SPARKLE!

I have an affinity for collective nouns! 

Not a "batch" of cookies or a "bunch" of grapes. Not even a swarm of bees, on-slaught or plague of locusts, pack of wolves or pride of lions.

My true affinity is nouns for groups of birds. 

Think gaggle of geese, murder of crows, murmuration of starlings, parliament of owls. Thanks to neighbor, Susan H, who shared the collective noun "poult" for baby turkeys with me yesterday!

Thanks also to ljj who reminded me of the collective name for an insect who flies!

A SPARKLE OF FIREFLIES

What truth stands out among all these collective nouns to me?!

The LORD God made them all! 

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:16-17)

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

I know our spring event was 4 days ago but i misplaced a pic from that day I wanted to share. Imagine that!

A walk at Deep Creek with hubby and NC grandson required a light jacket because of some wind gusts but it was still a walk of wonder of sorts as winter fades and spring bursts forth!

Parts of the path toward Tom Branch Falls were covered with a light purple glow of Lesser Periwinkles! (Vinca Minor) This pic was taken close up when in fact, the size of each on the flowers on the trail were approximately the same size as the nail on my thumb. Blended among the darkngreen leaves along the trail was eye-catching! 

A simple beauty from our great Creator!

OUR CREATOR!

On this misty mountain morning, I would feel lonely except for the Presence of the Lord and the blessings & prayers of friends from afar! 

Anne Brewer--November Calendar

For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, 

for the love which from our birth, over and around us lies. 

Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

 

Even with the chill of the mountain air, I feel warm inside. The sun brings warmth to my toes. They are tapping. I feel like dancing....a ridiculous idea from someone who has trouble staying vertical on most days.

But God.....in His love and mercy has me considering dancing as I hum to quiet my soul. Humming to diminish the  noise in my head and heart, especially for dear ones!

Delighting in the presence of our Creator, I now begin to pray for others!

May we hum and toe tap together, in a "dance" of sorts, wherever God has us today! 

FULL MOON NIGHT!

In the beginning God....

.....and so begins the beautiful narrative of God's creation 

*Cathy G shared her "light"

SHAPED TO SERVE!

How does one enter his/her golden years and beyond as a servant of the LORD? I have found that service isn't self-service! Wisdom not only gained from age but even from a child can be valuable.

Mine came from a 3 1/2 year old princess on our street. (1/2 emphasis is hers!

She can bring dandelions or some colorful leaves to my porch. Occasionally, it can be a flower that has fallen to the ground.They are always given with a smile. I try to have a small receptacle ready; she loves the splash of water as she "stuffs" them in.

Flowers are sparse these days and our 34° temp didn't help. But God used a nudge from the Holy Spirit to have me pick some that had fallen in case she comes by today. I even found the perfect container!

My "Shaped to Serve" vase is eensy but perfect to hold a few straggly flowers. It's a bit cold for me to porch sit but I have it in the window in case she "skips" by. If not, I know where she lives!

There was even a verse in the box with it---"just for me"! 

O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8)

A reminder that even things I am finding only recently after out sudden and tumultuous move, can speak God's wisdom to my heart. 

I am not a horticulturist and will never be a Master Gardener but.......

I am grateful for dandelions from a 3 yr. old! Oops 3 1/2!

CREATOR PRECEDES CREATION!

HALLALUIAH! 

Yesterday's temps allowed for a bit of time enjoying sitting outside! Along with the lower temps and bit of a breeze, I "took in" the beauty of the gooseneck and the Tiger Swallowtail by my weathered fence.

It was a much needed time of being still. But God allowed it to become more than that. More than "beholding" creation, my heart began to "behold the Creator." "Beholding we become," as author Jackie Perry writes. 

If our hearts are beholding Christ, Christ will be mirrored and manifested on our hearts. (holier than thou, p. 149)

Think reflection. Our lives reflect what we behold. We live it out.

John Piper's book title, Seeing and Savoring, says much.....not just about the beauty I was beholding from God's creation but the Scripture I was led to which reminded me that I need to enjoy the Creator above all else, even his creation/creatures! (Romans 1:25, NLT)

Yesterday I was able to enjoy both in the correct order.

