While sifting through the comments on my blog awhile back, I came across one remark which had absolutely nothing to do with anything I’d written on my post. Truthfully, I’m not even sure she read the story. For some strange reason, I held off pushing the delete permanently button; allowing this person’s words to wash over my heart again and again. I marveled that a total stranger’s words, randomly shared on a blog she accidentally stumbled upon because she just “…had to share her story with someone”, could connect so deeply in my heart. I sensed God’s Fingerprints all over this!
A young, single mom, living on the California coast went on to explain how she’d taken her four-year-old daughter, Emmy, for a walk on the beach that day earlier. As they strolled along, kicking up loose sand with bare toes; Mom picked up a shell lying on the beach nearby. Reminded of her own childhood, she showed it to Emmy. Mom explained to her how God had hidden the sounds of the ocean’s crashing waves down inside of the shell. Delighted, Emmy reached for the shell and pressed it up against her ear. Just as quickly, Emmy dropped the beautiful shell, screaming and holding her ear, crying out, “Ouchy! Ouchy!”
Puzzled by her daughter’s reaction to what promised only to be a beautiful, Mother-Daughter moment on the beach, Mom picked up the shell again. Cautiously, she examined it, soon discovering a disgruntled sand crab, the size of a quarter, hiding down inside of it! Mom laughed until she cried while Emmy just continued to cry! What had begun as only the shell of a past experience for Mom, ended for little Emmy as a very crabby beginning to her day on the beach!
Every new day holds its own promises for each of us. Sometimes, without warning, those bright promises can turn into questions and speculations that number the grains of sand on the seashore. Life is a lot like this mother and daughter’s walk on the California beach that day. One moment you can be walking in the sands of time, content with the promise of the familiar and the beautiful up ahead of you; and the next you are crying out in pain, wincing from the unexpected…or the unwanted.
Though this mom couldn’t foresee what little Emmy never expected…the same is not true of us in our own life. You see, we walk with a God Who Sees our life before we encounter it; even those unexpected things hidden in the darkness.
“He [God] changes times and seasons, He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in the darkness, and light dwells with Him.” (Daniel 2)
We walk through the sands of Time with the God who promises His children this:
“I have created you and cared for you since you were born. I will be your God throughout all your lifetime…” “I will carry you along and be your Savior.” (Isaiah 46)
What better promises than these are there for the moments, days, weeks, and years up ahead of us? After all, we know Who holds our hands…Who Directs our hearts… and Who Lights our darkness. Now, let’s just choose to let Him do it… while we kick some sand, walking with Jesus along our own beaches, blanketed with the Sands of Time.
HEART TRAPPINGS:
Have you ever seen the Fingerprints of God in your own life? Where, in your own life, have you encountered people, stories, or circumstances so unusually placed, perfectly timed, or profoundly simple, they captured your attention long enough to change your heart’s thinking forever? What will be your response the next time you encounter the un-expected in the middle of your life’s beautiful? Whose Beach are you walking on? Whose Hand are you holding? Whose Light is lighting your way?
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, countless times I’ve walked the Sands of Time with You. Too often, I confess that when my hopes have been dashed, plans abruptly changed, the un-expected tramples me, or death snatches a loved one away; I am prone to behave more like little Emmy on the beach with her mom. I turn loose of Your Hand and run away from You, crying and wincing in pain. Help me realize I have turned loose of the only Hand that can Help me…the Only Eyes I can trust to Guide me…and the only Light I have in my darkness. Thank You for seeing my life even before I encounter it. Teach me to trust You more and to Seas the Moments I spend with You in the Sands of this Life!
