It's the Gospel Truth

Almost five years ago I experienced some sort of a spiritual renewal one very dark night while wrestling with a functioning addiction to alcohol that was causing all kinds of mayhem to work itself out into my life, poisoning every area.

In an act of radical grace in my rebellion, God rescued his prodigal lamb. For months afterward I asked God what in the world he did to me because I could not figure it out, how I could change like that. Several elder saints in the Lord who visited the farm lovingly counseled me that I had experienced a spiritual awakening. God was answering my prayer; he delivered me. 

Another prayer I prayed to God was that I wanted to know the truth. Through my life I had attended many different denominations, and although they all believed the core doctrines of the Christian faith, they were all across the board on the secondary issues. "I am confused," I prayed, "Please show me the truth." 

Since that day, I have been on a spiritual rollercoaster with many highs and many lows as I've emerged myself into theological lectures and classes, and buried my nose in commentaries and doctrinal treatises, engaging in much passionate canonical discourse. I've deconstructed from false teachings embedded in my belief system, been perplexed as I poured over Arminian free-will arguments, and spent considerable time in the "cage-stage" of Calvinism. 

Theologian Micheal Horton explains, "Whenever someone has invested considerable time and energy, especially on a subject that has altered their lives, passion can boil over into fanaticism." 

Many times I've had to beg the Lord to take away this simmering pride and subdue the monster inside of me clamoring for more knowledge and doctrine so I can win the argument. Another prayer answered as he began to humble me in the midst of the most beautiful thing possible, the only possible thing to replace this angst - the thing angels long to look into. ( 1 Peter 1:12 ) 

The gospel. 

Inside my heart I heard God speak, "When you wanted to know the truth, you meant doctrine, but I meant my Son." 

My pastor once quoted from the pulpit, "Better to be at home with your Bible and not your theology than to be at home with your theology and not your Bible." Isn't that the gospel truth? We must be aware continuously of forcing our theology to fit into the Scriptures. 

Read the text and let it speak for itself. Let the tension remain and meditate on it. The Holy Spirit will guide us. He will teach us Jesus promised. And get into a gospel-centered Bible study with fellow believers. Commit your study always to the Lord in prayer, and he will open your mind to understand it. Pray that we may handle the Word with fear and trembling and rightly divide it. ( Luke 24:35, 2 Timothy 2:15 ) 

This is the best advice I can give. 

Sanctification is the journey, not the destination. I thank God profusely that he has not allowed me to become clogged up and lodged in the theological quagmire I've thankfully passed through, although it has benefited the process greatly. Some things have stuck while others dropped off as I cycled through. 

I realize now that what happened that night was that the gospel of Jesus Christ that had been in my head on an academic level only, had finally made the pilgrimage down into my heart. 

For most of my life if someone had asked me to explain the gospel, I would have embarrassed myself to no end. The elements of it were tucked away in my intellect, but they always came out of my mouth sounding mechanical. The reason is because they were never in my heart. I had never experienced the gospel for myself. I had never tasted that the Lord is good. I had never bitten into the sweet honey of grace, that's for sure. 

Christianity was a religion to me. I had to measure up, follow the rules, so I could be saved. And then there was the ever exhausting task of keeping myself saved. No wonder I was a mess. 

In a recent blog post I made the statement that we need to first tell people the bad news of the gospel before we can share the good news of the gospel with them. I was wrong. Really wrong.

The Bible narrative which is the story of God is not bad then good, it is actually good, then bad, then good again. 

Good, bad, good.   

God made everything good. He said so. Our first parents were given a choice and they sinned in the Garden of Eden when they did not obey God, thinking they knew better. This sin tainted the rest of humankind, that's the bad news: We're born sinners. 

But God had a plan.

God can have mercy on us for one reason: He did not have mercy on his Son. 

Think about that. That's what Jesus has done for us. "....while we were sinners, Christ died for us." ( Romans 5:8 ) That's the gospel. The things that these angelic heavenly beings who dwell in the holiness and presence of God long to look into. 

Do we? 

God made a covenant that terrible day in Eden with Adam and Eve that he had a plan to redeem and restore creation, including his people by sending his Son to bear our iniquity for us, rising from the grave on the third day. Our Redeemer lives. That's the good news. That's the complete gospel. 