SPRING IS COMING!

Officially, the spring season will begin March 19. But.....signs are already popping up in gardens and field's everywhere! White dogwoods filling fields in Hernando, MS. Budding heritage snowball bushes in yards of many friends. An unfamiliar magnolia bush. A saucer magnolia, according to my horticulturist neighbor. It looked like a tree with two different color blooms to me.

How could I have missed this visual springtime treat at GAC for so many years!?

May the Lord give me eyes to see. May I lift my head and open my eyes to see the beauty He has created without losing focus of the the Creator, by whom all things were created through Him and for Him. (Colossians !;16)

MUSINGS ON A SNOWY MONDAY!

ELHOIM----

In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth. 

How beautiful to be able to see so much of your creation from my kitchen window.

Snowed in. It keeps me still. How sad that I still need outside help to have me stop/be still...beyond the boot on my foot.

How grateful I am for the awe right in my own yard.....

.....and a hubby who helps feed me and his roly-poly birds. 

SUNRISE TO SUNSET

From sunrise to sunset the earth shows forth the wonder of our creator!

PRAISES! SONGS OF JOY!!

So grateful for a church whose prayer prompt for Sunday is PRAISE!

PRAISES for a Serene Sabbath with a choir loft filled with symphony members and angelic voices joyfully singing to our Lord.

Praises began early this morning and are still lingering as the sun is starting to set on this glorious 3rd Advent Sunday of joy!

THIS IS THE DAY.......

This is THE day...............

I have to admit that lately I haven't a clue what day it is. Most days all "feel" the same.

Though I might not know what day it is, I do know that "this is THE day the Lord hath made and I will rejoice and be glad in it". (Psalm 118:24) 

Hope you rejoice with me.
** Just had to add what a MS reader commented---Notice each day ends in Y---What a comfort to know that our "Y" Yahweh is still with us at the end of each day. Rejoicing with you.

SUNRISE--SUNSET

Thankful Thursday ( 9/20/18 without WiFi) had me thanking the Lord for travels with friends and remembering family travels from east to west this summer. Anytime loved ones travel, it seems I implore the Lord to open their eyes to see His creation and also to see the glory of the Creator.

The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue, Fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Bowman Lake--Glacier National Park--August 3, 2018

From the rising of the sun to the setting....The name of the LORD is to be praised. (Psalm 113:3)

New Suffolk (Long Island) New York--July 13, 2018

All That's Good and Great and True

Mercies dawn with every day, 

Newer, brighter than before;

And the sun's declining ray

Layeth others up in store. 

(Geodfrey Thring, Anglican clergyman, 1863)

CHOOSE: TO BELIEVE

In the beginning God said..............and it was so.

And God said, "Let there be light : and there was light." And God called the light day and the darkness He called Night. (Genesis 1:3-4)

...God made the firmament, and divided waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. (Genesis 1:7)

And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together....and let the dry land appear: and it was so. (Genesis 1:9) 

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind,.......upon the earth: and it was so. (Genesis 1:11)

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days, and years....and let them be for lights to give light to the earth: and it was so. (Genesis 1:14-15)

And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creature after his kind,.......:and it was so. (Genesis 1:24)

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed.....;to you it shall be for food. And to every beast of the field, ...every fowl of the air....everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green plant for food: and it was so.  (Genesis 1:29-30)

AND IT WAS SO----SO...CHOOSE: TO BELIEVE!

**A BIG Thanks to Ron Man and the worship choir at First Evangelical Church for a glorious Palm Sunday service! I don't have a clue how "AND IT WAS SO" was illuminated on the cross as the service drew to a close, but it spoke to my heart and raised the hair on my arms all at the same time!!! 

"beau-TEA-ful"

The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground--trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. (Genesis 2:9, NLT)

Reading the novel, Stella Bain yesterday (in its entirety), one aspect that "stuck with me" was the young World War I ambulance driver's perspective.
"What do you do when your not driving?" asked a friend, from his childhood, who was both a nursing assistant in a field hospital in France and a sub ambulance driver. 

"I look....for....well....beauty." was his response. (p.100).

Both had seen unimaginable injury coupled with suffering and dying. Beauty was difficult to find. But he chose to look for it and record his findings in a small notebook. 

