Wake up, go for a run, quickly shower and get ready, make sure I have my keys and my transportation pass, walk quickly to the train station, find a seat near the window, and WAIT for the Spirit to speak. Sometimes I am terrible about waiting for His quiet words...I put in my ipod or race through my homework. But when I actually stop, He shows me some magnificent things.
1) All beauty is a gift from Him, a reflection of His very nature. He makes all things new, He blesses the fruit in its season. He removes the scales from our eyes, to see the value in all that is His.
"Surely man is like the flower of the field,
And life is but a vapor, at best but a vapor.
But you O God, are better than a thousand blooms." -Misty Edwards
2) The days I am most joyful are always gifts from Him. Tuesdays are often very long days for me...sometimes I make it to 6pm, exhausted before C. Surfers even begins. I sprint from the classroom to the metro to the train, arriving in Cascais in time to help very little with set-up. And yet I am finding that He has other plans for me. He fills. It is like the great, white sailboats out on the river, that once again begin to glide through the water as twilights draws near. I am filled with a second wind, knowing its origin is not from within. Psalm 28.7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
3) He cherishes His creation. The wildflowers that bloom along the train tracks, the single red bloom among white daisies. The surfers that dance on the water under a bright orange sky. The secluded sea inlet where His heart beats. The careful formed bodies that step in time with His musical creation. Psalm 147.9-11
He gives to the beasts their food,
and to the young ravens that cry.
His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.
1) All beauty is a gift from Him, a reflection of His very nature. He makes all things new, He blesses the fruit in its season. He removes the scales from our eyes, to see the value in all that is His.
"Surely man is like the flower of the field,
And life is but a vapor, at best but a vapor.
But you O God, are better than a thousand blooms." -Misty Edwards
2) The days I am most joyful are always gifts from Him. Tuesdays are often very long days for me...sometimes I make it to 6pm, exhausted before C. Surfers even begins. I sprint from the classroom to the metro to the train, arriving in Cascais in time to help very little with set-up. And yet I am finding that He has other plans for me. He fills. It is like the great, white sailboats out on the river, that once again begin to glide through the water as twilights draws near. I am filled with a second wind, knowing its origin is not from within. Psalm 28.7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
3) He cherishes His creation. The wildflowers that bloom along the train tracks, the single red bloom among white daisies. The surfers that dance on the water under a bright orange sky. The secluded sea inlet where His heart beats. The careful formed bodies that step in time with His musical creation. Psalm 147.9-11
He gives to the beasts their food,
and to the young ravens that cry.
His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.
4) What place have I to call His creation imperfect? For He himself formed my body in the womb, shaping my hands, nose, hips, cheeks. To understand the creation, I must look to the artist. What beauty does He see in the form He has made? What name has He given me? He has given me the name "Caroline" or "Carrie", which means little, womanly, beautiful woman, beautiful song, joyful. I am no longer able to call this earthly form He has given me "feia", because the Artist himself delights in His creation. He has called me His child, an heir immortal.
What beauty will He show you today? From whence comes the wind in your sails, your joy in being? What names has He given you?
