Pieces Of God

Thursday, 24 Jul 2003

Golden sunsets, wispy clouds, ocean waves, majestic mountains, baby's hands, running horses, a bird's feather, a bride and groom, a head bowed in prayer...

Pieces of God, in the world we live in. Pieces of His masterpiece that surround us. We might think we have never seen God, never felt Him, never been able to touch Him; but He is in everything we touch, see, taste, feel, smell and hear. And He was in His Son...

Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip,
even after I have been among you such a long time?
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Don't you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me?"
John 14:9-10
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I love these passages that include the name Philip. Many people try to spell Philip with two "L's" but we spelled it with only one when Phil was born because that is the way it is in the Bible.

Oh, my mind and where it wanders to most days, as it heals. When we lose someone we love so much, how can they not be on our minds much of the time? It seems impossible for them not to be. The hurt and the pain start to recede, but the memories are always there. Those pieces of them surround us. Just today someone walked past my desk and said, "It wasn't me." I answered back, "I didn't do it." This person was kidding around, but I thought of Phil. Those lines were used many times in one of his favorite movies. We watched it together on many long days in the clinic. Memories....

Memories are pieces of the person we love that we get to carry with us all of our days. Some are good memories, some are difficult, but all linger. It gets easier to shut off the hurting ones, the painful days, the ones that are better left alone: But never would I want to give up the pieces of laughing at favorite movies, the teasing that went on between us, the fun days in fun places with special people. Those are the most precious pieces that remain.

As I spent time with God tonight and thought of how we worship a God we have never seen, I once again realized how untrue this is. God is all around us, and He leaves pieces of Himself in everything we see, taste, feel, touch, hear and smell. Maybe that's why He gave us so many senses in the first place. He wanted us to experience Him in a variety of ways, to always remember Him.

When we smell the pine trees as we take a ride up into the mountains, we notice a new and wonderful smell that is missing in our busy cities. It is better than any air-freshener on the market today. It is God's smell, a piece of Him.

As we sit by the ocean and see the waves roll onto the sand, or over the rocks, we witness the power of God and the strength that He can exhibit each day. Outstanding pieces of Him.

When we touch the soft skin of a newborn baby, and marvel and its perfection, we see God's hand and unique ability to create something so perfect from someone so flawed.

When we taste the sweetness of sugar or the bitterness of a lemon, we experience the variety in life that God has designed.

And when we feel the love that surrounds us when we're hurting or the joy of laughter when times are good, we can know that God is the Creator of all emotions, and there is a time for each one in our lives.

Just hearing the birds sing, or the crickets chirp, or the oceans roar, or the sound of silence after a busy day brings us a new and refreshing piece of God.

Pieces of God, seen each day in every way, in a world that we sometimes get so used to, we often take them for granted without thinking about all that God has for provided for us to be able to experience Him.

As I was lying in bed the other night, looking out of the tiny window next to my side of the bed in our RV, I looked out at the dark night and the few stars I could see, and I wondered what it would be like if the sun didn't come up in the morning. If the darkness remained, and God decided to change His way of doing things. Perhaps the darkness would remain for weeks, or months before the sunshine returned again. Would we ever take for granted the sunrise again? Would we watch the sunset each evening and pray to our God that He would shine His favor upon us once again in the wee morning hours? Would we take more notice of the world that He has provided for us each day?

How can we say we can't see God, or feel God, or know that God is near us when if He wasn't, this world would cease to exist in an instant? The sun would stop shining, the birds would stop singing, the oxygen would stop flowing, and we would be vanquished. What does God think when we take all the pieces He has given us for granted, and not even see Him in each and everyone?

The verse:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him
and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
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...has been on my mind since driving to work this morning. It is a verse that I learned many years ago, back when my memorization skills were in much better shape!!  I love this verse, but it means so much more to me now than it did in my early 20's. Back then I memorized the words, today I cling to them with all my heart.

As I was driving home, and the verse was running through my mind again, the word "acknowledge" jumped out at me. "Acknowledge," not thank Him, not love Him, not obey Him, not anything very difficult, but just acknowledge Him. Acknowledge Him in all our ways...can that be so difficult? Just to admit that He is involved, that we want Him involved, that we know He has a clue as to what's going on, and we'd like to share it with Him? I don't think God is asking so much of us, and then He'll make our "paths straight." I don't know about you, but straight paths sound pretty good to me!! I've had enough curvy roads the last couple of years! A nice long, straight path is looking pretty inviting!!

Acknowledge...let Him know I know He's there, that he makes the sun to set and the sun to rise. That those stars are His handiwork, and that the pine scent I smell in the air when I drive into the mountains was provided by His trees!

Pieces of God, scattered everywhere I look, everywhere I turn, and then still I can have times when I wonder where He's gone? I better think again!!

