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.