God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes. Psalm 18:21 MSG

ELLEN BASS in “Mules of Love” © 2002, BOA Editions, Ltd.
Run for your life from all this. Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:11-12 MSG
Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I’m back home in the house of God for the rest of my life. Psalm 23:6 MSG
A chestnut tree to climb on, a path through the woods to walk to school.
Who out there has a lust for life? Can’t wait each day to come upon beauty? Psalm 34:12 MSG
A camera and a whisper from God sent me on a journey last spring . . . searching for beauty in the pain.
These are the unedited photos I took around my house–as far as I could walk at the time. I saved them in a folder on my computer, entitled it “small victories” and gave them the captions you read here.
These pictures became the evidence of my small victories–the smallest of small baby steps away from pain and darkness into the light and life of healing.
This is the day God started to color my dark world beautiful. The day the simple, ordinary views of my life became extra-ordinary glimpses of the beauty of LIFE all around me.
This is the day I understood the scripture above–that to recover my lust for life–to experience my pain and darkness redeemed–was about eagerly searching each day for the beauty OF LIFE.
Psalm 23:6 says that God’s love and beauty chase after us every day of our lives.
This spring day last year, I finally turned around to see it.
Walk on a rainbow trail: walk on a trail of song, and all about you will be beauty.
There is a way out of every dark mist, over a rainbow trail. – Robert Motherwell
Praying for you to turn around and see the beauty and love of God chasing you, where you will find your rainbow trail, and where God colors your life beautiful each and every day.
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He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth – the Lord God Almighty is his name. Amos 4:13 NIV
One sunny afternoon, my youngest son and I were skiing in the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. When we stopped at the top of the mountain to admire the view of Mt. Rainier, Carson quickly made a new friend…a sweet little bird, probably hoping for an offering of crumbs.
I snapped this picture, not knowing until later just how perfect it would be. Now, when I look at it, I’m reminded of all the levels on which our Almighty God works. In fact, He works on every level. He created the mountains that I stand in awe of…he sustains them, and all the earth, with His power. He cares for us, His children, who have been perfectly made in His image.
He even provides for the small and simple creatures of the earth, like the little bird who fluttered onto Carson’s hand on that beautiful day.
How often do you pause and think of the mighty power of our God?
When I take time to do that, my own worries and fears are calmed. God created our entire universe in just one week…it’s difficult to even wrap that possibility into our limited realm of thought! Consider a single mountain – vast and enormous – and how God spoke it into being. What incredible power!
Our Lord controls the path of the wind and weather, allowing the perfect amount of sun and rain to fall upon this earth. He begins and ends each day in perfect timed rhythm. He cares for all creatures of the world, no matter how big or small.
This picture gives me a visual reminder of who God is. He is in all things – great and small.
I know that I need not be anxious about anything today, for God holds each and every one of us in His hand.
Brook is married to Keith, aka the Ranch Boss, and is blessed with 3 awesome boys… Clay, Cole, and Carson the Great. She shares about life on the ranch, bringing up boys, and her many adventures on her blog Babbling Brook.
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Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28 NLT
Today’s photo theme is “Focus” and comes from a new blogger friend, Jim, who shares beauty and wisdom that inspires me each day at his blog: jimfields.wordpress.com
What does “Focus” mean to you?
Sometimes focusing on the details can be rather abstract, confusing, or maybe details just don’t let us see the true beauty. Details can be choppy, crude or even obscure.
When that happens, when the big picture gets lost in the details, we have to step back and look from a different vantage point to see with more clarity.
In other words sometimes the greater beauty is seen in the big picture where the details combine and fit together.
The details of life are the moments, the efforts, the work, the play, the things that happen to us or for us. The larger picture is our goals, where we’re headed in life, what we look forward to…And sometimes life distracts us from the larger picture – usually because we are so intent looking at how to make the best of the moment, or because things don’t always go the way we plan.
The same is true in our religious life. The detail is the life we live day-to-day and the effort we make at helping God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. The larger picture is people, mission is people…It is helping people see the beauty in the life of Jesus Christ, the mind of God.
A balanced Christian life is living the details all the while keeping an eye to Jesus. Sometimes we can see clearly up close…other times to see clearly we have to back off and broaden our vision.
Peace,
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