New Year’s Day marks the beginning of a brand-new beginning. Ironically, this new beginning for me, always begins with putting the pieces of the old year away. Christmas trees and ornaments go back into their boxes, festive holiday dishes are slipped back into the darkness of the buffet once more, and all the greenery and lights we strung up to warm our hearts throughout the Christmas season are suddenly stripped away. In that first week after New Year’s Day, the stark barrenness of my own severely, un-adorned house nearly overwhelms me. But then I remember I still have what I ‘ve come to call, my ‘Christmas leftovers’ to look forward to. Those things left behind from the un-decorating process that never made it into the storage closet or the trash. Each time I run on to one of them, they become the hints of a season gone by that enable me to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the memory of Christmas just a little further into the new year. These leftovers can be something as simple as a run-away ornament that rolled under my couch, or a Christmas cup still stored in the recesses of the dishwasher. Other times, they’ve been a belated Christmas card re-discovered in a stack of mail, or even the surprise discovery of a forgotten tin of pizzelles, hiding out at the back of the pantry. This year, however, one of those Christmas leftovers surfaced in a most unusual place! It turned up in one of the farthest corners of my own heart. Much to my surprise, it was hidden right out in plain sight…as if beckoning to be found once more.
All of my former Christmas leftovers, up until now, transported me backwards to treasured memories… but this one was different. It was propelling me forward, into the new year. 2024 was scrawled across the top of it, in an all too familiar Handwriting, The Fingerprints of God were all over this memory. I recognized it to be the Macy’s department store, 2023 Christmas commercial! It’s beautiful and inspiring message had touched my heart from the beginning! Even reminiscing over its contents once again was all it took to re-capture my whole heart!
This commercial begins with a father who is trying to keep up with his six-year-old son, doing some Christmas shopping inside a Macy’s store. The son is the only one shopping. First, he samples a generous squirt of men’s cologne. Nose wrinkled and shaking his head, he walks away, climbing on the escalator with his dad. Jumping off on another floor, we see him racing in a new direction. We watch this little boy trying out cookware on his own. It’s obvious he’s out to find the perfect gift for someone. Maybe his mom…or even his dad? As the camera pans a red-satin bedspread adorned with white fur; this little guy takes a flying leap and lands on his back in that bed, where he begins making a snow angel in the midst of all that white fur. Adorable! Even that’s not good enough for him. (By now we know that mom is holding a spot for her son in the l-o-n-g line of kids waiting to see Santa) Knowing time is growing short, we see both dad and son bolting through the store to get to mom in time. When the boy passes by the toy department, he quickly shields his eyes from even being tempted to look in the direction of all the toys he loves. Once again, adorable! Just as mom steps to the front of the long line, the little boy comes running up behind her. Then, he walks over to Santa, holding something behind his back. As the little boy steps in front of Santa, he presents him with a pair of men’s designer slippers, all tied-up with a red satin bow.
“For you…” the boy tells Santa in his raspy voice. “This is for after work.” He adds with a smile of satisfaction.
Needless to say, this little boy’s selfless gesture renders Santa speechless. In the last scene, Santa’s face radiates uncontainable joy, and the little boy knows in his heart he’s chosen him the perfect gift. The bold caption which appears on the screen over them both in this moment reads:
“GIVE LOVE”! “GIVE STYLE!”
Obviously, this inspiring commercial more than captures the spirit of love and giving. But every time I watched this commercial on T.V. something else stood out to me too. It was this little boy’s thankful heart. He displays an unexpected devotion towards Santa, for who he is and for all the good gifts Santa’s brought to him over his young life. Such devotion and appreciation are rare. It can’t be seen in the long line of kids still waving their ‘gimme’ lists in Santa’s direction. In the wisdom of a little child, this young boy miraculously grasps the importance of giving over getting. He sees value in expressing a heartfelt ‘thank you’ instead of just becoming another of this world’s endless ‘gimmes.’ Though the commercial portrays a pair of designer slippers as being the perfect gift…I believe it was the rare and beautiful gift of this one little boy’s grateful heart that moved Santa’s own heart beyond words!
I share this Christmas leftover with you because I believe God placed it in that corner of my heart for a much greater purpose. This leftover wasn’t about me and my memories this time…it was about remembering Him. This commercial magnifies, in a very real way, the grateful heart that God desires all of His children to have as they stand before Him. When I look at the little boy in Macy’s commercial…I see him as so much more than an adorable marketing strategy to boost yearly sales. He is a picture of adoration and awe, devotion and thankfulness as he stands in the presence of his gift-giver. In a world full of gimme hearts, this boy’s grateful heart stands out far, far above the rest. And so should the hearts of all of God’s children.
