Cool Huh?

 

Pretty cool flower...flowers? A co-worker got this plant. 

It was a plant when she got it. No flowers what-so-ever. Then a big pink flower formed. Which is the "outside" flower you can see here. Then a few days later, it got the little purple ones. A day later it got the burgundy ones. & Fri. it got the white ones [you can see the one in the middle, there are at least four others below the purple & burgundy ones]. What is more amazing still is that "results may vary". She Googled the name [starts with a "b" -yeah, I get the irony] & it turns out the flowers are different depending on the temperature of the room it's in & how much sunlight it gets! Wild, huh. God is very amazing. This is just what I can see him doing with flowers. He's never done anything & said "that's all I got, that's me at my best". Which leaves me to assume that a flowering plant like this is "pretty easy" for him to just "whip up" as it were. I think of this when I look at the sky... when I look at nature... when I held my nieces when they were small. 

Even when I think of all we have/can do with technology. Art. Finite humans, creating in a finite space, with flawed bodies, brains, intellects. A friend of mine asked me to be a part of a "Bible verse chain". Sharing verses that are helpful in stressful/dark times. I don't know if my favorites verses would help anyone else. A favorite? I just don't have one favorite....

Psalms 147:3 "He heals the brokenhearted & binds up their wounds"

Revelations 21 pretty much the chapter. This is the "happily ever after part" Jesus once said: "only with the mind of a child can you enter the kingdom of heaven". I tend to think of this being true because only children believe in fairytales. Think about a fairytale, heroine gets into trouble [taken by the "bad guy"] hero shows up, fights villain, looses, reappears later & defeats the villain. Rescuing the heroine & the ride off into a happy ending. sound familiar? This summer a Superman "reboot" is coming out... again. Father sends son to save a world that doesn't understand him. Why does this sound familiar?

ok. verses of Chapter 21...verse 1 "then I saw a new Heaven & a new Earth, for the old heaven & the old earth had passed away." 

some days I'm a little more ready for a "new one". Rich Mullins echoed it quite well [Ecclesiastes 1:9 that is] "there is nothing new under the sun"...if that's true then "This is the world as best as I can remember it".

verse 6. Which to me is an echo of the cross. Where Jesus said: "it is finished" [John 19:30, NIV]. In verse 6, "it is done" [NIV]

verses 22-26 talking about the fact that there is no temple. "because the Lord God Almighty & the Lamb are it's temple." "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp." [verse 23] LOVE that. beautiful image.

A verse to reminds me that God is in control [& he's smarter than me] Job 38:4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand." I think of God talking to me similarly, saying: "Did I come to you for your opinion? Did I ask: 'does Florida look ok? or should it be wider?" 

For me this is also spoken of in Isaiah 40:12-26 [actually all the way to the end of the chapter, ending famously with verses 30 & 31]

 There are others. However my wife needs some "tech support" so I shall end here, for now at least.
Enjoy the photos, if not the rambling...
May His grace drip from your fingers,
B