Happy Thoughts – Page 3

Magnified Wonder Guaranteed

Christmas is past, but the memories are imprinted on my brain like the home videos of my children throughout the years.

Whenever I watch the video tapes of Christmas morning, my children didn’t run into the living room and grab their presents. They inched forward with wide eyes and gaping mouths as though they were in a dream.

Colorfully-wrapped boxes, stacked like nursery blocks, surrounded a brightly-lit Christmas tree where sparkling ornaments dangled from pine-needle branches.

A large stuffed animal or a bicycle parked beside the tree might as well have been Manna from Heaven.

Even stockings hung on chairs triggered awe as nimble fingers pulled out candy canes and tangerines.

Now that I’m an adult and my children are grown, I miss the Christmas magic that transforms a common room into Wonderland.

And yet, I expect Heaven will fill me with the same child-like wonder~~Only Magnified~~when I leave this earthly vessel and enter into God’s glorious presence.

Will my face glow in adoration? Will I be Son-struck by the nail-scarred hands of the Prince of Peace? Will I weep for joy the Lamb of God bore my sin and died for me? Will I raise my voice with angels and sing God’s praises?

Like the words from a song by Mercy Me…I Can Only Imagine.

However, I do know that God, who created and foreknew me, will conform me into the image of Christ, the first-born among many brethren. (Romans 8: 29)

My Spiritual Inheritance is more than a casual hope or wishful thinking. (Ephesians 1:14) I’m assured God’s Promise of eternal life is guaranteed.

My oldest son remembers a Christmas when he asked for the latest gaming system: a Nintendo 64. Oh, how his eyes shone as he unwrapped several Nintendo 64 video games.

However, store supply did not match consumer demand. There was no Nintendo 64 beneath the Christmas tree. No way to play the video games that day.

My son’s heart sank, but he trusted a mother’s promise that he’d receive the Nintendo 64. My son knew I loved him, and intended to keep my word. So my son felt assured he would receive his gift. And he did!

As we head into a New Year, my prayer is that God will increase our faith to trust Him more even when circumstances and our wavering hearts try to persuade us otherwise.

Be assured, God is trustworthy. He intends to keep His promises!

So let us run the race with endurance and enter into God’s daily presence with the awestruck wonder and joy of a child on Christmas morning.

Slow Down, Don’t Move Too Fast

Stop and smell the flowers? Many days, it’s all I can do to slow down and notice them.

I rush from home, anxious to accomplish my “tyranny of the urgent.”

But last week, circumstances forced my hand, made time stand still.

Or so it felt when the orange cones and yellow warning signs stopped my race against time. When I wasn’t at a complete stop, I drove at 5 miles per hour because there was construction work on the shoulder of the rural highway.

I glanced at the clock, no way to reach my destination on time. Excuses tumbled in my head as I envisioned walking breathlessly into the room. Not my fault. Road work prevented me from being on time.

But self justification was interrupted by a popular truism: Life’s a journey, not a destination.

Like the gears in a car, I shifted my mindset to “enjoy” the journey instead of fret over something beyond my control

Relaxing my grip on the steering wheel, I turned my head to gaze out the window. Winter’s once dormant trees were bursting with new mint-green growth. Their branches cast shadows on the sunlit asphalt.

When I rolled down the windows, a warm breeze embraced me. The smell of fresh cut field grass tickled my nose. And I marveled as a yellow butterfly fluttered among the orange poppies and bluebonnets that adorned the hillside.

How many times had I traveled this highway with windows rolled up and radio blaring, unable to hear the chorus of birds twittering in the trees? Even the purring of my car engine couldn’t drown their song.

Most days, I move too fast, fixated on my destination.

I miss the journey because my mind is already there, or stuck on autopilot, rather than living in the moment.

But on this fine spring morning, forced to slow down, and intent on enjoying my journey…………

My heart felt light as air. Not unlike those calm mornings when I’m able to relax and enjoy God’s wonders.

When the orange-vested man waved me forward, and the cars sped by me at 55 mph, I was singing, “Glory in the Highest.”

Because there is joy in the journey. It’s all around us when there are eyes to see and ears to hear every good thing that God has created for our pleasure and His glory.

Shout with joy to the Lord, O earth!

Worship the Lord with gladness.

Come before him, singing with joy.

Acknowledge that the Lord is God!

He made us, and we are his,

We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving;

Go into his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him and bless his name.

For the Lord is good.

His unfailing love continues forever,

And his faithfulness continues to each generation.” (Psalm 100:1-5)

Which Heart Do You Want?

According to my husband, we have smoke detectors in our house so we’ll know when our food is done. Don’t believe me?

Ask my teenage son who burned bacon in the frying pan. The good news is that he learned our smoke detectors work properly, and they’re loud.

I wasn’t home at the time. Hoping to get rid of the burnt smell, my son turned on the ceiling fans and lit scented candles. I’ve done the same thing.

