The Blue Dress Ball

Today - a story!

Maria had just found the perfect dress at the new consignment store in town. It was more like a gown than a mere dress, but it was the perfect shade of blue and fit like a glove. She giggled with glee as she looked at herself in the mirror.

She had moved to town little more than a year ago and quickly fell in love with the enchantment that filled the views from Main Street. Everything from the architecture of the old homes to the manicured lawns made her feel like she’d moved to the set of a cozy old movie. Everyone seemed friendly and welcoming.

Being forced to move from her old place a thousand miles away, she felt like her life was over. But here she could reinvent herself.

“Could life here really be this perfect?” she asked herself every morning as the sun came through her bedroom window.

But she was challenged to become an accepted member of her new community within the first few months of living there in paradise.

When the posters went up inviting the whole town to the annual “Blue Dress Ball” she knew it would be the perfect opportunity to show these folks what she was made of and how she could creative she could be when helping out. Staring at the poster, she imagined designing decorations and showing off her charcuterie board magic to pitch in with the catering.

The first day the planning committee met, she found herself sitting in the middle of a room filled with women who already knew their role; women who made it clear that they had things all wrapped up before she even moved to town. The meeting was just a social event that aimed to bring grand attention to the ones who always made it a huge sensation.

Saddened, but not defeated, Maria eased into the idea of attending without being taxed by securing party perfection. What a novel idea. In her old town she was the one who pulled everything together, constantly overwhelmed and exhausted after each community event.

“This might be a good thing,” she mused to herself with a chuckle, knowing she’d soon become frustrated with the notion of not being needed.

She did her best to be available should someone ask for her help with something, but when the big day dawned, it turned out that she wasn’t needed at all.

“I’ll just enjoy myself and get to know everyone,” she concluded.

Entering the park that surrounded the town center pavilion, she marveled at the lights and decorations the women had contrived. It was truly beautiful. Half the town was already there by the time she waltzed up front smiling from ear to ear, ready to introduce herself to everyone she hadn’t yet met.

Before perusing the heavenly smelling delicacies on the beautifully adorned tables and before the music swept her off her feet, she realized that no one was smiling back at her. As a matter of fact, they all seemed to be scowling at her.

One pretty teenager sashayed past her and spoke quite loudly, to be heard over the music and to make sure she embarrassed the newcomer. She said, “It’s called the Blue Dress Ball” for a reason, ma’am.”

She tossed her curls over her shoulder and joined arms with her friends without missing a beat. They all laughed at her like she was a freak.

“My dress has blue on it!” she insisted to herself, trying to keep the smile from falling off her face.

Her smart dress was white with small blue flowers coming up from the hem. As she peered around at all the other women, she saw them lower their faces and shake their heads.

She quickly made her exit and ran home.

Sitting at her table in tears she promised she’d never speak to a single woman in this mean-spirited little town.

Then, no. She realized that wasn’t true. She’d have to speak to them. She lived there now. “What happened to the enchantment?” she whimpered.

She changed into her pajamas and into bed early, forcing her thoughts to avoid her feelings of humiliation.

Facing the townsfolk in the following days proved easier than she’d thought and before long, she began to feel like maybe she did belong there after all, noting that NEXT year, her dress for the ball would be completely blue.

Now she stared at the beautiful blue dress she’d found and bought before anyone else had a chance to snatch it up.

By the time the posters went up publicizing the ball this year, she was ready. She’d dropped her dress at the cleaners to make sure it was clean and pressed before the big night.

No, she didn’t get to help much this year either, but she pushed her way in where she could. Working from home didn’t give her the opportunities to make friends in the workplace. But she overzealously tried to find common ground with most every woman in the grocery store or the other shops on Main Street.

She was reluctantly invited to help put the posters up. “They don’t know what they’re missing,” she comforted herself. “I can do so much more, we could work together, my ideas would complement theirs, not challenge them. Maybe next year.”

This year, she would again try to enjoy being a mere participant, properly dressed this time!

The day before the ball she walked all the way to the dry cleaners, hoping to strike up conversation with anyone who looked her way. She wasn’t all that successful but talked the ears off the girl behind the counter at the cleaners.

When the girl retrieved the dress for her, she reached out with joy, knowing she’d fit in this year.

But the air left her lungs as she beheld her beautiful GREEN dress.

“How could this have happened?” she whispered to herself, trying to hide her panic.

