And God smiles

 All  things bright and beautiful....the Lord God made them all.  (TIS 135

Spring is the time when God surrounds us with his smile. The glorious colours of the flowers in bloom, deep green grass and the breath taking sun rises and sun sets. This is the season when all of creation shouts before us the smiling face of God.  His presence is a present - a gift, a treasured gift. As I gathered myself  in prayer in the sacred space  my words rang out to God -  How good of you , to give us all of this.

May the peace of God fill your life every single day.    Anne, servant of the Lord

.                                                    smiling face of God.

Wander in the morning

 Creator God who  shaped the earth and heavens. Your glory shines in all you have made.  (Christian song)

There is so much of God's creation to soak in when time is spent among it, just sitting of wandering in and about the garden. Beauty before me and out of the corner of my eye I catch yet another beauty to indulge in. We are so enriched and blessed by creation. As I wandered in the early morning I stooped to pick a cluster of Freesias  to bring home, feeling like I had been given a pearl of great price. I put the flowers in a vase and the fragrance of God filled the house .

Michael Leunig writes: 'you have no place in spring except upon your knees.' 

May the peace of God fill your life every single day.  Anne, servant of the Lord

God's love

Brilliant creator

 '...all creation shows your glory, heaven and earth draw near your throne, singing, 'Holy, holy, holy. (TIS 99)

God's love for us is so great that he showers us with countless gifts and blessings. He lavishes his love on us and its all about to see.  Just sit awhile and look, unwrap each bit of his beauty before you and enjoy with thanks and praise, marvelling at the brilliant creator.  The other day I picked a small piece of the forget-me-not flowers  from the garden  and placed it in the lapel of my vest and all day long I saw and reflected the love of God for me, a God who will forget-me-not.

May the God of life bless you and keep you today and always. - Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                                The love of God.

I am here, with you

 'I am with  you always.'  Matthew 28:20

Imagery can be so strong. 

Every time I see a flower growing in the crack of a path or out of a stone wall thoughts such as this come to mind: 'May you always notice the  flowers growing up between the cracks and may your life be full of little resurrections' (Neil Paynter)

May the peace of God fill your life every single day.

Anne, servant of the Lord

                                                Growing between the stones.

the voice of silence

A time to keep silent and a time to speak. Eccl 3:7

Sometimes I can listen deeply, so deeply that the silence is loud. So deeply that out of the silence comes the still small voice, or more profound  a beautifully, richly coloured bird lands within inches of my sight and God speaks. I was sitting in the sacred space, just sitting in the morning quiet with God and a beautiful  Crimson Rosella came with his partner. They looked at me and I at them and for that moment we were one in God. Mother Teresa said: 'God is the friend of silence. See how nature, trees, flowers and grass all grow in silence.'

Mane Nobiscum Domine - remain with us Lord.   Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                        They looked at me and I at them.

And it forms a prayer.

 I love the place O God, wherein thine honour dwells - it is the house of prayer  where in thy servant meets. (Hymn)

There is a warmth in the sacred space of late and its not just coming from the change in the season. It comes from that special gift we give ourselves when we take the time to sit alongside God awhile where there is little else besides the voice of quiet and all within sight forms a prayer. I mean, look at the spent leaves from the nearby tree dancing in the wind, blowing up and down and around and around.  Look at the spring flowers in all their glory growing there for your delight and as gifts to share with those who pass by.  Everywhere, all around  on every side there is a joy and a prayer. May you feel the warmth in the place you call your sacred space. 

May the peace of God fill your life every single day.   Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                   Swerling into a pile.         

Bathed in God's Glory

 When morning guilds the skies. my heart awakening cries, may Jesus Christ be praised. TIS 227

Words of a timeless melody. One of those old favourites that hangs about forever. But, Oh! How true it is. When morning guilds the skies our thoughts go to God.

I saw in the sunrise a magnificent sight that I could not put into words. The words that did come forth were in gratitude, appreciation and worship[ to a faithful God who never fails us, morning by morning. During the week the same breath-taking blessings crossed my lips as I watched the moon fade away into the sunrise. In the interim the soft mist hovered over the ground, magically weaving its way between the trees with ghost like moves. I thought - and there it hangs, the morning mist, moon-light bathed and sunrise kissed. God is in his house. 'O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder.'

With his grace and presence, go into your day having been blessed at its beginning.    Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                              Morning glory.

Grateful praise

 For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, for the  love which from our birth over and around us lies. (Hymn F.S.Pierpoint)

It is so hard not to have those words in your heart and the tune in your head at the moment as all God's beauty 'over and around us lies.'  Everywhere we see God's extravagant gifts in abundance. Clusters of jonquils, daffodils, wattle, daphne, violets and so the gifts keep giving full of the mystery and miracles in the waking earth at springtime and have you seen the super moon of late? Yes, God's beauty fills the skies at night with the moon  in a perfect shape, full of light surrounded by a magnitude of stars. God's love does indeed cover us on the earth and in the skies. Feed on his beauty.

