A lent reflection

 This is love: 1John:4-10

(God) 'You never stop loving, its all you ever do, a wild, unabashed, unbelievable love. Your love never gives up. It lifts and flings me into weightless exhilaration and it always catches me.' ( Clare Locke) What a description of God's love, a love that puts me on my knees and gives me a great sense of security - 'he always catches me,' wow! God's love for us is all of this and more. It's the love that holds our hand when life is tough. The love that walks beside us day by day, that watches over  us while we sleep and it's the love that causes the flowers to grow, bud and bloom into great delights that can take our breath away. A love profound yet at times so simple. A love that comes from the  sacrificed body of our Lord Jesus Christ.   ' Sit with me awhile,' says God   'and feel this love.'

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

The body and blood of Christ shed for you.

Meet me in the early morning.

 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our maker. Psalm 95:6 

'Meet me in the early morning splendor, I eagerly await there.'(anon)  I love those words because to me its the voice of God calling, calling, 'Come and be with me. Join me in the breaking of the day. Come.'  As I sat with God the first and only sound I hear was that of a small bird with a melodious call. It was soft, and sweet, singing its greeting to God  from a small twig on a large tree.  It doesn't matter where we are when we come to God, it can be out walking a bush track, or the sandy beach, in a busy shopping mall, behind an office desk or on  a seat in the garden.  I like these words of Helen Steiner-Rice:' I have worshipped in churches and chapels. I have prayed in busy streets, I have sought my God and have found him where the waves of the ocean beat.'   Where do you find the Lord your maker? 

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

A small bird on a little twig

Just be!

 May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the Lord. Psalm 104:34

Mindfulness  is to me is the time I spend in my sacred space wherever that may be. It can be in my garden or  leaning over a paddock fence  looking at a field of sheep with the flat plains flowing to the mountains that  rise up  into a cloudless blue sky or pondering on a waterfall, free flowing and coloured with the layers of a bright rainbow. Mindfulness is something that comes to meet you where ever you are and it can be that special New Year gift to yourself  that can last the whole year through. What is mindfulness to you?

I read this Buddhist saying: Looking for the perfect cherry tree blossom isn't a waste of life.

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

The perfect  blossom could be here.

Treasures uncovered.

 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. Matthew 13:45

I was reflecting, as I enjoyed the early quiet and cool of the sacred space, about uncovered treasures and there are many in the garden as flower and vegetable seeds rise from beneath the soil into things of beauty and value and some are the real 'pearl of great price'  There are many treasures to uncover in daily life if we have our eyes fixed on our surroundings. Even a long line of sheep walking in a paddock towards life giving water can uncover 'the pear of great price, as our mind goes to the shepherd of the sheep, Jesus, and how he is 'living water.'  Then there is the long, regimented looking vines in the vineyard that  speak of Jesus saying: , I am the vine you are the branches.' and there are so many more. As we go out into community today let us keep our eyes and minds open to the presence of God. May he show us many a 'pear of great price' in the ordinary.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.     Anne, servant of the Lord.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

There you are again, God

 Let us see your face Lord. Psalm 79:2

The beckoning I get to go to the sacred place is so powerful of an early morning. Its like God says: 'Come, sit quietly with me,  open your hands and your heart and  take this day, its a gift for you.'  O there is so much to see of God from the sacred space today. The petunias of deep purple and those striped yellow and red (isn't God clever?) The glorious blue of a blue flower, the magenta pelargonium  and the fuchsias, always in a pose of prayer. The kaleidoscope of colours just go on and on. Let us see your face Lord - let us see your face.  Alice Carwardine said: There you are, again, God the creator. God of all beings. There you are again.

Jehovah-shalom. The Lord is peace.      Anne, servant of the Lord.

                                                Fuchsias, head bowed in prayer.

Wonderful creator, mighty God

 Have you not known, have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. Isaiah 40:28

Time does nothing to dull the awe and wonder of the greatness of God. Such is his creativity that at times it leaves us speechless - the acorn so bright green with its little brown cap has the potential to grow into a very, very large tree. The little egg in the nest that is anxious to burst out and be what its meant to be - a little bird, and the glorious coloured butterflies on the Buddleia bush. What a wonderful God we have who showers us with delights. A Rennie says: 'Let us seek and find the small joys that are the 100 and 1,000's scattered on our daily life.'

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

Wonderful creator.