God's snowstorm

taken after I got in from my run.....

I have heard many times God's grace described as infinite and abounding and His love as vast and immeasurable. Today I got a concrete real time image of those truth.

When I started my run today is was partly cloudy, cold and we were expecting some snow flurries sometime this afternoon. About ten minutes into my run the wind began to whip and I saw in the distance this massive cluster of dark clouds. I have run in all sorts of weather so I wasn't alarmed nor did it deter me and send me running home. Then I began to see like snowflakes, then more and still more until is was running in a snowstorm. It occurred to me that THIS is like the grace and love of God. A million tiny pieces of light, of grace and love surrounding me from every direction. It seemed the Lord was saying "This is how many times I have loved you. This is the abundance of my grace to you. " It was such a powerful image and lesson.

Though I came home covered in snow and wet and I am certain people thought I was out of my mind I am so glad I stuck it out. It is amazing where God will meet us and I am learning it is everywhere......

Did I forget tell you that He loved lilies?

As an artist I often struggle with the validity of my work. In the grand scheme of the Kingdom and in this present world the work seems so inconsequential and impractical. I wonder how God can be even remotely interested in what I create. People are starving, suffering greatly the world over. And even in our comfortable and abundant western lives we only have to turn on the news or even just look at the people we know to see the immensity of what it means to live in a fallen world. I am overwhelmed by that reality today.

So I wonder......and then I read something by Rich Mullins this afternoon. He was reflecting on the Sermon on the Mount specifically the lilies of the field, the sparrows and God's provision. My usual way of reading this passage is of course from the lens of just that: God's provision. Yet, Rich begins his writing with "Did I forget to tell you that He loved lilies?" This is an unusual way to think about his passage, but the word is alive.....

God is not practical (remember the vial of perfume?)It is not practical to so clothe the grasses which are here today and gone tomorrow. If fact I might consider it a waste of God's energy. Yet, He has taken the time to do such a thing to reveal to us just how vast His interest is in ALL things concerning creation. And how many sparrows are there in the world? He feeds them and as a matter of fact He knows when the life of one is over.

I am so aware today just how dim the glass is and how distorted my vision is when I see Him. He gives us these fleeting glimpses like a sparkle in our peripheral vision that is gone in an instant. Who is this God?!!! How is it possible that He can show such care for such things??!! The grasses and sparrows are not practical yet they are a grand display of the Lord's beautifully extravagant, intimate care.

You are not alone

I am always in awe every moment that I suddenly become aware of the presence of the Lord here and now even in my mundane work. As soon as my eyes open in the morning I feel the presence of the Holy Spirit like another person in the room though unseen. It is hard to put into words......
Of course this is the truth of John 14:16 - 21 in real concrete life.

16"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;

17that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

18"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

19"After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.

20"In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

21"He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him."

How amazing it is that he Lord of Glory chooses to live with and in me at every moment in every task. Because of this precious gift we live always before Him. Our day to day lives are a miraculous intimate communion with the Lord who made all thing and holds all things together by the power of His being. I am completely in awe of that truth today and it shakes me out of my complacency and gives me great comfort....even while vacuuming.