When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. I have photographed many amazing things - beautiful sunrises, crashing waves, high mountain overlooks. I am grateful for these times. But I have also photographed along familiar trails with no spectacular scenery. It was one of those trails that I walked last week. It is not a busy trail, especially late in the day this time of year, so it was a quiet time. As I walked on the trail my focus was gradually shifted from worries and cares to the beauty of the woods. With the quietness of the woods came a sense of peace. And after the peace came a quiet joy.
Many times when choirs sing the chorus of the Christmas carol, “How Great Our Joy,” the choir alternates between singing the same phrase loudly and then softly. I think joy is like that. Sometimes joy is crashing waves and amazing sunrises. We just want to sing out loud. There are other times when joy is quiet like a simple walk in the woods. Wherever you walk this day, spectacular vistas or quiet walkways, open your heart to God’s love. Feel the joy only He can bring. Prayer God, Joy-Giver, Make us aware of your presence today. Fill our hearts with your joy. Amen
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The grasslands of the wilderness overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing. As I looked down into the valley from the overlook on Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park, the sun broke through the clouds to light up the valley below. Even through the dark cloud, it was as if the valleys were shouting for joy. It made my heart sing that morning.
I am grateful for these times when the light breaks through and I see God in his world. My heart overflows with the joy of his presence in my life. Prayer Great God Give us songs of joy this day. Fill us with your love and beauty to overflowing. Amen May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I hadn’t planned on taking pictures of anything except my grandkids and maybe an animal on our trip to the zoo. It never even crossed my mind to bring a tripod or a macro lens, but when we sat down to have a snack there was this beautiful, unusual flower just on the other side of the little wall. I have never seen a flower like this so I have no idea of its name. With the only lens I had I set the ISO high enough to get a fast shutter speed and quickly took this image while the children were finishing their snack.
Today when I downloaded all the images from my trip to my computer I was surprised by the image that I didn’t expect to take. I wondered if any other zoo goers even noticed this beautiful flower along the walk. There it was this little flower bringing me such joy that day and then today when I saw it again. Even at the zoo, where it wasn’t the focus of attention as it would be in a botanical garden, it brought me joy. The person that planted it will never know the joy it brought me that day and still brings me when I look at it and I hope brings joy to you. We can be like the person that planted the flower bringing joy and hope to others when we live our lives the way Christ taught us - when we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit so that we overflow with hope. We may never know what little bit of joy we brought through a small, simple gesture like a smile or a kind word to people we pass along our way. The flower reminds me that even the small stuff matters. Prayer God of Hope Fill us this day with joy and peace as we trust you. In some small action may we share you love. Amen But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. They’re back, the daffodils in the cove; singing of joy and hope! They have made it through the long winter and came up through frosty ground. They are not native to the mountains but were brought here by early settlers as a way of reminding them of the land they left. You will likely find them close to old homesites. These I found in my favorite place to look, under the large trees close to Hyatt Lane. Every spring I journey to the mountains to find them again, sheltered under this tree. They bring me hope after long winters.
After voicing his lament over God’s seeming absence in Psalm 13, David ends his lament with words of trust. He has seen God’s goodness in the past, and like the daffodils in spring, sings his doxology of God’s unfailing love. Today I join the daffodils in their doxology. Prayer Lord God. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye Heavenly Hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. The first time you look at this image it seems like it must be a sunset - the sun is bright and the sky is dark. Actually this is the picture of a sunrise. It was supposed to be raining that morning so I hadn’t planned to walk down to the lake to catch the sunrise. I woke up early anyway and the sky out the camper window looked strange so I got up an walked to the shore. This is what I saw, this odd image of light and dark.
Sometimes your life is just odd. You are walking along a path with many good things and then trouble and sadness appear. You didn’t expect this curve in the road. It makes you stop. It makes you weep. It makes you wonder why. In these times you need an image like this one. You need a bright light bringing beauty our of darkness and the promise of a new day. For me this light is Jesus’s love and promise that joy will come again. Prayer Lord Jesus I hold on today to your promise of laughter after weeping, of light out of darkness. Amen Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: Sometimes, when you least expect it, a vision of beauty or a song of joy comes into your heart. Today was such a day. It was just my usual walk on a cloudy day so I had brought my headphones to listen to some music. I tend to walk faster when I walk to music. As soon as this simple song, “Chorus of Faith,” by Michael Card, began the sun broke through the clouds. The cloudy day became a beautiful clear day as these words of the chorus filled my heart.
