Extravagant Love

It was a beautiful day and my grandkids (Damian was 8 and Skyler was 4) wanted to ride their bikes to the park. When we arrived at the playground early that morning, the equipment was still wet from an overnight shower. Water puddled on the slide.

"Sorry, Skyler," I explained, "You won't be able to go down the slide." She was about to cry, but before I could finish my sentence, up the ladder went Damian, and down he came right into the puddle. I was just about to fuss at him when he took her hand and said, "There you go, Skyler; my jeans soaked up all the water. Now you can slide!"

They moved to the west coast and I haven't seen them in many years, but I am proud of Damian, now serving in the US Navy overseas, and Skyler who is a high school senior.

Ephesians 5:2 tells us: "Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that."

Little Acorns

My childhood home was surrounded by many oaks trees. Our swing hung from a branch of one tree that was over 100 years old.

"Great oaks from little acorns grow" - Oak trees don't produce acorns until they are 20 or more years old, but if you walk under an oak that is seventy or eighty, you might need to open your umbrella to keep them from bouncing on your head. 

The sight of a big old oak  still encourages me that God's children will bear fruit even in old age, ESPECIALLY in old age.

The seeds that fell on good ground are the people who hear and understand the message. 

They produce as much as a hundred or sixty or thirty times what was planted. 

Matthew 13:23

Rainy Days in September

I finally got out for a walk today 

and this is what I saw along the way.

This tree is loaded with persimmons.

A reminder that it's 90 days til Christmas!

Roar

When I was six years old, our class took a field trip on the bus to Grant Park Zoo in Atlanta. I was excited on my first trip to the zoo and I ran ahead of my class and entered the Lion House. Back then, the lions were housed in cages. I walked right up to the bars of the cage, and the full-grown lion let out a ROAR that echoed through that stone building. I still remember that deafening sound and running away in fear!

Sometimes, I face circumstances where I am afraid to stand up and do what I know is right. God gave me a picture that if I would stop running away from problems and stand up and face fear, that a hundred angels would stand up with me. Even better than that, my Savior Jesus stands with me, and He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah!

Judah means PRAISE. Even when I feel uncertain, as I begin to praise, I have a Heavenly Choir of back-up singers.

You are a precious jewel

Queen Elizabeth has so much jewelry that she had a special room made 40 feet below Buckingham palace to store all her precious gems.

The value and quantity of these jewels is mind-boggling, but God says that His children are His jewels, precious and honored in His sight, because He loves us so.

Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another,

And the LORD listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the LORD
And who meditate on His name.
“ They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts,
“ On the day that I make them My jewels.
And I will spare them
As a man spares his own son who serves him.”
Zechariah 3:16-17