“...umbrella GWW..”

The glimpse today during a rainy morning walk. I was holding the umbrella that dad used with GWW on the handle. Remembrance of him walking for over 26 yrs to meetings which I'm sure he carried this umbrella, where decisions and structures determined. Then thought of how as the umbrella covered, sheltered, protected me so he provided a safety and shade in my life for so many years. There were times the winds sought to blow inside-out his umbrella but sure he used his engineering mind to keep it just at the correct angle to rightly deflect the winds. So many times he was prepared but just drops of rain may have fallen when bright sunshine broke through the overcast sky- the joy an smile.

" I certainly never knew, on the whole, so extraordinary a man."

"Heartfelt delight" in all of life.

"Knowledge which transmutes the heart and character, by assimilating influence, into the image of the principles which it unfolds."

(Wilberforce, a friend- knows by the sound of his voice and the expression of his face what he is about to say)

Umbrella 

The umbrella weathered the storm

a shelter in the rain

Borne to meetings 

Affecting many and structures in time

Protection, coverage 

drops of rain,

sunshine breaks through

Safe in the windy days,

Shade,

seeking the good

"...Breath - Fresh wind..."

 “Life is very fleeting, I’ve learnt that. 

It has moments you should seize”  Edith Pretty, (The Dig)

“Human beings disappear like a breath; even people of rank live artificial lives. Their weight is that of a breath in a balance —nothing.

 Added together, they’re still lighter than air.” Psalm 62:9 VOICE

 So what drew you to photography? (Peggy Piggott)

Oh, I suppose it’s just a way of trying to fix things as they go past. To keep what’s vital from being lost." (Rory Lomax) - The Dig

The Dig

"I have witnessed all that is done under the sun, and indeed, all is fleeting,

 like trying to embrace the wind." Ecclesiastes 1:14

Fresh Wind

Fresh Wind

Words and Music by Matt Crocker, Ben Fielding, Brooke Ligertwood & David Ware


VERSE 1:
Spirit sound
Rushing wind
Fire of God fall within
Holy Ghost
Breathe on us we pray

VERSE 2:
As we repent
Turn from sin
Revival embers smoldering
Breath of God
Fan us into flame

CHORUS:
We need a fresh wind
The fragrance of heaven
Pour Your Spirit out
Pour Your Spirit out

VERSE 3:
For hearts that burn
With holy fear
Purified in faith and deed
Refiner’s fire
Strengthen what remains

VERSE 4:
So we the church
Who bear Your light
Lamp aflame
City bright
King and kingdom come
Is what we pray

CHORUS 2:
We need a fresh wind
The fragrance of heaven
Pour Your Spirit out
Pour Your Spirit out
A holy anointing
The power of Your presence
Pour Your Spirit out
Pour Your Spirit out

TAG:
Pour Your Spirit out
Pour Your Spirit out
Pour Your Spirit out
Pour Your Spirit out

BRIDGE:
Let all the redeemed
Prophesy and sing
We can hear the wind
Blowing blowing blowing

Move upon our praise
Sons and daughters sing
We can hear the wind
Blowing blowing blowing

"... the Hill We Climb..."

"Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid." Amanda Gorman  

(Minute 02:22) referring to Micah 4:4

The Hill We Climb, by Amanda Gorman

pic matt and cynthia

"But they will each sit under their own vines and fig trees, and no one will make them afraid again

Because the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has ordered it so."

Micah 4:4

 "That all shall be quiet, both from evil and from the fear of evil (Mic.4:4): They shall sit safely, and none shall disturb them; they shall sit securely, and shall not disturb themselves, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, enjoying the fruit of them, and needing no other shelter than the leaves of them. None shall make them afraid; not only there shall be nothing that is likely to frighten them, but they shall not be disposed to fear. under the dominion of Christ, as that of Solomon, there shall be abundance of peace. Though his followers have trouble in the world, in him they enjoy great tranquility. If this seems unlikely, yet we may depend upon it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it, and no word of his shall fall to the ground; what he has spoken by his word he will do by his providence and grace. He that is the Lord of hosts will be the God of peace; and those may well be easy whom the Lord of hosts, of all hosts, undertakes the protection of." Matthew Henry Commentary Mic. 4:4

The hill we climb, flowers Enduring, growing in places you wouldn't think they would 
and grandkids pressing on to the future 

Amanda Gorman: (00:00)

Mr. President, Dr. Biden, Madam Vice President, Mr. Emhoff, Americans and the world, when day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry asea we must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace. In the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always justice. And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one.

