Good morning, Dear Friends and Prayer Partners! This is the day that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it! When I stepped outside before dawn, it looked like the fog was just overhead, waiting to sink down on us silently. We are still wet from the good rain that blew through, and although yesterday was very warm, today is supposed to be cooling down again.
Our azaleas are blooming more and more and making the front yard look colorful. Soon they will be blooming at the park, where lots of hedges and flower beds bloom this time of year.
I drove to the park yesterday... big mistake! A really bad accident had happened just beyond the street that leads to the park, and people kept driving down the street thinking they could drive around the site, but there is no outlet in that neighborhood, so they had to turn around and get in a looong line, waiting for the officer to let us out. I prayed that no one was seriously injured in the overturned pickup.
But God is good and even though more glitches have turned up in the bathroom renovation, I am sure they will be fixed today! Praise God!
From the devotional Quiet Moments with God:
"Other seeds fell into the good soil and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty sixty, and a hundredfold."
Mark 4:8 NASB
The story goes that a century ago a German princess lay dying. While on her deathbed, she requested that her grave be covered with a large granite slab and that stone blocks be placed all around the slabs to seal the grave. She also gave orders for the granite and stones to be held together with large fasteners made of iron. At her request, the inscription in the top of the stone read, "The burial place, purchased to all eternity, must never be opened."
Apparently during the burial, a tiny acorn found its way into the grave. Sometime later, a small shoot began to push its way up through a thin crack in the granite slab. The acorn was able to absorb in just enough nourishment to grow. After years of growth, the mighty oak tree broke through the aging iron clamps. The iron was no match for the oak, and the clamps burst, exposing the grave that was never to be opened. New life sprang forth from a deathbed and one tiny seedling.
Every day we are given numerous opportunities to take advantage of fresh new starts. New beginnings often come when something else has ended. When we allow sin to die in our hearts, we find new life in Christ. Perhaps it is no accident that the mighty oak, which is one of the tallest and strongest trees in the world, starts from a tiny little seed.
What seems to be the end
may really be a new beginning.
Unknown
I always give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers with thanksgiving, joy and love!
Love and hugs,
Amaryllis