If we let the gospel overwhelm our hearts, if we make the gospel truth the thing we meditate upon and not our theology, it will work itself out into every area of our lives and begin to change everything, including our theology. 

It will melt our hearts. 💜

"I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." ( Romans 1:16 ) 

"If I.... understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." ( 1 Corinthians 13 ) 

Nothing satisfies like the Pure Milk of the Word 

"Shadowlands"

That year I didn't know if we would celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary together, let alone make it to our 40th. I remember standing by the Farmer's bedside after he was admitted to the hospital with chest pains wondering if I was about to become a young widow. 

He was hooked up to numerous monitors and devices, and I was attempting to soak it all in while listening to a doctor inform me that my husband, age 35, had suffered a heart attack. He was being prepped for a procedure, a procedure at that time I had never heard of, but one that would become quite familiar to us in the following years. I remember our two teenage sons standing on either side of me. Johnny was wearing long, khaki shorts with a favorite band t-shirt, and he had on a pair of Converse sneakers. Josh was wearing his baseball uniform. 

Unpredictable. That's my first word. 

Life is unpredictable. 

A man goes through the fire of multiple heart procedures and surgeries, including open heart, the removal of part of his colon, life threatening illnesses and conditions, one after another, near fatal accidents, one involving a dirt bike and a ruptured spleen and almost bleeding out, and somehow, so far, this man emerges from all of the trauma alive and well. 

In spite of the harrowing circumstances it has been subjected to, the Farmer's heart continues to fiercely beat like a war drum always prepared for battle. 

I have to admit I've grown to love that bull-headed heart. 

Maybe one can assume the ending of a bad movie, but certainly not the details, events, or outcome of one's life here inside the complexity of God's universe and his economy. A sick person lives. A healthy person dies. 

D.A. Hubbard said concerning the wisdom literature of the Bible, "Proverbs seems to say, 'Here are the rules for life try them and find that they will work.' Job and Ecclesiastes say, 'We did and they don't.'" 

This quote backs up our lives, doesn't it? The reality guards us from ever thinking if only we could find the magical, biblical formula, we could then receive this good thing. Possibly, but not always. You never know. In order to gain God's wisdom for life, we must read all three books and allow the tension of paradox to transform our thinking because God's wisdom along with his purposes are as nuanced and mysterious as his creative power. 

If we can catch a glimpse of this anomaly and allow the truth to take hold, the bold beauty will begin to redefine our lives causing us to truly live for the glory of the God who created us and who we can not tame.  

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." Ecclesiastes 3:11

At first, I kicked and rebelled against the unpredictability of life. I didn't want to have to live that way, not ever knowing what was going to happen, angry that God wouldn't give me a guarantee like it seemed others had when I was still so young. 

But the unpredictability forced me to trust God and not the Farmer. 

Slowly I began to realize that we all live in the dark, unpredictable recesses of the Shadowlands, whether we accept it or not, a capricious kingdom where we are handed an irregular shape, a contorted silhouette of sorts, but never the full panorama. 

And unpredictability always invites suffering to the party with it because suffering has the stark ability to begin to uncover the frailty and neediness hidden within the shadows of our heart. 

Suffering is my second word. 

The fact that we've encountered so much suffering never knowing the outcome surprisingly didn't build a life for us of walking around on pins and needles or sinking into quicksand, but one forged on the trust of a God who loved us so much he would send his Son to bear our sins in his own suffering. That is where our faith arose, out of Christ's suffering, not a formula.  

I love how Dorothy Sayers put it:

“For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is— limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.”

And God isn't allowing anything to move into our lives and set up shop that would keep us from becoming like that Man. The God Man. When I realized this truth I began to see how much God really did love us. And I began to love him back.  

Suffering can defeat pride and stir up humility because our weaknesses and our pain cause us to lean on our Father and depend on him. And he knows that's the only environment we can flourish within. Life outside of God isn't true life; it's just existence. 

He took away our false notions of predictability and prideful self-reliance at an early stage in our marriage, allowing us to feel like we were free falling towards the earth every single moment. It continues to make us who we are because it continues to make us rely on his grace every single second.  

Unpredictability and suffering do not live in comfy, luxurious dwellings; they live on the precarious cliffs and rocky edges of high places that always compel our eyes to look upward, focused on the summit above us as he secures our footing below us. 

