paravanes:meditations

From my scrapbook: "To Harvest Peace", by Mildred N Hoyer Who longs For peace must first Clear any battlefield Within the heart, then sow there seeds of love.

God came near, as Jesus Christ, to teach a lesson we can learn in no other way. We are deeply valued by God, our creator. The pain and confusion we have created in this world does not cancel that value. The brokenness many of us live with does not cancel that value. Thr difficult circumstances we struggle with--perhaps for a lifetime- -do not cancel that value. We are unique creations, made in the image of God. This image or likeness is spiritual, not physical. We have a natural knowledge of right and wrong, even when we ignore that knowledgr. Death, sickness, and cruelty disrupt us because these things don't reflect our lives as God intended them. We were created for peace and pleasure that reflect our God-origins. As we were made in God's image, Jesus lovingly chose to take on a human form to express his love for us, even in our frustrated and broken lives. We can never exist beyond God's love because God's love is not based on our good behavior. Go

"He has been mindful of the humble state of his servant." - Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Luke 1:48. God is always mindful of our condition and our circumstances. God never chooses to disconnect from his creation and his creatures. When the angel Gabriel announced Mary's calling as the mother of the soon to be born Messiah, Mary asked one question and then quickly accepted her calling. Mary's song includes these words: "My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful..." (Luke 1:46 and 47) God, as Jesus Christ, came to be among us and to be one of us. This truth expresses the full extent of God's loving mindfulness. God did not choose to love us only from a distance. Yes, God knows all. Still, he revealed his mindfulness by choosing a place and time to become (visibly) one of us. Now, he offers to live within us: guiding our thoughts, calming our troubled spirits, enabling us to become like him. We do

The defining moment is not the crisis. The defining moment is your determined response to the crisis.