Our God is so worthy of every thankyou our lips will ever spill forth in praise before Him; plus, ten thousand more besides. He is the Greatest Gift-Giver our hearts will ever experience. He’s given us the Greatest Gift mankind has ever, or will ever, know since the beginning of time: His Only Son, Jesus, our Savior. Should not our own hearts respond by giving Him, the greatest “Thankyou” we’ve ever offered to Him? You see, the praise and thankyous flowing from a grateful heart, are also good indicators of our spiritual health.
As you and I step into this coming New Year, may the greatest desire of our lives be to become a more extravagant display of our devotion and appreciation to the Lord; in a world growing ever more saturated with gimme hearts. Much like the little boy who captured my heart in the Macy’s commercial; may we strive to walk out our lives in 2024, with more grateful hearts. God is constantly giving us more than we need or deserve. It’s His Goodness and Generosity that should spur us on towards living out of a more grateful heart. A heart that is filled with genuine devotion for our Greatest Gift-Giver; so that our own lives and actions will become His living testimonies on earth. You see, we are His commercials in this world, meant to play out our roles in 2024 in a way that captures every eye, and points every heart towards God’s Love, Generosity, Mercy, Forgiveness and Unending Grace. As we stand in the Presence of our Generous Gift-Giver at the end of every day; I pray the advertising tagline, written in bold letters over our heads reads something like this:
“GIVE LOVE…GOD STYLE…WITH A GRATEFUL HEART!”
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your Name; to declare Your Lovingkindness in the morning, and Your Faithfulness every night.”
(Psalms 92: 1-2 NIV)
Heart Trappings Prayer:
Dearest Father in Heaven, You alone are our Greatest Gift-Giver. You are so worthy to receive our thanks and praise. You remind us in Your word that ‘Giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors You” (Ps. 50:23). Please enable us to do so, knowing this is the way to keep our own ‘gimme’ hearts in right relationship with You. Keep us from forgetting that You are our Greatest Gift in life. Strengthen us and continue to teach us how to live before you in this coming new year, out of the abundance of a grateful heart.
As the end of October arrives, the radiant foliage that captured and raptured our hearts for much too short a time, has all but disappeared now. There’s an uninvited crispness hanging in the air, further reminding us that fall has truly fallen…and the first frost has permission to brush its icy masterpieces onto the faces of every pumpkin growing in the pumpkin patches all around town!
As a little girl, I can remember my heart racing at the first thought of making a trip to Jackson’s Pumpkin Patch, with my brothers and three younger cousins. My mom and my aunt drove us there nearly every year. It was the highlight of our October! Dressed in our warmest sweaters, my brothers, cousins, and I raced through the pumpkin patch in opposite directions with one idea in mind. To pick a pumpkin we could call our very own! After an hour of what we kids liked to call, search and rescue in the pumpkin patch; each of us toted our selections back to the car. My brothers loaded the six pumpkins we chose into the trunk of my aunt’s car, while mom found a place alongside of them for twelve muddy shoes. Then we headed back home to enjoy the hot spiced cider and doughnuts mom set out for us before carving our pumpkins. With very little help from the adults, six sets of children’s hands went to work, eagerly designing our personal pumpkin heads. With bursts of laughter and occasional sighs of frustration echoing out of our hollowed-out pumpkins; we all sliced and diced and scraped; poked, prodded, and pulled-out everything that hindered our pumpkin heads from becoming the masterpieces we intended them to be. Their expressions ranged from cute…to comical…to creepy (my brothers pumpkins were always the creepy ones). But nothing our own hands carved that day could’ve brought those pumpkins to life any more than the candles we placed down inside of them when we were finished. The moment my mom lit a match, and its flickering flame collided with the tips of the candlewicks; a magical transformation occurred inside each of our pumpkins. For us kids, it was like watching new life explode inside each pumpkin head! Every beautiful expression carved… came alive in that moment! Needless to say, our own faces lit-up at the sight of them, too! When darkness fell that evening, we carried our new creations outside and lined them up on the front porch step for all the world to see. After all, who wouldn’t want to share something so beautiful?
Every one of those pumpkins we carved as kids, had its own unique story to tell the watching world. Because of the willing hands of a few young carvers that day, every pumpkin head’s story was literally transformed from its former life in the pumpkin patch; into a story of light…not of darkness anymore. You see, the carver is the pumpkin’s only hope in this world!
