Death Gives

Fall.

The autumnal season.

Red River Gorge is on display.

Hues of magnificence, tones of brilliance, and shades of splendor.

I marvel at October’s leaf color palette.

I’m sure you do, too.

People from all over come to witness the end of their season.

Some things can be so beautiful when they are dying.

Like leaves.

Visible images are on display from an invisible God.

The season of their glory is all around for us to see.

My own tree-line has each one losing their grip.

A blanket of ground-cover they become before I gather.

They will amend my garden to generate anew.

Some things can be so generous when they are dying.

“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

Death gives.

1 Corinthians 15:55

God Loves Me

She curled up on momma’s bed.  She situated herself in the comfort of a pillow, put a journal in her lap with a pencil in hand and while unprovoked, she wrote.

“God loves me.”

I submit that there is no innocence more beautiful.

You can also overhear this preschooler repeat from memory,  “The Father is God.  The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God.  They are not 3 Gods, but one God and we worship God in all of this mystery.”  It was recited to me in such a way that I had to ask her momma for a translation.

I can tell this four-year-old nugget is developmentally learning the difference between real and pretend.  Her halo has yet to be tilted.  Adversity has not advanced her years.  Misfortune has not outnumbered her tippy-taps.  But, day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent. And, this same mysterious God can extend innocence to spread like the light in the sky. It’s not imaginary or fiction to extend this conviction that, four or not, it’s biblically not pretend.

Who is God?

He is the Father.  He is the Son.  He is the Holy Spirit.

How can that be?

It’s a mystery.

What does that mean?

It can be difficult, beyond our understanding, even impossible to comprehend.   

That doesn’t make it pretend.

It’s why we worship, glorify and honor Him.

Until you can say and wholeheartedly believe,

like a child,

God loves me.

2 Samuel 22

Matthew 18:3

Psalm 37:18

Edify

This momma’s little one was so upset.

Someone was not getting what was desperately desired.

I could hear her choosing not to console, reprimand, nor discipline this erupted behavior.  This was not the time she took for that.  What I heard was the time she took to edify.

Instructing is one thing, and such an important thing, but to overhear her spiritually-inform was such a beautiful thing.

It’s a God thing.

God gives us instructions.  And, there was a time He had to remind His people that they had experiences that their children had not had.  Their children hadn’t experienced His greatness, His strong hand, nor His powerful arm.  Their children hadn’t seen how the Lord cared for them.   The children hadn’t seen what He did.

But they had!

“So be careful,”  God says.  You’ll have to teach these things to your children.   You’ll have to talk about them when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

And, yet not specifically stated, I’m pretty sure…when they’re whining.

It was a valuable moment to have heard her verbally process this ego-centric emotion that many a 5-year-olds can have.  In the child’s intensity, she began to explain God’s goodness, God’s provision,  God’s faithfulness.

“Hasn’t God done this for you?”   She went on to explain what He’s done.

“Hasn’t God provided you with this?”   She gave examples of what He’s provided.

“So, can’t we trust that He will meet all our needs?” she confirmed.

Not always, but this time the whining stopped.

There I sat with my own internal whining.

She had me thinking of what God HAS done.

She had me thinking what God HAS provided.

“He is your God, the one who is worthy of your praise, the one who has done mighty miracles that you yourself have seen.”

Tell your children.

Mine told me.

Deuteronomy 11

Remember

I heard this today.

“God calls us to remember.”

It’s true isn’t it?

“He causes us to remember His wonderful works.”

I love the verb.  He causes.

My daughter wears a necklace for this purpose.  And, not because she might forget.  She’ll never forget.  She wears this memory to hold dear and preserve what was dearly and desperately desired.

A permanent reminder, so to speak.

There was a tattoo on the arm of another.   

I know of a lily that was planted because it blooms every summer.

A timely photo was framed.

Over and over we’re told to remember.

Remember you were “chosen long ago”.  Remember it’s “by His dust you were made“.  You were “formed in utter seclusion woven together in the dark of the womb”.

They remember.

Nothing is certain with life.  It can be short.

It has been explained to us that a generation died and another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things that He had done.  So, we are  called to remember.  We will not hide these truths from our children.  We will tell the next generation.

We will wear necklaces and tattoos.   We will plant.  We will frame.

Children are a gift from Him.

The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.

We’ve all been them.

Little children.

Psalm 111

Psalm 139

Judges 2

Ecclesiastes 7

Psalm 89