Blessed be your name!

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

Job 1:21

I may not have tulips, but I have towering lilacs, gloriously in bloom, in the back yard! The minute I walk into the yard the smell is intoxicating; what a magnificent gift! In today's gospel, Jesus tells the disciples (and us)..."your grief will become joy." (John 16:20) It may have seemed mysterious to them, as it may to us. But, if we really think about it, we can see times our sorrow has turned to joy and our grief turned to rejoicing. We can look back and see situations that we never thought we could climb out of and still be joyful. But, with the grace of God, we have come through and our lives can carry on. We can dance again. Today, let's think of the times our loss of tulips has turned to the beauty of lilacs, and let's bless the name of the Lord! Love, heidi

Be the love...

"The gospel of grace calls out: Nothing can ever separate you from the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Brennan Manning, "Reflections for Ragamuffins"

Brennan Manning goes on to state different situations...will this situation separate you from the love of God? Will that? Ultimately, the answer is that nothing can or will separate you from God's love. Period. End of discussion. In our experience, we may not always feel that love, but it is still there. We may feel it through another person. I was thinking about my oldest, who isn't much into God at this point on her journey. She feels love in her life but she doesn't really identify it as God's love. It is definitely love, though, and God is love. And nothing can separate her from God's love. Comforting, that. Today, let's look for the opportunities to share God's love with others. It may be the only experience of God they have today...and it may need to come through us. Love, heidi

Love even the Tulip-napper!

"This I command you: love one another."

John 15:17

I'm calling it the Great Tulip Heist of 2012. While I was away over the weekend, someone came and cut down every single one of my tulips! Most of them had already bloomed and I certainly had already received much joy from them, but it was such a shock to pull in the driveway and see nothing but green stems sitting there, naked. I reasoned that, perhaps, some kid had taken them to give Mom on Mother's Day. I could live with that. I need to reason this out because I just don't want to feel badly about people. I want to love people, as Jesus commands us, but when people do dumb stuff, even has insignificant as stealing tulips, it's much harder to love them. The command is to love all people, no matter what they do, and that is what Jesus modeled for us. We can only love the way Jesus loves if we first turn to him and welcome his love into our own hearts. Filled up with that, we can love anyone! Even someone guilty of Tulip-napping! Love, heidi

Ever with us...

"Standing on a London street corner, G.K. Chesterton was approached by a newspaper reporter.

'Sir, I understand that you recently became a Christian. May I ask you one question?'

'Certainly,' replied Chesterton. "If the risen Christ suddenly appeared at this very moment and stood behind you, what would you do?'

Chesterton looked the reporter squarely in the eye and said, 'He is.'"

Brennan Manning, "Reflections for Ragamuffins"

And with that piece of perfect wisdom, I leave you with blessings for a wonderful weekend! Call your mother...love, heidi

I've got that joy, joy, joy...

"I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete."

John 15:11

Devotion writer, David Nantais, in today's "Living Faith," asks the question, "When was the last time you experienced delicious, unalloyed joy?" Yesterday. I was just finishing up my second appointment of the morning. As I was getting up to leave, the dear, elderly lady struggled to pull herself up out of the chair. "Oh, you don't need to get up," I assured, "I know my way out." "Oh, I know," she said, "I just want to give you a hug." I left her home and walked out into the gloriously warm, windless morning. I got in the car and realized I had just had two wonderful appointments with two lovely women and had received two grateful hugs, and it wasn't even noon! It doesn't get much better than that! The joy of my life just welled up inside me and I thought I was gonna burst. I recognized it as such a gift. This gift of joy is constantly being given to us, but sometimes it takes many wonderful circumstances coming together at the same time for us to realize it. Today, I can hear the wind is back, but I do know the feeling of that joy, joy, joy, joy...down in my heart! Love, heidi

Pick the right vine!

"Jesus said to his disciples, 'I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower...'"

John 15:1

The word "true" jumped out at me this morning when I read this and it seemed to me that Jesus was implying there are other vines we little branches may try to graft ourselves onto. There are, indeed, I realized. There are more worldly vines, such as the success vine, that puts us on the hamster wheel of trying to succeed at all costs, stepping over others or pushing others out of our way. There is the consumer vine that entices us to buy too much stuff we do not need so we need to have a garage sale to get rid of it all. There is the "it's not my problem" vine that detaches us from the world and its issues because, surely, we can't do anything about problems THAT big! There is also the vine that feeds us the message that we can do it all by ourselves, we don't need anyone or any God. There are many, many vines that may look appealing to us as we travel through life. But, just like Jesus says today, he is the True vine...the vine that gives us True life and feeds us abundantly. The vine that gives us the nourishment to bear True fruit. Let's make the right choice and swing on the right vine! Love, heidi