Fresh Water

Fresh water. A spring bubbling up from deep in the earth. Metaphors for the new life in Christ. We make it all so complicated when it really boils down to this, this idea of the unpolluted life. Jesus nailed our sin to the cross and He also clears the springs of our hearts when we invite Him into our every day. How does He do that? When we offer, to the best of our ability, our whole life to Him, He directs the things we read, what we say, who we listen to and what we watch. The whole of our existence flows in the river of His purity and love. It buries our past sins, our guilt, our shame and our wounds. We rise like the new creatures that we most assuredly are.

Feel you have failed at taking hold of this? So do I. I take heart in the fact that God knows I'm weak, that He knows I bring zero to the table on my own. He loves me anyway. He wants me anyway. Very hard to take in, yet WE MUST! We are not rejected for our failures, for our shortcomings...rather we are justified right in the middle of them. We are given robes of righteousness courtesy of the very high price Christ paid at the cross.

Our enemy spends every moment of every day working to cheat us out of the freedom Christ's sacrifice bought us. He tells us we are not paid for, that we must do, be and achieve more and more to be good enough for God, for His love, for His fellowship. When we finally realize that, as His deeply loved children we are blood-bought saints destined for intimacy with our Father and for a joy and peace-filled soul, then we can move on into every good thing He has planned for us!

Pools

 Wax has memory. When you burn a candle for the very first time, the liquid wax pool at the time the candle is extinguished leaves a decisive ridge. Every time you burn  the candle after that, the melted wax pool will never get larger than the imprint of the first burn. Memory.

If the wax pool is small, no matter how deep it gets, the full potential of fragrance release into the room is never realized. This may seem like a very small matter to you, but to candle snobs, it is very big indeed. I give or throw away candles I cannot smell. I purge them from my existence. They are frustrating reminders of a purchase gone bad.

I wonder if God is frustrated by our own small wax pools of influence? I mean, He created us, He knows our full potential, and He sees those of us who are flopping and floundering and drowning our purposes in tiny wax pools of doubt, indecision and fear. Some (not me) are working very, very hard. They are boldly making inroads into their destinies, using all of the natural talents God gave them. Some of those people are still burning small pools. "Wait a minute," you're now thinking. "I'm one of those people. I am accomplished. I am using my talents. I haven't hidden ANY in the ground." Good for you. Good for you.

I've come to realize that the large, fragrant wax pools come from vessels that are emptied out spiritually. Poured out on God's altar. In-filled daily with His anointing. Goes lots deeper than musical ability, writing talent, superior intellect. It has to do with being fully yielded to the Spirit. Trust me, I am only dipping my toe into these waters yet. I'm fully aware that I have, figuratively speaking "miles to go before I sleep," as Frost wrote in his epic poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." I'm a very tiny babe in these woods. I don't even want this emptying out and filling in to the degree that is necessary. I'll admit it intimidates my selfish flesh to a degree I cannot begin to describe.But I want to want it and I pray for the Spirit to make it my passion. To change me to the degree that I do not recognize myself at all. Only He can. Only He can. But it's possible. I know it is because I would not feel the unmistakable call if it were not. No.

In Memory of Carson James Davis

I never met Carson. Well, perhaps in my dreams...those not remembered. I met his cousin in my remembered dreams...the child I miscarried at 42. My dreams are vivid and remind me that the veil between this life and the next is very thin, sheer at times.

My husband's nephew and his wife lost Carson recently. A handful of days from his due date, his ethereal soul passed into eternity, leaving behind a beautiful shell that was delivered by doctors and placed into the arms of his grieving parents and grandparents. He was photographed and caressed, but his spirit was already with God.

What this little boy will never know is sin and heartache, loss, struggle, and disappointment. What he will know none of us earthbound beings can say, though we are absolutely certain that it is wonderful beyond imagining. He was fully innocent and is now physically with his heavenly Father.

I heard someone say once that babies grow up in heaven. That remark rang true to me. God is their Father and they know no lack as they grow. When we encounter them on the other side, they won't be a static, unknowing infant. They will be fully alive and continuously developing as a unique person.

The experience of carrying Carson and eagerly anticipating his entrance into the world, into her world, is not wasted for his mother. No, Carson has an eternal soul that is now with God. He is more alive today than he was in the womb. His mother and father were the God-ordained conduits for his existence and they will meet him one day. It will be a joy-filled reunion sparkling with beauty and other-worldly love. God will envelop them as they embrace. He brought them together on earth and He will reunite them in the hereafter.

When we lose a loved one on this finite, fallen earth, we feel shattered beyond repair because we cannot see, feel, or hear them. We cannot talk to them, sing with them, enjoy with them. We cannot hug them or cry with them. It's difficult beyond expression. Words fail and tears fall. But God. He is our Rock and Redeemer and the assurance of our becoming reunited with those He has put into our lives. He is absolutely faithful and He will do it. And in the in-between time He will count our tears as they fall.

Psalm 56:8 (New Living Translation)
 "You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
You have recorded each one in your book."

Daily Unfolding

The candle in the picture is burning on my coffee table as I sit here, my laptop on my lap. Two points of light. I love it. My favorite type of candle, however, is the three-wick candle. After all, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit burn in my heart like the points of flame and they release a beautiful fragrance into my life. 

If God really flows through our lives, we will feel His presence every single day. We will always know that He is with us, that He is above all and in all and working through every single circumstance. I'm so relieved that I know Him and that, as the scriptures teach, I CAN hear His voice. I can. It's so completely fulfilling and utterly enthralling. 

This morning I felt led to go into a particular gift shop. I saw the words "Beauty is Everywhere" on one of the gifts. Got in the car and heard Toby Mac singing about how God is in everything, all day. I asked God why He wanted me to have this particular message at this particular time. I thought He answered me "Because it is true." It is true. I remember once when He very clearly told me over and over again that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I was very confused as to why that particular point of scripture was being brought to my attention again and again and I suppose, after today's event, that the answer is that it is simply because it it true. 

When God tells us to do something, we will be utterly miserable until we do it. We will be as unfulfilled as the rest of the world is, grasping for pleasure like a castaway on a deserted isle seeks food, shelter and water. We were built for the adventure of pursuing and knowing God and being used for His specific purposes. It's a daily treasure, a daily unfolding.