The sun streaming through the windows makes a beautiful sight. But the sun also reveals I need to polish the floors sometime soon. The weather app says it is 17 degrees out but it feels like 12 degrees. Think my errands will be run a little later in the afternoon.
I wish I could share on my blog the picture of the tiny snowflake that landed on the porch rail. We experienced off and on light snow flurries Monday and trying to capture those little flakes of snow needed a deep colored background. So I stepped outside into the frigid air to take pictures of the snow with the dark green of the fir trees as a backdrop. I glanced down to the railing and there a tiny snowflake had landed perfectly showing all the intricate design. It hadn't crashed into the rail making it just a little ball of snow but in my mind's eye, it wafted down gently landing. Hurriedly, I began taking pictures of it before the next gust of wind blew it to the ground. I texted the picture to Roy and he thought I had taken a Christmas decoration and tried to pass it off as a snowflake. No, original design by God. This morning as I thought about getting that glimpse of winter beauty that if I hadn't taken the time to look around and had been so focused on capturing the snowfall, I would have missed it. That little snowflake gave me pause to remember to be mindful in those moments of time.
Since arriving in the mountains, in our home in a valley on a hill, a particular chapter of scripture has given me lots to think upon. That chapter is Luke 12 and what has grabbed my heart is how Jesus talked to the crowd but turned to his disciples to give more personal instruction and encouragement. It beings in the first verse as He sees the crowds, Jesus first turns to his disciples and warns them, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and He assures His disciples that they are worth more than the sparrows, God knows the number of hairs upon their head and not to worry about what to say when trials and tribulations come. Someone from the crowd yells out to Jesus, tell my brother to share our father's inheritance and Jesus responds with beware of every type of greed, life is not measured by how much you own. Verse 22 says, Then Jesus turning to his disciples says, that is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life and in the following verses He expounds and once again encourages His own. Back to verse 54 Jesus once again turns His attention to the crowd and addresses the woeful fact that they can't read the signs of the times correctly. So that is how I see life here...there are those things that I need to be aware of when Jesus turns to me and I turn to Him, to listen and learn and not be distracted by the crowd that is stepping all over themselves. I am thankful that it is a tad easier to listen and see here surrounded by the beauty of creation and God's handiwork. Even in this beautiful setting the concerns are the same here as they were back in biblical times, everyday life and the worries and stresses it can bring as we tend to go past today and creep ever so quickly into the land of what if. Sometimes as I look through FB posts you can see there are people who post all the prayers, all the comforting sayings of hope, all the veiled prayer requests and the like and I wonder, what if they put as much effort into their lives to the same amount of effort they take to post every platitude in the world...like doing that will change anything. What if they focused that energy into not only listening to those words of Jesus but get out and do something to improve their situation. I often think about a girl I met years ago in a Bible study I led and this girl wanted friends, she needed friends. Okay, this is in an area where I could encourage her and shared with her, be the kind of friend that you want in your life and you'll have the kind of friends you are looking for. No, she wanted others to make all the invitations and to do for her...yea, people love to flock to really, needy selfish people. She moved back to her home in Wisconsin and who knows what happened. Every once in a while I did see where she posted a comment or two on a blog but basically, nothing had changed and she was just as miserable as she had been in Houston. This chapter Luke 12, continues to nourish my soul and reminds me to pay attention to those words He has for His disciples.
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