Go little tugs.

'May the strength of God pilot us.' ( St Patrick)
I was taking a break by the sea and was watching a small pilot boat pushing and guiding a larger vessel out of port giving it direction and setting it on its right course. Such strength from a small boat, - such a valuable and important task and I began to think of how day by day we go out under God's guidance and come back in and wonder about the value and worth of our daily doings especially if we are the only one doing a particular work. How do we maintain the strength to 'keep at it?' I read this verse by Charles Allen: 'Remember that you are needed. There is at least one important work to be done that will not get done unless you do it.'
May the strength of God pilot us.

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Lord, keep us in awe.

When  someone asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment, Jesus answered. 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength' Matthew 22:37
A glorious morning with the fields alive with the wash of the overnight rain and the presence of God is within it and its something I never tire of, this early morning glory --- vivid green grass covered valleys, shimmering with dew. Mountains bathed in mist, soft and blue. A mother bird teaching her young to fly - I think God has just passed by - painting, creating - thank you Lord. Lee Warren said:
Lord, help me to never lose a sense of wonder over the way you spoke the world into existence. Keep me in awe, Father, as I consider how you have arranged for the sun to rise each morning and for the ice to melt each spring and for the plants to come back to life.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

A gospel story

In the beginning when God created the heavens. Gen. 1:1
I recall when I was in Jerusalem studying  a subject called 'Palestine of Jesus 'at St George's Cathedral,  how the lecturer referred  to the landscape, the places of the bible like the Sea of Galilee, the Old City, the Mount of Olives etc  as the 5th gospel.  I could really relate to that and it brought so much of the biblical stories of Jesus alive. As I was out walking earlier I walked across the grass of the hillside and sat awhile on the seat at the top and form there I could survey the valleys and plains and the glorious Brindabella mountains, a landscape of green, low morning mist, the full pond from recent rains and the beauty in the finer things such as the wild flowers and the the red rump finches and I decided to call it all the 6th gospel because in it all was God. Martin Luther wrote: God writes the gospel not in the bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

All of nature is a gospel.

Beauty puts a face on God

Your steadfast love ,O lord extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.....you save humans and animals alike O Lord. (Paraphrased) Psalm 36: v 5-6
I love the wisdom of the mystics and others who have embedded their lives in God and from who we have benefited so much. I make a comment today about my beloved dog and companion Bella who has sat by my side for the twelve years I have been writing these reflections. She passed away last week, a gracious, brave lady but its not her I comment on but what I saw in her, a creature of God's creation. As the Indian children in the neighbourhood asked me one day when they saw the cross on her collar.'Is she a Christian dog, are you two Christians?'  She emanated God's love not only to me but to others who knew her, often being described by the vet as 'having something very special about her.'  Meister Eckhart (1260-1327)  wrote: Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God.
How lovely. How true.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord

Bella  2003 - 2016 

A joy every day

The cold wind in the winter, the pleasant summer sun, the ripe fruits in the garden: God made them every one. (Cecil Frances Alexander)
Spring still evokes in me a joy every day. I said to a friend as I looked out on her garden, just 'how lovely are all the flowers this time of year.' Every flower I look upon has a 'joyful, colourful, face of beauty' What great love for us, from God.  I love to pick the beautiful roses in all their glory and place them on my table. That is such a prayerful action, an in the moment action and the sweet peas placed in the vase in the bedroom give off an everlasting reminder in the night of God's love.
From an unknown writer comes these words: The beauty of creation convinces me that the creator not only loves me,but he wants me to have the very best.
Take a moment now, before the rush of the day sets in, and go and smell the flowers.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning.

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning, praise for them, springing fresh from the word. TIS 156
It is said that 'anything worth thinking about is worth singing about' and Mary Oliver adds 'which is why we have songs of praise, songs of love and songs of sorrow'. I can relate to this thinking so much as I often have a song in my heart and on my lips so much so that  though I go to bed at night and sleep there is something in me that still listens for the joy of the beautiful melodious sound of the blackbirds song in the early morning, the first of creation to sing to God on a new day.
May there be songs in your heart and on your lips that bring you joy and peace and comfort and assurance of God.
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne,servant of the Lord

Just a Caterpillar?

I am like an olive tree growing in the house of God. Ps 52
The little four year old had hold of my hand tightly as we walked to the park to play. Suddenly he stopped and squatting down started examining a caterpillar with great curiosity. It was just an ordinary plain  black caterpillar with lots of legs going at its almost standstill pace  across the path but to the four year old it said far more because after a long period of examination he said: ' I know what that  caterpillar will be, I can see it now, it will be a beautiful, colourful butterfly and it will have wings and it will fly. There is a wisdom story from oral tradition that says: 'A genius is one who can recognize the butterfly in a Caterpillar, the  eagle in an egg, the saint in a selfish human being.' I like to think its the one connected with the creator and his creation.'
Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ
Anne, servant of the Lord.

Massive Wedge tail eagle in the SA outback