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God loves happy endings


Growing up we spent a couple Thanksgivings at the home of my cousin’s cousins. The home of my Uncle Bruce’s brother and his family. It was an older home in Berkeley California, and I was charmed by it at first sight. It had a Hollywood driveway, the kind with the strip of lawn going up the middle and a big screened in porch just made for curling up with a good book. One of the most enchanting things about it though was the little bookshelf at the top of the narrow staircase. It was magic to me and I couldn’t wait to go up and explore the titles. Jackie was a librarian so she must have recognized a kindred spirit in me, a fellow book lover. I was invited to take any book I wanted. I knelt in front of it while everyone else was out playing, lost in my own universe.

In school I always gave a sigh of relief when they asked us to write a book report instead of solving a math problem. I love long books and I hate for a good book to end. But the great thing about reading is there is always another on the horizon. I am so glad there are those who just can’t stop writing! That, and reading is free.

God loves books too. He wrote a best seller. It is still selling like hotcakes. He is waiting for a happy ending. God is the eternal optimist! “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

The Bible is the one book with no ending, and we are all part of the story. God must not like for things to end either. He never meant for endings at all, only life ever after with Him. Open God’s book today. It will speak to you in the silence.

Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it,
except sitting in a corner by myself with a little book.
~ Thomas ã Kempis

Eternity in our hearts

Stairway at Butchart Gardens

Living with eternity always in mind changes our perspective on everything else that happens in this life. This is the great challenge, to keep this fixed always in the backdrop of our hearts and minds. In this way, nothing can totally devastate us as it would if we didn’t have this hope.

Everything around us, however difficult or bleak the circumstance may be, continues to be colored with this one idea, this one thought. This is not all there is….. Sometimes we feel as if we have one foot in this world and one in the next and we feel the weight of it when life gets to be too much. Some would say that living like that would taint this life, as someone who goes around with one ear closed, half paying attention to everything around them, but really it turns the volume up. Everything somehow seems more brilliant, more vibrant and alive, like a deaf or blind person who has just got their senses for the first time.

Paul felt the weight of eternity too……

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; Philippians 1:21-23

There is no going around it. We will constantly seek more in this life, because we know instinctively that there is more….He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

What do you think? Does knowing we have eternity make you sometimes want to give up on this life? Or does it make it easier to go on?

One Thing…..


This was on the Daily Devotional yesterday and I had to share it. In very few words he puts everything in perspective. Nothing to add here…..
Making the Right Choice
By Max Lucado

“Everyone must die once and be judged.” Hebrews 9:27

Eternity is to be taken seriously. A judgement is coming.

Our task on earth is singular—to choose our eternal home. You can afford many wrong choices in life. You can choose the wrong career and survive, the wrong city and survive, the wrong house and survive. You can even choose the wrong mate and survive. But there is one choice that must be made correctly and that is your eternal destiny.

Encouragement from Paul

Painting by Richard Serrin
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Col. 3:1-4

I can see Paul with his parchments in this cold, dank prison cell. Praying for his church. Praying for us all. This gives me encouragement today, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” people we may not even be aware of….praying for us, for the race, and at last the finish line…..”let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1

May you be surrounded by the peace of Jesus today….

To see more of the artwork of Richard Serrin go here.

Place of welcome…..


Mom and Dad’s Porch

My Dad’s lifelong dream was to have a cabin. He never got it, so he figured he would make their house in town as close to one as possible. He still dreams of walking out and hearing nothing but the wind sighing through the pines. And yet this place has become something very important to so many people in the neighborhood. My Mom insisted on putting a picnic table in front years ago, so that she could sit outside and greet others passing by who could stop and rest, sit a spell, bring their lunch. They are still doing that these many years later.

This has been my childhood home ever since about age 4. Always it’s been a place of refuge and welcome, not only for me and the rest of the family but many friends as well. Their door is always open, and if I were locked out I know where the extra key is hidden. There are many other doors I could knock on in my hometown and I know that I would be ushered in out of the cold, offered a drink, a homemade dessert, a hug or welcome smile. How rich, how blessed I am, to have these all, in addition to my own safe harbor in Arizona.

It makes me wonder, to marvel, to shudder at the thought that there are those who have no place of welcome. No place of attachment, no place that says, “You are safe here, you are loved here, you are wanted here.” How can it be that I have never known that feeling and yet so many others have never known any different?

I think of Haiti and other parts of the world, and not only there, but right here in my own town! No place of refuge, no open door. No fresh brewed cup offered from a kind hand, no favorite mug….

Making people feel welcome is a gift we can give at any time. It may come in a form as simple as a smile at the store, for we never know what burdens another is carrying, what trials they face.

So today and every day I hope to get better at that.

Prayer for today:

Lord may I always remember that though you had no place to lay Your own head, you made me welcome forever by coming into my heart and making your home with me. May I remember always those who have given me that gift, made me feel welcome. Help me in turn to welcome others. Most of all, help me to share the gift of You; for in You I have all the home I ever need.

Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Matthew 8:20