God Is......

                  We spend a lot of time talking about attributes of God.

                                      Things like redeemer, healer, provider, shelter, savior, friend…..

                  Lately, I have been thinking of….

Painter

    Vibrant sunsets

Wildflower meadows

                     Sparkling daylilies

               Faraway galaxies

                                                                                           Butterfly wings       

                                                                                                           The  iris of our eye

 

 

         Engineer

     Solar systems

                       Mitochondria

                                         The Great Barrier Reef

                                                                    A bird’s feather

                                                                                              Tides

                                                                                                        Seashells

                                                                                    

                                        

Musician

     Gentle breezes

                        Thunderstorms

                                        Bees buzzing in the garden

                    Children’s laughter

                                             Ocean Waves

Knitter

     Tree leaves

                  Human bodies

                                   Kelp forests

                                                   Rain forests

                                                              Food Chains

                                                                               Puppies

                                                                                                                                                            

Sculptor

            The Grand Canyon

                                 Sand Dunes
                                                             Glaciers
                                                                        Volcanoes
                                                                                     Infant Fingers and Toes

Psalm 104

                                                                               God Is…..  An Artist

                            

                       

Tied Up In Knots?

As an avid crocheter,   I often get really irritated by the fact that a lot of yarn has poor quality control. Not long ago while making a shawl, I had a huge tangled mess come out of the center of a pull skein.  Through it, God gave me some interesting insights to share with you.

Sometimes we are like that skein of yarn.  On the outside we look all nice and neat and orderly.  But on the inside we may be tangled up.  We may be harboring unforgiveness, anger, frustration, feelings of inferiority, disappointments, stress, or a myriad of other things that keep us feeling tied up in knots.

Some days in pulling the yarn from the skein, a small looped knot will come out.  Work on the finished project has to stop and the knot pulled loose.  Usually this is easily done if the knot hasn’t been pulled too tightly.  Then work can begin again on the project. 

We often have these looped knots in our life.  It may be just some simple crummy event in our day, but God has to stop our forward progress and remind us of His word and presence in our life and He gently untangles the knot and gets our attitude back on track moving us forward.

Other times, pulling the yarn from the skein results in a huge tangled up mess with lots of knots and loops that look like a pile of spaghetti on a plate.  Once again, the finished project must go on hold, needle put down and lots of untangling removing one knot after another gently and slowly so as not to make it worse. 

Sometimes there is a huge mess inside of us that builds and builds till we are a tied up tangle of knots.  God has to stop our forward progress and slowly, patiently one by one untangle all the things that have built up inside of us.  Removing them one by one, gently showing us that we need to let go of them, until all of them are untangled, before we can begin to move forward on the path He has for us.

Then there are times the mess comes out so tangled up that no amount of working on the pile can remove all the knots or tangles.  After many patient minutes, I realize that the yarn isn’t going to untangle and if I could untangle it, it will be so out of shape that it won’t crochet properly.  It is time to take the scissors to it, cut it, retie it beyond the tangle and move on back to the project.  Trash the mess and continue forward.

Sometimes we have such a bad thing in our life that it is impossible to untangle all the feelings, frustrations and pain and move forward.  Only God can move in and help you cut out that mess and begin anew so that you can move forward.  Only He can enable you to get rid of it totally. But even then there will still be a small scar left behind but He can work it into His finished project of your life.

Notice too though in all of this, the skein of yarn could not fix itself.  So often, we try in vain to fix all our problems that are mixing us up and we want to not admit it to God and let Him do the repair.  But to really be fixed, we need to stop and be still, talk to Him and let Him take us in His able hands and untangle us and not fight Him while He does it. 

Are you looking good on the outside but inside are you balled up, tied in knots?   Let go and let God take hold of the mess and let Him fix it for you guiding you through His Word, showing you the way to go.  Ask Him to help you get untied.  Only then can He finish His work in you to the end allowing you to become a beautiful work of art for Him.

Stars, Traffic and Ants

It has been a while since I’ve posted.  I have been traveling and planting my garden mostly.  While traveling I was reflecting on how many people there are.  We were traveling through a city with numerous levels of interstates crisscrossing and lots and lots of rush hour traffic.  So many people, hurrying here and there all at once. 

I traveled for two days by car.  How many people did I pass by?  How many in their homes, offices, hotels, cars, trucks, bikes, RVs?   How many of them know God? 

Psalm 147:4 He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.

He counts the stars.

                                     He names them.

                                                                     He counts all of us, and names us.

 How many billions of people throughout all of history and to come?   I can’t count them.  I am overwhelmed by the sheer numbers on the interstate at rush hour. 

As I have been gardening, I have been watching ants as they make their way past my back door, to the hummingbird feeder to eat its nectar.   There are so many tiny ants that I can’t begin to count all of them.

                                    God knows each one of them.

Luke 12:6-7  Are not five sparrows sold for two cents?  Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.  Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

God knows the ants, sparrows and He know all of us down to how many hairs we have.

He knows our thoughts.

                                         He knows all about each of us.

  Even if we don’t know Him.

                                                      Even if we don’t want to know Him.

If He is so mighty that He knows all of this, how in my smallness can I even begin to  think I can tell Him how to do things?  Or that I know so much?  Or that I can rule my life alone?

Yet He says we are more valuable than the sparrows.  We have worth.  Down to every last hair on our head.  He is so worth getting to know, moment by moment.

  Take time to know Him today.

                                                            Let Him teach you about Himself.