From My Heart...




When life settles down just a little bit, and I can quiet myself and actually think of all that God is, as I know Him, I am overwhelmed. Seldom is life quiet. There are many demands placed on us, daily, either by others, or ourselves. But I know I have to find a quiet place every day, sometimes very early in the morning when the only sound is the sprinkler system outside, the breeze in the trees, or the birds waking up. Or later at night when the rest of the world is tucked in, and I gaze up at the starry sky and stand in awe at God’s handiwork. I realize there are galaxies that I can’t see, that I don’t even know about, spinning all around just as they were made to do from the beginning of time.

“He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name.” (Amos 5:8). The ocean astounds me. There is no wave like another, loudly crashing onto the shore. It roars God’s voice as I listen. I hear Him speaking in the thunder, from the beginning gentle rumbling to the mighty crack when the storm is just overhead.

One of my favorite scriptures describing this power is found in Job 37… “At this my heart pounds and leaps from its place. Listen! Listen to the roar of His voice, to the rumbling that comes from His mouth. He unleashes His lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth. After that comes the sound of His roar; He thunders with His majestic voice. When His voice resounds, He holds nothing back. God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things beyond our understanding.” (v. 1-5). I guess this is why I enjoy thunderstorms so much. I’ve always seen them as unquestionable evidence of God’s power.

But then there is a gentler side of our loving heavenly Father that is just as overwhelming to me, mostly because of the knowledge that I don’t deserve it ~ His mercy, His grace, His undying and immeasurable love for me. The intensity of the Cross and the weight of the sin of the world, mine included, was heaped upon Him. He took it. Such a demonstration of love as this has never been seen. And it is ours. It is mine, for the taking. He is so generous and extravagant in His gifting of this pure love. He surrounds us with His protection, His healing, His guidance. He’s a patient Teacher, a loving and correcting Parent. He wants to give us the desires of our hearts, but He wants our desires to be His, those that will bring glory to His name.

There is no other God like Him in all the world. “I am the Lord and there is no other; apart from Me, there is no God.” (Isaiah 45:5). “He is the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 146:6). From the gentle butterfly and trickling creek, to the huge rhino and elephant; from the tiny hummingbird to the majestic eagle; laughter and tears, hunger and contentment ~ He made it all, and I am overwhelmed each time I think of His glory. “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing has been made that has been made.” (John 1:3).
From my heart, Jeanne Stone Helstrom