Though you and I are anything but a pumpkin in this world, still…a pumpkin’s journey from the pumpkin patch to our own front porches; uniquely points our hearts towards the process of what it’s like to become a child of God:
The Pumpkin Patch!
–Much like a pumpkin, God (The Heavenly Carver) sees you in a field ripe for harvest; and runs for you. Then He picks you up, washes the dirt off you, and calls you His very own. You become His chosen treasure.
God tells our own hearts this in His Word: “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away.” (Ezekiel 36:5a NLT)
The doorway leading to the pumpkin’s heart.
–The pumpkin, at this point, knows the carver can be fully trusted. The pumpkin invites the hand of the carver in, willingly surrendering as the carver works to make a new opening in the pumpkin’s hard outer shell.
God tells our own hearts this in His Word: “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, I will come in…” (Revelation 3:20a NLT)
The carver wields the blade of his knife deep into the heart of the yielding pumpkin.”
–The carver’s hand again, wields his blade deeper into the pumpkin’s heart…removing all the seeds of sin, doubt, lust, impurities…cutting away the excess…scraping and smoothing its walls; all in preparation for the gift of light the carver plans to leave inside of the pumpkin.
God tells our own hearts this in His Word: “I will take out your stoney, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you…” (Ezekiel 36:26a,27a NLT).
The carver places his gift of ‘light’ inside of the heart of his pumpkin!
–No pumpkin on its own can ever come to know this priceless gift of light inside of it without the touch of the carver’s hand.
God tells our own hearts this in His Word:
“Your lives light up the world! So don’t hide your light! Let it shine brightly before others, so that your commendable works will shine as light upon them, and then they will give their praise to your heavenly Father in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:14a, 16 TPT)
The Carver calls you out of darkness to ‘experience’ His Gift of Light for yourselves.
Only the carver’s hand can give the pumpkin new eyes to see with…eyes capable of seeing far beyond the darkness of the old life it once knew, sitting in the dirt of the pumpkin patch. Finally, the carver’s blade leaves the pumpkin with a giant smile…reflecting to the watching world, that nothing in life compares to the gift of being cleaned from the inside out! Seedless… the pumpkin now gratefully, bears the precious light of the carver himself!
–God tells our own hearts this in His Word: “But you are God’s chosen treasure, set apart as God’s devoted ones. He (The Heavenly Carver) called you out of darkness to experience His marvelous Light, and now He claims you as His very Own. He did this so that you would broadcast His Glorious Wonders throughout the world. For at one time, you were not God’s [children] but now you are. At one time, you knew nothing of God’s Mercy, because you hadn’t received it yet, but now…YOU ARE DRENCHED with it!” (1Peter 2:9b, 10 TPT)
HEART TRAPPINGS PRAYER:Thank you for choosing us, Lord…for rescuing our souls from this world’s deep darkness and placing Your priceless gift of Light down inside of us. Our hearts are so grateful for the Gift of new eyes to see with…eyes now capable of seeing life from Your Beautiful Perspective. May ‘our eyes never fail to see there’s great delight in following Your ways’ (Proverbs 23:26). As Your Own personal creations…Your Masterpieces… You set us out on the doorsteps of this world to shine for You. So those living in the darkness of this world ‘will see your beautiful works and have a reason to glorify You…’ (1Peter2:12b TPT). May we never forget that we are chosen by Your Hand and uniquely fashioned…to BE THE LIGHT OF THIS WORLD! Empower us to do just that until You come back for us. IN JESUS NAME… AMEN
My children and my grandchildren all climbed into the arms of this Cottonwood Giant, to see if they could, “Touch the sky!”
“BE STILL AND THOUGHTFUL,”
SAID THE WISE OLD TREE.
“LIFE MAY SEEM LONG,
BUT TIME WILL FLEE.”