May the God of life bless you and keep you today and always.   Anne, servant of the Lord.

(super moon)

God's light shinning

Let my hands perform his bidding, let my feet run his ways. (Hymn, All for Jesus)

Often in my morning prayers are the words to Jesus, 'Where you lead I will go.' and again he led me to the nursing home with  a bunch of daphne and my little dog in hand, just to wander about and bring some joy to people.  As I went around those seated in the lounge room there were many wanting to smell the daphne and the responses flowed. One said ' What a blessing, I smelt the daphne and I saw my mother.'  Another, 'I smelt the daphne and was right back in my garden.'  The joy and delight that memories bring but I noticed one lady in a day bed, nothing moving except her eyes and I approached her with my little dog and sat her on this ladies knee and ever so slowly her feeble   hand  reached out and held her paw, she stroked the paw and I saw a faint smile break on the ladies face and for a moment she connected with me and the little dog and I heard a still quiet voice within say, ' Let your hands perform his bidding and your feet  run his  ways.'

May the peace of God fill your life every single day.    Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                A moment of joy.

leaping faith

 God will always leave a witness. 1 Kings 11:36

In the sacred space the air is filled with the fragrance of God emanating from the glorious daphne bush and the clusters of violets and I am drawn to reflect on our loving God who wants us all to share his fragrance with others. Often we don't see the result of our evangelising  but recently I saw it  as I reflected on an elderly Christian lady who befriended a lonely lady at her home and brought Christ to her. When that lady went into a nursing home she took Jesus with her and recently when she passed away her closest friend there started to go to the chapel service to seek what her friend had. Here was faith 'leaping' from one person to another - where to next I ponder.

May God's fragrance  continue to fall from us all onto another, to another.  Anne, servant of the Lord

.                                                The fragrance of violets.

God's shadow

 For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and minds delight, for the mystic harmony, linking sense to sound and sight. Christ our God to the we raise, this our sacrifice of praise. (TIS 137)

When looking down the valley on a crystal clear frosty morning there was one long, thin band of deep pink cloud fringing the  mountains and the reflection from it shone on the pockets of white snow in the valleys which changed them  to a soft marshmallow pink,  glistening  in the sun like a million crystals and I recall a quote from Gabriela Mistral: ' beauty.......is the shadow of God on the universe.' How wonderful O Lord are the works of your hands. What beauty to behold. You have created a divine song in our hearts from what our eye has seen and your presence fills the start of our day,

As you bless us with light at the suns rising, shine on us now with love.   Anne, servant of the Lord

Its the shadow of God.

Born anew

 I am the resurrection and the life says the Lord. John 14.

It feels unseasonably like spring.  The bulbs are up. The daffodils, the jonquils, the tulips, the snowdrops, all those that have seemingly died and laid  under the soil all winter now spring back to life in all their glory. How much I ponder this miracle of our creator God yet why do some doubt so much that we too will rest awhile in our seemingly death yet rise again in glory?  Oh, how much we can learn from nature, the miracle of nature, that tells us nothing really dies. Its no wonder we call the season of spring 'spring' because isn't that what it does, it springs nature back into life. 

                                                            Beautiful Creation.

Be with me-enjoy me.

 For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies. Christ our God to the we raise this our sacrifice of praise. TIS 137

When I came to the sacred place there was a wonderful collection of surprises waiting for me all covered in the perfume of the Daphne bush just outside the gate. There is the dancing heads of the Daffodils swaying in the gentle breeze, the endless flowering of the Grevilia bush, the numerous coloured  Cyclamens pushing their flower heads through their leaves ( how can that tiny pin head of a bud turn into  such a flower?) and the ever faithful Violets of every imaginable colour competing with the other fragrances of the garden. Oh what love God showers onto us and all of a sudden all that is before me becomes a prayer. What a display of God's Glory  which to some is 'a lovely garden' but to me its my cathedral filled with the wonders and mysteries of God. It was Noel Davis who wrote: ' Look around with your eyes and your heart, you will see and feel me everywhere. Be with me, enjoy me. Foster all that is good and share me.'

Mane Nobiscum Domine. Remain with us Lord.     Anne, servant of the Lord

                                                                    God's love.

Where I am there you are also.

' We love the place, O God, wherein thine honour dwells, the joy of thine abode all earthly joy excels. it is the house of prayer wherein thy servants meet and thou, O Lord, art there. (William Bullock)

The more I visit my sacred space the more I feel the presence of God waiting there for me. Its like his hand is on my empty seat and he is patting it and saying, 'Come, sit with me awhile.' That's the draw of the sacred space. Its such a peaceful quiet  shelter away from the pending tide of the daily rush and business. A place where one is enfolded in love. A place wherein all I look out and see  is of God because it is said of God: 'Where I am there you are also and there is nothing on earth that you are not in.' The flowers, the buds on the trees waiting to burst into spring blossom, the perfume of the Daphne floating in the air, the puppy on its morning walk with its person, the birds singing in the new day, the clear blue sky....the breaking of a new day, .there is ever so much of God's love to be seen. Where ever your sacred space is, that place you have created to spend special times with God, may you also be filled with his presence. May you also feel he is waiting there for you. May you pause awhile and thank God for all that is and all that will be.

