Behold

“Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all the people …Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.” Luke 2:10, 20**

You let them in.

Country men doing a commoner’s job, they were unsuspecting.

(And so am I.)

You broke through with the news of this King dressed in infant flesh, and wrote it all across their sky. Your humble appearance was made to the fame-less, first.

You didn’t seek fame, You sought glory. And You told a story in itself by including these men.

Oh God, whose one ..read more

She Held That Love

And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7**

To one woman, You were a firstborn son.

To us, You were King, laid low, but to her — then — You were her first born. First cry, first suckle, first swaddling of one that was her very own flesh.

She was still mother, even though You were Savior.

You made Yourself flesh, even to she who was invited in to the holy huddle that night. You didn’t compromise Yourself and You didn’t compromise flesh. You were of her flesh and blood.

I adore You, God who wrapped Yourself in ..read more

He Knew Joy

John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’  He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.  He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:27-29**

His joy was fulfilled. He didn’t just have a day of joy or a week’s brush, not a year when all things seemed to work out “just so”, but he had mark over his life of joy fulfilled.

He stood beside You. He ..read more

Thanksgiving: A Day To Hunger

When the feast is spread, wide, across the table, spilling over onto little children’s laps and smeared across fingers and faces and filling our bellies, I want to remain hungry.

Because He satiates in such a way that we can both be filled, and hunger for more.

On a day when the world stops to give thanks, I want to move that little corner of my blog over here — front and center — to lift up a memorial.

He doesn’t need it, but He loves it. And my insides are stretched when I do it.

When we adore – when we lift our words and our eyes and our life up at Him, with His Word as the starting place — ..read more

The Place Where All Things Are Lost

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish.” Philippians 3:7-9**

The knowledge of You casts a shadow on everything else. The God who put on skin to wade through humanity’s dust and reach into lives — like mine, fumbling my way through — has a radiance that overshadows.

You birthed Your Son in dirt to reach me.

You chase my divided heart to reveal Your undivided love. You don’t look past my sin, You look through it. You see Your Son in me because You placed Yourself in me. And I am, ..read more

You Are My Drink

“O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1**

You are my drink.

My parched mouth holds itself open to receive mere drops — what the world can offer — and, when I’m honest before You, I know I’m staring at the cup of false fulfillment.

Lord, You are my only deep drink. You answer my thirst.

Early, when fears arise and the terrors of night surface in my morning thoughts, You are there for my seeking. You make Yourself always-available and promise that my search will end in a find.

You’ve made Yourself ..read more

Where Dreaming Begins

“Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells. Redeem me and be merciful to me.” Psalm 26:8,11**

Redemption answers. It is the place where all the broken pieces of me make sense. It’s Your light that fuses loud cacophonies –  fragmented story lines – into one, symphonic epic.

Redemption is an offering of wholeness for those who are shells of what they were intended to be. (Redemption is for me.)

Redemption is the sigh of consummation because redemption is an end. One end. One God-Man. It’s the God who clothed all of His holiness in a skin we could touch and smell, whose body became a bridge by which the remnants of us might cross ..read more

You Shepherd Me

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psalm 23:1**

I didn’t know I needed a shepherd, until I heard You were a shepherd and this Truth answered a life-question for me.

I wasn’t meant to be my own guide. And, You. You shepherd my independent heart into knowing dependence. You cut through my overly-stalwart frame and see my weak insides and invite me to receive.

I adore You, Shepherd, with Your strong arms to save and to heal and to make right all that is out of alignment within me.

You tend to parts of me that I didn’t even know need tending, and by that touch I am awakened to love.

I find rest under Your care because ..read more

Approachable God

The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Psalm 19:1-4**

The veil threatens to shroud my perspective when the clouds hang low and this particular day starts, early. The noise all around me seeks to become a voice — its own voice — alluring me back inward and downward.

But Your glory is as accessible as the chipmunk that’s found its way onto my front doorstep and whose nibbling has my children mesmerized, those ones who woke up too ..read more

Participating in His Glory

“And let the whole earth be filled with His glory.” Psalm 72:19

When I lose vision, when my perspective is murky, when I’m under the weight of all — You remind me: there really is no weight to struggle under in You but for the weight of Your glory.

Every minute is being given over to Your glory and I got the invite. Anything less than this is a lesser life-goal.

And it’s here, standing with my toes barely wet from the last lap of Your ocean-deep against them, that I begin to think big. Your kind of big.

Father, Your kind of big allows me to be very small — safe — and allows You to overshadow all ..read more