–Angie Weiland Crosby–
___________________________
A Place of Grace
by Debbie Allen
Every night on the news, I hear story after story of the chaos, upheaval, and tragedies that ensue after a hurricane ravages a distant coastline; a tsunami washes away an entire village along with all the people living there, or some dormant volcano erupts unexpectedly, in a faraway country; its fiery lavas sweeping over every living thing in its pathway. These are tragedies most of us will only find ourselves caught in the middle of, when we’re watching a Hollywood disaster movie on our big-screen T. V., while being blown away by the winds of our own earsplitting surround-sound system. Yes…our adrenaline levels may rise to new and unprecedented heights during some of the more intense scenes, but nothing life-altering will ever come from the experience; unlike the headline stories mentioned above. Disaster only becomes life-changing for us, when it strikes us personally. When we suddenly, find our own hands and our own feet entrenched in the uninvited chaos, upheaval, and sometimes tragic aftermath of a disaster that becomes an uninvited part of our life’s story forever. Sometimes you only have to travel as far as your own back yard for a personal encounter with calamity. But even a backyard-disaster can strike with enough force to leave your heart changed forever!
My husband and I live in a 55yr-old brick, tri-level with a backyard the size of a football field. When we moved here many decades ago, there were three young cottonwood trees growing across the back portion of our yard. From the very beginning, the tree in the middle was dubbed our favorite. Three separate trunks grew out of the ground to form that one tree. Oh, if only that tree could talk… the stories it could tell! Its branches might speak of the countless variety of birds who built nests and hatched nestlings in its forks. Or perhaps it remembers the hoot owls who perched in its treetop at midnight; to survey the rich hunting grounds below. Maybe the incessant chattering of the squirrels stands out…the squirrels who daily turned its branches into highways and escape routes to flee on; after taunting all the neighborhood dogs. In later years, after my three boys came along, those branches provided shelter and cool shade over the sandbox they played in beneath them. Eventually, every umbrella-like branch enticed all my boys to climb up into the tree; sometimes much higher than I liked! Oh… how they’d laugh at mom’s horrified reaction to seeing them braving such great heights! That is… until their own sons and daughters came along and learned to climb just as high! For many years on Easter Sunday, we hid plastic eggs in the forks of that cottonwood for my grandchildren to find. Occasionally, I even coaxed my grown sons to climb back up on those branches and sit with their wives, long enough for me to snap their picture! Even in my sons’ adult years, the aged arms of that tree still found the strength to hold them up. Yes…that faithful, old tree was heavy-laden with countless adventure stories, and family memories that spanned the course of 46 years.
The effects of time ravages all living things; and our cottonwood tree was no exception. Its once giant trunk, whose sturdy branches and leafy fingers beckoned to all my children, “Come on! Climb up! Come touch the sky!” now stood in my backyard as more of a silent memorial. Stripped of its former glory by time, weather, and tree trimmers, and missing two of its three main trunks; what was left standing looked more like a 30ft. monstrous sling shot…without the sling. Unwilling to part with its remains yet, my husband left it standing, knowing he would someday soon, be forced to cut it down.
Time passed and Jim’s “someday soon” never came, but something else did. The backyard disaster I spoke about earlier. It was a perfect summer evening. Not even a breeze was blowing. No rain was falling, no lightning cracking, and no thunder boomers rumbling across the sky. The fragrance of freshly mowed grass still lingered in the warm sunshine; still left from Jim’s mowing just an hour earlier. Looking out across our backyard you would not have seen any sign of calamity whatsoever lurking on our horizon. And yet…disaster struck! Overwhelmed by the sheer dead weight of its own unstable trunk; this backyard-giant finally toppled to the ground with a thunderous blow! Remnants of loose bark and rotted twigs flew in every direction. In the interval of dead silence that followed, Jim and I caught sight of our cottonwood’s corpse lying motionless on the ground. We headed straight for it. Running towards this chaotic scene, my mind raced; trying to stifle the skewed whispers of the voice echoing inside my head. With great persistence, that voice tried its best to stir up anger inside of me concerning what just happened:
“I told you so! That tree should’ve been cut down a l-o-n-g time ago; and THIS…THIS wouldn’t have happened!”
“What if one of your GRANDCHILDREN had been ON that slide when that tree fell across IT???”
The thought of my grandchildren being involved in ANY way in this scene knocked the breath right out of me. But I knew choosing anger would’ve only added to the chaos in front of me. Two weeks earlier, I’d prayed, asking God to take away the worry and fear I’d connected to that tree and the danger of it falling on someone. I remembered ending my prayer with these words: “Lord…this tree is way too big for me to handle…so I’m putting it in Your Hands.”
