Archive for August, 2009
We Were Made for New
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The smell inside a new car
The dawn of a new day
A new house
A new baby
The adventure of traveling down a road you’ve never been on before
A gift to be opened
A new recipe
What is it about new things that we love? By the way, I love my new website!
Is it always wrong to long for something new or is there something within us made for newness?
I remember when I got a new van several years ago. I loved it! I was so excited about how nice it was and all the bells and whistles it had and just the fact that it was clean and new. Even though I loved it when it was new, I was so glad to see it go a couple of months ago when I got a new car. My soccer mom days were officially over. It was the beginning of a new era!
During a worship service a few weeks ago, I found myself pondering the words of the song we were singing. “He makes all things new.” I thought about how new things can bring us hope.
And I thought of how the Word tells us that if we are in Christ, we ourselves become new creations. A new creation. The impact of those words still stops me in my tracks. Knowing how God created Adam and Eve, how He was intimately involved with His hands, His eyes, His words, His breath, causes me to wonder about the depths of what it means for God to make us new creations
A Picture of My Heart
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Did you ever draw a picture of your heart when you were younger – perhaps on a piece of paper designed to give to your sweetheart? Did you draw it big and red? Maybe with Cupid’s arrow through it? Or maybe you drew it broken or bleeding?
What would it look like today if you drew a picture of your heart?
God has so much to say about our hearts. Many times God’s Word talks about “hard hearts”.
Last night I was thinking about what it means to have a hard heart. I guess I’ve always had an idea in my mind of what this might mean, but at this moment I see something new. Instead of a mental picture of someone whose face is hardened, who is cursing and openly rejecting God, I see a picture of me.
Now don’t throw up a religious reaction and try to reassure me that I have never been hard hearted. I have. And probably, (alright, definitely), so have you.
Oh, perhaps I would never openly harden my heart and you might say the same thing. So what does it look like if our hearts become hardened or to use another term, calloused? How does that happen?
To be calloused means to be hard; hardened; insensitive; indifferent, unsympathetic; it can speak of a part of the skin which has become thickened due to friction or pressure. It also can mean to become emotionally hardened; unfeeling.
For the Love of a Dog
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My family and I have this mutt dog named Charlie. Charlie is a wonderful dog, however sometimes his behavior is less than stellar. But yet I find that I really love this dog! He is so expressive. He has these beautiful eyes which never fail to show me that he thinks I am wonderful. He will sit at my command although he groans as he tries to contain his boundless energy that really makes him want to jump up on me. His mother dropped him off on our back door step about 3 years ago. He was just a tiny ball of black fur. He just looked through our back door and cried as if to say, “Hold me. I’m scared. Don’t leave me. Where’s my mama?” Now he is this big, big dog with a humungous tail that swings back and forth offering a large thump to whatever it touches. Someone once told me that he looks like the dog from Dr. Seuss’ Whoville. Let’s just say he has many family lines.
One day last week I drove into our garage and as always, Charlie met me at the door of my car waiting for me to rub him on the head and tell him how beautiful he is. Then it happened. I got a revelation. I finally understood why I loved him so much. I walked into the house and found my husband Eddie. “Eddie” I said. “I figured out why I love Charlie so much.” He said, “Okay” while his face said “Here it comes. Another reason to keep Charlie.” With a smile of joy I pronounced, “He is an orphan! His mother dropped him on our back door step!” To which my husband groaned with a slight smile and said, “He and ten thousand other dogs” as if that muted my point.