Amanda Gorman: (01:10)

And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true. That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped. That even as we tired, we tried that will forever be tied together victorious. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.

Amanda Gorman: (02:22)

Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.

If we’re to live up to her own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made. That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare. It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit. It’s the past we step into and how we repair it. We’ve seen a forest that would shatter our nation rather than share it. Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. This effort very nearly succeeded.

Amanda Gorman: (03:07)

But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated. In this truth, in this faith we trust for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption. We feared it at its inception. We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour, but within it, we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves so while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? Now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?

Amanda Gorman: (03:56)

We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be a country that is bruised, but whole, benevolent, but bold, fierce, and free. We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation. Our blunders become their burdens. But one thing is certain, if we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.

Amanda Gorman: (04:36)

So let us leave behind a country better than one we were left with. Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will rise from the [gold-limbed 00:04:49] hills of the West. We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the Lake Rim cities of the Midwestern states. We will rise from the sun-baked South. We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.

Still/ PEACE Hillsong Worship

minute 2:54

"You are peace when my thoughts wage war

You are peace to the anxious heart

And that's who you are

That's who you are

And you are peace when my fear takes hold

And you are peace when I feel enclosed

Oh, you are peace when I lose control

That's who you are

That's who you are"

.."breathing in new life every day...”

 

• How do we prepare for those stark times of trial when we need provision? 

• How to we keep enthusiasm for the long haul, and seeing the meaning in trials or perplexing circumstances?

• A glimpse of a winter field with hay bales quickened me to realize we care for the livestock through winter by preparation and hard work to store provisions. Likewise as we go through life we devote ourselves to the Word to build into our lives those bedrock views and convictions we need to get us through the adverse, wintry times.

"So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace." 2 Corinthians 4:16 (The Message)

“So we have no reason to despair. Despite the fact that our outer humanity is falling apart and decaying, our inner humanity is breathing in new life every day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16 (VOICE)

“Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day."  2 Corinthians 4:16 (Amplified Bible)

So  we can stay on the offensive against all that would try to lead us astray and allow us to drift from Christ and the message.

 So keep reaching and pursuing the dreams that captured your heart.

God's grace enables us to be a light in a cold, weary, place and time.

So we take heart that in the middle of adversity.

“The flowers appear on the earth. All winter they are dead and buried in their roots, and there is no sign of them; but in the spring they revive, and show themselves in a wonderful variety and health and vigor”

"Mountaintops cause the jaw to drop and the soul to wonder."

 Wishing all the happiest New Year! 🖼🌄 thinking of this picture of Rainier and time with my father-in-law. 

Mountains 🏔 “place and person where heaven and earth touch”

Bishop Michael Curry writes in , “Love is the Way; Holding on to Hope in Troubled Times.”

“There is something about mountains, the sheer majesty of their shape and size, rising out of the earth and yet seemingly greater than the earth, or even alien to it. Mountaintops cause the jaw to drop and the soul to wonder.

Ancient folk knew this strange quality. The Celts called mountain tops “thin places,” where heaven and earth seem to touch. As I see it, a “thin place” can be a moment or an experience as much as a place. It’s those times when your jaw drops and words don’t rise to the occasion. This world is touched by another. Human beings encounter the divine. We experience God.

The way of love is a commitment to seeking the good and well-being of others. When we truly do that, we are blessed. In fact, if we all make the commitment -to loving beyond our nationality, our ethnicity, our politics, our religion, or any other difference- we and the earth itself would be blessed.

Brothers! Siblings! Children of God! They are everywhere, in all disguises... they became witnesses to the power of love to lift us to the mountaintop. Their love changed his world and our world with it.

Love does that! We can’t live on the mountain top, but the mountain top can live in us.

When God, who is love, becomes our spiritual center of gravity, and love our moral compass, we live differently, regardless of what the world around us does. The world changes for the better, one life of the time. So don’t give up on love.

Listen to it.

Trust it.

Give into it.

Obey it.

Love can help and heal when nothing else can. Love can lift up and liberate when nothing else will. May God love you and bless you.

