Category: Simple Beauty

Thing Are Looking Up

At the bottom of life, down here.

Sunday 16 February 2025

Way Up There!

There’s Light

Up There!

Isaiah 40:29

He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.

2 Corinthians 12:9

… but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

We want so much, when we think we have so little.

We beg for more, more, more.

And then Jesus shows us that

God’s Grace is everything for us

and God gives it freely to us

again and again.

In all our tiredness and hopeless powerlessness,

the Spirit moves us and shows us again

Christ’s power in us,

through us,

for others.

Looking Back

Trusting Forward

Monday 3 February 2025

As the shadows lengthen,

the day of life coming to a close,

remember –

blessed Light

Ezra 8:31

Then we left the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem; the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes along the way.

2 Timothy 3:11

… my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

What memories I have, of trials, of lies, of abuse, of un-earned prison, of false judgments, of concerted efforts to destroy our reputations, of rejections, of false accusations, of being told to leave, of being forced to leave town …

of surviving, by God’s grace alone, when all else had failed,

yet being loved profoundly,

of experiencing God’s walking along with me,

of trust rebuilt from the foundations of life,

of many helping in small ways and huge ways,

of being dependent yet free,

of living the dream (hard as it turns out to be).

I’m sure you have your memories of life’s challenges as well.

Hopefully you have known and remember that God has walked with you through them, not removing them or resolving them, but equipping you to endure them to whichever end, theirs or yours, and knowing you are blessed to know life in it’s fullest and most truthful blessedness.

With the memories of God’s blessing in the past comes a hard-won trust in God’s promises for our futures.

Moving into today … all will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.

All-Everything

God

Sunday, October 6, 2024

Even Our Grandest Views of God’s Beautiful Creation,

Pale Compared to

God’s Love

Made Visible in Us Loving Each Other,

Even Our Enemies.

Isaiah 40:15

Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales; see, he takes up the isles like fine dust.

Romans 3:29

Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

The muck we get ourselves into is most often rooted in our forgetting or rather refusing to remember

that God is Almighty, Omniscient, Onmipresent, and all the other Everythings that God is, Divine, Immortal, All Loving ….

and we think we can get by without God

all on our own.

Thankfully God planned for that

and waits for us to repent, and turn back to God, ask forgiveness (which is already promised and given) and be renewed with the power of the gifts given to us in our baptisms,

even today

no matter what you did yesterday or before.

For God waits

as long as it takes,

for each and every one of us to humbly ask God for forgiveness,

so that we can all be renewed in God’s great, generous, gracious love

by giving the same to others in need.

To Grouse

Or Not to Grouse

Saturday, October 5, 2024

Always, There’s Colour in Our Days.

Seldom A Grouse,

or Reason to.

Jeremiah 14:21

Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonour your glorious throne; remember and do not break your covenant with us.

Romans 11:2

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

how do we know God has not abandoned us?

There’s a landscape that I often see and take photos of. It’s not unlike the landscape painted by the fictional painter Povel Wallander. He painted it, and only it, over and over again, even when he tried to paint something else: a hill, trees of dark outlines with whiter bark, on a background of the north, mostly grey tones, sometimes with a grouse. Sometimes not. These landscapes tell a story about life, but only part of the story. There’s much to be filled in.

The photos that I take, which remind me of Povel’s grey landscapes, seldom show only the grey tones of our north. Most often they burst with colour and light in every season. Only the winter photos show more grey, but even they are pulled towards blues and remind me of taking a familiar jazz piece and putting a new riff into it.

We know that God has not forsaken us because,

even if we think there is much to grouse about,

there are always full colours in our days,

and new riffs in our nights.

Everything

Is Good!? NOT AT ALL!

Friday, September 27, 2024

Some Things, Some Moments, Some People,

Maybe,

But Everything is Good?!?

Com’on, Get Real!

Isaiah 65:18

But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.

1 Timothy 4:4-5

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

Who can say that everything is good!?

Evil abounds.

Rottenness corrupts even the strongest parts of creation, and people most of all.

(Maybe we are the weakest part of creation?)

So how can all be good?

Except neither writer says everything is good.

Both say that what God creates is good.

Then we go and mess it up, making it evil.

So how to not do that?

Probably, given all that is written and experienced through the ages, that is not possible.

Yet today we have the possibility of giving God thanks,

and in giving thanks we help somethings retain their goodness that God created,

even the goodness that God created in us.

So give thanks

for All that God

has created good!

The Personal Ad,

The One Determinative Thing

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Can We See What’s Coming

Psalm 51:12

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

1 Timothy 1:5

But the aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

A personal ran in the newspaper, back when there were such things, that read: Lost, missing for hours or days, it’s hard to tell, last presence evidenced by a note to myself last week. Reward unknown. Oh, lost is my mind. Call me if you find it.

