John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son....

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son....

Most of us know that verse. If we know only one verse it may well be this. Pondering it in my mind while I listen to some christmas tune, this thought was coming up. Christmas, as happy as we celebrate it, wasn't a happy day. It wasn't happy for God, even though he did what he had decided to do to give us a chance. Yet. knowing all as he did, it cannot have been a happy decision to give his precious son for our salvation. Salvation of a band of disturbed children that wouldn't even value the gift given and not comprehend its immense beauty and intent.

It probably wasn't all too comfotable for Jesus either, being born into a hostile world, into poverty, into certain death. To leave a so much better place behind, even if only for a moment counted short in front of eternity. 

I wouldn't enjoy leaving even my warm and comfortable little place for a stable, much less heaven. Just think! No, it is unthinkable.

Psalm 145:14 The Lord upholds all those [of His own] who are falling and raises up all those who are bowed down.

I have often felt like falling. But never as much as lately, when everything I have been working for seems to be taken from me. All things I have worked hard for achieving are eluding me, as if given to somebody else. It feels as if I were falling and falling and falling.  With nobody I would have thought of to be there. All alone.

With nobody I would have thought of to be there. All alone.  - But this is not written to complain. The more I fall, the more I become grateful for the falling. There is a beauty in it, that I didn't know about.  I have to trust that God will catch me somehow. Even if I will get wet. Or have been getting wet. I'll do it again. God is awesome and great. The world has become a sweet and meaningful place by falling, by having to give up my own importance. (Even if I am still choking every now and than, I pray God will see me through the choking as well, I feel like a cow to always chew and rechew things... he knows, he can save.)

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.

Then the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the LORD;... 1 Chron. 16:33

The trees will sing with joy, they seem to be full of joy even as I am walking through.

They give shelter, they play exquisitely with the suns light.

They  relieve the eyes of the hard forms of brick and concrete.

They are a joy to my tired heart, a God-given place for worship and prayer.