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"Landscape.  Watercolor by San Cheang after Royland Roycroft"

 
Sitting on the steps, I look at what seems to me to be a jungle of trees and bushes wrapped in and out and within each other.  It looks so confused. “Oh Lord,” I pray, “what a mess, but oh how beautiful. Because even in that ‘mess’ I see Your glory, I see Your beauty;  I see You, still birthing something new, different and wonderful.

The Lord answered, “This is you and your life.  You may say or think that your life is full of loose ends, incompleteness, and a bunch of starts but no finish.  But I am the master painter, and you do not see the model that I go by.  You see loose ends, but they are just the beginnings of what I am doing.  You see incompleteness, but these are streams birthing out of My fountain, the fountain that never runs dry, for they reach and connect to other streams, rivers, lakes and oceans.  So why would they be complete?  Why would I damn up the stream that I dug deep to build?  That I poured my living water into?  Yes it may appear incomplete, a mess and whatever else others would say, but remember, you are seeing through smeared glass.”  

The Lord continued, “What you now partially see, when I am through, you will fully see the beauty in what I have always seen, from day one, yet even before there was a day to be called ‘day one’.  Look at that tree, do you see how tall it is?  Did you know the roots of that tree go deeper?”  I answered, “No Lord, I did not know; and yes Lord, the tree is tall and even some of it’s tip is hidden from me.”

The Lord said, “In My hands, yea even on My finger that tree is half the size of the smallest splinter on your finger.  It’s the same as the problems you face.  When you look at them in your hand, yes I know they look mighty and overwhelming.  But when you look at them in My hand, it is the tiniest splinter, cut in two.  It is easy for Me to pluck out, to remove.  Life is like nature, problems are like nature.”

I asked, “How Lord are problems like nature?  I can see how life is like nature, how we revolve and evolve as plants, trees and animals, but how are problems like nature?”

He said, “Because they hold the same principles as nature.  Nature is given life, nature is birthed, created.  And when nature has served “My” purpose, then it dies.  Do you understand?”  I answered, “No Lord, I am afraid I do not.”  The Lord said, “Everything that you have been through has not been for this moment, but for many more moments like this to come.  The problems were created, whether by you or someone else, but I orchestrated the problem to serve not the original person’s plan, which is the devil, but to serve My purpose, which is to bring New Life.  Just as a forest fire is created, instead of the fire serving Satan’s purpose, which is to destroy, I orchestrate the fire  to bring new life that otherwise would not have been, to allow the old to die off, for the new to come forth.  The same is so with the problems you face in the trials.  I do not birth all of the trials; some are created through manipulation of the flesh.  But I do orchestrate them in order to burn off the old, so the new can come forth; so life can spring forth, not life as you see it, but life as I have designed it shall be.  For I am forever creating and forever orchestrating, not for man’s purpose, but for My purpose.”

I asked, “Lord, why is it that you have never shared these wonderful, awesome, peaceful thoughts with me before?”  The Lord answered, “Because you never stay in my presence long enough for Me to speak.  Yes, you sit in My presence, yes, you come before Me with prayers, worship and intersession, which is My word.  But I also desire to share My plans, My thoughts with you.  You have never come into My presence for ME to share.  So when you come into My presence to share, I listen as a good father would, but before I have a time to share back, to reflect back to you what you have just shared, you have left My presence.  And each time it has been the same.  I too desire to not only share My plans with you, but My perspective about what you are facing and will be facing.  Why?  So your heart would not be troubled and fear would have no place.  You receive comfort when you see things from My perspective.

While sitting in a swing, The Lord said, “Look down at your feet.  Do you see those ants rustling about?  If you only see from one perspective it looks like they are in some kind of panic.  This is what My children do.  They go here and there in such a fright, in such a panic.  Instead of being still, not knowing that I am - not just God - but I am their father, protector, husband, wife, lover, friend, that I am whatever they need.  Yes, even their provider—I AM.