Besides, who am I to point a spatula at my son?

I’ve scraped my share of burnt egg whites and stiff yokes off the ceiling because the water boiled away and the eggs exploded. Talk about a nasty stench.

Last week, I put two cups of water and a half a cup of sugar in a pan and turned on the stove. Normally, the sugar dissolves in the hot water and becomes hummingbird food.

Then again, if “the cook” leaves the kitchen to put a load of laundry into the dryer and forgets about the sugar water boiling on the stove….She’ll find a lump of rock candy bubbling on the bottom of the pan.

The good news is that it cooled and hardened into a heart, sweet enough to lick.

So I whipped together another batch of sugar water. Only this time, I waited near the stove and stirred the liquid while I pondered my rock-hard, heart-shaped candy.

Fact: I’m a happy person when Life is sweet. But when the Lord turns up the heat and allows trials to permeate my life … How do I respond, especially towards the Lord?

ØDraw near the Lord with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, knowing God uses trials to achieve His eternal purposes?

“These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold.” (1 Peter 1:7)

ØTurn Away from the Lord, allowing pride and/or unbelief to harden my heart and test God’s patience?

“Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.” (Hebrews 3: 12, 13)

As I poured the homemade nectar into my hummingbird feeder, I prayed for a heart that would never grow cold or hard towards the God of my salvation.

“Search me O God, and know my heart; … point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” (Psalm 139:23–24).

How do you respond when hard times come?

What If I Were Jesus?

“We love, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

Before I asked Jesus into my heart or did a good deed…God loved me.

He still does.

When I have a horrible, rotten day and I’m in a bad mood. When I fail to read my Bible or pray.

God loves me.

Sometimes, I struggle to believe God. And trust that He loves me today as much as He loved me yesterday.

I try to wrap my mind around truth, that NOTHING can separate me from the LOVE of GOD. Not even my pathetic choices, my indifference towards Him.

Surely, I must do something to earn God’s love, make Him love me more.

LOVE MORE?

How could God love any more than this: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” (Romans 5:8)

Love caused Christ to be mocked, beaten, spit upon, crucified, and pierced…for my sake.

Knowing God’s love allows me to rest, invokes me to praise His name, share His love with others.

My first and last thought each day should be my first love, Jesus, and the great things He has done.

As if dying for me wasn’t enough.

What if today, I chose to love the Lord with all my heart, mind, and soul rather than treat God as a casual acquaintance?

What if I loved the Lord for Who He is rather than only seek His hand?

What if I were Jesus, would I long for someone to love me too?

Might I say these words…..

“Think of the multitudes who thronged ME when I was on earth all eager for something. Eager to be healed, or taught, or fed.

Think as I supplied their many wants, and granted their manifold requests, what it meant to Me, to find amid the crowd, some one or two, who followed Me just to be near Me, just to dwell in My presence.

How some longing of the Eternal heart was satisfied thereby.

Comfort Me, a while, by letting Me know that you would seek Me just to dwell in My Presence, to be near Me, not even for teaching, not for material gain,not even for a message—but for Me.” (God Calling)

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:15)

The Moment Just Before

“‘Well,” said Pooh, ‘what I like best,’ and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.” ― A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

That moment is called…

Anticipation: the action of anticipating something; expectation or prediction.

Think of expectations leading to Christmas Day.

· Boxes wrapped in colorful paper, filled with who knows what.

· Fresh sheets on the guest bed, ready for out-of-town company.

· Scent of homemade cookies in the oven, tempting taste buds.

· Family traditions and memories waiting to happen.

· Children, longing for that special toy, unable to sleep

Could it be that ….

“Anticipation is sometimes more exciting than actual events.” ― Ana Monnar

Perhaps, unless those events surrounded Jesus’ birth.

Imagine people’s anticipation who grew up hearing the prophecies/predictions of a coming Messiah.

And then Immanuel, “God with us,” stepped into their lives, exceeding expectations.

· Mary expected to deliver a baby boy, who was no ordinary child. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”

· Joseph expected the angel of the Lord’s prediction to come true, and named the baby “Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins.”

Shepherds heard the good news. “A Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord….So they hurried off (with anticipation) to find the baby lying in the manger (exactly like the angel predicted) and they were amazed.”

Magi from the east traveled with gifts to see the Christ Child. And when they found him, “they were overjoyed, and they bowed down and worshiped him.”

Today …

· Christ is exalted, seated at the right hand of God, the Father.

· Good news is preached.

· People are saved from their sins.

· Believers worship Jesus, the risen Savior.

Only now, there’s another event that Christians anticipate.

Jesus said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:3)

Confident God’s Word is true,

“We eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:21)

And yet, a moment just before we behold Jesus face-to-face, will not be better than being in His presence ….

Because Christ will exceed even our greatest expectations!

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