Every good gift bestowed,
every perfect gift received
comes to us from above,
courtesy of the Father of lights.
He is consistent.
He won’t change His mind or play tricks in the shadows.
We have a special role in His plan.
He calls us to life by His message of truth
so that we will show the rest of His creatures
His goodness and love.
(James 1:16-18 The Voice)
HE’S BACK! (and yes, I am shouting!)
After being in a coma from flesh-eating disease and sepsis, our son-in-love is breathing on his own, talking and joking, starting to eat, and standing up (with assistance).
Thanks to those of you who prayed for him. He has a long way to go to fully recover, but we shout joyfully and thank God for the miracles already received.
God is good. So very, very good.
On my way out of the gardening shop I spotted these roses near the door.
“Wow! Are they real?”
They seemed too good to be true. They were –too good to be true, I mean. As soon as I felt them I knew they were paper. Pretty though.
I drove home singing an old Loretta Lynn song I used to hear crackling out of the plastic radio with the big gold dial that sat on top of Grandma’s fridge when I was a kid.
Paper roses paper roses oh how real those roses seem to be
But they’re only imitation like your imitation love for me…
That got me thinking about the nature of deceit and manipulation and feigned love. In the cold greyness of spring that doesn’t feel like spring, those paper roses were beautiful and you know, I can appreciate them just fine –until the real thing comes along.
We joke about our tendency in Canada to be more polite than some other cultures. Honestly I grew up thinking it was normal to say sorry to the person who bumped into you with a grocery cart. It’s not heart-felt, but it does ease tensions and keep the traffic flowing in the produce section.
Someone told me the story of watching a woman trying to purchase a can of pop at a convenience store with a fifty dollar bill. The cashier took it but didn’t even look at the bill as he said, “This is fake.” The woman left the money –and the Coke – on the counter and dashed for the door.
My friend asked how he knew it was fake.
“I’ve been handling money all day, every day, for years. When you are familiar with the real stuff the fake stuff is obvious.”
There are a lot of people in the world who have no idea what real love feels like. They mistake politeness, tolerance, gratitude, warm fuzzies, lust, familiarity, loyalty, manipulation…all manner of things, for love. They have never been the recipients of true, unconditional, self-sacrificing love.
Here’s the thing. You can’t give what you have never received.
It is so easy to be critical of prickly people -the ones who are difficult to feel affection toward, or manipulative people –the ones who prod you into serving their own priorities with large dollops of honey on that stick. My son calls them EGN people. Extra Grace Needed. I believe that is one of the reasons why believers are to band together like a family. You can pick your friends, but God assigns family because we need practice learning to love EGNs, and also to experience being loved ourselves by those who can discern the real from the counterfeit and demonstrate the difference.
Very few new family members come with 70 years of wisdom. Very few church members start off as sanctified lovers, and some, like irritable, contentious old uncles sitting down at the end of the Thanksgiving table take much longer to get there than we think they should. It takes time –and just because a person recognizes an ideal doesn’t mean they are skilled in the practice of it. It’s not about tolerating hypocrisy; it’s about needing grace to grow.
Sometimes the best demonstrations of love some people can offer are like paper roses because that’s all they know. I wonder if, rather than reject the imitation item, we need to smile and accept politeness or tolerance or even well-intended criticism graciously –then return genuine love we have received from God by being willing to lay down our lives for people who have never truly known love before. Lord knows we all need some grace.
“It’s easy to say “I love God,” but genuine love reflects God’s love. If we belong to God, then we will love each other regardless of how hard love is.” (Note on 1 John 5 in The Voice version)
This is the embodiment of true love: not that we have loved God first, but that He loved us and sent His unique Son on a special mission to become an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
Everyone who trusts Jesus as the long-awaited Anointed One is a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father cannot help but love the child fathered by Him. Then how do we know if we truly love God’s children? We love them if we love God and keep His commands. You see, to love God means that we keep His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down. Everything that has been fathered by God overcomes the corrupt world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. ( 1 John 5:1-4)
It’s snowing. Again.
