Thankful Thursday: Happy Summer!

by Hopeful Spirit on Thursday, June 21, 2007

“But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,
the woman who sticks with God. They’re like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers — Never a worry through the hottest of sum­mers, never drop­ping a leaf, Serene and calm through droughts, bear­ing fresh fruit every sea­son.
“The heart is hope­lessly dark and deceit­ful,
a puz­zle that no one can fig­ure out. But I, God, search the heart
and exam­ine the mind. I get to the heart of the human.
I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are,
not as they pre­tend to be.”

Jere­miah 17:7–10

HAPPY SUMMER!Today was the longest day of the year and the weather was absolutely per­fect: Not too hot with a light breeze. The sky was as blue and cloud­less as in the graphic above.

I was float­ing on my back in the pool, let­ting the sun bake down on my winter-white skin, look­ing up into that cloud­less sky. I was think­ing about the above verse and how we are com­manded so many times not to worry about things but, rather, to give up the future because it will be laid before us. I was con­tem­plat­ing how dif­fi­cult that is … and won­der­ing why it is that we always want to be in charge when, if we are faith­ful, there is no need because we will always be pro­vided for.

At that moment, float­ing lazily in the cool, refresh­ing water, lis­ten­ing to the kids play­ing in the other end of the pool, squint­ing up at the sun, it was very easy to just let go of all my con­cerns for a few enjoy­able minutes.

Sure … it’s always easy when you’re on vaca­tion or sit­ting in the park for a cou­ple of hours on Sun­day after­noon or enjoy­ing an hour to your­self in the pool before resum­ing work on that end­less “to-do” list.

It’s much harder when the sun goes down on the longest day of the year and you’re back in your house, bathing suit dry­ing over the bath­tub, think­ing about going to work tomor­row, pay­ing the bills, doing the gro­cery shop­ping, tak­ing the dog to the vet and the groomer, hav­ing the car aligned, and, most impor­tantly, wor­ry­ing about a school­mate who is finally hav­ing to face that the chemother­apy is not work­ing, the health­care team has rec­om­mended hos­pice care and plenty of mor­phine, and now we all have to say our good-byes.

The heart — a puz­zle even to us — remains as clear and easy for the Divine to deci­pher as it was when I was float­ing on my back, utterly vul­ner­a­ble, fac­ing up to the sun in the cool, refresh­ing and utterly trans­par­ent water, illu­mi­nated by the pierc­ing rays of bril­liant after­noon light.

I mar­vel when I think about the Divine that way and real­ize that, even here in the dusk of evening, my “hope­lessly dark and deceit­ful heart” does not dim the unend­ing rays of uncon­di­tional love, accep­tance, empow­er­ment and val­i­da­tion of my inher­ent worth shin­ing on me all day, all night … always. And it never can.


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{ 5 comments }

1 Layouts Friday, July 13, 2007 at 12:25 am

a lovely pas­sage that i haven’t seen in a very long time, great one!

2 eph2810 Friday, July 13, 2007 at 12:27 am

What a beau­ti­ful reflec­tion on our Lord’s pro­vi­sion, love, grace and mercy He dis­plays every.single.day to us.

Thank you so much for shar­ing your grate­ful heart with us this week.

Bless­ings to you and yours.

3 Nancze Friday, July 13, 2007 at 12:29 am

Hello and thanks for you visit to my jour­nal. I have enjoyed mine visit here and will return. I wish you much love and joy on your jour­ney. May God’s love delve deep within your heart always. God Bless.

4 Debbie Friday, July 13, 2007 at 12:30 am

Those verses are beau­ti­ful. Thanks for shar­ing them with me. Some who read the Bible for God’s power, some for God’s love, some for for­give­ness, some for peace, joy,… The truth is we can all find what we are look­ing for and more impor­tant, what we NEED, in God’s Word.

Thanks

5 Gloria Friday, July 13, 2007 at 12:32 am

Being on the oppo­site side of the world from you (Aus­tralia), I am not thank­ful for the weather (it’s win­ter, Argh!)

But I’m thank­ful that it’s sum­mer for you and the merry lit­tle sun­shine is out to play!

Happy week­end and have a blessed day. =)

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