She nodded at the girl and quickly left, clutching the dress close so no one would ask to see it. Not that anyone did.

She hurried home, forcing her tears to wait till she was behind closed doors.

She hung the dress in the hallway and stepped back to look at it again. She choked on her own spit. How had her beautiful blue gown turned green? Was this some cruel joke conjured up by someone who knew how embarrassed she’d been last year? She stared at it for at least ten minutes before she tossed it in the closet, letting it fall to the floor and slammed the door shut.

“The ball is tomorrow night. There’s no time to find something else that will work, surely every blue dress in town had been bought up by now,” she spoke down to herself. Even the few friends she’d made wouldn’t be able to help.

“It is what it is. I just won’t go,” she said with a stiff upper lip. “Maybe I’ll drive to the next town over and see a movie. By myself.”

After a deep breath and a promise to herself not to cry, she headed to the kitchen for ice cream.

A week later, disappointment still covering every place on her face, she was searching for a missing sneaker. “I live alone!” she muttered, “How can it not be with the other one?”

Crawling on her bedroom floor, she looked under the bed on both sides, then reached up to turn the knob on her closet door. Pulling it open, she grumbled a curse on herself if it wasn’t hiding somewhere in there.

Sitting crossed legged on the floor in front of the closet, her eyes wandered over to the new dress she’d refused to look at all week, still covered in the dry cleaners plastic.

Before she could even begin to search for her sneaker, her eyes widened and she gasped, holding her hands over her mouth.

In slow motion, she reached forward to grab at the dress.

The plastic wrap protecting it was – yellow!

How had she not seen that the day she picked it up?

She frantically ripped off the plastic to see that yes; her dress was still – blue.

She had no one to blame. She had no words to hurl at her own baffled brain. She felt tears gather in the corner of her eyes. She rocked back and forth for a few minutes, holding the dress to her chest. Then she wept.

 

What illusions are we falling for?

What color is the veil that hides God’s truth from us, keeping us from fulfilling His purposes in our lives?

What color veil has satan hung between our eyes and our reflection, hiding our beauty from us?

Our heavenly Father is the only One Who sees us as we truly are, because He sees the new creation we became when we first trusted in His Son.

I’m praying we begin to recognize the “protective plastic” that obscures truth and fools us into believing lies about ourselves AND lies about God, Himself.

 

Light on Your Path

 

In January our pastor talks about vision. “Even if a person has 20/20 vision, it does them no good without light. When we are born again, we have 20/20 spiritual vision, yet we still need the light of God’s Word to see what God is saying.” – Pastor Mark Cowart, CFAN The Power of Vision

He speaks of catching God’s vision for our lives and writing it down and being purposeful about fulfilling His plans in our lives. He speaks of the need for God’s light to understand God’s will and great plans for us. That light is called rhema. It’s the light of God that gives us understanding of His Word.

We know God’s will about many things - that we love one another and that we be quick to forgive. We know He wants us to share His truth and His love (with words, if necessary). We know He wants us to always rejoice and give thanks. We know He wants us to turn from sin and turn TO Him.

Because of that light, God’s rhema light, I know He wants us to run with Him and discover all the love and joy and secrets and power and authority He’s placed before us.

When it comes to learning to do things His way, we need to accept that it’s not simply because “He’s the boss” but because His way is truly best (and probably most adventure-filled) for us.

We love our children with a crazy, passionate love. When they’re small, we want to teach them how to do the everyday things they’ll need to master early in life like feeding themselves and walking, using manners, sharing and so much more. We teach them OUR way of doing them, we know how to do them efficiently and effectively. Along the way, we may see clever little ways they adapt their own personality to what they’re doing while still putting one foot in front of the other and still managing to get their food into their mouth. They still manage to write out letters and words, but in their own handwriting.

I’m right-handed. If my child is left-handed he’s going to hold his pencil differently than I do – but he’ll still master writing.

Here I go stating the obvious, but we aren’t God.

Though we endeavor to teach our children our ways of doing things, our way isn’t the only way.

God knows more ways to do things than we can imagine. He designed us to be like Him – creative! He wants us to discover new ways of showing off our creativity. He doesn’t care if we color outside the lines. He wants us to show off His glory through the talents He’s given us.