This time of year we have glimpses of spring, a bit of green grass, a momentary warm breeze, a tiny crocus leaning into the foundation on the south side of the house. Then hope is deferred when the valley is socked in by low grey clouds and the signs of change disappear under more snow.
Sometimes I need to look for hope. So yesterday I took my camera down to the local plant nursery to see if anything was stirring there yet .
In and around the first greenhouse there were signs of change with pots being sorted, dusted and cleared of spider webs in preparation for filling.
The next green house was still bare and the third contained a tumbled mix of unsold plastic-wrapped patio furniture left from last season.
But in the small greenhouse at the back of the lot, someone was lining up pails of perennials on worn seasoned tables. These are the hardy ones, the ones that have known seasons of fruitfulness and seasons of rest, and they are showing new growth. Survivors. Forerunners.
But on the way out, in the warm environment of the shop, near the window, heaven poked its finger into my cold snowy world, and a perfect pure white flower from another place, one which cannot grow here, grew anyway.
We, on the other hand,
continue to live through the Spirit’s power
and wait confidently in the hope
that things will be put right through faith.
(Galatians 5:5 The Voice version)
Pray this way:
Your will be done
on earth
as it is in heaven.
-Jesus
Prepare your pots. Heaven is on its way.
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.
It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.
It is full of mercy and good deeds.
It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.
And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace
and reap a harvest of righteousness.
(James 3:17,18)
Praise comes naturally to children who are accustomed to hearing it.
Yesterday I saw my little granddaughter running around my almost barren garden. Her arms were in the air and her face grinned at the sky.
“Thank you! Thank you, rain!” she said, “You made the little flowers open! Thank you, rain!”
She showed me that the two tiny crocuses we had seen beside the house in the morning were indeed opening.
“Spring is coming! Spring is coming!” she said, dancing her silly happy dance (and refusing to come in out of the rain.)
The day before we had driven to a town about half an hour away. She insisted on hearing “her” song -on repeat- the whole way there and back. Her mom told me that the night before when they arrived at our house she would not get out of the car, as excited as she was to visit Nana and Boppa’s house, until the song had finished.
I asked her why she liked it so much. She said, “Cuz it’s a song to Jesus.”
As part of their bedtime ritual her parents have a time of saying “nice words” to the children, in which they bless the kids by telling them the positive things they see in them – things like kindness, gentleness, enthusiasm, patience, beauty, intelligence, helpfulness, joyfulness. I wish I had known about the benefits of blessing with nice words when my children were growing. The difference in my grandchildren is that they also know how to bless and encourage others. It melts my heart when my little grandson cuddles up and says, “Thank you for the milk, Nana. You are kind and gentle.”
A lot of times when kids want songs to be repeated on the car sound system they are hard-on-the-nerves songs. The song “Daisy” wanted was very gentle. She told me it sounded a little sad at first, but it got happier. We talked about it and she made the connection to “nice words.”
“The song sings nice words to Jesus!” she said.
It thrilled my heart to be in such a holy atmosphere as we rode quietly and were led in worship by a child, not yet four years old, singing along with Misty in the back seat.
“Lord, you have my song…..I’m so in love with you, I’m so in love with you, Jeeeesus.”
They asked Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”
“Yes,” Jesus replied. “Haven’t you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, ‘You have taught children and infants to give you praise.’” (Matthew 21:16)
Remember Your word to Your servant;
You have given me hope through it.
This is my comfort in my affliction:
Your promise has given me life.
(Psalm 119:49, 50)
I’ve received a lot of God’s comfort and joy and faithfulness in the last two months.
On Monday I had minor surgery to biopsy something that ought not to be there. The early doctors’ consultations were not at all good. Because the specialist was out of the country the wait was much longer than I would have liked, but it was exactly the length the Lord planned. That’s how long it took for me to stop listening to the fears and start listening to the promises He has given me. It will still take ten days for the final report, but the surgeon found something fix-able and said these kind were nearly always benign. For that I praise God and am extremely grateful, but more I thank him for his comfort in the night and his assurance that he would never let me go.
I love you, Lord.
Be clothed with humility, for
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
(1 Peter 5:5)
Charis: Subject to Change 