Creating, collecting, and sharing thoughts and ideas. And learning along the way.
My Beautiful, Funny, and Super-Confident Valentines
❤️ on My Desk: When You ❤️ Your Work and Colleagues
How Do I ❤️ Thee? With Food, Of Course!
Wearing a Great Smile with the Right Color and the Right Sombrero: Happy Valentine’s Day!
“I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things. Love a friend, a wife, something, whatever you like, and you will be on the right way to knowing more about it; that is what I say to myself. But one must love with a lofty and serious intimate sympathy, with strength, with intelligence, and one must always try to know deeper, better, and more. That leads to God, that leads to unwavering faith.”
-Vincent Van Gogh
EXODUS 37:1-38:31 | MATTHEW 28:1-20 | PSALM 34:11-22 | PROVERBS 9:9-10
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An enormous amount of gold and silver, not to mention an enormous amount of detail goes into the building of the Ark of the Covenant and the various furnishings. The people chosen for the task must have surely been bestowed with great talent to have followed the construction of each item to its last specification.
This is a God that cares about the minutest of details– be it in temple design or in our lives. He appears to be one who wishes to know exactly how long or short or curved or not that little thing in your life is. There are no “minor” details as far as this God is concerned. He desires knowledge of every aspect of our life, and bestows grace for every little thing. This is what an intimate relationship feels like!
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Turning to Matthew, those are Jesus’ words to his disciples after he rises from the dead. That is the most intimate assurance one could give or receive to another. This is not some distant God who will rise up into the air and disappear; this is a God who stops to look you in the eye and tell you that he will never leave you! How amazing a concept is that!
In the Psalm of the day, David spells out all the many ways in which God is mindful of us. The eyes, the ears, the face of God are attentive to us. He listens, he answers. He is close to the broken-hearted, David says, and protects and provides. What love, what grace, what intimacy of engagement! This is a God who is personal in every way. Read for yourself David’s affirmations:
15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their cry;
16 the face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
19 A righteous man may have many troubles,
but the LORD delivers him from them all;
20 he protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken.
Finally, a most excellent verse from the Book of Proverbs where Solomon, wise king of Israel, tell us:
9 Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still;
teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.
May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word. Amen.
