Along came a spider who sat down beside her
And frightened miss Muffet away.
Nature and Landscape Photography, Photographic Journal of Biblical and Poetic Expressions
These pictures are from Garden of the Gods, a silhouette of the canyons stretching across the horizon. The healing touch of nature is what I seek when I need calmness and serenity in my life. Jesus stretches out his hand to give a handling touch for those who seek him. When our daughter died, I couldn't sleep or rest without tears falling. I was in anguish, my heart was broken and the tears fell endlessly. It was my husband holding me in his arms until I finally went to sleep each night that helped to calm and comfort me. Through my husband actions, I experience God's presence in those moments of anguish and sorrow.
Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. ~Mark 1:41 NRSV
Sometimes it is the last stone to be lifted from the grieving heart--the inability to accept forgiveness. It's a mountain for me to climb. Not being there during my daughter's last weeks and days of her short live. She was in Anguilla far from home. I ask myself a thousands times why didn't I do this or that to persuade her to come home. I know if she knew how serious her health had deteriorated, she would have seek help. None of us knew but I allow weeks to go by without talking to her. Pancreatic encephalopathy is associated with symptoms like confusion, hallucinations, agitation and apathy. She had all those symptoms. She was volatile so our relationship was strained. I didn't know how to help her and she was very angry. Her pancreas had stopped functioning properly and her blood sugar was out of control. Her body was starving and she was not taking her medication for depression. How could things get so out of control? I pray for God to help me with this mountain of guilt. I miss my girl so much. There were people in her life who took serious advantage of her addictions. Addiction is an illness and those who supply drugs and alcohol are destroying so many young people's lives. I have not been able to forgive those individuals. Forgiving myself is hard enough but to forgive those who harmed her is even more difficult. I need to unload this weight of guilt and to forgive. Pray for me.
Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
~Isaiah 40:31 NRSV
I can find renewed strength as I wait for the Lord.
The Lord proclaims: Stop at the crossroads and look around; ask for the ancient paths. Where is the good way? Then walk in it and find a resting place for yourselves.
~Jeremiah 6:16 CEB
Though God's paths are ancient, they are also timeless.
(3rd Stanza)
"Morning Has Broken"
(1st and 2nd Stanza)
"Morning has broken" is the title of a Christian hymn first published in 1931. It has words by English author Eleanor Farjeon and was inspired by the village of Alfriston in East Sussex, then set to a traditional Scottish Gaelic tune, "Bunessan". It was recorded by English pop musician and folk singer Cat Stevens in 1971.
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched-they must be felt with the heart."
~Helen Keller
~C.S. Lewis
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
~C.S. Lewis
Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrent's and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock.
~Matthew 7:24-25
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior; and my hope is in you.
~Psalm 25:5 NIV
The psalmist said,
Prayer: Loving God, thank you for carrying and holding us. When we have fallen, when we are broken, when we can no longer move you call, "Do Not be afraid." In every situation of our lives help us to res in you. Amen
~Steven Scheid (Upper Room)
"Where? Where has it gone, that light, that spark, that love that looked into mine? What has it to do with that cold clay? It's here, here, here in my heart. She's in me, around me. Nothing in that clay."
~Anzia Yezierska
~Joshua 1:9 NIV