Sing it with your life, Sing it with your heart Make melody with the words of your mouth But mind that you listen, tell it to others Hear the chorus of faith Live the chorus of faith It was just so joyous that I just joined in the at the top of my lungs, thankfully no one was around to hear me. We need times of joy like that. It made me wonder what it will sound like when we hear the angels sing, thousands and thousands of angels singing praise to God. Prayer Lord God, We sing to you with our hearts and our lives. Thank you for unexpected times of joy now and in the time to come. Amen For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; On this summer morning walk I took my camera to take pictures of the passion flowers. I followed the suggestion from my photography books and “worked the scene” i.e,. changing my perspective to capture different images. I had to spend some time on my knees to capture this image of the dew on the passion flower. Only when I was up close and personal did I see how each drop of dew reflected its surroundings.
As the passion flower reveals its beauty when we look at it from different perspectives, so does our view of God reveal his care for us in the different times of our lives. Sometimes we see God as a majestic king, high and lifted up above us. In these times we praise him with great joy. There are other times when he is up close and personal. In our times of trouble we have this promise that God will come close enough to wipe away our tears. We will then reflect his love as the dew drop reflects it surroundings. Prayer Lord God, Up Close and Personal Draw us close to you this day. Wipe away our tears and lead us to your throne. Amen I am the Lord's servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. It was getting dark the summer afternoon that I took this image. The twilight makes the white flower stand out against its surrounding. It seems to shout joy in the darkness, opening up its petals to reveal its heart.
The words of Mary’s song ring out like the flower. She praises God even in a time that was not going to be easy. How could anyone believe her story, the story that would mark her maybe her whole life, unwed mother. This in a time when an unwed, pregnant women could even be stoned. She rejoiced because she trusted in a God who was her rescuer. Our joy and praise can ring out too. Christmas is coming and many will be away from family sheltering in place from the virus that ravages out world. It won’t be easy but join Mary and sing praise for the One who has come to rescue us. Prayer Break into our hearts with joy in our darkness this day. May we spend this day bringing glory to you. Amen He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, When I go to the mountains I always stop at the cabins. I try to imagine what the cabin would have been like filled with people and things. I think about what it was like to have to make a difficult journey through the mountains down to the town to get things the family couldn’t make themselves. What did it sound like when the father came home from the long journey into town? Was he relieved that the journey had been safe? Was he filled with joy when he saw his children come running to meet him?
We think about home a little more than during the holidays - some good memories and some hard. Whatever our memories of home are, we can rest assured that God provides us a home now and in the future that will be filled with joy. While currently we may only have little glimpses of what such joy feels like, there will come a time when we will come to the home God has prepared for us and great will be our shouts of joy. Prayer God of Our True Home Help us find glimpses of home this day. Fill our day with the joy of being with you. Amen Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. As you have seen from my lack of posts, I have found it very hard to write in the past several weeks. The pandemic has spread across our world and close to home. The chances to take my camera, walk in God’s world, and listen for his voice have been greatly diminished. Darkness and weariness have set in as my routine and my view of the world seems to be the same every day.
Gratefully this past week we were able to go camping very close to home. The best thing about this campground is that it is only a 1 minute walk from the camper down to the lake with view to the east. Each morning it was so easy to watch the sunrise, each one a little different. On the last day of our trip I walked down to the lake only to see a large cloud right where the sun was going to come up. I almost went back up the hill but I decided to stay. As the sun broke through the cloud I saw a sunrise like I have never seen before. The sun made the mist that was rising from the lake shine like pure gold. It was just amazing to see everything cast in golden light, the mist like fire on the water. During times of darkness and weariness that we all face, the sunrise reminds us that God has promised to replace our weeping with joy in ways that will last a lifetime, beyond anything we can imagine. To him we sing our praise Prayer God of Morning Light Remind us in our darkest hour that your joy will come again with morning in ways we cannot fathom. We sing praise to our Lord who gives us amazing sunrises. Amen “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. I have been intrigued by the passion wildflower since I saw my first one several years ago. It is such a strange flower with all it unusual, colorful parts. I have been looking for them every summer since. Last year I finally found them again but they had already bloomed. I studied the leaves and vine and tried to memorize where I found them so I could look again this year. In July I did find the vines again but I saw only a few buds and spent flowers. I never saw a full bloom. It had been very dry so I figured that they weren’t going to be any more blooms and I would have to wait until next year.
