Wednesday, May 6, 2015

A Hole in the Clouds


As I was driving home from work the other day I witnessed a really cool thing......... It was a hole in the clouds! Right smack dab in the middle of the dismal darkness of the stormy gray clouds was a patch of glory! Blue sky and sunshine....right in the midst of rain and wind! 

I stuck my wobbly hand out the window to try and catch a pic while driving....I know, NOT a good idea!   But it was just so......just so......HOPEFUL, I guess is the right word I am looking for. That little spot of happiness was so refreshing even though it was surrounded by gloominess. And the fact that it actually could be that way was astounding to me! 

Well, it really doesn't take much to thrill me....I'm pretty simple that way.....but it just got me to thinking.   I mean, how many times have you been right in the middle of a hard time and all of a sudden something sweet happens? Children tend to do that to me......no matter what the state of the messy day is in, a child can say something funny or giggle or plaster a big kiss on your cheek and suddenly all is well with your soul! Kids don't take life too seriously, and it takes a lot to knock them down because they can always find pieces of pleasure in their midst. And shouldn't we be that way too? 

My niece Grace is like that. No matter what's going on in life, she always has a quirky joke to tell or a song to sing. And that gap between her baby teeth used to just make me smile all over!
  GRACE. What a good name for her.
 Who deserves such sweetness? 

God's Grace is like that.  He always has a Word of encouragement and a breath of Love to share. Just when we feel heavy burdened, He gives us rest. Just when rains of tears of sorrow are falling, He sends a patch of His glory to give us hope.  He is our Hole in the Clouds.

There are pieces of pleasure all around, and when we take time to see them we experience His Grace. And I'll bet if we share them, we can be somebody else's Hole in the Clouds too!

I pray that in the midst of this cold and cloudy spring day, you find your Hole in the Clouds.
Grace to you💜





Friday, April 24, 2015

Hazy Sunrise


I've been up since 4:19 am. Sleepless nights come frequently at this stage of life! I learned a long time ago that it works best to just GET UP rather than laying there wrestling with the bed, and wrestling with the myriad of thoughts that flood into my mind. Many times I have found that God is calling me to get up ....and then get back down on my knees to pray. Some of the most peaceful and profound moments are those moments of prayer.

This morning I sat facing the east window of my living room. I kept thinking that the "bonus" of getting up this early is that I will be sure to see every bit of the sunrise. So after about an hour, the sun finally began to peek above the Bighorn mountains and I was prepared for a glorious array of color and splendor! Well.....there was light, and a soft pink hue, but as the light shined brighter I began to realize that the splendor was cast over by a layer of fog. Mist rose from the freshly plowed and planted field and the trees in the distance look like blurry shadows of darkness in the morning light. I won't lie, I was a little disappointed......I mean really? If I'm going to get up this early shouldn't I be rewarded with a brilliant sunrise?!

But as I sit here and think about this, I realize that the problem isn't the fog.....it's my perspective. Do you ever have times in your life that everything seems foggy? The fog of discouragement, fear, hopelessness, sorrow, stagnancy, and fatigue can cover over the splendors of life. Apathy begins to creep in and one day you find yourself wondering where all the color has gone. That's where I have been lately. But instead of the fog being the problem, I am thinking that my perspective is even more the culprit.

I am still sitting here in the morning light...it is now 6:18 am, and the sun is beginning to burn right through that haze.  But even so, there is beauty in that fog. And I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't even notice the blurriness without the light.

The things that obscure clear vision can either hinder us or they can help us. We can learn to see those things as reasons to look more to the Son....look to His burning light that overpowers darkness and fog. The things that try to knock us DOWN can be the very things that cause us to look UP. The mist that rises up from the fertile soil of faith can actually accentuate spiritual growth. As I change my perspective from focusing on the fog, I begin to see that there is NOTHING more powerful than the Son.

 Does it make sense when I say that maybe we should view the fog through the sun, rather than the sun through the fog? Because that's exactly what a changed perspective is......instead of viewing God through our circumstances, we view our circumstances through God.  And when we do that,  His glory shines....and so does our hope!


It's now 6:44 am and I am squinting! The sun is shing so bright that I might have to put my sunglasses on, right here in my living room! Wouldn't that be a sight...sunglasses and PJ's....on the sofa?! My husband is sure to think I've lost my mind! 

Have a blessed day all!
Kara





Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Funerals and Baby Showers



Celebration of life.....one going out and one coming in......sorrow and joy mixed. That combination can bring us to our knees with questions in our minds and wonder in our hearts. The complexity of it can be overwhelming, yet the simplicity of its unwavering occurrence leaves us often taking it all for granted. There is birth and there is death. In a physical sense, it seems cut and dried. But on a deeper emotional  and spiritual level, the only cutting and drying that occurs is the cutting of heart and the drying of tears.

As our family eagerly prepares for the entry of a new baby girl, we mourn the unexpected losses of  two family members.  It's ironic that we call a pregnant woman, one who is "Expecting" and then use the same term as we describe a sudden death, as one that was "Unexpected". Maybe it should be the other way around? After all, we "Expect" that all people will die, but never are quite sure when one would be blessed with new life...right? But what if, instead of separating it all out, it could become one? What if we had no expectations except that new life passes into New Life? It's all more connected than we may think. This life is temporary, yet we have such a hard time letting go. But New Life is eternal......instead of letting go, we can embrace it and hang on to the fact that death as we know it, is really only the beginning of eternal New Life for a believer.

As we enter in to Holy Week, we ponder the most heart wrenching death of all.....the Crucifixion of Jesus; and we celebrate the most wondrous truth of all....the Resurrection of Jesus. His life here on Earth as one of us was temporary, but had an earth shattering purpose. What He did on the Cross made it possible to connect that gap between temporary and eternal. His resurrection is proof of His "realness" .....proof that He indeed is our Lord and Savior.......and proof that we too can be resurrected into New Life as we accept this to be true and live a life following AFTER Him, until we are called to eternal life WITH Him.  As we die to our self focused ways, and take up His Cross.....where His forgiveness bled down.....we become one with eternal life.....New Life. Oh, the Bliss of it!

We celebrate life, both at Baby Showers AND Funerals, because life has earth shattering purpose. We welcome fresh new babies with Hope, and we say good-bye to those who have left us........with Hope.

And in between, we live with earth shattering purpose.....shattering all expectations that bind us to earthly limitations and hopelessness. We live while embracing the heavenly realm of loving God and one another. And we live forwardly, in expectancy of what is to come......when birth is just birth and death is no more.



"Now Faith is the confidence of what we hope for and assurance of what we do not see"
 Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)
"The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this Faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living." Hebrews 11:1 (The Message)