Beloved.

 

 

 

The first time I ever heard this song ["My Beloved" by Kari Job] was my first day of my summer internship at Sonrise Mountain Ranch in Colorado. The other intern, Kaylan, had it playing in her car while we were driving down the mountain into town, and it brought me to tears. That summer I really started to grasp and feel how much God really loved me and that he not only notices us, but I learned how important our lives are to Him and how deep he cares for each of us. Such a beautiful, sweet song about God's love for us.

 

 

J e s u s .

This morning Christy and I loaded our cars with our high school girls and headed downtown to go to help feed the hungry. We made breakfast casseroles, flipped pancakes, and were blessed to be able to serve tons of fruit! They don't always get to have fruit available, but this week we had bananas, pears, apples and watermelon. This particular place has food, a clinic, an art table, piano, clothes AND showers. Every person gets to take a nice shower and then come and get breakfast. Some really great men and women came through the line and showed so much gratitude and some were extremely hilarious and would burst through the door and sing or yell "rock on!" and run out as fast as he came in. One man in particular came through the line, looked up and smiled, and I had to take a step back because he looks so similar to Jesus. I know doing this I come into contact with a large number of men who have beards and longer hair, but this man really looked like what I've always thought Jesus to look like. I've done this for years and this is the first time this has happened. It sounds weird I'm sure. I wondered what if Jesus was really there in the line and what that would be like.I'm  glad I felt that way and was taken back by it because It reminded me this morning that everyone we serve IS serving Him. What immediately came to mind was in Matthew:

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

It was such a wonderful reminder that whatever we do for the least of these brothers and sisters of his, we do for him. It speaks of God's desire for us to care for others and it's Him we are loving and serving. I think this passage is so beautiful. Whatever you do, do for God's glory. Serve those from the love that overflows out of the Love of Jesus. We must care for His children. When we reach out to someone who needs it, our hand is God's hand in that moment.

A soul at rest

I have been studying what it means to be a woman of simplicity. God is showing me what it means to live simply in devotion to God and is giving me a soul at rest through trusting my heavenly father's loving hands. I'm learning how to take off my heavy yoke, lay it at His feet and put on his light and joyful one. It's a blessing to sit in quietness with God, to hear him and be heard. Life has seemed quite busy this past year with struggles, triumphs, miracles, and I'm thankful that God's grace filled it all. What I've loved most recently is the peace that covers everything more than ever before. With trusting God comes a strange inner peace that engulfs all things. I love psalm 131 and the picture it paints of a man who has chosen to have a peace deeply rooted in his soul. 

"My heart is not proud, O Lord,

my eyes are not haughty;

I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.

But I have stilled and quieted my soul;

like a weaned child with its mother,

like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord

both now and forevermore." Psalm 131

"His heart is not lifted up; his eyes do not look enviously and hungrily to the heights beyond him; he does not dwell in anxious, wearisome thought on matters which are best left alone; he concentrates his sympathies and his energies on that which demands his attention, and which is productive of good to himself and those around him; he is perfectly contented to be just what God has made him, to go where his Master sends him, to do what is placed in his hands to do. He is so far from thinking of himself essential to the prosperity of the Church and the redemption of the world, that he hopefully, and even confidently, leaves that in the care of the Supreme." E.R. Conder and W. Clarkson

Love

Hannah