To my surprise and great joy this morning on my walk a purple flower caught my eye. It was a passion flower and when I looked closer I saw that there were many in bloom. Since they were blooming in the field that I knew would be mowed soon, I came home, got my camera and hurried back to the place I saw them. I will take my camera when I go on my walk tomorrow so I can photograph them in the golden, dewy, early morning light. These days have been difficult and hard for all of us. Finding the passion flower reminded me that God still gives us hidden treasures that bring great joy. Finding them will demand that we focus our whole being on him and trust him to bring joy out of difficult times. Prayer Great King, Thank you for the hidden treasures you put in our lives every day. Fill our hearts with joy so great that we follow you with our whole being. Amen This is the day that the Lord has made; Sometimes in dark and difficult times it is hard to remember a day like this one with clear, blue skies and white, fluffy clouds. I imagine Psalm 118 being sung on such a day. This psalm is part of the group of psalms known as the Hallel that were used as processionals to the temple during feasts days filled with joy.
It is easy to rejoice in a victory on a day like this, but all our days are not clear, blue-sky days. Even in difficult days we can still rejoice when we put our focus on Jesus. For it was Jesus who conquered death. In him we find victory even in our darkest days. In him we can truly say, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Prayer Lord God Remind us of your steadfast love this day and help us keep a heart of joy as we put our focus on you. Amen At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. The light was low in the sky and I saw the two chairs in the meadow of the garden. They seem to draw me to them; to just sit quietly in the garden and see the wonder of God’s world. Sometimes Jesus comes to us in loud and joyous worship experiences and sometimes he comes to us in the quietness of the morning light. In his book, A Violent Grace, Michael Card reminds us how Jesus first appeared to his disciples:
But have you ever noticed how quietly the grace of Easter arrived? No angelic choirs heralded Jesus’ return from the grave. No foreign dignitaries arrived bearing gifts. No voice thundered from heaven. The Resurrection unfolds entirely in a series of intimate conversations between Jesus and His followers. It’s all family business. As He did with Mary, Jesus rises for each of us and calls us by name. The promise is for everyone, but the experience of Easter is only for those who believe and have longed for His appearing. He calls our name. He knows us. He loves us. He gives us quiet mornings that speak deep in our hearts. Find a place to sit in quietness and open your heart. Prayer Lord Jesus Come to us again this day and speak peace and joy to our hearts. Amen View the post for February 27 for an explanation of my Lenten Project When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. While the tree’s branches are still bare the daffodils herald the coming of spring. They remind us that winter will soon be past and the summer is coming. As we look at the difficulties facing our world right now we can look to our God who brings the joy of a field of daffodils on a clear, spring day to our hearts. Remember God’s love and care. Sit in quietness in his presence, see his beauty, and find in his unfailing love a calmness and peace that will replace all anxiety.
Prayer Lord God Calm our fears. Help us to remember your love and bring joy into our lives this day. Help us become a calming force for those around us. Amen Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Yellow lady slippers are a rare find in the Smokies. I remember how excited I was the first time I found them a couple of years ago. So this year when it came time for them to bloom again I was so hoping that no one would have poached them and that they would still be where I found them. There was great relief and joy when I saw them again last spring. They are such beautiful and unusual flowers. I was filled with great joy. I was so happy that I think I must have taken a hundred pictures. I just wanted to sit there and look at them in all their beauty. I was so excited at finding them that I stopped every hiker walking by and showed them where to look. I wanted others to have that joy of seeing them.
This passage reminds me to remember the joy I had the first time and the last time I found the lady slippers. I think about a God who looks hard for us every time we are lost and then rejoices over finding us. Not only does he rejoice but his angels rejoice with him. And like the women who calls her friends and asks them to rejoice with her over the lost coin, God calls us also to rejoice when someone who is lost is found and to welcome them into our community. Prayer Lord God Who Searches Thank you for finding us when we are lost. Teach us to rejoice like you do when someone is found. Help us to welcome them with great joy for we were once lost too. Amen Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Recently I have been walking on the trails at the dam close to where I live every morning. Each day I walk I see the ‘regulars’; some of them I know by name and some only by seeing them everyday. We all walk different routes and at different speeds; some run; some walk slow; some walk alone; some walk with a partner; some walk in specialty running clothes; and some walk in an old T shirt and jeans. Sometimes I get discouraged when I am passed by the same person and wonder how they can walk that fast. Even in the early morning I get hot and tired and wonder if I am going to make it back to the car. There are times when I just think I am going to sleep late today; but then I get up and see the beautiful morning light and decide to make the effort to walk. There is a joy in my morning walk that I truly miss, even the 265 stairs to the top of the dam in the middle of my walk.
