It's an ongoing lesson many of us find difficult to learn. Perhaps the reason is because we focus on our circumstances instead of the promises. Ultimately, our faith informs us that bad things turn into good… tragedy morphs into blessing… loss into gain… sorrow into joy, but the process as we are learning to surrender to this priceless lesson can be awkward.

God is magnificently good, and extraordinarily competent, at turning ashes into beauty.

The image you observe in this post, is my flaking skin from a gnarly rash of unknown origin that has been plaguing my face and neck for about 6 weeks. It looks and feels like a burn. Underneath the raw and brittle skin is unparalleled itching you cannot satisfy lest you become a bloody mess. Filled with fluid, one eyelid was puffed and pulled upwards and I could only squint to see.

I've applied all manner of creams but their help has been limited and less than optimum. After applying one remedy the rash seemed to dry up a bit and huge flakes of skin formed: a sight that will be denied public exposure. I decided to flick some of it off, take a picture, and then, make it artistic.

Ecclesiates 3:11 says, "He makes everything beautiful in its time." And, even though I did the "photo-manipulation" of my "unbeautiful" dead dermis, the image changed my mind set - transformed my thought process - made it possible to view something consider harmful or ugly, as beautiful and profitable.

Agave Nectar comes from a cacti and is used as a sweetener. When processed correctly, it is even useful for people with unstable blood sugar issues as it is utilized in the lower intestine instead of in the pancreas. This same cacti, called Maguey Complicata (translated: complicated, tricky) also contains seeds that are prized for turning into flour & thickeners; a stalk that can be roasted and eaten; and fibres that can be made into ropes or mats. But, if you happen to chop into it carelessly, and get some of it's juicy pulp on your skin, it can be dreadfully painful. Some life lessons are tucked in there for our edification.

May God Himself, make every sorrow in your life, turn into joy…and every occasion one for training your heart and your hands to overcome.

The Underside

The luxurious grand view seen on the topside of a woven tapestry is polished. The underside – the unkempt loose ends remind us of the circumstances of our lives – exposes the disheveled, crumpled view. This is the perspective we hide from others, yet it is the choicest part: the broken places our pride sequesters, keeping us enslaved - yoked to an unrelenting taskmaster. It is the part worn from sorrow and joy, struggle and sacrifice, conflict and understanding, mystery and revelation.

To glimpse this side is to embrace its unprecedented significance. But first, we must expunge the interlopers who bind us to destruction instead of releasing us to abundance. 

We must fortify and yield to our refuge in whose streams, water flows.  

© Liza K. Christian

Seasons Ask • Seasons Answer

For we are God's own handiwork - his workmanship,
Recreated in Christ Jesus – born anew
That we may do those good works
Which God predestined - planned beforehand - for us
Taking paths which He prepared ahead of time,
That we should walk in them…
Living the good life which
He prearranged and made ready for us to live.

~ Eph 2:10

Autumn's Mosaic Tapestry

True is True Regardless if you Believe

There are truths you don't have to believe for them to be true.
Hebrew: Yud Hey Vav Hey - YHVH
Adonaia - The LORD - Y'Shuah
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom...

Through a lens softly

Bandon - Pacific Ocean: 

My camera lens captures soft 

Sapphire sea bubbles 

Caressing the shoreline 

To unbosom the whisper of a coral shell 

Wrapped in the softest cornsilk

Draped in porcelain mist.

Heavenly Declarations

Waiting Earnestly

Image Credit: Jennifer Woodburn

No Mistakes? No Stories.

Life's Lonely Corridors

circles of friendship

Community: a circle of kindness 

& friendship that grows over a lifetime.

Prayer is a Beacon Radiating Hope

Random

Some have little tolerance for it, 

but I find being random 

to be disarming and amusing.

The Scent of Water

Though its root may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth leaves like a plant. ~ Job 14

The Broken Bones Will Dance

Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean

Scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.    

Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,       

Set these once-broken bones to dancing.    

Don't look too close for blemishes,       

Give me a clean bill of health.    

God, make a fresh start in me,       

Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.    

Don't throw me out with the trash,       

Or fail to breathe holiness in me.    

Bring me back from gray exile,       

Put a fresh wind in my sails!    

Give me a job teaching rebels your ways       

So the lost can find their way home.    

Commute my death sentence, 

God, my salvation God,       

And I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.    

Unbutton my lips, dear God;       

I'll let loose with your praise. 

TIme

Present Period

Precisely Passed

Proceed

Dreamers & Moonlight

Dreamers..moonlight...dawn

Shadows of Revelation

Casting Shadows is Involuntary

Oft Times Great Blessings Come Through Pain

Soul Singing

HOW GREAT THOU ART

Verse 1:O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonderConsider all the worlds Thy hands have made.I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Refrain:Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee;How great Thou art, how great Thou art!Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee:How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

Verse 2:When through the woods and forest glades I wanderAnd hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;When I look down from lofty mountain grandeurAnd hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze: (Repeat Refrain.)

Verse 3:And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,He bled and died to take away my sin:(Repeat Refrain.)

Verse 4:When Christ shall come with shout of acclamationAnd take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!Then I shall bow in humble adoration,And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!(Repeat Refrain.)

Carl Gustav Boberg Author Swedish Poem - Stuart K. Hine (English Translator)

Voted favorite hymn second after Amazing Grace