Clearly, we don’t want our children hurting themselves, we try to steer them in certain directions, teaching them to obey laws and to love and respect others. When they’re young, it’s usually easier to get compliance from them. As they grow confident in who they are and how they make their own decisions, they’re harder to protect. Eventually, we may discover that they didn’t need all the protection we pushed on them. They may leap into the air and fly, filling their hands with success. They need to have the freedom to discover even things we don’t know about them.

God’s Word teaches us all we need to know. Yet convincing us that His way is best must look futile at times. Once we’ve established ourselves as individuals we want to make our own decisions. Regarding our relationship with Him, He’s given us that freedom; the freedom to choose Him and His ways or reject Him. He knows what each choice holds. He’s already seen the outcome.

Now, if I was holding tomorrow night’s winning lottery numbers in my hand, wouldn’t you want me to show them to you? Wouldn’t  you want me to “shed a little light” on that for you?

Pray for God’s rhema light. Ask Him for it, and He’ll give it to you.

“In him was life; and that life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” – John 1:4-5

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.” – Matthew 7:7-8

 

I Thought I Had No Vision.... Conclusion

 

(picture from industry me.co.uk)

Beginning with one topic has become a conversation (if you’re giving me your thoughts, too) that’s encompassing much more than I thought it would. But, without understanding our position and our authority in Christ, we will never comprehend His vision for us.

Going back to one of the scriptures we started with in Habakkuk 2:2 (AMPC), “And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.”

 We know now that God’s response was to the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk who had a question, we’ve all asked God. “What are you going to do about this mess down here on earth?!” We’re looking into God’s response to him, because it’s the same answer He gives to us.

Write the vision. What vision? The vision God has for mankind. The vision that shows us our part in God’s Master Plan.

To discover that vision will require spending intimate time with Him, reading His Word, studying His Word and meditating on it. I’m not attempting to expound on or sum up Mark Cowart’s book here, I’m sharing what I got from it. I’ve read it twice now and I may read it a third time soon. It’s a small book, so if you choose to buy it, don’t think that reading it more than once is a daunting or intimidating task. (The book is available here: The Power of Vision or The Power of Vision Amazon )

(picture from Amazon)

Where do we go from here to discover God’s heavenly vision for us? I feel like God’s Word for me this year is “discover” – which is so appropriate for what I find myself doing already. I’m discovering God’s vision for ME!

I don’t say this to sound high and mighty, or to sound chastising and condescending at all, I say it with all the love in my heart and I say it from experience. If we don’t already know God’s vision for us, we are not spending enough time in His Word to discover it.

“Ouch! That hurts!

“I read the Bible every day! Sometimes I even go to a commentary or a concordance to investigate what something means. Though, I have to admit, I usually just go to a friend and ask what THEY think it means.”

“I pray every day, well, sometimes just over my meals. Okay, sometimes I let myself get too busy. But God knows my heart. He knows what I need to pray before I even say it.”   

“And, of course, I go to church. Well, most Sundays. Okay, most weeks I just watch online and listen to teachings from preachers and teachers I like throughout the week when I have time. But sometimes I even go to special events the church hosts!”

(picture from open. spotify.com)

I’ve said those same things, believe me. I’ve tried to justify my lifestyle, too. I’ve gotten too busy to spend quality time reading and studying for myself and meditating on what the Bible says. How can God speak His vision to me, or for that matter, how can He speak His love to me, if I’m not reading the Bible daily? How do I think I’m listening for what He has to say to me if too busy to pay attention? How can I appreciate His love for me if I don’t spend any time enjoying it?

I was challenged to do the very things I’m telling you to do. I’ve been setting my alarm early (and I am NOT a morning person) and I’m getting out of bed, going downstairs to make a cup of coffee – and sitting quietly, without disruptions – reading the Bible, with a commentary and pondering what I’m reading. I’m looking into the parts that I don’t understand. I’m literally searching out God’s wisdom, knowledge and His understanding. The written Word is becoming the living Word inside of me! And I’m discovering just how much God actually loves me, and I’m allowing myself to receive from Him – His love and therefore, His vision for me. And I'm writing it down. Powerful stuff!

Dare you try? And write it down! See for yourself. After all, isn't that what Jesus invites us to do? Come and see!

I Thought I Had No Vision.... Part IV

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This is turning into a longer blog post than I thought it would be when we started with this topic. I haven’t gotten very far into the conversation yet (assuming you’re conversing with me) and we’re already on part four!

