Hope

This is the same tree we harvested so many cherries two years ago. Click here to see!

"A man can live about

fourty days without food,

three days without water,

eight minutes without air...

But only one second without HOPE!"

Holly Wagner

"When it pours, He reigns!"

I feel the hope that is reflected in this Cherry tree. I am blossoming, but not because I forced my self to have life. No. It is a gift from God. It has been a cold, dark winter, where there was no sign of life nor beauty! But God has decided to bring spring...to bring life and hope to this tree.

Before the cherry´s begin to appear the tree will have to go through several phases. The blossoms are just a sign of things to come. A promise to hold on to. Hope for the future.

Here´s a close up!

God is placing seeds of hope in my heart, but then there has to come leaves, fruit and then harvest. God is in the timing of the process and my part pivots on my obedience!

Psalm 25:3

No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame.

Hope is the feeling we have, that the feeling we have, is not permanent.

~Mignon McLaughlin,

Can you see my shadow?

Hebrews 10:23

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Contrasts

CONTRAST:
put in opposition to show or emphasize differences;
the opposition or dissimilarity of things that are compared
the act of distinguishing by comparing differences

This weekend Dh and I had the privilege of staying in a 5 star hotel in Oporto, Portugal. Wow, wow, wow! Yes, indeed! It was a special gift certificate from my dear sis in law for Christmas! All we had to do was: get there...which we did...using Ryan Air (for next to nothing!)

The hotel was, naturally, out of this world! Our room was an Executive Room, decorated with modern style geometric furniture, very fashionable chocolate brown curtains and accessories, plus "sink your feet into it" luscious beige pile carpet. The bathroom had a Japanese flavor, with heated marble floors and towel racks!

We mustn't forget to mention the two hotel bathrobes and matching slippers that hung invitingly in the bathroom (reminded me of Pretty Woman) and the twice a day chambre services which included a special "pull the bed down" treatment at night with ferrero roches on the pillows! There was of course a plasma tv and other typical hotel commodities that made "the cherry on the cake" to this nothing lacking hotel stay experience.


On a lighter note, I must add that the wall to wall mirror in the bedroom and bathrooms, although giving a feeling of expansion and light, made one somewhat self conscious and not very flattering to say the least! After all, I am no longer 18 !

We arrived at this destination of dreams around lunch time and then later on in the afternoon we discovered a Lidl (very economical supermarket chain - to not use the word cheap!) and bought a few little bits and bobs like water, nuts etc) We smuggled this back into our room and enjoyed our treats while watching the travel channel!

It´s amazing isnt it? Here we were in the "lap of luxury" sipping down sparkling water that cost 40 cents and not the 4 Euros 4 0 cents that the minibar service offered! I couldn't help but ponder the contrast of our situation and let out a little giggle!

We both knew too well that we really didn't "belong" to the typical 5 star hotel profile. We aren't part of the jet set who call for room service, use the hotel bathrobes or drink the sparkling water without batting an eyelid! Yet here we were here enjoying every detail of this amazing situation! What a contrast! What a contradiction!



Yes, life can be full of contradictions! You can be sad and happy at the same time (especially women have this capacity during pregnancy and monthly hormonal fluctuations!) poor in finance and rich in family, dreams and reality, living on earth yet belonging to heaven, servant and king....

Jesus was a servant... yet a King.... what a contrast, what a contradiction! At least to our human thinking, our "limited" dimension. In the Spiritual dimension these apparent contrasts and contradictions begin to make sense, take on real value and make possibilities out of problems.

It makes me think of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-11

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
Blessed are thos who mourn...for they will be comforted
Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth...
etc.....

God calls blessed what we would call the opposite.... God sees everything in the light of who HE is and what He CAN DO.....I am reminded today that even though I felt uncomfortable with the contrast of drinking my Lidl sparkling water in a 5 star hotel, God does not feel uncomfortable or limited with the impossibility of my life´s contrasts.....my life´s questions...

Sadly some of life´s contrasts cause us pain. It´s inevitable. But there is a place where every tear will be wiped from our eyes and there will be no more pain. God does say that on this earth we will suffer all kinds of trials, but he does promise us not only that he will be with us now...but also that he has gone to prepare a place for us..... and it for sure is better than any 5 star!!!!!

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father´s house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am"......... John 14.-3

Ally´s Animal Art

It´s amazing how quickly the days fly and I haven´t written anything...There are so many things that happen in one day, that after a few days go by, you kind of sit there and think...hey I let so many good ideas go and now..I don´t know what to write !!!!

I thought I would write about Laila, our mother with only 3 kittens left, cat who reminded me again how man can not control nature. We seem to think that somehow we can dominate the species, especial with pets... and to some degree we can "tame" them, but as the saying goes... ,"You can lead a horse to water, but you can´t make him drink!" Animals have a way of showing you that you are not really as much of a "master" as you would like to be!!!

I learned this afresh just a few days ago. As I mentioned, I had taken time the other day to "move" the kittens and Mum Laila, down to the garage. The kittens are getting more and more lively and well, it´s alot harder for anyone to sleep when three sets of claws are piercing into your skin through the bed covers...

Anyway, I had prepared a wonderful cosy "nook" with food, bedding and the necessary toilet facilities down in the garage. I then proceeded to collect the kittens from No 1`s bedroom and introduce them to their wonderful new accomodations. I closed the garage door and left just a big enough gap...(or "a jar"...haha.. have you heard the joke, When is a door not a door?...When it´s a jar...sorry couldn´t resist that one!!!)for them to get in and out but closed enough to feel protected. I returned upstairs to continue with my "to do´s" of the morning and felt quite pleased with getting another "situation" settled.

Lunchtime came and went, and as I was working in the afternoon on the computer, every so often gazing out of the window which looks unto the balcony where the bedroom windows also look out to, I saw something that took me by surprize. There, if I hadn´t seen it with my own eyes I would not believe it, came Laila carrying a kitten in her mouth jumping into No 2's window . She was bringing the kittens back up into the house one by one!!!

Realizing that a major event in the animal world was taking place right before my own eyes, I decided to go down to the garange nonchalantly and watch how she bought the kitten out through the "a jar" space in the garage door and carried it up. I mean, I had to see how this would work! Well, through some miracle of metamorphasis, Mum cat with kitten in mouth squeeeeeeeeeeeeezed out of this amazingly tight space, then made their way across the garden, up the stairs and directly to No 2´s window.

What can I say? I had good intentions, even acted out of goodwill , their wellbeing at heart, but nature had other ideas. Laila, obviously didn´t feel her kittens were secure and wasted no time in getting them back in the house and into what instinct claimed as better. I had to laugh...just laugh. I knew that this was outside of human control and no matter where I would put her kittens, she would move them if she deemed it necessary!

I am sure there is some really good moral to this story...some kind of parallel with the human world . There is of course....

I like to compartementalize...have everything sorted out in little boxes and separate areas, everything under "control." I even want God to be where I put him..."controlled" about when and where He can be in my life... Then God brings things in and out of my life and I realize I don´t have him as "tamed" (hey perish the thought..but I know it´s true) as I would like. He is bigger than me and loves me more than to just to let me be immature and insecure in my carefully made up world.

He surprizes me with His love, amazes me with His Care and awes me with His power. I am so glad that God is bigger than me, bigger than my idea of good, bigger than bad, bigger than the past, the present and future. I want all of who God is and not my comfort, my security, my way.

I leave you with this:

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him

and He will make your paths straight.!! Prov 3: 5-7