Standing ankle-deep in scattered bark and debris, my heart sensed this was more than just a backyard-disaster. As I stood there surveying the tree and recalling the words to my prayer; I began to see God’s Fingerprints all over the trunk of that giant corpse! All my heart could do in that moment was to praise and thank my God for toppling that huge cottonwood right WHERE He did…right WHEN He did…and just HOW He did! I clearly recognized it was by the Grace of God that the only thing we lost that day was the slide on a jungle-gym swing set. However, what I gained was a renewed perspective and a fresh reminder for my heart of what it looks and feels like to be found standing in the midst of what I’m going to call, ‘a place of Grace.’ The place where the air is so thick and rich with the active Presence of God; there’s no denying it.
“What I gained in that moment was a renewed perspective and a fresh reminder for my heart, of what it looks and feels like to be found standing in the midst of ‘a place of Grace.’
In the book of Acts, one of God’s most faithful servants, Barnabas, describes perfectly what I mean by the phrase, ‘a place of Grace.’ Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to Antioch, Greece; specifically, to see for himself all the evidence of the undeniable work God was doing in the peoples’ lives; concerning salvation. It took Barnabas no time at all to recognize the reality of God’s active Presence there, too. Scriptures tell it this way:
“As soon as [Barnabas] arrived, he saw that God was behind and in it all.”(Acts 11:23a CSB)
“God was behind and in it all.” What an amazing revelation when our hearts perceive such a miracle! How many times in life have we missed seeing God’s Fingerprints in the midst of our tribulation? When disaster strikes us and the pieces of our world come crashing down around us; how often do we fail to recognize that our own feet may be standing in our own ‘place of Grace’? Too often, we miss seeing it because our eyes are looking down, focused only on the chaos and devastation surrounding us. God’s solution to this dilemma is found in Isaiah 40, where He reminds us to, “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens.” For it’s in those moments when we choose to do so, that the eyes of our hearts are opened to see God ‘behind and in it all.’ We can’t see something we’re not even looking for.
From ancient times to the present day, whether witnessing an unbelievable spiritual transformation, or standing in the midst of our own backyard tribulation, our hearts are transformed in those times when we lift up our eyes and acknowledge that our feet have been planted in ‘a place of Grace.’ In this place…our hearts are strengthened, and our devotion deepened to the reality of the living and active Presence of God, in every detail of both our lives and our struggles. You see, finding your feet planted in ‘a place of Grace’ isn’t all-about-us. It’s about God, and the unfathomable extravagance of the ways He chooses to demonstrate His Love, Care, and Divine Favor in each of our lives.
“Sometimes God allows somethingin your life that only He can fix, so that YOU will get to see thatHe is the ONE who can fix it.” -Tony Evans–
HEART TRAPPINGS PRAYER
Lord, thank you for hearing all the cries of Your children’s hearts. We live in a world filled with impending disasters waiting to happen. We never know when one of them might come crashing down around us. You work in our every affliction to bring good out of it. When we are standing in the middle of chaos and upheaval…enable us to “lift up our eyes and see” that You, Lord, are “behind and in it all.” Grant us eyes and hearts that recognize when our own feet have been planted in ‘a place of Grace’. For even in our suffering, your Spirit provides a fresh experience of Your Love, Care, and Divine Favor in our lives. We cry out like Job, asking You to help us to “lay our cause before You. You perform wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.” (Job 5: 8-9 NIV). Yes, the troubles of this world are many and great…but You are so much Greater! Like Your word tells us, “There is no one like You!” Thank you, Lord, for loving us and refreshing our hearts in the amazing ways that you do.
Spring has long been thought of as a season of new beginnings. Birds are singing again, bees are buzzing, and sleepy-eyed bears stumble from caverns of darkness into warm sunshine after long winter naps. The once cold, and lifeless soils of a season gone by now teem with the tiny, green shoots of newborn daffodils, crocus, and tulips. Trees mysteriously, unveil both buds and fragrant blossoms, bursting forth on barren branches as a reminder to our winter-dulled senses of the coming beauty this new season holds! Though it’s true these thoughts all lay at the heart of the Story of Spring, there is something much deeper and more profound than you can imagine still pressed between its pages. if we thumb through the story too quickly, our hearts are apt to miss it.
