beauty

a summer sunset in colorado...just driving to the grocery store and the beauty of the Creator painting the sky was astounding. i had to quickly pull over and try to capture the beauty with my phone. why? why does beauty, even in the daily occurrences of life still overtake our hearts?

i think c.s. lewis describes it well:

"We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it."

we want Him. He is lavish in His beauty and in His love.

what have i been doing?

besides the usual ministry activities-speaking at retreats and writing, and the usual home activities-being overwhelmed by laundry and avoiding cleaning, what have i been up to??

• thrilled to display my quilts in the art gallery at greenwood community church

• speaking with david at a marriage retreat

• welcoming annie home from africa

• making interesting art with my His to create group (more about this later)

• baseball! cheering for the rockies!!

• sending michael off to study in germany!

and basically enjoying the summer...lots of dinners on the patio, short trips to the mountains, city park jazz with friends, and keeping really random office hours. happy summer!

happy easter!

as a little girl one of my favorite parts of easter was the easter outfit. this picture was taken on easter sunday 1965. i had on my new easter dress with the stiff crinoline lining, flower hat, white gloves and white patent shoes. i remember waiting for daddy to come out for this picture and twirling. and twirling. and being delighted at having a special daddy and a twirly dress.

easter is my absolute favorite holiday. i still love the easter dress. but i adore a Risen Jesus!

what a Special Daddy we have! what a shocking, crazy way to love us.

happy, happy easter!

good but hard friday, harder saturday

saturday. a day of rest. the Sabbath.

the Sabbath was designed by God to remind of us on our dependence and rest in Him.

that saturday, 1 day after Jesus died, the day He lay still and cold in a tomb, must have been unbelievably hard for His family, His friends.

they must have struggled to remember each word He spoke, like sorting through a massive jigsaw puzzle and trying to understand how they go together. and then discovering this horrible shaped piece, this crucified and dead piece, how does that fit in?

the presence of His absence must have been overwhelming.

how difficult to grieve for Him but also to be so at a loss to understand.

how hard to rest and trust, to Sabbath.

and how very much like our lives. we struggle to make sense of what happens in our lives and just like the first disciples and friends of Jesus what we need is not fuller knowledge but fuller trust.

Easter is at work in the darkness, in the grave, in what appears to be dead and hopeless. the beauty of redemption lays hidden, waiting to explode in it’s Easter glory.

The gospel message says,

"You don't live in a mechanistic world ruled by necessity;

you don't live in a random world ruled by chance;

you live in a world alive by the God of Exodus and Easter.

He will do things in you that neither you nor your friends would have supposed possible."

from Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, by Eugene Peterson

some thoughts...

outside my window... it is dark and snowy. actually not so dark cause the snow makes things brighter.

i am thinking... about getting in bed and reading.

i am thankful for...a snow day today!

i am wearing... jammies. that’s a given. i am always wearing jammies if i am at home.

i am remembering...things i forgot to do.

i am going...to get my hair cut tomorrow. that raises the proverbial question: bangs or no bangs?

from the kitchen...zip. didn’t make dinner so no dishes to deal with.

i am hoping...that we don’t get more snow on saturday that would mess up michael’s flight home.

i am wondering...what to wear tomorrow.

i am noticing...how much my dog sleeps. seriously. she is a slug.

pondering these words...”Father forgive them…”

around the house...there is a lot of clutter. which i think is a sign of life. my house looks lived in and loved.

one of my favorite things...is a snowstorm! it came so quickly with dramatic impact and beauty and completely rearranged my day. thanks for the fun change God!

austin!

i am leaving tomorrow to go to austin and speak to a MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group.

i love MOPS!

i love austin. david and i lived there when we met, fell in love and got married. great memories!

i love seeing my friend reenie and staying at her house...despite her recent rodent issues. and i am not talking mickey mouse.

i love shopping on south congress and exploring new knitting and quilting stores.

and i LOVE this: