A Blessing from the Mountains: God's Sovereign Love

Annecy, France Looking Toward the French Alps
Photo Credit: Mark Grace

Our friend Francoise drove us to Annecy-by-the-Lake one brisk March day in 2008.  It was only one day out of almost 21,000 days that I have lived in my lifetime, yet it stands out in memory from nearly all the others.

French Alps
Photo Credit: Mark Grace

I remember walking in the shadow of the French Alps, casting my gaze toward those imposing, snow covered giants and thinking that if only I could live in Annecy, I would never lose sight of the fact that "the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him." (Habakkuk 2:20)

Then I looked around me and the sad thought came to me that it probably would not take very long for me to become accustomed to this breath-taking landscape.  How long, I thought, would it be before this awareness of God's transcendent majesty became just another taken-for-granted part of my daily routine?

It is true.  We human beings seem to be hard-wired to accustom ourselves to the most terrifying and breath-taking experiences.  With time, even Moses' face ceased to shine from his encounters with God.

I think that is why God constructed memory to work in the particular way it does. We may forget, but we are also and always capable of remembering.  And that remembering has the power to bring us back to our forgotten experiences of awe.

My blessing for your weekend is this: may God's majesty overshadow your work, your rest and your worship.  May your soul grow silent before the transcendent power and compassion of the Almighty and bless you with a deep awareness of our Redeemer's sovereign love.

Blessings,

Mark

Photo Credit: Mark Grace

Any Morning

A Blessing for Your Weekend
Photo Credit: Mark Grace

ANY MORNING

Just lying on the couch and being happy.
Only humming a little, the quiet sound in the head.
Trouble is busy elsewhere at the moment, it has
so much to do in the world.

People who might judge are mostly asleep; they can’t
monitor you all the time, and sometimes they forget.
When dawn flows over the hedge you can
get up and act busy.

Little corners like this, pieces of Heaven
left lying around, can be picked up and saved.
People won’t even see that you have them,
they are so light and easy to hide.

Later in the day you can act like the others.
You can shake your head. You can frown.

-- William Stafford

Photo Credit: www.crosscards.com

Reprieve

Grandfather At The Beach

Photo Credit: Mark Grace

Reprieve
(for Linda)

Once you have heard the

seagulls, have felt the swish of

feet through sand and surf;

A Blessing for Your Weekend . . .

Photo Credit: 123RF
Big Wave

We lay it all down, including what others call sanity, for just a few moments on waves larger than life. We do this because we know there is still something greater than all of us. Something that inspires us spiritually."
— Laird Hamilton (big wave surfer)


"Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls. All Your waves and billows have gone over me." Psalm 42:7

Photo Credit: CrossCards.com

A Blessing For Your Weekend!

Maui Rain Forest Bench
Photo Credit: Mark Grace

"The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world."

Abraham Joshua Heschel

The Sabbath,  p.10

A Blessing For The Weekend . . .

Pedernales Falls, Texas Hill Country
Photo Credit: Mark Grace

Rest is a fine medicine.  

Let your stomachs rest, ye dyspeptics;

let your brain rest, you wearied and worried people of business;

let your limbs rest, ye children of toil!

Thomas Carlyle

Thanks to  Living Live Fully for the Quote!