I’m pondering, and I hope you’re pondering with me, over just what God wants US to do about the condition of the world. Way back in the Old Testament days of the prophet Habakkuk, he wanted to know the same thing. And the answer is the same answer God gave Habakkuk.

As today, the world was in chaos back then, too. Sometimes we’re tempted to shake our fist at God and ask Him, “What are You going to do about all of this?”

Good news, He already did His part. He’s watching us do our part.

But I’m just one person, what can I do?

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We can do what God instructs us to do. I’m not talking about things like following the ten commandments, I’m talking about what it takes TO BE ABLE TO KEEP the ten commandments. I’m talking about loving our neighbor as Jesus loves us. That was the last command, or instruction Jesus gave us before He was lifted up into the heavens right in front of His disciples. He said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” – John 13:34 KJV

In John 15:12 we read it again, “This is my commandment, That you love one another as I have loved you.”

(picture from pinterest. com)

Earlier in the Bible we read that Jesus taught His disciples to “love your neighbor as yourself”. (Matthew 22:39) Now that He has paid the price for our sin and has risen from the grave to give us new life, He’s given us the ability to love others the same way He loves us. We can let Him love them THROUGH us. And THAT – is how we’re going to “fix” the world. The only way we can do this to let God love them through us. This is where WE need clarification. We need to see and understand God’s vision of how this works. We need to understand our part in His vision. We need His vision to become our vision. We need to see what He sees; the way He sees it.

And THAT, my friends, is what having vision is all about.

In Habakkuk’s response to God, he clearly expected God to wave a magic wand and “fix” everything, which, let’s face it, is something we’d like Him to do, too. Sometimes we insist, there must be an easier way! Yet, God tells us that His ways are higher (and better) than our ways. In Isaiah 55:9 (KJV) we read, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

He is, after all, God. We are His creation. We are the works of His hands. He created us. And He created us in HIS image. He created us to be like Him. He is creative, He designed us to be creative. He is love. He created us to hold or contain His love, so that He can love through us. He wants us to live in Him and He wants to live inside of us. He created us to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. His desire is to live and love through us. We're vessels to contain His glory. An empty vessel helps no man.

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Or didn’t you know? Paul wrote to us in the New Testament, to those of us who have put our faith and complete trust in Jesus the Christ, our salvation, our redemption – our liberator. He said, “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” – 1 Corinthians 6:19 KJV

He asked the Christians of that day the same question He might ask us, “Don’t you know that you are the house of God? Don’t you know that the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you? You are not your own, you’ve surrendered to God and His ownership and instruction!”

Summing up part four of this pondering, we need to wrap our minds around what it means to be “in Christ” and to have Him living in us. Before we can uncover God’s vision for our lives, and for the lives of all men, we need to be surrendered to Jesus Christ, body, soul and spirit. Some things are only discerned spiritually (1 Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”). Our carnal minds (perceived through our senses) cannot comprehend the things of God. Once we’re born again, redeemed, or saved – we need to renew our minds with the Word of God (both logos and rhema) before we can discern the things of God. And that’s what this is about, discerning God’s vision for us.

Part five is coming soon! (It’s already written.)

I Thought I Had No Vision.... Part III

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Now, let’s get back to what Habakkuk 2:2-3 said in The Message Bible. We’ve chewed on the thoughts about why I think God is speaking personally to me (and you) in these verses. Let’s cut off another bite to chew on.

“And then God answered: “Write this.
    Write what you see.
Write it out in big block letters
    so that it can be read on the run.
This vision-message is a witness
    pointing to what’s coming.
It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait!
    And it doesn’t lie.
If it seems slow in coming, wait.
    It’s on its way. It will come right on time.”

If God wants me to write out what I see, I need to make time to allow Him to show me what He wants me to see. It’s looking now like we’ll be chewing on these verses for a while. It’s not that they’re like tough meat that we chew on just to get it down. But I want to enjoy chewing on this bit, I want to enjoy the morsel and savor what He’s telling us here.

Before God told us to write, this scripture tells us that God is replying to Habakkuk. What had he asked him that prompted God to give him this answer? I went back to chapter one to see what the whole conversation is about. THAT is rather eye-opening. 

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In chapter one we read,

“The problem as God gave Habakkuk to see it:

God, how long do I have to cry out for help
    before you listen?
How many times do I have to yell, “Help! Murder! Police!”
    before you come to the rescue?
Why do you force me to look at evil,
    stare trouble in the face day after day?
Anarchy and violence break out,
    quarrels and fights all over the place.
Law and order fall to pieces.
    Justice is a joke.
The wicked have the righteous hamstrung
    and stand justice on its head.”

