First of all I would like to thank you for your comforting words :0) Tilly is on the mend.
Thanks be to God!
She is playing with Emmy with her Christmas toys as I write. We are all feeling so light today just knowing she is getting well again :0)
And I find as I look outside today, I am enamoured by the still and stark white, brown and grey hues of winter in the square whitewashed houses and slate roofs, brittle trees and frost tingeing the edges of the windows. All seems to have quietened into a moratorium of repose.
something well needed.
"For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, "In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength." Isaiah 30:15
*
Last night Tani and I were talking and he was telling me about how when he was a kid he had an old rucksack that he used to keep a homemade "survival kit " in. This survival equipment consisted of know more than a few special stones, flints, a penknife, a favourite book, a pencil and some scrap paper:0) "With this bag I could do anything. I could go anywhere, I could go to the ends of the earth and know I would be okay, I had everything I needed to survive"
How simple, how childlike, how wonderful such thinking is.
... No first aid kit, map, food or water in this "Survival Kit!"
Children know better than that! Intuitively. Survival... the kind that can bring you through anything, right to the frayed edges of life, depends on more than the basic physical provisions.
“That's why I'm telling you to stop worrying about your life—what you will eat or what you will drink—or about your body—what you will wear. Life is more than food, isn't it, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky. They don't plant or harvest or gather food into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. You are more valuable than they are, aren't you? Can any of you add a single hour to the length of your life by worrying?
And why do you worry about clothes? Consider the lilies in the field and how they grow. They don't work or spin yarn,
but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.
Now if that is the way God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and thrown into an oven tomorrow, won't he clothe you much better—you who have little faith?
“So don't ever worry by saying, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’
because it is the gentiles who are eager for all those things. Surely your heavenly Father knows that you need all of them!
But first be concerned about God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be provided for you as well. "
So I am taking my little metaphorical rucksack into the morning of the New Year with me :0)
Filled with a little soul food..., a few soul provisions:0) Something that can nourish and sustain from the time I first look out of the frost tinged window, right through to the ebbing glint of evening light.
Something that will steady my gaze along the horizon. The one that calls me on from the depth of my heart. The Kingdom. His Kingdom.
My eyes will be diverted and distracted many times as they always are, but I know that all He asks is that I keep remembering to bring them back to seek His face once again.
And I will falter and trip and fall and waver and fail as I always have done before. When I will try to take my strength from my own provisions rather than the manna freely offered. The bread I cannot store up for tomorrow however hard I try. The bread that is offered for each day as it comes. The bread that feeds from sun up to sundown, leaving only faith to bring me to tomorrow's offering. But I know that all He asks is that I give thanks for His giving and try to use what is given to give to others in return.
Really I only need carry these essentials. And the yoke is easy and the burden light, when I put down all the things I think I need, to store, carry, hold on to. Things that wear me down and crush my soul as they over feed my senses and my body. Till am so full of the coarse dry, heavy dough of my own making, there is no room left to take the sweet manna anymore.
Yet no matter how I flail and flounder, He will still be there in the horizon. His sun rising new each morning when I open my curtains and look out of the frost tinged window.
He will still be there.
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
Matthew 24:35
"And remember, I am with you each and every day until the end of the age."
Matthew 28:20
First of all I would like to thank you for your comforting words :0) Tilly is on the mend.
Thanks be to God!
She is playing with Emmy with her Christmas toys as I write. We are all feeling so light today just knowing she is getting well again :0)
And I find as I look outside today, I am enamoured by the still and stark white, brown and grey hues of winter in the square whitewashed houses and slate roofs, brittle trees and frost tingeing the edges of the windows. All seems to have quietened into a moratorium of repose.
something well needed.
"For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, "In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength." Isaiah 30:15
*
Last night Tani and I were talking and he was telling me about how when he was a kid he had an old rucksack that he used to keep a homemade "survival kit " in. This survival equipment consisted of know more than a few special stones, flints, a penknife, a favourite book, a pencil and some scrap paper:0) "With this bag I could do anything. I could go anywhere, I could go to the ends of the earth and know I would be okay, I had everything I needed to survive"
How simple, how childlike, how wonderful such thinking is.
... No first aid kit, map, food or water in this "Survival Kit!"
Children know better than that! Intuitively. Survival... the kind that can bring you through anything, right to the frayed edges of life, depends on more than the basic physical provisions.
“That's why I'm telling you to stop worrying about your life—what you will eat or what you will drink—or about your body—what you will wear. Life is more than food, isn't it, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky. They don't plant or harvest or gather food into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. You are more valuable than they are, aren't you? Can any of you add a single hour to the length of your life by worrying?
And why do you worry about clothes? Consider the lilies in the field and how they grow. They don't work or spin yarn,
but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.
Now if that is the way God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and thrown into an oven tomorrow, won't he clothe you much better—you who have little faith?
“So don't ever worry by saying, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’
because it is the gentiles who are eager for all those things. Surely your heavenly Father knows that you need all of them!
But first be concerned about God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be provided for you as well. "
So I am taking my little metaphorical rucksack into the morning of the New Year with me :0)
Filled with a little soul food..., a few soul provisions:0) Something that can nourish and sustain from the time I first look out of the frost tinged window, right through to the ebbing glint of evening light.
Something that will steady my gaze along the horizon. The one that calls me on from the depth of my heart. The Kingdom. His Kingdom.
My eyes will be diverted and distracted many times as they always are, but I know that all He asks is that I keep remembering to bring them back to seek His face once again.
And I will falter and trip and fall and waver and fail as I always have done before. When I will try to take my strength from my own provisions rather than the manna freely offered. The bread I cannot store up for tomorrow however hard I try. The bread that is offered for each day as it comes. The bread that feeds from sun up to sundown, leaving only faith to bring me to tomorrow's offering. But I know that all He asks is that I give thanks for His giving and try to use what is given to give to others in return.
Really I only need carry these essentials. And the yoke is easy and the burden light, when I put down all the things I think I need, to store, carry, hold on to. Things that wear me down and crush my soul as they over feed my senses and my body. Till am so full of the coarse dry, heavy dough of my own making, there is no room left to take the sweet manna anymore.
Yet no matter how I flail and flounder, He will still be there in the horizon. His sun rising new each morning when I open my curtains and look out of the frost tinged window.
He will still be there.
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
Matthew 24:35
"And remember, I am with you each and every day until the end of the age."
Matthew 28:20
So beautiful, Suzy. I love the analogy of a spiritual rucksack. Thank-you for this provision that I can slip into mine!
ReplyDeleteSOOOO glad Tilly is doing better, btw! Hope this year brings you all joy of soul and health of body!
I was offline for a few days due to glitch so I have some catching up to do.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your daughter is well again - it can be a worrying time and a tiring one too.
What a lovely reflection on life, on trusting in God, on not being anxious, on believing in God as provider - and on HOPE - the key to the door of tomorrow.
I read somewhere yesterday that the future is never really that bad - because it happens just one day at a time.
I wish you and your family all God's blessings and graces for 2009, Suzy.
And hopefully before they start back to school you'll all be able to get out and about and take some more photos.
What a beautiful blog for the eyes and soul! I will definitely check back and "get to know" you better. :-)
ReplyDelete