Opportunities to Behold…Reflected Glory

I received the third of an amazing set of gifts this past weekend…a third sunrise in less than a month (here is a poem inspired by the first two that came in a weekend with girlfriends away at the ocean).  It came unexpectedly as I had brought our two little children for the second night of a youth retreat where my husband was.  These are great opportunities but difficult to navigate and can often leave me discouraged at all of the ministering to the students I am NOT able to do, instead of being thankful for the gift of being together and how a loving family and marriage ministers to this broken world.

 

So in the morning, tired and weary, I went to see IF there was a good view of the sunrise at the camp. How could I have wondered IF?  Of beautiful course our glorious, gracious, extravagant Abba Father God would have had such a gift!

Sealed in my heart and with a wonderful set of pictures, it has given me pause to think of the Reflected Glory that I daily behold…
-each child’s smile that reflects a God who enjoys
- a husband’s grace that reflects a God who forgives
-tearful pleas that reach my ears that reflect a God who hears
-beauty beheld that reflects a groaning creation longing to be set free by a Redeeming God
-adorable, round chubby cuteness that is a magnet for young people to whom we minister that reflects a God who delights
-little eyes still moist that melt my heart and reflect a God who has compassion

  -a dancing one year-old that reflects a God who inhabits praise
-an ache for a friend that pulls me into hard praying and reflects a Risen Savior who “ever lives to intercede”
-an endless cycle of doubts, fears and frustrations poured out to Him that reflects a God who promises to “finish the good work He has begun”
-every beautiful thing that squeezes my heart and expands its longing that reflect a God who is All the Glory Forever and Ever Amen.

(#256-266)

“Oh Lord, this new morning I praise You that ‘in this glass dimly’ (I Corinthians 13) there are myriad opportunities to behold.  Behold Exquisite Beauty.  And yet its deepest soul touch is but a reflection of all that will be seen and known on that Glorious Day and forevermore when we see you face to face…and in some great mystery I cannot comprehend--in the beholding of this reflection, that Glory which is infinitely full and complete somehow is deepened…and the beholder becomes like Him who is All Glory.”

 

 

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!  What a Redeeming God!  What a One to Behold!

 

(also linked to the Blog Carnival at Bridget Chumbley’s)

Opportunities to Behold…Reflected Glory