Living Fragrance

My Singing Bird

I love this sweet song. It reminds me of how the Lord delights over us with singing, of how we amazingly have the ability to warm His great heart with our love and desire. And Sinead - she is pretty special too.

 

The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight over you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. ~Zephaniah 3:17

Kingdom Comes

Kingdom Comes, by Sara Groves:

 

When anger fills your heart
When in your pain and hurt
You find the strength to stop
You bless instead of curse

When doubting floods your soul
Though all things feel unjust
You open up your heart
You find a way to trust

That's a little stone that's a little mortar
That's a little seed that's a little water
In the hearts of the sons and the daughters
The kingdom's coming

When fear engulfs your mind
Says you protect your own
You still extend your hand
You open up your home

When sorrow fills your life
When in your grief and pain
You choose again to rise
You choose to bless the name

That's a little stone that's a little mortar
That's a little seed that's a little water
In the hearts of the sons and the daughters
The kingdom's coming

In the mundane tasks of living
In the pouring out and giving
In the waking up and trying
In the laying down and dying

That's a little stone that's a little mortar
That's a little seed that's a little water
In the hearts of the sons and the daughters
The kingdom's coming

Here and now

"When our depravity meets His divinity it is a beautiful collision [...] It is the collision of our fallen state and our Maker's transcendence. It is a rendering of our mortality and eternal life. It is about the tension that exists in the living of life, here, where the sky meets the broken earth." - David Crowder

"Suffering, pain, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of lonliness are nothing but a sign that you have come so close to Jesus that He can kiss you." - Mother Teresa

"All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy." Romans 8:22-25 (The Message)

"Popular Christianity says, 'We must succeed.' The book of Revelation say that success cannot be marked, it is impossible. the New Testament conception of spirituality in the world is a forlorn hope always, by God's design. Take the parable of the sower, only one-forth of the seed sown brings forth fruit in this dispensation. We are determined to be successful; the apostle Paul says we are called upon to be faithful (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). In this dispensation it is a day of humliation in the lives of the saints as it was in the life of our Lord. We have to remain steadfastly patient to God through the whole thing." - Oswald Chambers

"Once heaven has our attention, a fervid anticipation for God's ultimate reality begins to glow, making everything earthly pale in comparison. Earth's pain keeps crushing our hopes, reminding us this world can never satisfy; only heaven can. [...] Suffering keeps swelling our feet so that earth's shoes won't fit." - Joni Eareckson Tada

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Psalm 30:5

Our Happy Home ~ Hallelujah, we are on our way. Hallelujah, we are on our way to God. From Egypt lately come, where death and darkness reign to seek our new, our better home where we our rest shall gain. There sin and sorrow cease and every conflict's o'er. There we shall swell in endless peace and never hunger more. Jerusalem, our happy home. Would God I were in Thee. Would God my woes were at an end, Thy joy that I might see. We soon shall join the throng. Their pleasure we shall share. And sing the everlasting song, with all the ransomed there. There in celestial strains enraptured myriads sing. There love in every bosom reigns for God Himself is King. (Anonymous folk hymn, from 1616.)

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The Sower. Vincent Van Gogh

 

Spinning

You! Who is like you?

In you I spin in circles of paradox, like a skater with that move: dip down low in arabesque, then stretch up high. Caught up in a whirl of motion, but not lost within the swirl.

You. You lay me bare and reveal that there's no good thing within. But just as I bow down low, you lift up high. You tear down to rebuild, strip to dress. And sometimes, it happens in a moment. I'm caught up in a whirl of you, Gracious One. Breath taken away with the motion, but not lost. I am alive!

Like the lamenting man with his face in dust found:

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22,23

And I live for the praise of your glorious grace. All wrapped up in you, I spin.

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Related posts from the archives:

Certain signs of grace

Bones in Green

Van Gogh's Prayer

As written in a letter to the artist's brother:

I want to be bound to Christ with unbreakable bonds and to feel these bonds...

To live in and for Chirst, to be one of the poor of His kingdom,

steeped in leaven filled with His spirit, impelled by His love...

To become one who finds repose in Him alone,

who desires nothing but Him on earth.

***

ht: Ann's post "Brave Strokes". A compassionate and grace-filled look at Van Gogh's life, and an encouraging call to fearlessly pour out our lives.

