Luke 12:27 Consider the lilies, how they grow.

God is great. He gives us beauty in every flower. In every face.

As the flowers wither, so faces wither and grow old. Yet not less beautiful for the one who can see the beauty.

The beauty of all things present and past. The beauty of fading and being reborn.

It hurts to fade. It hurts to see a loved face grow old, fade away. But where it grows old towards eternity, there is everlasting beauty. And the promise of rebirth. And heaven truly is a wonderful place to be reborn into.

Matthew 23:28 Just so, you also outwardly seem to people to be just and upright but inside you are full of pretense and lawlessness and iniquity.

This is part of the parliament here, a very impressive building. People come from afar to see it.

I have not been inside, but those who know, they tell me the inside is completely neglected, not renovated for 100 years, with a leaking roof and unsufficient plumbery. 

Before it is a place on which the sky seems huge and seems to invite  to rather concentrate on what matters most. God's kingdom. The official shame of a cross, of surrender to circumstances that where far less than ideal. The greates palace couldn't hold God, only a stable could. My eyes follow the clouds and I know, heaven starts right here, at my feet, in my eyes.

Jer. 31:3 The Lord appeared from of old to me, saying, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

We could tell each other. We could sing it from the hills. We could drum the rhythm to our friends. We could encourage  us one another. Take a stand for all eternity. By the way we live and love. 

Drum it to all generations. God loves us. Eternally. Faithfully. And I will do the same to the measure of grace accorded to me. May it be a sweet sound in the ears of the Lord. Will you join?

He has sent the autumn rain and the spring rain as before. Joel 2:23

The morning mist in the hills looks pretty. I love those hills and try to go once a week. To go out of town - which I love dearly - helps me to get a different focus. To get in touch with nature. My nature and God's nature are there too. Not always very compatible. But the beauty helps me to forget my own shortcomings and to concentrate on the beauty God gives to all. Whether they know it or not, whether they want God to be good to them or not.
To need somebodies interference to make everything bright is a delight were that someone is a friend, but others may even come to hate the beauty because they cannot make or control it. God can. He makes it spring and summer, autumn and winter. We go through theses and find their blessings, whether in a material world or in a spiritual world. We all depend on God's mercy, willingly or unwillingly. Being able to give thanks and to enjoy what is given is a blessing in itself. Those, who can only complain, live in hell even here on earth. Those who enjoy have a foretaste of what heaven will be like.

“Let there be no strange god among you; Nor shall you worship any foreign god. “I, the LORD, am your God. Ps 81:9

This man prays to his gods. He is sincere and honest, probably as honest as he can be. Is he right? Before we quickly condemn him, how sincerely do we believe? Do we trust? How much intensity do we give God? I wonder, if this man's feeling is right, whether God will not give him grace, where we as luke-warm believers may ask in vain. God deserves so much more then this egyptian gives to his god. He deserves our undivided love and service. Then he will give grace  and mercy and living water will flow into the life of the faithful.