When All That Glitters is Pure Gold

I love the process of preparing for Advent.   At our church Advent preparations involved readying the sanctuary and fellowship spaces for Christmas, one week at a time, by the worship visuals team.

Decorations came out of storage and that meant lights and glitter. LOTS of glitter.  Everywhere. I love it!  I think it's awesome. It does not want to be vacuumed up. I'm okay with that.  

The other time glitter found its way into the carpet at our church is when our girls group, the GEMS (Girls Everywhere Meeting the Saviour used to meet.  I love it that there was evidence that our girls were in the building meeting their Saviour!!

Isn't life just like that sometimes?

The glitter on the carpet this month is evidence that we have prepared to celebrate His birth with our congregation. Ordinary carpet. Ordinary people. The hymn says, "Let every heart prepare Him room." Can the world tell that I've "prepared Him room"?  Does it show on the outside? Does it last past Christmas? We are a resurrection people but Lent and Easter still seem so far away. Does the regular wear and tear of life remove my shine? By Easter....months of vacuuming will have taken most of the glitter out of the carpet again.

It IS good to, consciously, go through this preparation each year during Advent.  To make room and bask in the presence of THE Light of the world. To be filled with, and changed for, comfort, joy, love, peace, and hope.  There is more to it than glitter that falls off an ornament, it's a reflection of gratitude.  We are not ordinary to God, we are valuable and precious.  So precious that He gave the dearest Gift.  Extraordinary in that we carry His image, His reflection.

So it's good to stand still.  Not just sing a carol in passing, but actually stop and think about it.  The preparing bringing with it gratitude and hope that clings...a reminder of the most precious Gift of all: a Saviour, Redeemer, Strong Defender, and Prince of Peace.  To remember that I have 10,000 reasons for my heart to sing. Let me be singing when the evening comes...even when it's hard.

I love things that remind me to remember!

Even when I vacuum!

Creating Hope

I've been enjoying the process of creating over the past few weeks.   Making little somethings to mail away, cards for work, a group, and notes of encouragement.   Some of the items were gone so quick that I didn't take a photo.  They're on their  way somewhere with a message.

Messages of hope, encouragement, to keep up the good work, and to look to God for help in the place where He has called.   Sometimes the message is for me...just as much as it for the recipient. 

Love those reminders!

And...I get to create and draw on that reflection of my Creator in me.

A line from the new Tenth Avenue North album "The Struggle" reminded me of that some weeks ago...when the sledding didn't feel so smooth.  "Beauty never intended to be more than a reflection".  It reminded me that sometimes we try so hard to be who we are...to make sure we carve out our identity, but really, we just have to reflect the Light that is inside of us.

I love to create. And I love to share what gives me Hope.   

A Lesson on Expectation

I'm ready for a trip. I'm ready to get out of here.  I sat down the other day to write.  I thought I was ready.  I had just had a really great conversation with two friends.   I love it when conversations give me something to think about.   It kick starts my thought process and often ends up in some kind of conclusion or at least helps a train of thought reach a destination.

So I sat down to write, ready to squeeze out the sponge that is my brain. All that came out were fragments that wouldn't come together.  Then I remembered...

There's no point to head out unless you're led out.  I have been loving my small group and realized that a couple of my last posts have come out of my "homework".  Maybe those are the steps that I'm supposed to take.  Maybe those are the weekly steps toward rest.

Rest is really a state of mind, I have discovered.   My hands can be busy and my mind be totally at rest...and vice versa.  Like when I found that rest might not look like sitting on the couch

So there is no rush.   In church just the other day, I heard it... "He leads me beside quiet waters.  He restores my soul." Rest itself is a journey and if He leads, then I will follow, knowing I'm on the right track....

That comforts me today.

Literally hours after I composed the post above....I read these words from A.W.Tozer, The Pursuit of God, (quoted in Crazy Love by Francis Chan). 

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. ...Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed.  Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.  Say to my soul, "Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. 

Sometimes when you start to jot down the fragments, they look like individual steps, but when placed one in front of the other, they start to look a little bit like the start of a journey.

That gives me goosebumps.