Many years ago, when I was still dating my husband, Jim, Spring came and almost went unnoticed. The world was in bloom all around me but, I was too preoccupied to dote on its beauty. I was a busy twenty-year-old, working full-time as a checker in the same grocery store where I met Jim. At the time, I was also living in an apartment located extremely close to a set of railroad tracks. The rent price was right, or my roommate and I would’ve chosen very differently. The novelty of living by those railroad tracks wore off quickly every time the train whistle blew at midnight, and the intense vibrations from the train going by, sent the knick-knacks on my windowsill crashing to the floor. As it ended up, the good that came from living next to those train tracks far outweighed these nuisances!
One night, I returned home from work to find a beautiful bunch of Spring flowers in a vase on the kitchen table.
My roommate explained, “Your sweetheart brought them to you…or should I say, he ran them to you!”
Seeing my puzzled expression, she went on to explain that Jim, with flowers in hand, ran the train tracks stretching between his house and my apartment that night, just to bring me flowers! He intended to surprise me before he went away on a trip to California for a week. I called him every night he was gone to thank him for those beautiful flowers! Though I regretted missing him that night, the fragrance and beauty of those flowers became a lingering reminder of his sweet presence in my life. They pointed me to the kind of man Jim was, and to the special love we shared. No one had ever done anything like that for me before. As I stood out on the balcony that evening, looking down on those railroad tracks, I could only envision Jim running towards me with those flowers in his hand. My heart beat faster just thinking about it. There was something beyond special about being pursued in that way…and I’ve never forgotten it.
That Spring season in my young life made an indelible mark on my heart. Not only did God provide me a beautiful picture of the heart of the man I was going to marry; He allowed my heart to see the image of Jim, running down those tracks toward me with flowers in his hand, as a stunning reflection of the way the Lord Himself pursues each of our hearts with His Love. Intentionally…Faithfully…and Relentlessly!
Not a Spring has passed since this time that I don’t look out my kitchen bay window and see the bold, bright colors of returning wildflowers, and the fragrant, pastel blossoms of the plum tree branches, as anything less than the flowers God is holding in His Hand…while He’s running towards my heart every Spring. They are the fragrant reminders of His Love and Sweet Presence in my life. The Lord’s Love for us is the greatest reason I can think of for calling Spring, ‘The Season of Love.’
Nothing on earth compares to being relentlessly pursued by the Lover of our souls. Through every facet of beauty planted inside the Spring season, I sense God enticing our hearts to experience for ourselves the depth of Love He feels towards us. Much like the bouquet of flowers Jim surprised me with so many years ago; every petal and blossom of Spring expresses in its own way, the Lord’s desire to ‘be with us’ all the days of our lives. Every Fragrance is a sweet reminder of the Eternal Love He offers us, until His return. With knowledge of such a Great Love pursuing us every moment of every day of our life; why would we choose to run in any other direction but towards Him? That’s a question each of us must answer for ourselves. What will be your response, when you look down the tracks of your life and see the Lover of your soul running towards you, Flowers in Hand, in Pursuit of your heart?
“Your unfailing love is better than life itself…”
(Psalm 63:3 NIV)
HEART TRAPPINGS PRAYER
HEART TRAPPINGS PRAYER: Father, my heart is so thankful You are the Lover of my soul. As the beauty of Spring surrounds us, enable our winter-dulled senses to see You truly are the Beauty found in the midst of every fold and flower in this season! King David cried out more than once, “Your Love is better than life!” Spring echoes this same cry in its own way at every turn. There is not one corner of creation that isn’t somehow a reflection of Your living Hope, Love, and Faithfulness. As You did for my own heart years ago, grant each one of us a fresh vision of Your Intentional…Faithful…and Relentless Love, always in Pursuit of our hearts! We love You beyond words, Lord.
IN JESUS NAME…AMEN
With knowledge of such a Great Love pursuing us every moment of every day of our life; why would we choose to run in any other direction but towards Him?
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