"One thing I have asked of the Lord, that shall I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple." Psalm 27:4 (NASB)
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 (NIV)
A time of sittingat His feet. Listening. Learning. Sharing.
"She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he said." Luke 10:39 (NIV)
"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
I wish you a Mary Christmas.
A fragrance-filledChristmas.
A time of stayingat His feet. Praying. Worshiping. Rejoicing.
"This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair." John 11:2 (NIV)
"But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 (NIV)
I wish you a Mary Christmas.
A faith-filled Christmas.
A time of submittingat His feet. Receiving. Clinging. Trusting.
"When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'" John 11:32 (NIV)
"But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation." Psalm 13:5 (NIV)
I wish you a Mary Christmas.
Not just today. But every day.
"I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered." Luke 1:38a
"And Mary said, 'My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant." Luke 1:46-48
Unconventional! But isn't that what Jesus was? Can you feel the joy?
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)
I gripped that steaming hot, tall, black coffee. Sniffed the heady aroma. Barred myself from even a sip. No spilling in the car or down the front of my Sunday outfit. Or scalding myself. Savored the anticipation.
Picked it up on the way home from church. Well, after eating and running a couple errands. Planned to curl up with it and a good book.
Our local Biggby Coffee. I love it there. I love the folks who work there. So cheerful. So helpful. I'm usually on the run. But I could sit in there. Relax. With a book or my 'puter. I'd feel so . . . so . . . writerly.
I think I could even work there. And B-Happy.
Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever met a Biggby I didn't like. But I digress.
Hurry, Dennis, hurry! Go faster! Must go faster!
Getting out of car. Juggling stuff. My purse. The coffee. Something else. I reached to hit the garage door closer thingie.
And the cup. Went. Splat!
Upside down. Top and bottom separated. Rose Dog's toys now suspended in frozen java.
I wailed.
I posted my sorry state on Twitter and Facebook. I just wanted a little sympathy and compassion for my distress.
And BiggbyBob replied. He wasn't even my friend. Then.
"So sorry. What can we do?"
"Do you deliver?" I responded.
And then I got another message. Bigg-hearted Biggby wants to replace my coffee. Not once. But double for my trouble. And it wasn't even their fault!
They didn't have to do it. Some might say it's a great marketing thing. But I choose to believe they care.
A random act of kindness.
A gift I'll pass it on.
What random act of kindness have you done or experienced lately?
"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." Colossians 3:12 (NIV)
"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway." ~Mother Teresa
A Facebook friend posted this a couple days. I raised my hand. "Me too! Me too!"
Especially when it comes to temple care. Like in diet and exercise. In fact, here's me getting physical.
This little dude pretty much sums up slothfulness. Inactivity plus. A disinclination to work or exert oneself. Think sloooowwwww. Or not at all.
Sluggard.
Slothfulness is even considered one of the seven deadly sins. Especially if you are spiritually slothful. Not such a great thing. In fact, early Christians apparently thought of it as a surrender to despair.
A German proverb says, "For the diligent, a week has seven days; for the slothful, seven tomorrows."
Proverbs 10:4 in the Message says, "Sloth makes you poor; diligence brings wealth."
Okay--so slow, lazy, undisciplined, negligent, apathetic. Not so good. I so get that.
But I learned some cool stuff about sloths.
They spend most of their lives upside down. God designed them to have a very good grip.
Sloths can live up to be 30 to 40 years old. Some even stay in the same tree for years. Under the protective branches. Camouflaged by a coating of algae. Not flying out in the open or running around on the ground. They live a simple life.
They are not lazy. Just slow moving. In fact, the sloth is the slowest mammal on earth. It doesn't live in a state of frantic activity.
They have a low metabolic rate and low body temperature at 91 degrees. So I guess you'd say they seldom get "steamed."
Because they don't have a lot of energy, their need for food and water is kept at a minimum. They can be content with little.
Besides the dolphin, the sloth is probably the only other mammal that continually smiles.
A Japan-based, world-wide Sloth Club actually exists, basing its philosophy on the quiet, peaceful, efficient sloth: "less, slower, nonviolent." We could take a lesson.
And then I found this picture.
And I thought, "Wow!" I don't want to be slothful. But I do want to be a baby sloth! Nestled and at perfect peace in my Father's hand.
How about you? Wouldn't you rather be a sloth?
"The fool sits back and takes it easy. His sloth is slow suicide." Ecclesiastes 4:5 (The Message)
"My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me." Psalm 63:8 (NIV)
My dad is the jigsaw puzzle king. At gift-giving time, we take on the major challenge of finding a puzzle that's a major challenge. One that takes longer than a couple days to put together. He has slapped together 3D, edgeless, and double-sided ones. I think my sister finally found one that took him a month. She wins the prize!
Dad never boxes the puzzles back up. The 3D Capitol sits atop the entertainment center. Others are glued to cardboard, covered with plastic wrap and hung all over the house.
He gave us one to work on when we were home for Thanksgiving. "We" means Gracee and me. But it was mostly Lee and me. Only 500 pieces. It took us an evening. Lee set the box top up so we could see the picture while we worked. I told him that was cheating and put it down. Then I put it back up. I needed to cheat.
At one point, we scoured the floor and down our shirts for missing pieces. Only to find them camouflaged on top of the puzzle. More than once I looked and looked for a piece that turned out to be right in front of my face the whole time. And, of course, sometimes, as we put one piece in, we knocked several out of place and had to repair the damage.
When we were close to the finish, we had 5 holes and 5 pieces that didn't fit. So we had to search for pieces that had appeared to fit but really didn't.
We enjoyed looking at that puzzle for a day and then broke it apart and dumped it back in the box.
We do have a couple of puzzles that we worked on when Abby was pregnant. Those are glued together and stored in a closet still waiting for frames. One of them has a missing piece that in seven years has never turned up.
Life is often compared to a puzzle.
We're all born out of plain brown boxes. And then the box is gone. Can't climb back it.
No pictures to show us how all the jigs and jags of our lives will eventually fit. It's a no-cheating zone. No matter how we try, we will never find all the pieces or make all the pieces fit. And there will always seem to be pieces missing. Only God knows the ultimate picture. Only God knows how it all fits together. And His glue holds it together.
The Bible tells us that He makes everything in the lives of His children work together for good. In His time. Our lifetime.
A very wise pastor once told me that everything will come together when all the pieces get together. But it will be something beautiful! No missing pieces. Puzzle complete. Picture perfect.
Are you working too hard to put it all together? Can you rest and let Him do all the work? Can you trust that it will be beautiful?
"We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] that all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose." Romans 8:28 - Amplified Bible
Also known as Sandy and even Snady--the result of a typo that stuck.
Bible teacher and inspirational writer. Former OR/PH/office nurse who keeps license intact--just in case.