And may God hold us all in those all mighty hand of love.”

-Bishop Michael Curry, Love is the Way; Holding onto Hope in Troubled Times.

"The Work of Christmas"

The streets were empty of people this evening and the joy of the season, but  “the darkest hour is just before the dawn”

 and will hope in the “Work of Christmas “

The Work of Christmas

“When the song of the angels is stilled, 

When the star in the sky is gone, 

When the kings and princes are home, 

When the shepherds are back with their flock, 

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among others,

To make music in the heart.”

-Howard Thurman

“Surely when I think of the way in which I went on for many years, I can only fall down with astonishment as well as humiliation before the throne of grace, and adore with wonder that infinite mercy of God which did not cast me off; but on the contrary, guiding me by a way which I knew not..

...living almost without God in the world, till God’s good providence checked and turned me, oh miracle of mercy.."

-William Wilberforce 

".. longs to know, yet trembles to ask the question.."

 with anguish in our voice

we long to know, yet tremble to ask the question

Many of us have situations we are anxious to approach.

At time we may have called out to the other person to be sure they are ok;

 before entering an area, with a faint heart,- fearing what we may see.

- We saw the fall on the ski glade in expert terrain, afraid to look 

- Saw the stroller fall off the porch steps, baby strapped in, onto the concrete

- You see your son fall from the ski lift

- You see your son fall out a second story window, and wife asks his whereabouts

- You get a call about a metal art shop accident, 

or flag football accident- going to the ER

- Receive a message, follow up testing needed on inconclusive results

- We fear opening the email that may determine our future,

- Opening the letter from a struggling friend,

- Visiting your terminally ill parent and what you may find

- Meeting at work that changes you livelihood and security

I was up early and wanted to see the sunrise on this cold morning!

Frost and some fog with the morning

I recalled the story in the book of Daniel 

when the king places Daniel in the Lion's den.

When he finally went to bed, he could not sleep

When first light of morning finally arrived, the king got up and didn’t waste any time returning to the lions’ den.

 As he drew near the den, with anguish in his voice 

he called out to Daniel, hoping somehow he was still alive.

"When the king comes to the den, not without some hopes that God had graciously undone what he had wickedly done, 

he cries, with a lamentable voice, as one full of concern and trouble, 

O Daniel! art thou alive? 

He longs to know, yet trembles to ask the question,

fearing to be answered with the roaring of the lions after more prey:

The joyful news he meets with-that Daniel is alive, is safe, and well, 

and unhurt in the lions’ den. God has preserved his life by a miracle

 Daniel knew the king’s voice, though it was now a lamentable voice, and spoke to him with all the deference and respect that were due to him: O king! live for ever. He does not reproach him for his unkindness to him, and his easiness in yielding to the malice of his persecutors; but, to show that he has heartily forgiven him, he meets him with his good wishes. 

"With his honor at stake, the king had no choice. He gave the order for Daniel to be captured. Before Daniel was thrown into the pit with the lions, the king spoke to him.

Darius: May your God, the God you have served so faithfully, rescue you!

 Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den and a stone was brought in and placed over the opening to shut the mouth of the den. The king himself sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signets of his nobles. That way no one could tamper with the pit and nothing could happen to change Daniel’s fate. 

The king retired to his palace and spent the night fasting. That evening he stayed to himself, turning down his regular evening musical entertainment. When he finally went to bed, he could not sleep.

When first light of morning finally arrived, the king got up and didn’t waste any time returning to the lions’ den.

Darius can hardly wait to see what has happened to Daniel, who has become indispensable to the king.

 As he drew near the den, with anguish in his voice he called out to Daniel, hoping somehow he was still alive.

Darius: Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, the One you have served so faithfully, been able to rescue you from these hungry lions?

Daniel (to the king): 

 Long live the king! 

 As soon as you shut the mouth of this den, My God sent His heavenly representative to shut the mouths of these hungry lions so that they could not hurt me. He has rescued me because I am as innocent before Him as I am before you, O king. I have done you no harm.

The king could hardly contain his excitement and joy. He ordered that Daniel be taken up out of the lions’ den. He was removed and examined carefully,

 but not even a scratch was found on him—all because he put his trust in His God." - Daniel 6: 16- 23 (VOICE)