Heaven-turned Eyes

Our neighborhood hawks hang in the air, tails twitching as they play in the headwind. With a slight flex of wings, they're carried back across the sky. Over and over, they dance above our lunch table, entertaining heavenward eyes. A cliche in the blogging world, but no less majestic.

Big one watches them, forgetting the food on her plate. {Small one's not sure what we're going on about.}

We practice our made-up catechism, the questions we recite to help overcome a fear of F22 flyovers:

Where does the bird {plane} fly?


   In the sky


Who's coming back in the sky?


   Jesus


When's he coming back?


   Any time! 

She throws her hands in the air, expecting a party when Jesus "comes in the sky". She's not old enough yet to worry that Jesus will bring the end of the world, and she might never get married, have her own grown up life, etc... thoughts that stole my joy for the return of the king for many years.

Sometimes time ruins perspective.

Maybe that's what Jesus meant when he said:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26 ESV

   or another way...

If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison--your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even your own life. Otherwise you cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26 NLT

Fear is born in misplaced love. Worshipping joys in this life more than those in the life to come. Valuing, however unintentionally, God's gifts over God's will.

What was it Jim Elliot said:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Childlike faith trusts the imperishable gain, giving rise to reckless hope and heaven-turned eyes.

Rejoicing in the Upswing

Another mother-daughter weekend. Spring is time for school vacations and youth trips. And time for we girls to play together, bond over something besides household chores.

So, we visited the park. Situated under a stand of pines, we climbed and swung in a green fog {could account for the stuffy sinuses and sore throats}.

 Unsure of the swing at first...

 One big push later, exaltation in anti-gravity

The drama of the swing's fall makes the upturn that much more joyous. Our hearts the same. 

If you sin is small, your savior must be small also. But if you're sin is great, your savior must be great. 
~Charles H. Spurgeon

Our hearts are preparing this sacred week. Searching the soul to expose the depth of our fall, so that we might rejoice in the unimaginable height of His glorious grace. 

We Win!

My feet cannot stay still; my eyes snatch glances skyward; my heart leaps. I am Narnia seeing a crocus poke through snow. He's coming... The King is coming... Not as a helpless baby this time. No. As the One to whom every knee will bow. He already won. Can you feel it?

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

Nothing gives me more hope than the thought of Jesus seated at the right hand of God. The ultimate good, Christ's exaltation, came from the ultimate bad, his crucifixion. I find no words. How beautiful is the will of the Lord.