It became somewhat of a contest for them.

"What beautiful thing did you see this week?" she asks.

"I saw a pair of cows behind a whitewashed fence. There were green shoots on the ground. The beauty was in their obliviousness to the insanity around them. They were positvely serene." (p. 103)

Spring in Memphis has a serenity & beauty all its own----even in the midst of weather extremes, "disturbing" nightly news and the heart-breaking prayer requests of friends for their loved ones.  One can still look out or look up and marvel at the handiwork of the Creator. Such a refocus is soothing.

I had a cuppa with a beau-TEA-ful view----right outside my window. 

GLORIOUSLY BEAU-TEA-FUL---I just had to look for it.!

Though my cherry tree bloomed late this year and was then quickly showered with a BIG rain, there was still beauty. The covered ground had an aura of its own. As I told my friends Julie and Leslie, "It looks as if a bride had just traipsed by and folks threw pink petals in her path along my brick walk way." Beautiful!

SABBATH SNAPSHOTS: SUNNY FLOWERS

8/19/12 Flowers of the field are given beautiful and varying hues by God Himself. But, the yellow ones are the ones which most often catch my eye. From England's golden oil-seed rape fields, grown on a multi-year cycle, to the beauty of the acres and acres of man-sized sunflowers blossoming brightly in Hungary, I have loved seeing those yellow crops in field after field. I love yellow flowers.

 Yellow flowers seem happy.

From Ukraine.......

to Mackinac Island........

and back home to the Agri-center in Memphis......YELLOW FLOWERS MAKE ME SMILE!!

Associations and Alphabetical Offerings

11/18/09 All the years that I was in the field of early childhood, I color coded everything, at work and at home----right down to laundry baskets, hangars and tooth brushes. I took some of that with me to the library and for years all receipts of book orders with barcode ranges were filed in a certain red notebook type folder. (Red = receipts w/ ranges.) When that red folder was no longer available and I had to use a green one, I still labeled the spine in bold red letters declaring it the “red folder.” I know you’re probably confused but it works for me. In a recent “Dearest Dorothy” book, her son couldn’t understand why her Christmas stuff was stored in a Del Monte cardboard box. “D” is for Del Monte and “d” is for decorations.” He groaned at her comment but it made perfect sense to me.

There’s just something about the orderliness of alphabetizing things that is intriguing. Being a librarian appeals to that part of me---it’s a semblance of control that I have in an otherwise cluttered life. Canned veggies are arranged from asparagus to zucchini on my pantry shelf. Catchall objects are stored in an old card catalog in my computer room in ABC order---even though sometimes those labeled drawers are empty, i.e. misplaced---not put back by folks who don’t know the importance of this ploy. Those 26 letters have become my association tactics. At this point in life, I need all the help I can get.

Awakening in the middle of the night, I often pray God’s attributes in alphabetical order----praising Him as Almighty, Bestower of Blessings, Creator, Defender, Eternal Elohim, Faithful Father, God of Goodness…..etc. 

All this to say, I plan to focus these next several weeks on one word for each of the 26 letters in the alphabet. Actually, the idea has been “brewing” awhile as I’ve savored my morning “cuppa.” It just seems so orderly. Of course, I could start it tomorrow and then take off on an “A” rabbit trail. Who knows? It took me months to actually write about the qualities of the “fruit of the Spirit,” and there are only 9 of those. Hm-m-m--These are my plans, we’ll see how God directs my steps. (Proverbs 16:9)

But everything should be done in a fitting (properly) and orderly way. (I Corinthians 14:40)

I definitely need to hang my hat here on this verse because this is a problem for me. Reading the preceding paragraphs might have given you a real misconception about my “decently and in order” life. It’s one of my biggest struggles---from sentimental clutter and “just in case clutter” to stacks of flagged books and pages of “blog bite” scribbles and “unanswered e-mails. Compound all of this with retrieval glitches in my MAC-muddled brain and a family and lots of deserving friends---and I’m not even back at work yet! YIKES!

I know I can't eat this “clutter elephant” in one bite but I’m going to work on it one bite at a time, starting with this blog.

A is for attributes of God ???