Made In His Image

Today I want to dip my artist brush in the color of laughter & fun.  When God decided to create us, He created us in His image.  That means we are like God in every way.  He gave us eyes to see with, ears to hear with, a mouth to speak with and to enjoy the foods we eat.  He gave us a brain to think with, a heart to love with, feet to walk with and to enjoy the many beauties of the earth that we can visit and walk to.  He gave us a physical body to enjoy the experiences of life with.  Our hands touch, feel, feed us, help us to write, to paint, to play music, to do all the miriad functions we do in life.  He created us with emotions too.  If we are touched by something wonderful, we can feel gratitude and enjoyment.  If we think about something sad, we cry.  When we do something wrong to someone, we feel guilty.  If something scares us we feel fear.  We have the ability to reflect on our past and our conscience  helps us to know right from wrong.

But what about Laughter & Fun?  Does God laugh?  Does He have fun?  Does He rejoice in his creation?  Do you think He made us in His image and that His image is only and always serious?  Think about it for a moment.  There are some pretty funny things that we as humans do.  There are some very funny things in this life.  Are we afraid to laugh?  Do we really think that a God of Love made us to always be serious and not have a sense of humor and the ability to enjoy life?  I think sometimes about the statement about God being a comedian playing to an audience who is afraid to laugh, and I see a whole other side of God.  God made us in His image, and thus we are multi-faceted.  There were some churches around when I was very young, that forbade the women to cut their hair, or to wear dresses that had short sleeves.  No makeup, no pretty things to wear.  They had many rules and rigid expectations of their congregations.  But to laugh and have fun was not one of them.

To me, God is my Daddy.  He tells me in his word that He is my Heavenly Father.  That He loves me and created the world the way it is so I can have abundant life.  He wants me to have health  & to prosper in all I do.  He is kind, loving, warm, my Father.  He wants to hear about what I'd like to accomplish in life, and when I'm sad He shares in my sorrow.  So why not think that if I am made in His image, why wouldn't He also have the ability to laugh with us and have fun, the way we have fun when our little babies begin to walk and talk and do funny things? We think He is rigid, so righteous that we can't approach Him, and when someone we love is terminally ill, we often lash out at God for letting this happen.

But God is Love.  Above all things, He Loves us.  He made us all different, each one is unique.  He has a variety of colors of skin, hair, eyes, and all sizes, small, large, round, thin, tall & short, with different favorite colors, different personalities, different tastes in things we like and things we don't like.  We are special.  Like no other species on earth.  Made to have dominion over the earth and take care of it and the living creatures we encounter on earth.  But often we are complaiing and wining about our predicaments, and they are often caused by our own carelessness and lack of attention.  A different God than what most think of Him.  So much variety to life.  And we are His people, made in His image, from top to bottom and inside and out, made in His image.  So I choose to think of God as my Daddy...I find I can laugh with Him, and have fun with Him, and be His child.  At the end of the day, I can go to Him and tell Him about my day without the fear of being rejected or found unholy because something funny happened to me today that I want to laugh abouut with Him.

We live our lives so seriously.  We struggle to achieve things.  We set up rigid rules and laws to follow.  We race around daily from place to place meeting deadlines, and trying to earn a living.  We struggle from sunup to sundown and fall into bed exhausted and often we find nothing funny about life.  Perspective.  Sit back and look at all we consider important to have.  We want a new car, a bigger house, a better job, more money, and then when we have it all, we find we are ill and can't enjoy our labors.  We work at a frantic pace to gain all these material things and never think about the God who made us.  I think He laughs.  I think He finds us funny and I think if we changed our view of God, the world would be a happier place for all of us.  We are all made in His image.  Our colors don't matter.  Our sizes don't matter.  Only to us.  We judge according to color, race, religion, and we segregate ourselves according to our status in life.

Perhaps it's time we dip our paint brushes in a new color and paint a different picture of the one who made us.  And He made us one and all, for Love.  For His Love.  For his Son.  For life.  He made  us to enjoy the life we have and to laugh and have fun.  It's not a sin.  When he made Eden, He made it for us.  Paradise?  That's for us too.  Provided for from beginning to end.  A god of Love.  A god who can laugh with us and have fun with us.  A god who shares in the good and the bad.  A God of laughter amd joy.  What have you been denying yourself?  You need laughter.  You need fun.  You need a less rigid view of the one who made you.  Just a new color, on a new pallet of life.  The ability to laugh and find humor in things was made into us, and we are made in His image, from beginning to end.

