Good morning…
The photo above drew in my attention, so I included it in our post from yesterday, Grieving With God. The peaceful lake. The inviting hammock. The grey, hazy feel. The ripped up jeans. The silence, the solitude. The quiet passage of time needed for God to transform a grieving heart. To me, the photo spoke volumes about God steadily strengthening us with power in our inner being, Christ making a home in our heart, and the Spirit rooting us deeply in God’s endless love (Ephesians 3:14-21). Subtly the photo whispered tender truth to my soul.
I do not know if you have noticed, but at the bottom of our morning messages I have begun to give a link to the name of the artist who shares a photo on Unsplash.com, a new website God turned me onto a few months back. The images on this website are powerful and varied, delightful and free. Yesterday, after our message ended “P.S. Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash”, I touched on Priscilla’s name, and God’s invisible web of connectivity came to life before my very eyes. Priscilla, my dear mother-in-law’s name, is an artist from The Lower Mainland, British Columbia who loves people and prayer, plants and pugs.
The images Priscilla shares from the other side of our globe are very similar to some of the photos I have taken myself for our SueToYou blog posts over the past few years. I too love people and prayer, God and goldens.
Enjoying Priscilla’s pictures, I feel the kinship of Christ expanding between our creative hearts.
It reminds me of our group spiritual direction phone call from earlier this week. One grieving woman said to another grieving woman, “We think we are up in the air, slowly inching across a thin tightrope, carrying all of our burdens on our shoulders, alone. What if the tight rope is, actually, on level ground, and we are secure in this life together with God and each other? It feels like the ground between us is expanding with each word, each step. Christ dwells in our hearts and we are rooted and grounded in the immense love of God, together.”
Enjoying Priscilla’s pictures, I feel like the tight rope we are walking with God is not dangerously high up in the air, we are actually on common, level ground. Securely between us, God’s presence expands with each word, each step, each photo. From miles away, the Holy Spirit in her and the Holy Spirit in me stand together with the Holy Spirit in you in awe of our ever-present, everlasting God.
“Don’t come any closer,” said the Eternal One, grabbing our attention, helping us to notice the here, the now. “Take off your sandals and stand barefoot on the ground in My presence, for this ground is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5, VOICE).
…Sue…
