit, make a small adjustment, see how that looks/works, see how the image, the perspective changes. I chose to do this today. It was amazing. I’m learning . . .

A gentle reminder

I thought that I should do a little domestic engineering before sitting down at the computer, again. As I grabbed a couple of plastic grocery bags to use as trash can liners I noticed on one the words “Thank You” over and over and over. I smiled at the gentle reminder that as I’m thinking about all of the great and wonderful and marvelous gifts on my Gratitude list I need to remember the so-called little things, the often overlooked gifts that just get taken for granted . . . like plastic grocery bags.

Wooed

Maybe because the Gratitude List was so fresh in my mind, my first thoughts while considering~ How your Soul’s Lover has wooed you with His Love Letter ...~ were of a list of means.

He woos me in so many different, amazing, and surprising ways. Sometimes it takes my breath away . . . the intimacy, something that would only mean something to me. Or the timing, just the right Word at just the right time. And the myriad means He uses to get my attention, to pull me in, to get me to dig deeper, sometimes so extraordinary, sometimes seemingly mundane~
* in a regular morning Bible reading, seeing something in a way I’ve never seen it before
* hearing a long familiar verse in a different translation causing me to stop and ponder it anew
* while explaining a Bible passage to my kids, I see something a little differently this time
* listening to a hymn I start to wonder about the story behind it
* watching a youtube video of a beautiful hymn, seeing/hearing/feeling it in a new way
* reading a provocative blog~ maybe at the time it was written or maybe months later~ and having it be just what I needed at the time that I read it
* listening to a sermon, hearing something that gives me a new perspective on an issue
* reading a devotion or prayer that evokes deep emotions of love, gratitude, joy
* in conversation with a friend or a total stranger, hearing “something” meant for me
* a scripture coming to mind in a time of need (mine or someone else’s)
* “just happening” to pick up that book, click on that blog, tune into that message, turn to that particular scripture, see that article or advertisement, pray that particular prayer . . .

The Word, His love letter, contains His life-giving, life-sustaining words. Scripture is His living, active, powerful Word. He knows I need it, need to feed on it and because He loves me, He woos me.

‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ Acts 17:28 (NIV)

One Thousand Gifts List~ continued

21. anniversaries ~ 30 years together
22. rain
23. cooler weather
24. opportunities for intercession
25. returning hummingbirds
26. butterflies
27. really good coffee
28. lifestyle witnessing opportunities
29. a quiet talk with someone who "gets it"
30. an unexpected chance to be mentored
31. the view out my kitchen window
32. a birthday party for a 6 year old
33. a gift of blueberries
34. the thing I need "on sale"
35. someone to share a book with
36. someone to snuggle with
37. deer sightings
38. Canadian geese
39. an unexpected gift of fishing lures for a special little guy
40. a lake and ponds and friends to fish with

Multitude Monday

1 (again)~ New beginnings~ Beginning afresh~

As I thought about rejoining the Gratitude Community, trying to find my previous list and picking up the numbering from there, the words ~his mercies begin afresh each morning. *~ kept running through my mind, so I decided to begin afresh this truly, wonderfully endless gift list.

1. the Lord’s great love and mercy
2. His word and the many and varied ways He brings it to me
3. my family
4. the shelter of my home
5. the surprising ways He provides
6. the ways He creates beauty from ashes
7. old friends
8. new friends
9. nature
10. fresh fruits & vegetables from a neighbor
11. a gift of wonderful smelling cleaning supplies
12. the beautiful peace lily in my kitchen
13. music~ especially hymns
14. books, books, and more books
15. folks to share the books & music with
16. electricity & the appliances it powers
17. summer jobs for a 12 year old boy
18. telephones, cellphones, internet, mail~ staying connected to family & friends
19. opportunities (and the ability) to help
20. discernment


*Lamentations 3:23 (NLT)

Sunday Hymn

My Song is Love Unknown
Words: Samuel Crossman, The Young Man’s Meditation, 1664.

My song is love unknown,
My Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take, frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed for Christ would know:
But O! my Friend, my Friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
He gave the blind their sight,
Sweet injuries! Yet they at these
Themselves displease, and ’gainst Him rise.

They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they saved,
The Prince of life they slay,
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes,
That He His foes from thence might free.

In life, no house, no home
My Lord on earth might have;
In death no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say? Heav’n was His home;
But mine the tomb wherein He lay.

Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

Sunday Hymn

O Breath of God, Breathe On Us Now
Words: Alfred H. Vine, The Doom of Saul, 1895.
Music: Maryton, H. Percy Smith, in Church Hymns with Tunes (London: 1874).

O breath of God, breathe on us now,
And move within us while we pray:
The Spring of our new life art Thou,
The very light of our new day.

O strangely art Thou with us, Lord,
Neither in height nor depth to seek:
In nearness shall Thy voice be heard;
Spirit to spirit Thou dost speak.

Christ is our Advocate on high;
Thou art our Advocate within.
O plead the truth, and make reply
To every argument of sin.

But ah, this faithless heart of mine,
The way I know, I know my Guide:
Forgive me, O my Friend divine,
That I so often turn aside.

Be with me when no other friend
The mystery of my heart can share;
And be Thou known, when fears transcend,
By Thy best name of Comforter.

Sunday Hymn

God of All Power and Truth and Grace
Words: Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1742.
Music: Von Himmel Hoch, from Geistliche Lieder, by Valentin Schumann (Leipzig, Germany: 1539); harmony by Johann S. Bach.

God of all power, and truth, and grace,
Which shall from age to age endure,
Whose Word, when Heaven and earth shall pass,
Remains and stands for ever sure;

That I Thy mercy may proclaim,
That all mankind Thy truth may see,
Hallow Thy great and glorious Name,
And perfect holiness in me.

Thy sanctifying Spirit pour,
To quench my thirst, and make me clean;
Now, Father, let the gracious shower
Descend, and make me pure from sin.

Purge me from every sinful blot;
My idols all be cast aside;
Cleanse me from every sinful thought,
From all the filth of self and pride.

Give me a new, a perfect heart,
From doubt, and fear, and sorrow free;
The mind which was in Christ impart,
And let my spirit cleave to Thee.

O take this heart of stone away!
Thy sway it doth not, cannot own;
In me no longer let it stay,
O take away this heart of stone!

O that I now, from sin released,
Thy Word may to the utmost prove,
Enter into the promised rest,
The Canaan of Thy perfect love!