The writer of Hebrews wrote to encourage followers of Christ who were becoming discouraged. They were being ostracized by their community and maybe their family and some were facing persecution. To encourage them he tells them of the great cloud of witnesses that have come before. None of the heroes he described in the previous chapter were without fault. They all followed God at different speeds, some quickly, some slowly, some were important and some were unimportant, and some required signs of assurance from God. Their lives weren’t perfect like this picture I just snapped with my phone; but like my picture they saw a way marked out before them and they kept walking. They walked toward a God who loved them. Dear friends let me encourage you to keep walking when you are hot and tired and discouraged. Your walk doesn’t have to be perfect; you won’t always have get a good picture. Some will pass you and sometimes you will walk alone. Even in the hard times, the 265 steps straight up times, you will find joy when you fix your eyes on Jesus. Prayer Jesus, Who Endured All For Us, Thank you for all the strong witnesses that have surrounded me in my life. Forgive the sins I sometimes cling to and keep me walking toward the light and joy of Jesus who endured all for us. Amen O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; It had been several years since we hiked to Spruce Flat Falls. In the past I thought of it as a relatively easy hike. It is only a mile to the falls. We didn’t even start out very early. However, the trail wasn’t the way we remembered it. It seems that while it is a well-marked and well-traveled trail, it isn’t a maintained trail. There were many places where the trail was worn away and now there were large steps over roots and several places where the trail was covered by rocks that had to be climbed over. It seemed more like rock climbing than hiking. If this had been our first time to the falls we probably would have turned around halfway. But we kept going because we knew what was at the end of the trail, one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the park.
There are many difficult trails in our lives, times we thought would be easy. We take trails that can lead us far away from God and we turn away from him. We can get so lost we wonder why we keep going. Then we remember that God restored our lives from the pit before and we keep going on the trail to see the beauty that awaits us. We experience God’s discipline and weep, but joy comes in the morning. Beauty, peace, and rest rise before us as we sit again in his presence. Prayer Lord of the Morning Remind us of your love and presence along difficult trails and during dark nights. In the morning we sing praises for your beauty as we sit in your presence. Amen Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. It has been stormy and cloudy for the past two days. I had hoped that this morning the weather would be different but the predictions weren’t promising. I just wanted to see a special sunrise this morning. I decided that it wasn’t going to happen and that I would not try to go to a special place to see a sunrise. Instead I would just get up before dark and read the resurrection stories. So this Easter morning I sat in my sunroom and read my bible in the dark (you can do that if you read your bible on an iPad). It was very cloudy but I just happened to look out my window that faces east and saw a slight bit of color. I grabbed my camera and put on my coat. I didn’t have time to change lens, get my filters, or tripod. I ran up the hill and through a neighbor’s yard that I knew wouldn’t mind to the field on the other side of my neighborhood. And there was this beautiful sunrise, unexpected glory. I was so glad that I didn’t just sit in my sunroom. It is cloudy again now with the sun behind the clouds. When the women went to the tomb that first Easter morning they only expected to see Jesus’s body, but that was not what they saw. I believe that Jesus still comes to us in unexpected ways. And when he comes he brings light to the darkest night. When we follow him, he will always show us unexpected things. He is Risen! He is Risen! Prayer
Risen Lord, Open our hearts to the unexpected and give us courage to follow you into new life. Amen Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb! The spring weather in East Tennessee is very unpredicatable. One day you can have snow and ice and the next day the temperatures can rise to the sixties. When this happens the melting snow drips down the rocks onto the vegetation below, encasing everything in an inch or two of ice. As the sun reflects and shines through the ice the plants become like sculptures glistening with diamonds. They seem to just reflect joy. The ice is still present but there is the promise of spring.
When everything in our lives seems as cold and hard as ice it is important to look back to past times when the icy times of our lives melted into bright, sparkling joy. We need to think of our tears as watering the ground preparing us for the new life that Jesus brings. When we trust God to restore our lives then he will turn our tears to bright, glistening joy. Prayer Lord God Walk with us through icy winters of sorrow and sadness. Melt the ice of our hearts and restore our joy. Amen For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, Sometimes we just need to marvel at God’s creation. There are so many things in creation that are metaphors of God and his word - light and dark, day and night, spring and winter. The flowers bud each spring and teach us of the new life Jesus has given us. They bring us joy and remind us that God promises a new heaven and a new earth that he will create filled with joy and gladness. May the flowers of spring remind you of God’s love and bring joy.
Prayer Creator God Teach us to rejoice in the world you created for us. Show us your beauty this spring day. Remind us of your promise that everything you create will be for joy. Amen |
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Soli Deo Gloria,
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan
1 Corinthians 10:31
© 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Karen Milligan