Hugs from God

Life is full of various challenges.  We face the trial of living in a sin cursed earth which includes our own sin nature as well as that of others.  I find as I wade through the muck and mire of difficulties that I can feel weighed down with negativity.  As God teaches me to pray, He sends many hugs.  The hugs don’t get rid of the effects of sin, but they help me through.

One hug God has sent me this summer is through hummingbirds.  I have a hummingbird feeder on my deck.  I don’t often see them, although the sugar water levels have consistently gone down.  A few times in the evenings and on the weekend I have seen a hummingbird come up to the feeder and take a drink.  One night the hummingbird even flew towards my back door where I was standing and watching.  It was amazing.

God often sends blessings through people.  One such blessing came from friends of mine.  I was chatting with a couple of friends while one member of the household was working on a car.  When he brought in an old license plate from one car, I joked about the Vikings license plate cover on my car.  I wanted to remove it, but hadn’t gotten to it.  I’m not into football and I didn’t want to look like I was a Vikings fan.  About 5 minutes after the conversation, he comes back into the house with the Vikings license plate cover.  This is one of those “little things” that may seem silly, but is still fun.  I like my car much better without the Viking logo on it.

Friends, I know life can weigh us down and blessings seem few and far between.  However, the more I watch for blessings the more I believe God shows me.  If I am willing to receive as God chooses to give (knowing what is best for me), I will gain more.  I pray you see the many blessings (hugs) that God sends.

Finally Spring!

We had a normal winter in Minnesota, but after several mild winters this year felt colder, darker and longer than before. I have to admit, I do not enjoy temperatures well below 0 on a January morning. However, this is where God has me and He has given me many blessings in the land of frozen tundra.

One big blessing is the joy when spring finally arrives. We had a mid-April snow which gave us several inches of wet, white mush. That has finally disappeared and warm weather is here.

While there can be beautiful sunsets during the cold winter, I enjoy taking pictures more when the weather is warm. On Wednesday night, I was excited to see beautiful colors in the sky. God is a master painter. He takes the sun and sky and creates a masterpiece. Here are a few pictures of His work. The pictures never fully show the beauty of God’s work, but I will relish and enjoy them anyway.

Easter Reflections

Since this is Easter weekend, I wanted to write something about Jesus death, burial and resurrection. There are so many beautiful truths in the Easter story.

Today I want to look at the negative and positive. First the negative:

Jesus endured horrible pain, because each of us has chosen sin. We are not able to pay the penalty that sin causes (Romans 6:23).

If the Easter story ended with Jesus death on the cross, then we would only have the negative. Death. However, Jesus rose from the dead. He conquered death and pain.

The joy of Easter Sunday is in remembering Jesus is alive! He broke the chains of sin and death. Now we have great cause for rejoicing!

I pray you know the joy and triumph of Easter.