Driving Into the Rainbow

Today was the hottest day we've had so far. The humidity had to be in the 90 percentile range. The thermometer in the greenhouse maxed out at 120 around 10:30 this morning. We took turns rushing out and assisting customers, taking them drinks of water if necessary...then rushing back to the relative cool of the non-air-conditioned store.

We ratcheted up our end of the season sale by marking all plants half-price which always causes an influx of customers as well as increased sales per customer. Monday patrons tend to be a bit grumpy anyway...add to that the high heat and humidity...and it was all we could do to keep smiling. I can assure you there were more than one or two prayers whispered under our breaths as the day wore on. Momma said there'd be days like this!

I was half way home when the tiny raindrops began to hit the windshield of the car. The sun was still blazing down and on the horizon was the strangest rainbow I had ever seen. It did not arch high into the sky with a beginning and an end somewhere in the distance, but sat horizontal across the horizon.

Every time I see a rainbow I think of that song, God Put a Rainbow in the Clouds. God put a rainbow in the clouds...When it looked like the sun wouldn't shine anymore...God put a rainbow in the clouds. I was thankful for the rain and prayed it was raining at the house. This time of year it can rain hard all the way down the freeway and be dry as a bone at the house. I was thankful that the rain would bring on cooler temperatures and better temperament to our Tuesday customers. I was thankful of the promise that rainbow...no matter how odd...it represented.

That's when it happened...I turned onto the freeway off ramp...and drove right into the end of that rainbow! It was pretty amazing...the colors filling the car...all purple, pink, rose, and yellow and in a flash I was through and it was nowhere in sight.

I thought about how fortunate we are as believers to be able to take comfort in the promises of our never-leave-us-nor-forsake-us God. How like the rainbow...He is standing there with open arms not just at the end of the storm...but right in the middle! How His yoke is easy and His burden is light... and I was reminded that when we keep our eyes on Him we can not have our eyes on ourselves, our storms, our problems.

God is truly good and today...today...I am standing on His promises!

 
1. Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
 through eternal ages let his praises ring;
 glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
 standing on the promises of God.
Refrain:
 Standing, standing,
 standing on the promises of Christ my Savior;
 standing, standing,
 I'm standing on the promises of God.

2. Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
 when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
 by the living Word of God I shall prevail,
 standing on the promises of God.
 (Refrain)

3. Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,
 bound to him eternally by love's strong cord,
 overcoming daily with the Spirit's sword,
 standing on the promises of God.
 (Refrain)

4. Standing on the promises I cannot fall,
 listening every moment to the Spirit's call,
 resting in my Savior as my all in all,
 standing on the promises of God.
 (Refrain) 

View from Down Range

I will not complain when I get too hot or too sweaty while working in the greenhouse surrounded by the the beauty of the the flowers, trees, and planters. Not while I work with so many who love me and whom I love.


I will not whine when my husband steals the covers, or snores too loud. I will not complain when I can not get comfortable...or when I cannot sleep because I had one too many cups of coffee.

I will not grumble when I have to wait in line at the grocery store, the gas pumps, or the take-out window at a fast food restaurant. I will not be impatient while waiting to be seated in a restaurant. I won't even whisper a comment if someone sits in "my" pew at church!

I WILL NOT FORGET THE SACRIFICE OF SO MANY FAMILIES
WHO ARE LAYING IT ALL ON THE LINE FOR
MY COMFORT...FOR MY CONVENIENCE...FOR MY FREEDOM...

HOOOOAH....Army Strong...Army Mom

Please pray for all our troops but especially for the 512 Military Police and their families. Thanks! May God bless you and yours and God bless America!

Unconditionally

I was thinking this morning about how truly blessed I am to be loved just as I am. Good, bad, indifferent… how my family and friends seem to look past my many faults and love me anyway. I know how difficult a chore that must be sometimes.

It is hard not to hold others to a higher standard than we expect others to hold us to, isn’t it? We expect so much from others and yet our own personality quirks, moods, or prejudices keep us from hitting the mark which is the bulls eye of unconditional love. We crave it, expect it, seek it out, willingly accept it, bask in it, and then we are unwilling to give it whole heartedly.

It is easy enough to love unconditionally when we are talking of our own children, less so when it is our spouses…or our children’s spouses… or our own in-laws. Not so easy when it is the co-worker that ruins our day just by saying hello. And it definitely comes slowly to the needy friend who monopolizes our time and energy with problems that either seem trivial or are created of their own accord and could easily be remedied by the simple act of forgiveness.

Unconditional forgiveness and unconditional love go hand-in-hand, do they not? I mean forgiveness is really something we do for ourselves. We can actually forgive someone else and they never even know it! Jesus, Himself was our example of this simple truth while on the cross he uttered a simple phrase. “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34

I did not, could not understand that concept before I became a Christian. How then do I explain it to my young friend who holds a hybridized theory of religion picking and choosing the things which make her feel comfortable…who says she believes in Jesus as the Savior but has never experienced the freedom true redemption brings? A young friend who is being devoured by jealousy, doubt, insecurity, and unforgiveness in her heart for another. Seeds of hate and resentment that are consuming her soul and leaving a wake of destruction so wide it is hurting those who love her and she doesn’t even realize it!

I do not, by any means, discount the fact that she has been hurt. She feels she has a right to be mad and is willing to hang on to that anger with every ounce of her being until she feels she has been rightfully vindicated, whatever that is. Oh how I wish she could understand… that which she is clinging to is a love killer and the love it is killing is her own!

I know prayer for her and this situation is all I can do but it does not stop me from wanting to grab her and scream at the top of my lungs that it is all about the forgiveness factor. That true unconditional love has to pass through forgives for it to be viable. That we need to seek out the good and not the faults of others in our lives because it is there we find happiness. That she reach out and grab hold of that Jesus she knows so little about and hang on for dear life…for all eternity!

I cannot help but think of the interviews I watched of the 9/11 victims families…of their last conversations… of the mother, the wife, the husband… who would give almost anything to turn back time to just minutes before the plane smashed into a building where their loved one sat at a desk with a hurting heart because of something said, done, or left unsaid. People who would take back words spoken or actions done without thought in haste and anger. People who now only pray their loved one knew they were truly loved.

Life is too precious, too fleeting to live it in a state of unforgiveness…and yes, sometimes it requires a little swallowing of the pride, an attitude of losing the battle to win the war, a little self sacrifice…but the rewards are long-lived and so very satisfying.

1 Corinthians 13:4-13 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophesies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect will disappear. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” ~NIV

Father God, today let me see past myself, my wounds, my hurt and give me a heart of forgiveness. May the reflection I see in the mirror today be the promise of you…the spirit of you…for I know that it is when I see past myself to others that I can be a servant to you.