aroma

In the lovely, bursting Springtime, I'd love to park myself under a blossoming crabapple tree, basking in its beauty and absorbing its sweet fragrance. There's nothing quite like it, those Spring trees with their arrays of colors, perfectly shaped petals, fragrances floating freely.

I think God requires more of me, though, than to simply drink in those sweet fragrances He's made. I think He desires that I become so drenched in the fragrance of Christ that wherever I go, that fragrance, His fragrance, goes right with me, moving among anyone who may be near.

Blossom aromas are likened to that of Christ: The fragrances aren't made to be kept, but shared, spread...

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him." 2 Corinthians 2:14

You're Beautiful

I see your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say... You’re Beautiful

I see your pow’r in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
Its all proclaiming who you are... You’re beautiful

I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are setting on your heavenly throne
Soon you will be coming home... You’re Beautiful

When we arrive at eternity’s shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring
Your bride will come together and we’ll sing... You’re Beautiful

-Phil Wickham

the joy of the father

I was much like the older brother when God set my husband free...

While the Father was rejoicing, my heart threw daggers,
I spat,
I resented,
my heart raged within me.

I didn't think I had deserved to live through those days of the locusts,
those years that had been eaten and destroyed.

I deserved better, I deserved the party the younger brother was receiving who...

was brought out of the gallows,
back from death,
up from the muck,
to God,
to his father.

The older son raged, "'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property...comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

'My son, the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'" Luke 15:29-32

Thank You for giving me a heart to see with new eyes and a full heart those who have been rescued, those who are no longer feasting with the pigs, those who have returned, whom You have brought back.

God, would you cause me and believers everywhere to be those who rejoice over the lives that are redeemed, found, saved, transformed. Would you drive out every drop of bitterness, resentment, selfishness and give hearts of compassion, joy, perseverance, worship. Help me honor You.

I love You. Thanks for loving me first.