early morning thoughts. . .again

A while back,  at 300 AM,  I woke up with a silly song in my head, “All God’s children got a place in the choir.” It’s a funny little song that Celtic Thunder sings, but it does describe how each of God’s People has a place in His Work and His Kingdom. He has a design for all of us.  My mind went from there to my visit with Luci to thoughts and prayers for Dessie and then thoughts on the depth of the stillness in the night.  What was the neatest thing though was that in all those things the presence of God was the key point.    

Isn’t it fantastic to have your life centered in the Lord?  The thoughts of Luci and Dessie and the stillness, even the cute song, were all ordinary everyday concerns and nothing that would shake the foundations of the earth and yet there was the presence of God running like a silver glow through them all. I can’t describe how living for the Lord changes your whole outlook on life.  I can’t explain how His Presence influences your thoughts and goals and attitudes.  I can’t express how it feels to be wrapped in the giant comforter of His Love. I can’t tell you how it is to be held in the palm of His hand but it is such a great place to be.

And if you wake up early or late with a riot of plans and headaches and worries running through your head I can only wish that you would get to know my Lord.   He doesn’t take us out of the world, but He certainly takes the world out of us. He changes our focus to eternal things. He organizes our life. And that is pretty wonderful.

Rachael was telling us at dinner one night of rescuing a sparrow that had some how gotten in the store.  Company policy directed that they call ‘pest control’ and have them remove it, but she knew that the outcome of that would be the death of the sparrow.  She commented to one of her young associates that she wished they could catch it and release it outside.  

A short while later, the little bird flew into a window and stunned itself.  The two young guys that Rachael commandeered to help her thought she was a little crazy to be climbing to the top of the floral cooler to get a little bird.  An older customer got a little chuckle out of hearing their rather vehement discussion about it.   But when she held the tiny thing cupped in her hands wrapped in a Kroger T-shirt, the customer came by to see if she had caught it and both of the young associates wanted to see it before she turned it loose.  She said they both stood by her when she unfolded the shirt from around the sparrow and let it flutter to the bushes behind the store and then fly away.

Do you KNOW how many people would never have thought to rescue it and release it?  Do you KNOW how many people there are in this world who have never held a tiny bird in their hands?  Rachael gave a couple teenage boys a lesson in compassion and wonder. I’m proud of her.

I’ve held little animals and birds cupped between my palms and that is exactly the way I envision the Lord holding his own—gently enclosed in the warm safety of those two giant hands.