 

 

Luther on becoming

"This life is not a state of being righteous, but rather a growth of righteousness; not a state of being healthy, but a period of healing; not a state of being, but becoming; not a state of rest, but of exercise and activity. We are not yet what we shall be, but we grow toward it; The process is not yet finished, but it is still going on; This life is not the end, it is the way to a better. All does not yet shine with glory; nevertheless, all is being purified."
~Martin Luther

Photo: Morning glory shining in briefly

Close

Sometimes I wonder. If the answer to my heart's cry is drawing near to you, why is it that the closer I come the more I ache?

Things are laid down for sorrowful Lent. Obstacles pushed aside, for I long to be close. Already I see you more clearly - I think I can almost make out your pulse. Warm, inviting, strong. But more than ever, I hurt. More than ever I am empty and know it.

It is uncomfortable being close. From a distance, you may not notice the bumps and scars and smudges. Perhaps I can maintain a facade of beauty at arm's length. Oh, but there is no fooling when we are face to face. You've always seen it all, of course. But now reflected in your eyes, I see myself more accurately. What I behold causes me grief. Repentance comes.

And a seed of hope takes root. Deep inside, I know. Being close to you is not about me. It is the wonder of you. Give me a heart, Beautiful One, that stands in awe without selfish thought.

I just want to be close. For you.

"Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame." Psalm 34:5

This morning

His call came this morning at just the right time. I was rushing, getting children fed and dressed and groomed, the edges of my heart frayed with worries that had crept over it the past few days...

It all just feels so hard again, so impossible, this life.

If he hadn't called, I think I might have missed it, even though the walls were glowing with its light.

"I'm looking at one of the most beautiful sunrises I've ever seen. Can you see it?" my husband's voice came through the line.

Oh.

My view from the window was obscured by houses and wire and naked branches, but still it was breathtaking. Pink, orange, and purple stretched across the sky, boldly announcing the new day, at the same time gently wrapping it in beauty. Just like that I felt hope light on my heart and soothe it's rough edges. And I remembered Ann's words:

They are known as the fleeting golden hours. Do they arrest you, too? Those gilded moments when a day is unwrapped and beheld, or packaged up and sent off. When that glowing ball of fire touches the rim of our understanding and we are startled awake. Radiance explodes and saturates the sky. Hues, surreal and otherworldly, suck the breath right out of our lungs.

Sunrise upon sunset, millennia after millennia, the Master drenches our celestial ceiling with celebratory color.

So that we know. We cannot miss it.

He wraps the day extravagantly, lavishly, so we grasp it, there, unmistakably before us, larger than life: every day is a gift.

                                               * * *

Thank you for the gift of today, Father. For searing me again with Your beauty and setting my heart at peace with the wonder of Your goodness. And now I choose better things for this heart than worry:

I will thank you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done. I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High. ~Psalm 9:1,2

Why such love?

From The Sacred Romance:

The gospel says that we, who are God's beloved, created a cosmic crisis. It says that we, too, were stolen from our True Love and that he launched the greatest campaign in the history of the world to get us back. God created us for intimacy with him. When we turned our back on him he promised to come for us. He sent personal messengers; he used beauty and affliction to recapture our hearts. After all else failed, he conceived the most daring of plans. Under the cover of night he stole into the enemy's camp incognito, the Ancient of Days disguised as a newborn. The Incarnation [...] was a daring raid into enemy territory. The whole world lay under the power of the evil one and we were held in the dungeons of darkness. God risked it all to rescue us. Why? What is it that he sees in us that causes him to act the jealous lover, to lay siege both on the kingdom of darkness and on our own idolatries as if on Troy - not to annihilate, but to win us once again for himself? This fierce intention, this reckless ambition that shoves all conventions aside, willing literally to move heaven and earth - what does he want from us?

What do you think?

The way of love

1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

   Love never gives up.
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
   Love doesn't strut,
   Doesn't have a swelled head,
   Doesn't force itself on others,
   Isn't always "me first,"
   Doesn't fly off the handle,
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
   Doesn't revel when others grovel,
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
   Puts up with anything,
   Trusts God always,
   Always looks for the best,
   Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 (The Message)

Oh Father, create in me this amazing love. And help me do all I can to choose this better way instead of the familiar, broken paths I've taken.

Garden Path with Two Chickens. Gustav Klimt.