Habakkuk 1:1-4

Well, Habakkuk, welcome to the year 2025! That’s the same thing WE’RE asking God! Perfect.

So, let’s take a look at THEIR dialog. God’s response to him shocked me! I thought to myself, “God, I don’t want to share THAT part with people! We’re not living in Old Testament times, what does this have to do with us?” Not that history is repeating itself exactly as it happened in Old Testament days, because now we have covenant with Jesus, through the blood He shed for our redemption from sin. 

But, seriously, have people and our thoughts and actions changed all that much? Have us Christians made the impact on culture that Jesus told us to? He told us to, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel (the good news of the new covenant we can have with God) to all creatures.” Have we done this? Have we reached everyone with the good news that we CAN live in love? That God WILL love and forgive through us? If we had, life as we know it would look completely different.

God’s response that I DIDN”T want to share with you here, because I felt unqualified to expound on it reads:

““Look around at the godless nations.
    Look long and hard. Brace yourself for a shock.
Something’s about to take place
    and you’re going to find it hard to believe.
I’m about to raise up Babylonians to punish you….”

Habakkuk 1:5-6

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God instructs Habakkuk to look at the condition the world is in around us. We think we already see the condition of the world around us. We have news on our electronic devices, it’s constantly thrown in our faces, and STILL – WE DON’T SEE IT! We see the crime and the wars and the evil that man perpetrates against man. But look behind it all, what do you see? I see a world that’s lost and going to hell – and God wants us to do our part to do something about it. Jesus suffered and went to the cross for us, because of the joy that was set before Him! He didn’t enjoy the torment man put Him through, He dreaded it. In the Garden of Gethsemane as He prepared to go to the cross, He asked His Father in heaven if He could pass on this, He pushed through and obeyed, saying, “Not my will but Yours be done.”  (Luke 22:42) He and His Father had already agreed on this plan since before mankind brought sin into the world. The JOY He saw set before Him was seeing us enjoying freedom, freedom from the rule of sin and death. His joy was in setting us free! He went through hell to give us freedom and to give us back the authority God first gave to us in the Garden of Eden, authority that Adam and Eve gave to Satan through their disobedience.

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We can have that freedom and that authority today, Jesus died to give it to us. We simply need to believe God’s Word; we just need to accept that Jesus paid the cost FOR us. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” -Romans 6:23 KJV  Jesus died in our place – for us.

After God shows us the condition of the heart of the world, we might ask Him, as Habakkuk did, “What do you want ME to do about it?”

And that’s what this is all about. I’ll continue in part four….

I Thought I Had No Vision.... Part I

 

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Publish the Good News

PART I

Okay, it’s time to “write the vision and make it plain….”

“Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions.” – Psalm 119:18 NLT

Not feeling like I have a vision has helped me to procrastinate about writing one down. But the vision is already there, I just need to discover it or uncover it.

I’ve always thought about vision as in a vision board that crafty women and people desiring to be high-powered go-getters created to help them focus on what they wanted to get out of life. I actually made one once. A change in my thinking has begun to occur simply because of a book I read, helping me to understand and focus on what God wants to do with me. Pastor Mark Cowart, of Church For All Nations, in Colorado Springs, Colorado wrote the small book, The Power of Vision, Charting Your Spiritual Course. (The book is available here: The Power of Vision )

Hopefully the desire to quote directly from the book can be dismissed. But he provides some very tasty nuggets you’ll want to read for yourself. Revelation comes through a myriad of channels. But the revelation of God and His Kingdom come only through His Word, both logos and rhema. (The written word of God is (the Greek word) logos. It becomes (the Greek word) rhema when we believe it. Reading the Bible and believing what it says are two different things. Mark Cowart goes into much more detail about this in his book.) God can, will and does speak to us through whomever and whatever He chooses.

Knowing that I want whatever lot God has prepared for me, good or scary, easy or requiring more faith than I think I have, I’ve left things up to Him. I’m, by nature, a Pantzer; one who flies by the seat of my pants. I detest calendars filled with plans and appointments. My brain just isn’t made that way, I’m not generally organized. I try to be from time to time, and it works for a project or two, like cleaning and organizing a drawer or the kitchen. But life? How can I put into finite, detailed plans what God destines to do with me? Especially since from day to day, that may change. Or will it? My movements or daily assignments will change. But the vision does not.

