You only see part of the picture.

(Lessons gleaned doing a puzzle extending 6 inches beyond the borders pictured on the box.)

You only see part of the picture

There’s more to your life than you see.

You see what happens around you

But outside that framework there be

Unknown factors and measures

Images, colour and light.

Though to put the pieces together

It can be more of a fight.

Part of the picture you work on

Putting the pieces in place

The other unseen surrounding

You leave to My infinite grace.

Guessing at last what’s portrayed there

Trying to make sense of it all

Feeling your way to an image

You don’t have a sight to recall.

But think of the wonder in this child,

It’s much more exciting you see.

The whole of the picture completed

You’ll see it at last as I see.

Sometimes we forget that option.

Facing something bigger than you?

“The very words of God are tingling with supernatural power to be released by the touch of your faith!”

Take the fight up to a higher level. Things impossible on the physical plane become possible on the spiritual one.

“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds (disease, corruption, fear, hate, greed,) casting down imaginations (doubts, fears, negativity, impossibilities, things we think that impede us) and every high thing that exults itself against the knowledge of God. Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

We’ve been endowed with the most powerful weapons on earth, but they must be grasped and used on the spiritual plain, we access that through the absorption of God’s Word.

How to be thankful – empathy!

I still remember when visiting friends in Sicily, after a long stay helping in a critical situation in  Greece concerning Kurdish refugees. Our host remarked how thankful and appreciative my kids were compared to hers. How did I do it? she asked.

I replied, when you don’t eat meat for months, have to bathe in a bowl of hot water, wake to freezing cold and fight constant mold on the walls and ceilings in winter and intense heat in summer, your home seems like paradise on earth by comparison!

Needless to say our conditions were much better than those of the refugees we were trying to help (we at least had a house!)

I thank God every day for my beautiful, warm apartment, pension and sweet supportive family. I am so blessed!

This one gets clearer as you get older lol!

Dream on! Dream big! Dream free!

Living Fountains

A life filled with God’s spirit is like a fountain. It may turn and twist, swirl and flow, breaking forth sometimes in leaping cascades when channeled through a narrow place.

If your life has been through “narrow pipes” recently maybe it is so you can burst forth in leaping heights and shower many with your cool blessings,

Even constraints have their uses. The restricted flow and pressure forces them upward to burst forth in splendor!

(“Out of their belly shall flow living fountains!”)

Strength?

This one really resonates with me as “strong” tends to be an adjective that’s often been ascribed to me throughout my life. Only those very close to me are aware of my inherent weakness (though it shows more and more as I get older.) Rather I’ve found courage because there was no other option. In doing so I learnt how to lean heavily.

Great faith in a weak structure will collapse but weak faith in a strong structure will stand.

The worst was over.

The worst was over. She emerged from the dark, thorny, forest of her past scrambling into the morning sunlight pulling entangling vines from her legs. The relationship that had overshadowed, encompassed, entangling her life for so many years was over. She had escaped!

She slumped down on the hillside examining her hurts and scratches – they were many. She wondered how she could ever clean the wounds and then – it rained, (as if she hadn’t suffered enough!) Getting up she stumbled on seeking to get her bearings on life again. A deluge of troubles pelted down and she felt miserable. The rain had not affected her so much in the forest, hadn’t really touched her skin.

She thought about going back, just till the rain stopped … His arms would be waiting, enticing, encircling, but dark, restrictive. No. She wouldn’t go back. It was over!

Looking down she began to realise the water that soaked her garments and stung her cuts was washing away the dirt and grime that might cause infection. She looked at the rain with different eyes. Though she would have preferred the sun she needed rain right now for cleansing.

It continued to come down in torrents. She tried not to mind, to embrace the cleansing, it took a while.

Then the sun came out, a rainbow appeared and as she gazed down the hill a new path set before her. She was free, cleansed wounds healing and life beginning again!

It’s all in Your perspective.