"As I Count The Ways" - 09/28/15 - Malachi 1-4

God said, "I love you." You replied, "Really? How have you loved us?"(1:2)

It used to be I wondered if God loved me.  I always felt His Love, His blessings were for everyone else and I was on the sidelines watching the Love unfold.  How His Word has transformed not only my heart, but my way of thinking and seeing life. 

There is no longer any doubt nor do I reply, "really?" when I hear Him tell me how He loves me. 

I have found when I am focused on Him, all my senses are on overload from His Glory showing off for me.
 
For me.

His nature continually blows me away.  This morning as the sun came up, it cast its golden glow across the drive, illuminating the colors on the flower blooms, causing them to shine out in the predawn darkness.  The shadows adding depth and dimension to the garden area He has enabled us to create out of the dense underbrush.  The old hedge trees stand over the new plantings, their twisted, ancient, branches home to so many of His birds and other critters.  The leaves are beginning their slow, eye catching death as fall begins to make herself at home before the final act of winter to end this cycle of seasons. 

We attended a party in a barn built in the early 1900's this past Saturday.  Although the craftsmanship throughout kept drawing my eyes in admiration, it was later looking out the frameless window at our ABBA's landscape beyond, sitting at the table in the company of loved ones, I keep thinking about.  His beauty of the fields, tree line, the sky, making it hard to tear my eyes away.  Breathless He left me in showing me a "painting" which surpasses any of those painted by the hand of man. 

Last evening Curt and I drove and parked at the top of the ridge to watch the harvest moon rise up and prepare for its journey of the eclipse.  We waited in vain as the cloudbank only intensified.  Every once in awhile you were able to see the brightness behind the clouds, knowing it must have been something to see.  Later on at home, I awoke from falling asleep on the couch, to a room full of light.  I smiled as I looked out the window.  Up above the clouds His great moon shinning down, illuminating the landscape before me.  His timing.  His way. 

I am in awe of those He has placed within my heart in this life.  How often I find myself just drinking in the beauty of Him, seen through them.  People.  I love seeing a glimpse of someone in the lineage through the face, mannerism, build, of their relatives. How beautiful each of us are.  I could get lost in the beauty of the eyes alone, especially when seen through a magnifying glass. Their colors, shapes, even sizes. Skin.  How He has made each of us our own unique, beautiful color.  Hands, representing so much of life lived through wrinkles, callouses, scars - so much strength.  So much strength when folded in prayer.  Our feet to carry us.  How He has made us to walk upright.  How He has created our bodies to move from one place to another, each one in their own unique stride. 

This morning one of those parts of my heart, Julie, is awaiting surgery.  She and Jordan will be meeting their second little girl very soon and I look forward to meeting little Ms. Everleigh later this day. I know I will be blown away once more in His miracle of life when holding this little one who will be only a few hours into this world.  I will once again be reminded in how He has used the different genes from one another to create another.  How He has created a whole "someone" from the sperm and egg of a man and woman.  Designing the woman to be a part of the process and then to give birth to new little ones. So many, many ways He has shown His Love to "us".  How He adores and desires "us".

So many ways He say to us, "I love you".

And then we will reply, "really?".


As I was falling asleep last night, I prayed He would awaken me before His sun came above the horizon and this morning I smiled as He gently called me to begin my day while it was still dark outside.  I smiled for I knew, even with that simple prayer, He listens.  Always. He is there.  Always.

It used to be I was so focused on what I didn't receive, I missed out on what He did/does give me.  I was looking at the "unfairness" and not seeing the even greater of "Him".  Being so focused on me, I missed out on all of "Him" around me. 

Each moment I am striving to be focused into and onto Him.  It is then I am able to know with the all of me - Yes, how He so loves me.