Who We Love

“Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. “Proverbs 4:23

“The hands that made the stars are holding your heart.” Psalm 139:13

A scaffold of hearts, 

rolled on their sides 

and staggered vertically just to the left of center page. 

That’s where my attention fixed while scrolling through a multiple pages of beautifully designed visual prayer journal images. The inked threading of stitches and the narrow panel of dots down the side further pleased my eye. That particular art page was created and posted by robenmaries.com. 

In my imagination 

it provided inspiration for an inviting page-scape of color and form for my own journal; 

modified with colored pencil, scripted verses of scripture, 

and journaled reflections on God’s love: 

Its the loving we receive that primes the flow of our own outpouring of care and devotion that initially tumbles from our hearts. The security of protective arms that cradle us early. The hand that holds ours as a tether to keep us close, as a guide to show the way. The familiar and trusted voice that diminishes our fears in the darkness of night, or fever, or loss. We folks who walk upright, we’re innately designed to crave love, to curl tightly into the gracious gift when its given. In our human realm we seek love from our families and from the significant others who walk our way. As we approach God’s realm in search of divine love, an endeavor that has its own hardwired features, the experience can be much the same. We long for the strength that cradles us through every darkness of living. We seek the inner voice of Holy Spirit presence as well as the voice that speaks across the centuries through scared text. It is the divine loving, eternally offered from Creator God, that initiates the soul’s lifelong yearning to return to Him.

Visual journaling, the craft of combining art and print, is a prayerful activity that can be practiced for several  purposes. When used as part of daily devotionals it expands the experience into realms of visual forms and metaphor. Exploring faith meditations through art materials becomes a means of honoring God through a creative offering and articulating those art based meditations into words becomes a form of testimony or a form of prayer. Creating an artful page can also enhance the inspirational message of faith based writing. However visual journaling is used, whether to enrich ones devotional time or to visually represent elements of the faith journey or to pictorially elaborate a message of faith; the outcome is a heightened sense of communicating the power of faith.

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Linking with Playdates With God an online community hosted by Laura Boggess and Still Saturday, hosted by Sandra Heska King. Join me and the other writers gathering there to share our God Moments.  

Tomorrow's Promise

I venture forth into my days 

carrying snippets of scriptural readings, conversations, 

teachings, and musings tucked under my heart. 

Internal thoughts pondered haphazardly as I move through my days 

pausing intermittently as some slight bit of my fluid surroundings catches...

snags on some point of those numerous musings.  

Here, as tuned lyrics overlay a phrase I read, 

or there 

as a face streams against my passing current portraying human expression of inspired scripture, 

or another 

from the natural world branching out to display a figurative expression of a sacred story. 

If last season’s life were our Biblical inheritance,

If the branch were His chosen people,

If the suspended vessels were His divine life,

If the dispersed seeds were His spirit,

If nature reflects His promise...

Illuminated understanding rises, 

not grandly, but deeply.

Satisfying as only increased clarity or 

compelling evidence 

can illuminate.

Unspoken whispers of prayer envisioned as being released outward. 

"Thank you O my father,

for giving us your Son,

And leaving your Spirit

till the work on earth is done."

“There Is a Redeemer” 

Joseph Adkison

Precious in God's Sight

God’s expansive love is chronicled across hundreds of pages of the sacred testaments. To search the scriptures for expressions of that love astounds and humbles the reader. One must bow before account after account of God’s unceasing passion for His people. 

Similarly, in the course of our own life their is merit in taking pause, considering the journey traveled thus far. To search the years. To record in the margins for memory’s emphasis the showering of God’s love on our own living, in all its varied appearances, whether whispered or announced, whether dimly noticed or tangibly extended. With this intent, to search what has been lived, is to uncover and trace the complex tapestry that is His artful weaving of love and divine works on our behalf. 

Unfold the cloth of your life. Search the fabric closely, thread by thread, through seasons, across decades. Where were the colors heightened or subdued due to the Creator’s keen eye? Where was torn cloth mended by His eternal love? Where was the pattern altered by the Master weaver’s plan? Where were the threads strengthened by God’s grace? 

Rejoice! Allow this evidence of God's loving intercession to strengthen you and deepen your faith.

Your Love Reaches to the Heavens

“Your love, oh Lord, reaches to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the skies.” 

Psalm 36:5

 I link here atSUNDAY  and Snapshot and Scripture;
joining faith filled others

 who look far and wide to photograph a visual representation 
of our Lord 's guiding hand. 

'First Love' for God Flows as a Fountain

Faith flows

much like a fountain

within the heart;

a persistent

high spirited 

flowing.

The heart flows with love for God sustained by the rains of grace that fall in response to a genuine seeking for God. Time spent pursuing our Lord through the spiritual sustenance of prayer, worship, service, and thanksgiving invites the rains of grace that fill our hearts with flowing faith.

In the absence of intimate time with him Our Lord laments,

“…You have forsaken your first love.” Rev. 2:4

In the absence of spiritual sustenance the heart loses the high spirited flow of faith. Eyes cannot see His blessings. The heart cannot love Him passionately. Ears will not hear holy words of assurance and promise. Hands will not serve with thanksgiving. Therefore...

“… sanctify the Lord God in your hearts…” 1 Peter 3:1

“We sanctify the Lord God in our hearts when we with sincerity and fervency adore him,… when we rely upon his power, trust to his faithfulness, submit to his wisdom, imitate his holiness, and give him the glory due to his most illustrious perfections.” 

Matthew Henry Whole Bible Commentary

Giving Him the glory and sustaining a highspirited flow of faith, in part, through the Gratitude Journal:

607. Christian friends of deep knowledge and conviction

612. opportunities to be steeped in scripture

615. the oncologist offers a prayer for us

617. prayer experiences with special women

627. Excerpt from: Joyful, Joyful, We adore Thee  written by J. van Dyke, 1907

Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Flow’ry meadow, flashing sea,
Singing bird and flowing fountain
Call us to rejoice in Thee.

{Musings gained from the week’s Bible class, Sunday’s service, and deeper independent study. Linking with Hear It Sunday and the Gratitude communities.}

Kindred Folk



Family tree dating back to 1600.

Portrait of our Lord watches over a family photo (circa 1976).



We are eight families flung far and wide across the continent. Logistics turns into years stretched between reunions.  Brought together by no small evidence of God’s will; what follows is the heart’s gratitude for that gift [# 514-519].

I seek the memories of those few days as a child seeks its security blanket. With eyes closed the images replay in my mind in complete five senses detail.

Voices that resonate deep in stored memory are recognized instantly. Their individual timber wash over hearing and heart resulting in the knowledge that I’m among my own, as in, I’m home. 

The faces, a gesture, or a gait of movement originating in one generation repeated in the next; recalls affectionate familiarity. Yes, I know you well.

Hands, though aged since last we touched, are still uniquely marked. One of you has the little finger missing a nail that was caught in a door long, long ago.  Another bears the thumb carrying old wounds of a cold winter day. Our patriarch, his hands are ever the memory of strength

A brother’s child has a silhouette much like my daughter’s.  A grandchild is very much her grandmother’s youthful image.

Every perception triggers genetic energy that calls out to kindred folk. My soul opens, reaches out to absorb the fruit of that energy. It strengthens me; repairs feelings of being fractured from my roots.  These hours are precious in healing properties. I pray that it has been so for each of my dear ones.

It is certain that God our father loves us in the same way that we pour love into our earthly families. He scours our beings for indications that we are His own. He revels in the growing likeness between His nature and our character.  He imparts healing during those precious, prayerful times spent together.

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” ~ 1 John 3:2