May the peace of God fill your life every single day.     Anne, servant of the Lord.

The presence of God.

Made by God.

 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. Genesis 1-2

What detail. What incredible handiwork. What a creator. They were my thoughts as I lightly touched the delicate, perfect flower head of the blooms on the daphne bush, its perfume holding on my fingers. If one were to create the world and all that is in it in 7 days you would be inclined to think that it was a rushed job, things thrown together, tossed here and there but not so. The beauty of the smallest flower, the painted back of the lady bird with its red coating and black spots and the tiniest of legs, the colours of the birds and shapes of the animals, that's no rushed job. When you look in the mirror this morning you will see your image. Pause and look, that was no rushed job either, what you see is as precious in the sight of God as all of his creation made by God.

May the peace of God fill your lives every single day.   Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                        Its perfume holds on my fingers

Its colour, its perfume.

 'All is silent, in the still and soundless air I fervently bow to my Almighty God.' (Bing Xin. China)

One thing was on my mind when I came to meet with God this morning. It was the words of the beautiful hymn, 'Glorious things of thee are spoken.' and I had this image in mind of the beautiful, stunning bright yellow of the wattle trees coming into bloom that line some of our roadways and dot the bushland around us.. Bright, cheerful yellow balls of fluffy wattle blooms that hold a perfume which send me right back to childhood memories. Somethings in God's creation can put us on our knees with their colour, their beauty, their perfume, their memories and I thought of these words from the Iona Community: The turn of the leaf in the morning sun and the catch in our throat drives us to our knees and into prayer.

May the God of life bless you and keep you today and always.   Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                        Beauty in colour.

Cover the day with prayer

 Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath! Psalm 116:2

Every day is a prayer. All day is a prayer. I wonder do you see it like that? To wake up with a prayer on your lips of thanking God for the gift of a new day. To gaze out the window at a snow white frost while  holding a steaming hot cup of tea warming the hands and thanking God for the beauty  you behold.  To be blessed by two beautiful Rosellas on the garden path  and pause in the sacred space to lay the day before God and all those he will put in your path path today who may need your help. Francis de Sales said: Sprinkle a seasoning of short prayers on our daily living. If you see something beautiful, thank God for it. If you are aware of someone's need, ask God to help - you can toss up prayers all day!

May the God of life, bless you and keep you today and always.    Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                                   Morning delight

Hold hands with God

 In your presence is the fullness of joy and from your right hand flow delights for evermore . Ps 16:11

Oh the stillness. Oh the quiet. Oh the peace. Oh the beauty of it all in the sacred space as the stars fade from sight and the thin veil of light heralds the day, a day untouched, new and fresh showered with rays of the rising sun breaking through the trees and almost falling at my feet to the rhythm of the tinkling bell of a tiny bird waking and all I see and feel descends as a yearning in my heart, to heaven, to thank God for the gift of this new day.  All of it is a morning prayer and I am blessed richly before the day has even begun and my closing prayer to God is this: 'You have blessed me with light at the suns rising, shine on me now with love.'   May we all find that sacred space in the morning where we sit and hold hands with God all be it just for a little while.

May the peace of God fill your life every single day.     Anne, servant of the Lord.

In your presence is joy.

Surprise me God.

Let us ask ourselves today; are we open to 'God's surprises'?  Pope Francis 

God is often referred to as the God of surprises and he never fails to live up to that description. All around us in our day there are things that cause us to say, 'that was of God, or that is of God.' Yesterday I was taken by surprise when the end of the day seemed to pause between that thin veil of light and dark as God put on a magnificent spectacle in the sun set.  A spectacle of intense colour and beauty that caused such an intake of my breath, stopping me in my tracks in moments of awe and wonder. It was indeed a moment of nourishment.

May the God of life bless you and keep you today and always.     Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                    A moment of nourishment

A morning mystery

 Praise God the great creator (TIS  165)

The mystery of a winters morning with the ground frost white and glittering in places like a million jewels as its kissed by the rays of the rising sun and the mystery deepens as a thick fog embraces the eucalyptus trees, white ghost gums, living up to their name. What a gift that called me to bless the Lord in thanks for showering the opening of the day with a thousand blessings. As I looked into this days beginnings I recalled the words I read by A. Spanger: ' When you start  to make a habit of blessings God, you will discover that daily life can begin to feel like Christmas morning.'

Mane Nobiscum Domine - remain with us Lord.       Anne, servant of the Lord.

The mystery of  the morning