Yesterday Is Over, Only the Present To Enjoy

I found something in my Devotional Bible, by Max Lucado, that really touched me in places no one knows about but God and me.  Places of regret, shame, and much pain.  Places that only the Love of God can heal, and I want to share this message with you.  If you are in need of healing for thing's that happened to you that you did not ask for, then read this and see if you find relief and healing.  I know I did and I hope you will as well. 

"Canyons of shame run deep.  Gorges of never-ending guilt.  Walls ribboned with the greens and grays of death.  Unending echoes of screams.  Put your hands over your ears.  Splash water on your face.  Stop looking over your shoulder.  Try as you might to outrun yesterday's tragedies - their tentacles are longer than your hope.

Sometimes your shame is private.  Pushed over the edge by an abusive spouse.  Seduced by a compromising superior.  No one else knows.  But you know.  And That's enough.

Sometimes it's public.  Branded by a divorce you didn't want.  Contaminated by a disease you never expected.  Marked by a handicap you didn't create.  And whether it's actually in their eyes or just in your imagination, you have to deal with it - you are marked; a divorcee, an invalid, an orphan, an AIDS patient.

Whether private or public, shame is always painful.  And unless you deal with it, it is permanent.  Unless you get help - the dawn will never come.

Take Him with you to your canyon of shame.  Invite Christ to journey with you.  Let Him stand beside you as you retell the events of the darkest nights of your soul.

And then listen.  Listen carefully.  He's speaking.
"I don't judge you guilty."
And watch.  Watch carefully.  He's writing.  He's leaving a message.  Not in the sand, but on a cross.
Not with his hand, but with his blood.
His message has two words:  Not guilty."

If you have time today, why not free yourself from the past that haunts your every step?  Why not reach out for someone who knows your whole life story and can help you?  Do you doubt He's really there, that He's even concerned?  Believe me, He is there, He is concerned, and He can heal that awful scar on your soul.  You can begin again with Christ!
He is the only one who can heal your wounds.  Open your soul to the Healer and let His tender hands reach into your soul and heal those moments of abandonment and shame and want.  He can be all you ever dreamed of, or ever needed in your life.  If other's have disappointed you, He knows.  If other's have shunned you, He knows.  He has the blueprint for your life.  Let Him reconcile what you are today, with the blueprint only He has for your life, and He can make you over, today. You can begin again.  It's never too late.  I know.  I'm 65 and I'm starting over.  The Past is gone.  I only have today, and my future will be bright, because with Christ, I plan to paint the future as bright as I can.  So can you, for with Christ, "All Things Are Possible!"

Freedom

For many years, I suffered with a horrible disease.  Now, through the love and support of God, and all my wonderful family members, I am free and able to enjoy all the goodness of life.  The other day I was just enjoying the beautiful world, and a poem came to me.  This happens to me a lot, and I just thought maybe someone out there needs to feel free today as well.  So I am posting my poem, to share with you if you are in any sort of a mental or spiritual bind.  Know that the Love of God can set you free as well.  Trust in God for your life situation and He will bring the best to bear.  We may not always understand the things that happen, but we can trust our Heavenly Father, and He will make all things right.  Here then, is the poem:

                            FREEDOM

              Be free, free bird, fly, fly away.

              Grasp nothing in your claw or beak,
              simply enjoy the day.
             
              Rush no more to & fro
              busy about many things,
              simply feel the wind as you
              expand and lift on high your wings.

              The sun awaits up in the sky
              the day has dawned anew
              and all the beauy of the earth
              was fashioned just for you.

              No more the dull clothes of yesterday
              no more the endless tears
              but freedom now, my lovely bird,
              and notice not the years.

              A place of great expansion now
              is your to embrace anew!
              And never again will you doubt yourself,
              the girl in the mirror is you!


With the disease I had, I could sometimes look in the mirror and not even recognize myself.  Now, I know that the peace that looks back at me is mine to keep forever.  Nothing in my past has the power to conquor me ever again, and my life is now mine to enjoy, and to share the wonders of God's wonderful Love and Peace.  "What He has done for others, He will do for You!  With arms wide open, he'll comfort you, it is no secret what God Can Do."  My Mom and Dad use to sing this song when they were going to church.  It brings comfort to my heart and I hope they are both enjoying Heaven with Jesus.  If you are alone today, or worried about many things, give the burdens to Jesus, and He will give YOU wings!