Finding Beauty in Every Day Things...

You know those little things all around you that remind you of God's presence or even an attribute of God? Like a rainbow for instance, it was put in the sky as a promise. It reminds us that God is faithful and He does not break His promises to us. When He says something He means it, unlike all the people of this world. Then there is the sunshine after the rain, reminding us that God is joy. When we shed tears they will not be forever; because even if all this mortal body brings us is sorrow, when we get to heaven we will know nothing but pure joy in the face of God. I also think of the flowers. They remind us of God's provision. If God can clothe them, will he not also clothe and take care of our every need? If a flower does not go unnoticed by him, how much more do we not go unnoticed? And, hasn't He been SO faithful in giving us more than we could ever need?

But as of this weekend, the thing that comes to my mind is snow. We can go to bed one night with the ground being green and the dirt being visible, then we wake up and just a couple hours later the ground can be completely covered in a pure white blanket of snow. There are no more roads, sidewalks, flowers, or grass that we can see. It's just a pure blanket of white. It's a wonderful picture of many things. But for me, this weekend, I was reminded of God's mercies being new every morning. Thank goodness He never runs out of giving us another chance. His Grace and Mercy are so abundant. Luckily we can wake up every morning and we don't have to live it the way we did the day before. We don't have to always make the same mistakes and we don't have to go down the same path. Each new day is a chance given to us to do more for God's kingdom and to have a fresh start. It's also a wonderful picture of how God can take something nasty, filthy and sinful and turn it into pure white. He can take anything and make it into something we could've never imagined.

I have looked into the faces of many people lately. Some are my friends, who I love dearly. Some are my family, who I could never replace and it brings tears to my eyes to think of how blessed I am with them. And yet others I hardly no. Some are co-workers who drive me nuts with how bossy and nagging they can be. Some are those I can sometimes look down on as "inferior". Some are those that have treated me poorly and I find it almost impossible to love them. But, God has been reminding me lately that He can make ANYONE a new creature. He made me one and I can still at times looks like a hopeless cause. I must never give up on others, because Jesus has not given up on me. When I look into the eyes of those I don't understand or those who I find it nearly impossible to love, I need to see Jesus. Because He can melt the heart of stone. He makes all things new.

And I am so thankful He gives me a new day, with new mercies. I am grateful that I can wake up every day and try harder than the day before. I am so grateful I can get chance after chance to actually make my life count for Christ and hear him say "Well done" when it is all finished. BEcause in the end, that is all that matters. And I pray I wake up each new day and make it count more than the day before.

One of my favorite songs that says it well (Nichole Nordeman can say it more beautifully than I ever could):

Is it fair to say I was lured away?
By endless distractions and lovelier attractions then
Or fairer still, my own free will
Is the better one to blame
For this familiar mess I've made again

So I would understand, if you were out of patience
And I would understand, if I was out of chances

(Chorus)
Your mercies are new every morning
So let me wake with the dawn
When the music is through or so it seems to be
Let me sing a new song, old things gone
Every day it's true, You make all Your mercies new

The distance left between East and West
Is how far You would go to forget the debt I owe
And thrown into the sea, the wicked ways in me
Will never have a chance to wash back on the sand

So I would understand, if you would make me pay
I would understand, lying in the bed I made again

(Chorus)

Up comes the sun on every one of us
Gone, gone, gone the guilt and shame that knew your name