In thinking about this, I thought about the pictures I have drawn in my life. I was thinking about what a person could discover by looking at them about my personality, about my traits and my strengths and weaknesses. These simple drawings, compared to the world that God created, are a telltale sign of who I am. They are not free style, but detailed and precise. The are not incomplete, but completed and framed and on the wall. They are not of plants and landscapes as much as they are of buildings which depict lines and dimensions. And then there's my favorites subjects, sports players in action. The Raiders and A's to be specific. My boys like that their mom enjoys drawing those subjects because they are passionate about that also!!

What do these pictures have to say about who I am? Many things, if you know me well enough to put the two together. And since these are simple compared to God's world, what does the world have to say about who God is? It should be so clear in the beauty that He has surrounded us with. In the diversity of the deserts and the mountaintops and the lakes and the seas.

My drawings are limited to who I am, God's world is not limited at all. We can't even see with our strongest telescopes all that God has created out there. Any creativity we have in us, comes from Him. Anything I choose to draw, comes from Him to begin with. Who am I to even think that I could move a pencil if not for His gift of muscle coordination, and then moving that pencil to draw whatever subject matter I choose, if it were not for His gift of subject matter to begin with?

Not see God? Not feel Him, taste Him, touch Him, smell Him, hear Him and see Him each day? I must be blind if I miss out on the huge pieces He has given me to experience Him. There must be a darkness that hovers over us that clouds out the clear picture, and when it does, we can so quickly forget what lies beyond that cloud cover. The enemy lurks, and prowls and seeks to destroy our clear view of God. He is good at it too, but he is limited because:

You, dear children, are from God
and have overcome them, because
the one who is in you is greater than
the one who is in the world.
1 John 4:4
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The cloud is removable, when we know who created the Masterpiece we seek to enjoy.

The Masterpiece was created by God, and He only asks that we acknowledge Him. He doesn't even ask us to do that with our own understanding (Lean not on your own understanding).
How great is that? We are not even required to understand. So when it seems too complicated, or we are confused, that is just fine with God. He says, don't worry about it, don't depend on that, just trust Me with all your heart. Okay, this is getting pretty easy God. I don't have to understand, I just have to acknowledge, and you're gonna make my paths straight! Why do I miss such a wide and open door of welcoming by You sometimes? Why do I miss You in the very world You created? Why am I so blinded by the things of this world, when those are the very things that can lead me straight to You?

I must be looking at the wrong things?
What am I looking at when I am missing You?

Troubles, difficulties, problems, stress, what's missing, who has hurt me, why I'm right and they're wrong, what I think I "need," what tomorrow holds...I guess I don't need to go on?

What am I focusing on when this world starts to confuse me....?

I'm focusing on me!!

And as it says in the very first line of one of the most popular books on the shelves today:
"It's not about you." (The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren)

Hosea 6:3 (NIV)
Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like
the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.
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If it's not about me God, then it must be about something else...it must be about You! And if it's about You, then what would happen if I focused on You completely and stopped looking at me?

I'd see perfection and beauty and peace and rest and love and joy and comfort and your perfect plan unfolding in your perfect way.

That's what I'm looking for but it still seems to be clouded at times...

If the Lord delights in a man's way,
he makes his steps firm,
though he stumble, he will not fall,
for the Lord upholds him with his hand.
Psalm 37:23-23
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Oh, those cloudy times are my stumbling from time to time, right God? But when I trust in You and I lean on You, you will delight in me, and I will not fall. You will hold me up. The stumbling will not hurt me, it will only teach me to depend on Your strength instead of mine.

You created this beautiful world, but this world does have stones in the road that we can trip over. You created those stones also. They are the same stones that make up the majestic mountains, and the stones waves crash over coming into shore. They are the same stones that Eagles nest in high on the mountaintops, and the stones deer gently step over when they ascend the side of steep hills. Those same stones that cause us to trip, also bring your beauty to this world and though we may sometimes stumble over them, they are ultimately for good, and You will hold our hand as we make our way through these areas in our lives.

Lord, I don't want to think this is about me. I want to know that it is about You and Your eternal plan. I don't want to miss the pieces of You that surround me each day. I don't want to get caught up in the whirlwind and go running through the Greatest "Museum of Art" ever, when it should be savored, one Masterpiece at a time. I want to stop and examine Your artwork, marvel at its splendor and then move on to the next piece only when I am fully filled with You from what You have shown me today. I want to stand and look at You until my heart's content, and then return again and again to your Masterpieces until there is no place that I can go that I don't see You clearly!

For some reason Lord, I can get so wrapped up in my little world, that I miss the world that You have provided. When I think it's all about me, it becomes so small and so tight and so uncomfortable: But when I know it's all about You, it is big, and it is magnificent, and it is to be treasured as a very special gift.

The Mighty One, God, the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to the
place where it sets.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
Psalm 50:1-2
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When the sun rises tomorrow at your command, I will acknowledge You my Lord, and thank you for the blessings of another day. Help me to always remember that You are the Master of the world we live in, and Your Masterpieces help us to see, taste, touch, feel, hear and smell You in unlimited ways each day.

Living in His peace and joy,
Diane