The next ad read: oh, forgot my number, too.

Two days later another personal ran: Found one loose and lost mind, wandering about the back avenues of 3rd and Park, near the Bowling Alley. Call 412-384-9012 if you know of it’s owner.

Three days after that an article on page three ran a story about the happy ending of an old man in his early 90s reunited with his mind that had wandered off during a boring TV program on shellfish, and the young mother of three who had found it engaging her oldest boy over the fence to the alley behind their house.

…

Sometimes, all too often really, it seems we get separated from the one thing that makes such a determinative difference in our lives, the joy of our salvation, namely being found and saved by Jesus. Our stories make about as much sense as the ads and story in that newspaper that summer in New York when it was hot and smoggy and crime was at its worst.

…

So, even when we are not so lost in a fantasy world of liars posing as politicians and people hoping for the impossible (which will lead to the loss of many things basic to democracy and human rights), we too pray,

restore to us the joy of your salvation Lord. For this is the one thing that does not change or get taken from us.

Help us to love You, our neighbour as ourselves, and even our enemies … and all creation (we have to add, since it’s been on the endangered list now for oh too long.)

OR

Would It Be Too Much To Ask …

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Sometimes the Signs are Just Too Obvious Which Way Things Are Going!

Psalm 28:9

O save your people, and bless your heritage; be their shepherd, and carry them for ever.

Matthew 9:36

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

Some days one feels tossed about by the winds of change and the storms of polarities, not just in the environment.

Then it would be a blessing to have a shepherd to guide one to greener pastures and beside still waters.

This God promises.

Let it be so, this day as well.

…

Please.

Please.

Please.

…

…

…

or

give us enough of what is required to make it through this day without messing up too badly or hurting anyone,

especially those who cannot forgive,

and live.

Who Provides

Security

Thursday, August 29, 2024

God Provides It All

Even Beauty.

Job 38:41

Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food?

1 Corinthians 3:7

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

Food security is a major concern,

again,

or still?

People so used to getting food only from a grocery store set about learning to plant, tend, and harvest their own food.

People are, it is said, taking charge and learning about food security.

But even when we plant and water and weed our plants that will grow food for us, only what God provides will make the plants grow and produce food.

Security, though we make lots of efforts to do our part (and must) is only truly possible when we trust God to provide,

as difficult as that may be

when we are so used to providing for our own needs,

even by buying what we need at the store,

with money we have from payment for our labours.

It is such a different attitude towards life, to see not our own efforts (though must continue to give concerted efforts toward providing for ourselves*) as the source of life.

When we live so then *our efforts are not to provide for ourselves, but for our neighbours in need

all around the globe.

And that is a much more difficult enterprise

for our daily lives.

And greatly rewarded by hearts that are familiar with God’s songs of Grace for all people

and all creation.

The Way

Friday 5 January 2024

God’s Wonders For Us To Share Exceed All Our Expectations

Zechariah 8:21

… the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Come, let us go to entreat the favour of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’

Acts of the Apostles 16:15

When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Spreading the word, by example, has been the Way.

The Way of Jesus, as Christians first called themselves.

Paul continued the Way, spreading the News of Jesus to all corners where he travelled, and when people heard, he baptized them.

Now sometimes people were so thankful that, like Lydia, they offered to give what they could in return. Lydia had a home to share with Paul, and Paul stayed there while he was in Philippi.

In other places, when people heard the Good News, even before Jesus’ time, people provided the example for others: “Come,” they have said, “let us go to entreat the favour of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.”

So what are we doing today, if not sharing the Good News, inviting people to entreat the favour of the Lord …

oooopps something is wrong with that.

The Good News is we do not need to entreat the favour of the Lord. The Lord has given everything to invite us, by Grace alone, to receive forgiveness, renewal, and an abundant life.

All given to us, free.

All we have to do is not turn down God’s generous love.

Of course, we are so, so good at turning down, or turning away from God.

Good thing the Good News is that God is more ready and able to forgive and renew life in us over, and over and over again.

And that is the Good News,

that we have to share with all who will listen,

and just maybe,

in return they will help out those left behind and outside the fringe of society.

Our work is cut out for us,

again this day.

Isn’t it tough being gracious, kind, loving, and honest with everyone!

Christmas!

Blessed Christmas!

Monday, December 25, 2023

The Light At Noon,

Is Enough To Show Us

God’s Bright Love.

Isaiah 38:14

Like a swallow or a crane I clamour, I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upwards. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security!

Luke 2:11

… to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Blessed Christmas,

May we not get lost in our efforts,

and let God’s wonders wash over us,

transforming us

and our views

or this world

with love.