Tagged: restoration

  The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He takes me to lush pastures, he leads me to refreshing water. He restores my strength. Psalm 23:1-3     Hope for a Saturday Morning Song   A song hums low  Behind the noise Beneath the chaos Invitation to joy.   A narrated song With video I see the images A picture show.   A happy list Of things to do Not things I must But only want to.   Visit the garden shop Choose some roses Linger among  Violets and posies.   Make an oasis Privacy screen With roses for walls I’ll sip my tea.   Meet a friend For no good reason Except for revelry In blooming season.   Make good bread Knead it… Read More

This is what the Lord says: I will fill this valley with pools of water. 2 Kings 3:16 God could have created the world’s surface flat and smooth; He could have made it impenetrable, transparent, polished, sleek, silky, solid. Yet He allowed the surface of the earth to be pliable, malleable, whippy, springy, bendy, impressionable. Some say ice age glaciers created the chasmic valleys of the earth today. Once-level land lies ruptured, wildflowers spilling over its ridges, rivers filling its winding paths. The broken surface of the earth has become a tapestry woven with threads of beauty and life. The Hudson River Valley is one magnificent example of beauty after breaking. Flowing from the highest point of the Adirondack Mountains, the river reaches a depth… Read More

Let them sacrifice thank offerings. Let them talk about what he has done as they sing with joy.  Psalm 107:22 I never thought I’d be thankful for stinky feet. That fateful evening, just before I left the house, he sat on the sofa stretched out long, poking me with his bare feet as he tried to persuade me to let him try a new recipe. Even as I pushed those stinky toes away, I loved them. He was my boy-child growing to manhood, but he would always be my baby. I squeezed those toes and walked out the door, leaving him to create. The next time I saw my child several hours later, he was in the emergency room, fighting for his life. In the… Read More

Afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and I will lay your foundations with sapphires. Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies, and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones.  Isaiah 54:11-12 There is a fat-bellied bird in Britain who has two names. Ornithologists call him a Mistle Thrush, but in the countryside where he is often seen, he is known as the Storm Thrush because of his tendency to sing in the midst of strong winds. A story is told about a poet who was awakened in the night, not by the fierce storm that ravaged outside, for indeed it was enough to wake the deepest sleeper, but by a rich and… Read More

He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age. Ruth 4:15 Restoration and nourishment are possible for the young… and the old. But can this be true in the face of excruciating loss? Loss brought Naomi and Ruth’s lives to a halt. Huddled in hopelessness, they clung to each other wondering what to do. So many losses. The death of a husband, a father, a patriarch. Loss of home, nation, and community. Death of sons. Shattered dreams: the dream of children, the joy of inheritance. Cessation of the family name. Death of identity. Who was Naomi if she was not the wife of Elimelech, the mother of two strong sons and their beautiful wives, the prospective grandmother of… Read More

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. Joel 2:25 They sounded like tiny tap dancers in chaos. Wings flapping, jaws chomping, they stumble-flew all over each other, ravenous. Like a cloud they swarmed; like a machine, they destroyed. Up till now, I had only read about locusts. Today, outside my window in Africa, I was witnessing their demolition derby first-hand. Amidst the whirring, clacking cloud of little winged invaders rose another sound… a keening. The kind reserved for death and funerals. The villagers were mourning the loss of all they’d worked so hard for. Their families’ sustenance. Their livelihood. The very food… Read More

Run and tell his disciples, even Peter, that he is risen.Mark 16:7 Even Peter. How curious that the angel sitting in the empty tomb on the Morning of all mornings would emphasize the disciple who denied Jesus in his darkest hour. The angel was a servant messenger of the Most High God, and he was doing just what the Master had instructed. His words conveyed Jesus’ heart. Do not forget Peter especially. He needs to know He is still loved. Times of fear and panic cause people to act in ways contrary to their deepest beliefs. Patriots abandon the battle. Mothers walk away from their babies. Fathers leave their families. Disciples deny their Lord. Jesus knows and understands. He loved us before we loved Him… Read More

He will restore us in a very short time; he will heal us in a little while, so that we may live in his presence. Hosea 6:2 How strange, apocalyptic, it must have been for the people who entered our home and boxed up all our belongings after the fire. Room by room, they picked up every salvageable item and placed it carefully in cardboard boxes to be cleaned and restored. We were plucked up and removed from our life, as it were, in an instant. We did not know that morning when we threw the covers back to face another day that we would not be in our home that night to snuggle down again into our comfortable beds. Or for many, many long… Read More

Around the world, across borders and inside human hearts from every nation, a revolution is happening. People once suffocated by shame are taking their first gasping breath, eyes opening to a new life of honor instead of disgrace. Shame was never meant to be your portion, sings poet and artist Kristene Mueller DiMarco in her song titled Mercy. It was not part of the original plan for humanity, so lovingly created with intrinsic worth and value. Every man and every woman was created with immeasurable significance, designed to love and be loved. In the next chapter of humankind, the lies began and shame entered, robbing man and woman of their true identity. Your true identity and mine is cherished by God. Shame conceals the truth. Honor reveals… Read More