Snow, Spring and Mice

So, we have 16 inches of snow one day. No electricity, trees down everywhere, four wheel drive needed to get in and out of my driveway. AND THEN, five days later, it's 85 degrees outside!! I have to say, the snow was pretty, but I prefer the 85 degrees. And I can see the signs of spring around my house and yard. My trees are budding, and my tulips are coming up. Beautiful things we associate with spring.

But, there are also some not-so-beautiful things I associate with spring. There was a bug crawling across my kitchen floor this morning, I can't identify the species, I call it a Powhatan Bug (we didn't have those kind of bugs when I lived in Midlothian). Another sign of spring I noticed in my car. I saw what looked like chocolate sprinkles on my seat. I typically blame my husband for things like this, he sneaks off to Chubby's (the convenient store/ gas station/restaurant down the street) to get his fix of fast food and ice cream on a daily basis. Well, when I took a closer look, the chocolate sprinkles looked more like they came from a mouse, if you know what I mean...yeah, mouse poop... in my car!! OK, so where is the mouse now?? I envision my self driving down the street with a mouse running around my car, as I swat at it and scream and most likely wreck! But I was late to where I needed to go, so I decided to leave, and pray.

Then I started thinking about the fact that God created mice, AND bugs. Why? Do they somehow support the food chain and more valuable species couldn't survive without eating them? Or is it something about our character that God wants to develop by putting creepy bugs and disgusting rodents in our lives? Will there be mice and bugs in heaven? Maybe they will get new bodies too and be CLEAN (I'm a germ-phobic nurse). Maybe, it's just my percetption, some people like mice and bugs. Or maybe I over analyze things? And it's soooo much deeper than what we can ever understand.

How great is God—beyond our understanding! (Job 36:26)

God is incomprehensible to us, we can never fully understand His ways.

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Yeah, I'll just leave it at that.

A Beating Heart

At 5 weeks of life, an embryos heart begins to beat! At this point, the embryo is only 1/17th of an inch long.....that's the size of the tip of a pencil. It's hard to fathom that something that size is a living human being. God knows this tiny little embryo of life, with it's tiny little beating heart, and it's brain and other organs that are beginning to develop. Wow! God saw our bones being formed in our mother's body. He made us in an amazing and wonderful way. He has planned all of our days and written them in His book before we were born.

When I am at my job, every time I see a baby enter this world, I feel the presence of God. Whether that baby was long awaited by his parents, or maybe he wasn't planned, I still feel God in that room. Whether those parents know who He is or not,....He is there in that room when His child takes its first breath.

More TIme, More TIme,More Time......

I find it increasingly more difficult to find the time to do the things I like to do, need to do, want to do, HAVE to do. How has the world gotten so busy? Why is there never enough time in the day? It's overwhelming.

My struggles:

I have to wait until I get my life organized to really start living.

I have become so busy with the day to day that I no longer have any friends. I don't have time. 

I am so busy taking care of everyone and everything else, that I don't have time to take care of myself.

I hate the house I live in.

I miss my art studio and garage!

I have 50 things on my to-do list today, and I have to work 12 hours tomorrow, how will I ever get it done?

When will men start being men again? Leaders, taking responsibility for themselves and their families? What has happened to Godly men?

Women, when will we stop worrying about the way we look and what people think of us? When will we EVER put our guards down??

Is this what it means to live in a fallen world? Where the roaring lion is prowling around looking to devour us at any moment? I think he already has. I think he already has.

When I get to this point, I often look up, I hear the voice of God, I hear Jesus, he's talking to me........

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (Matt 11:28-30-The Message)

Freely and lightly, freely and lightly, freely and lightly..........COME TO ME.

At The Heart of It All

I have to say I am fascinated by the heart. How it sustains life both physically and emotionally. With each of my children, I remember anticipating the first time I saw that tiny flicker on the sonogram screen. The miracle of life will forever amaze me.

Without the heart, we could not survive. It's a vital organ to our being. It delivers the blood, oxygen and nutrients needed to sustain our lives. It leads our emotions, passions and drive. Sometimes we follow it blindly, as it leads us down the path it chooses.

But, at it's core, ....is it good or bad?

The heart can be many things: evil, pure,hard, soft, humble, fearful, loving, observant, obedient, defiant, committed, tested, crying, rejoicing, responsive, seeking, praying, discerning, changing ....... the list goes on.

Jeremiah 17:9 says "The human heart is the most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" It's as if the heart needs some help. It needs to be controlled, reigned in somehow.

It is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God. Believing adds another element to the heart, we also have to engage our minds. So if we are to have spiritual renewal in Christ, are we not made new in the attitude of our minds? Yes, we are. That would be our new nature, created in God's likeness. (Romans 10:10, Ephesians 4:23-24).

I go back to Jeremiah 17, in verse 10, God answers... "I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind ......."

To follow our hearts, we must first follow our minds. There is a consciousness that we must have with our hearts as it takes us on the wild and exciting journey called life.