HOME

Come home to 

Me, child,

welcome Me in.

Open the door 

of your heart.

Allow Me entrance there.

I come full of grace and truth;

to bring the fire of My love,

to light the depths of your soul.

I am nourished by grace and mercy in ways my mind cannot grasp, but my soul cannot live without. God invites me home, He longs to give me rest: "Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." Matthew 6:11 When the older boys, men actually, come home I let them sleep until they are rested. It is pure gift; I long for their bodies and souls to catch up with the journey each has been on. 

Our recent guests enjoyed pancakes, fresh picked strawberries and baked doughnuts. I find great joy in feeding others, in creating spaces where they feel refreshed and their bodies restored. And conversation. I pray continually that all we say and do in our home brings hope and healing, that we are grounded in truth and connect by God's grace. 

Is this then God's heart? To bring us His love, giving us rest and joy in His presence and strength for our way if it is weary.

Medicine from Sacred Writings:

"For He was not, we know, a healer to bodies only, but a curer also of the soul." 

John Chrysostom Fourth Century

LOVE AND BLEACH IS ALL YOU NEED

This is not my best day: I woke and google-searched, "Can you bleach granite counter-tops?" Apparently you can, as well as the handles of all the doors and anything that cannot move. I am holding in tension (huge tension) God's loving words to me yesterday and cleaning up after the stomach flu in our home. God is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) but how can I hear Him when my world is not the same yesterday, today and forever. Family members get sick (plural), sons almost break ankles, others move across the country; lives change, we change, people change. He reminds me, "I the Lord do not change." Malachi 3:6

So, I must sit here as He sits with me and refines and purifies me. Why didn't someone warn me that the fire would be so hot, so all-consuming, so untamable. Is it true that the Refiner purifies gold in a fire until He sees His own image? I do not want lessons from Hebrews where God reminds me, "Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:29; I want to be taught by a good Shepherd who promises, "I came that you might have life and have it  to the full." John 10:10 

This fire, this kingdom and this abundant life are all connected. He is the way, the truth and the life; to have Him I must be cleansed of all that is not Him. For His kingdom to be at hand, near me, in me, there would need to be a house fire where God takes all that does not give thanks, and worship Him and burns it to the ground. He creates space in me with His holy fire that He might come and dwell within, but the way He makes room is so uncomfortable. Oh, that is suffering, trials, challenges- these break us open and burn away the unholy so that we can receive this unshakable kingdom. All that can be shaken in us will be shaken so that He might be worshipped.

What is a mere mortal to do in such cases? Make applesauce.

This will heal my family members and ground me. All is not lost; love is all I need. God's love carries us when we cannot go on: clean one more bathroom, soothe one more child, let go of one more attachment. He will remain the same, He will not change. His love is my rock, my anchor, my shield and it seems my heart is broken open that I might rely on, trust, and put my hope in His unfailing love even as I bleach the world I live in.


Medicine from Sacred Scripture:

"May your unfailing love be my comfort." Psalm 119:76

MY FATHER'S WORDS

Rain pelted us for days as the earth was watered by heaven's storehouses; the ground soaked up the needed refreshment even as the pavement was like a bounce house for raindrops. I wonder what is thirsty in our souls? In the dailiness of life we miss what brings us life. Jesus tells us He came, "That we might have life and have it  to the full." John 10:10 and yet we seem to pave over our souls with busyness and technology so that life-giving water cannot reach us. We leave our gadgets and social media lonely, confused, connected to the cloud, but not planted by a stream of living water. Psalm 1:3

As a  little girl my father called me, "sweat pea." What does your Father call you? Isaiah is full of the Father's words for us, like a rain shower of love from heaven, listen to Him calling:

~"I will sing for the one I love, a song about his vineyard." Isaiah 5:1

~"You are precious and honored in My sight and I love you... do not be afraid, for I am with you." Isaiah 43:4-5

~"Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you." Isaiah 54:10

~"Give ear and come to Me; hear Me , that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love." Isaiah 55:3

God pours His love into our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, yet we do not always hear His love.

Ask Him today, the Father to the fatherless, to open your heart to His love. It may be a downpour.

Feeling needy, parched, thirsty? Let the love of God saturate your very being.

"The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water , and the parched ground into springs...so that people may see and know , may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it." Isaiah 41:17-18, 20

Medicine from Sacred Scripture:

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us,

 that we might be called children of God."

1 John 3:1

SAFELY NESTLED IN

Just outside my sun room window the world of nature wakes to nurturing. The goslings have arrived in all their fluffy splendor and I marvel at how they follow. One set of parents seems to have it down pat but the other are circling their young in frantic hope of keeping them in line. I wonder if God looks at me this way? As my Abba Father, does He chase after me and try to reign in my wandering heart and wayward ways? 

He actually tells me He is my soul's shelter and refuge. "Show the wonder of your great love, You who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes. Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings."  Psalm 17:7, 8 Sitting under Someone's wings isn't my strong suit, I would much rather fly the coop than stay sheltered somewhere until the storm or flurry has passed and I am safe.

"He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." Psalm 91:4 

This closeness, where God's feathers touch me, is terrifying. I feel for the little birds who are sitting under the robin, she is on them day and night; so my Father in heaven is protecting me. The Lord, the God of Israel, is the One under whose wings I have come to take refuge; in distress or danger, I am kept safe.

Medicine from Sacred Scripture;

"You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself." Exodus 19:4