Vision is there waiting to be uncovered. Like new life sprouting from the ground before the snow has melted, it’s already there. Now, the snow is melting and I’m beginning to see the tiny sprout poke through. In the past when this happened, I looked away. Was it fear? Was it laziness? No matter. Today that all changes.

The Lord has instructed us, even from the Old Testament.

“And the Lord answered me, and said, ‘Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.”  - Habakkuk 2:2 KJV

When I read that, I’m straining my brain to understand what looks like it should be simple to grasp. I’m sifting through the grate of various translations to discover what God says to ME through those verses. The Complete Jewish Bible reads this way, a little easier to understand: “Then Adonai answered me; he said, “Write down the vision clearly on tablets, so that even a runner can read it.”

(from 9newsng. com)

So, write it clearly and LARGE! If I were to run, the words on the paper would jiggle around and my focus would be unclear, jumping up and down, making it hard to read. So, when I write out this vision the Lord unveils for me, I’ll write it down plainly and in a very large font, so that I cannot ignore it at all. Hopefully He intends to show it to me in plain, easy to understand language. However, it kind of feels like a significant part of the vision is in the unveiling of it – because there I am becoming more intimate with Him, I’m allowing Him to express Himself inside of me! This is time well spent; time and experiences meant to be savored.

The Amplified, Classic Edition puts it this way: “And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.”

So, where are these tables or tablets that everyone can pass by and see them? A week or so ago, God spoke to me, “Publish the Gospel”. So far, what I’m getting from that is to write – and let people see what I write. Coincidentally, that’s the premise of the life group I facilitate. Is this that tablet?

It’s easiest for me to write here on my laptop. But no one sees what I write here unless I share it through social media or through my blogsite. I consider myself a writer. Maybe God does, too! Publish doesn’t necessarily mean to publish a book. Publish means to make known. Paul Revere published throughout the land that the British were coming on horseback with his bellowing voice. Words painted on the side of a barn publish a message.

(fromzazzle. com)

The Good News Translation makes it even clearer to me. It says, “The Lord gave me this answer: “Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance.” In place of the word vision, it reads “what I reveal to you”. I love this! So, everything that God reveals to me (through His logos and rhema word)– is part of the heavenly vision! Part of the picture that God sees when He sees man and His plans for man – includes me. I’m a piece of the puzzle that’s still being put together right now. Look, on the table before God’s comfy chair is a puzzle. He has the box; He knows what the picture will look like when it’s complete; when His bride is perfect and His story continues with her. I’m one of those pieces! And so are YOU! You share a piece of this vision, too. Without you and me, the puzzle is incomplete.

More in part two. Stay tuned as I “publish the Gospel [the Good News]”.

Focus and Magnify

Magnification becomes more important to me the older I get. I need to magnify the words I read through the glasses on my face, now more than ever. Without the help of these magnificent image enhancers, I’d miss out on so much, especially words. The lenses clear up my misconceptions about what I see without them.

 

Magnification doesn’t actually make anything bigger, accept the appearance of what we’re looking at. Through a microscope, we can more clearly see microbes found in a drop of water, they appear larger so they’re more easily focused on, and seen as they truly are.

 

So make sense with me, of the cry of the psalmist, “O magnify the Lord with me, let’s exalt His Name together.” (Psalm 34:3)

 

My experience and ponderings lead me to believe that the more I focus on God, thus magnifying Him, the more clearly I see Him and what He’s doing in my life. The more I focus on my problems, the more magnified they become. So I can either play up my problems to the point where I can’t see anything else, or I can praise God, lifting up His Name in my home and in the marketplace and see Him move on my behalf.

 

When I magnify the Lord, as the psalmist invites, His presence appears larger to me, His image enhanced and His blessings more recognized; my purpose becomes more focused and aggravations that assail me fall to the blurrier parts of the picture, often falling off into oblivion.

 

Since I began wearing glasses some years ago, I notice more and more when driving down the street, how little I actually look at along the way. My car can take my mindless self to where I intended to go, occasionally, I admit, with some minor backtracking, almost as if I engage some sort of autopilot feature. What else do I miss out on when I’m not looking at it, or for it?

 

Come focus on the Lord with me, let’s lift up His Name everywhere!