God2Share

I plopped down on the lounge chair with my book and a raspberry lime seltzer.

The music of the birds chirping was the only sound that cut through the silence.

No phones or electronic devices.

No distractions.

The rays of the sun were dancing on the crystal blue pool water.

I drank in the serenity of the moment.

It was the perfect pause.

Selah.

The hustle and bustle of the previous weeks faded away.

I surveyed the scene before me when something in the water caught my eye.

A single leaf.

It was in the shape of a heart.

It cast a perfect shadow of another heart below the surface.

A sense of awe swept over me.

What a beautiful gift from above.

“Give praise to the Lord; proclaim His name; make known among the nations what He has done.  Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts. Glory to His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek Him rejoice.  Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.”

Psalm 105: 1 – 4

I lingered there to enjoy this gift that the Creator had chosen to present at just that moment.

Simplicity and extravagance wrapped into one.

Maybe someone else would have just seen a leaf.

But those who seek Him can see reflections of His love everywhere.

“Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.”

These are the moments that restore my strength and give me energy to face whatever is next in this journey called life.

And just like plants harness energy from the sun through the process of photosynthesis, we can also draw our energy from the Son.

What snapshot from your day do you recognize as a gift from the Creator?

Where do you see His love ?

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your life in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”  Colossians 2: 6-7

I have a confession to make.

I did not know until recently which end of an onion was the root end.

But after attending a cooking demonstration, not only did I learn which end was which, but also that the root served a useful purpose.

The stringy end will actually keep the onion from falling apart when slicing it.

The root holds the onion together.

I love how God speaks a word into my heart even in what may appear to be a mundane task.

There have been many moments when I felt like I was falling apart.

It is easy to get caught up in myself, my circumstances or my emotions.

And when that happens, thankfulness is far from my heart.

Maybe you know what I mean.

If I am solely focused on me, I am only scratching what is on the surface.

But when I go deeper, I find that I am rooted in something much bigger than myself.

I am rooted in Him.

Paul reminds us in Colossians 2:2 that his goal is that we “be encouraged in heart and united in love”.

I am not united with anyone when I am thinking only of myself.

I do not feel encouraged or together.

I feel bitter, sad or inadequate.

But when we are rooted in Him, and life tries to slice and dice us, we will not fall apart.

When we receive Christ and He lives in us, we are strengthened in faith.

We are less likely to be torn apart from our brothers and sisters in Christ and are more unified as a whole.

Thankfully, we can identify the root of our strength and love.

Christ keeps us together.

He is the root of all good things.

Amen.