Summer Garden Thoughts

Been outside weeding and meditating. Funny my thoughts ran to Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. I came to love this devotional book back in high school days and memorized this poem Mrs. Cowman wrote.

Mrs. Cowman served as a missionary in China and Japan, and spent six years nursing a dying husband. She wrote:

“We thank Thee Lord, for weary days

When desert streams were dry,

And first we knew what depths of need

Thy Love could satisfy.
We thank Thee for the rest in Him

The weary only know-

The perfect, wondrous sympathy

We needs must learn below.

The touch that heals the broken heart

is never felt above;

The angels know His blessedness,

His way-worn saints, His love.” -- written in 1924

That's me today:  weary, needy, broken but kept in the Savior's love!  Hope that's you as well!  We don't have it all together even if we're pretty good at fooling ourselves and others!  But, we know where to run with our tired, broken, needy selves - to Jesus the Rock of Ages!
 

Catch Me If You Can!

I went to bed weary - very weary - last night --- so weary that I pondered what was wrong. Was it a very busy day? Yep, you betcha! That's pretty much what all my days are. As I pondered I thought of this phrase: Catch me if You can!

Just about every day I blast off to a day that is full and demanding. Do I look over my shoulder as I hurry on my way and shout to God, Catch me if You can! ??? 

Tucked in one of my favorite devotional books - Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles Cowman - is a great quote from which the title is taken:

Thank you, God for weary days, when desert streams were dry. That's when we learned the depths of need Your love could satisfy. Thanks for the rest in You, the weary only know--the perfect, wondrous sympathy, that we must learn below. The touch that heals the broken heart is never felt above. The angels know His blessedness; His way-worn saints, His love (Streams in the Desert).

On the weary days when I'm a bona fide way-worn saint, shouting over my shoulder - Catch me if You can - as I blast off,  what my weary heart and body need MOST is to know His love!  And His love is as close as my next breath! His love will surround me in the blast off and the journey! What I need most is to rest in that love as I hurry on my way!

God Counts Your Tears - Every Single One!

When my husband and I were in Israel, we visited a small gift shop near the garden tomb. I was fascinated by their collection of beautiful, very small hand-blown glass bottles. The sign with the display identified them as lachrymatory bottles. These tiny bottles have been used since ancient times to collect tears. I bought quite a few to bring home.


Over the years since I have gradually given all but one away. I have given each one - as a reminder of God's presence and faithfulness -to a special friend who was experiencing great grief in life .

In the Old Testament (over 1000 years before the birth of Christ) King David writes in a prayer to God (Psalm 56:8): “Thou tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears in Thy bottle; are they not in Thy Book?” (KJV)

There have been times in my life where I have experienced intense grief. I have always been comforted by God's abiding presence and faithfulness! The image of a lachrymatory is a visual reminder that God cares about each tear!

Whatever your grief is today, my friend, my prayer is that you too will find comfort in the only place where REAL comfort is found - in the faithful love and grace of God!

Five Messages 4 Your Heart!

A friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair, who can face with us the reality of our powerlessness - that is the friend who cares!

Gratitude flows from the recognition that who we are and what we have are gifts to be received and shared!

My hope is that the description of God's love in my life will give you the freedom and the courage to discover God's love in yours!

Hospitality is not to change people but to offer them the space where change can take place!

We are not what we do. We are not what we have. We are not what others think of us. Coming home is claiming the truth - I am the beloved child of the loving Creator!

-- Henri J. M. Nouwen

Love is the only dynamic that brings about heart change.
--Tullian Tchividjian

Change my heart oh God, Make it ever true.
Change my heart oh God, May I be like You!

Unconditional Love - Anyway and Always!

We had a sleep-over at our house the other night - five-year-old twins and their ten-year-old sister. As part of the bedtime ritual I let the twins select two books they wanted me to read them. One they selected was Dr. Bryan Chappel's I'll Love You Anyway and Always. It's the story of Katy.

Katy waters the plants in the backyard. Her mother tells her to water all the plants except her father's orchid (Do I hear echoes of Genesis 2:15 - 17?). Katy diligently waters all the other plants and then decides that she'll break the "rules" and water the orchid anyway. She thinks she knows more than her mom. She wants to surprise and please her dad.

The orchid dies because it was watered and the watering was too much. Dad walks in the backyard and spies the dying orchid. (More echoes of Genesis 3:8ff?) He asks, "What happened to my orchid?" Katy knows she's busted so she admits watering the orchid.

Later Katy starts to worry, "Daddy, will you still love me?"

Katy's dad answers (Dr. Chappel has a daughter named Katy.), "Because you disobeyed you and I are both sad. But nothing you do will ever make me stop loving you. I'll love you anyway and always."

The rest of the book goes through Biblical history from Adam and Eve to Noah to Abraham and Sarah to Moses to King David to the birth of God's own Son Jesus. Each page ends on the refrain, "I'll love you anyway and always." Then Katy's dad (as preachers do) goes to preaching. He tells Katy: "Katy, now you know ... why nothing you do will ever make me stop loving you. The way God loves us is the way we should love each other. ... I will love you anyway and always."

Then Katy's little brother Taylor sneaks into her room and eats her chocolate teddy bear. Katy is really mad at Taylor until she remembers what she has learned about God's love from her father's forgiveness for what she did to the orchid. It is then that Katy scoops Taylor up for a big hug and an even bigger assurance of her love, "... I'll love you anyway and always."

Like a tune that runs around and around in my head, that phrase "I'll love you anyway and always" has been making its circle in my head for two days. Only God really, really has that kind of unconditional love that always forgives, but it's the model for the kind of love He wants us to have.

Many, if not most, people we encounter have never known unconditional love either from God or another human. They have been conditioned to believe that they are only loved by their performance so they try harder and harder. Nothing works! They have never heard or understood the Gospel of God's amazing unconditional love. They have never loved or been loved that way.

Jesus said our purpose is to love God first and best and then to model God's love as we show that same unconditional, forgiving, serving love to others! (Mark 12:29-30)

Here's the real deal! Only God loves anyway and always perfectly! Only God can put that kind of "anyway and always" love in our hearts! That's part of God's process of restoration one heart at a time!