In the sanctification process, if are we are becoming adept and determined mountain climbers, we're on the right track. 

I don't understand how it all works, and I want to be careful because some suffering in this world is nothing short of horrible. Some suffering is immense and dark and hopelessly painful. The Farmer has seen and experienced this here, but heart-wrenchingly more so in his travels overseas. Seeing human suffering on that deep level he admits, "has changed me and messed me up, but as hard as it has been, it's been for the better."

When we share in someone else's suffering, we are becoming like Jesus. When one spouse suffers, the other does too. God uses them both for his glory. 

Wherever we encounter suffering as disciples of Jesus we must run with the pain, outrage, and questions to our Father, as Peter said after listening to the difficult words of Jesus, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God." ( John 6:68-69 ) 

Who else can we run to when suffering has knocked the breath of life out of us?  

If there's no God and mankind just evolved somehow from nothingness or primordial soup then there is no point to suffering or purpose in it. Why bother asking why it exists? It's just here by accident. It's random, no one's fault. But if there is a God, then suffering has a purpose and an explanation behind it whether we see it in this life or not. 

"And so we will keep climbing, Saint Peter." 

I've learned that suffering, somehow someway, gives us a glimpse of the glory of God that we could not see otherwise. But we have to remain steadfast in the Lord in order for suffering to do its work. I believe this because I've lived this. 

Unpredictability and suffering have the potential to paralyze us with fear or to persuade us to live in the moment, but even more than that, they can empower us to live 'for' the moment, the moment when we will stand before our heavenly Father after using every "talent" he has equipped us with in this broken world as good stewards. 

Especially the talents no one in their right minds would ever refer to as gifts or talents, but the only ones that enable us to be like Jesus. We share in his glory and his suffering. ( Romans 8:17-18 ) 

And we will live for the moment when we can finally say farewell to these thorns and thistles east of Eden and enter the glorious Kingdom of our Heavenly Father where Jesus will wipe away every tear and make all things new. Where we will truly come to life in a resplendent shade of glory we can only image now here in the Shadowlands. ( Revelation 21 )

I understand that we can't know all God is doing in our lives. Even still, while the Farmer and I were traveling to visit family on our special 40th this month, we speculated on what we would be like today if we had not endure the suffering we've encountered in our married life together, and it wasn't a pretty picture, even if it was painfully predictable.  

Soli Deo Gloria 💜

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." ( John 3:16 ) 

"Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own." ( Philippians 3:12 )

The Power of Beauty

"One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple." ( Psalm 27:4 )

The Farmer rotated his humble herd this past week into the lower pasture. Since this field doesn't have access to a water source, I fill up a couple of those big, sturdy rubber tubs sold at a local farm store with an extended garden hose connected to a nozzle at the well pump in the upper field. 

Yesterday when I went to check the cow's water supply I felt bad because I had let it get empty. Cows can really go through water in this heat! The cows, resting in the shade of a nearby oasis of locust trees, remained in their reposeful positions except for the Farmer's bull. He stood and began to approach slowly understanding my present chore.  

When the cool, fresh water began to cascade from the hose and into the main tub, the bull drew closer. I lifted the hose occasionally and sprayed him off a bit. The steam lifted from his smooth black fur in the midst of the liquid droplets dancing in the air. 

I admired his strength.  

The Farmer had brought him home from another farm in our area almost two years prior as a young bull calf with good breeding potential. He had since sired several nice, brawny calfs, honestly, too well. He seemed to be a gentle soul of a bull. I had not known him to be raucous or aggressive. 

But today, waiting in the unrelenting, late summer heat as the sun poured out full throttle, standing still for more than a few minutes, I realized that his majesty had snuck up on me. 

His sleek, ebony hide stretched amply across a mass of healthy, protruding shoulder muscles. I noticed that his head, once small, barely rising above the overgrown stick weed in the pasture, was now wide and most prominent as he turned it gradually toward the fresh supply of water before him. His long, thick tail continued to take occasional swipes at the annoying swarm of flies buzzing above him. He swallowed huge gulps of water from the tub, and then lifted his massive head to take a breath. 

At once I seemed to come to my senses, and a chill ran from the top of my ball cap to the bottom of my dirty tennis shoes. The reality of the two feet of empty space between us with my only defense being a flimsy garden hose had sunk into my brain. I backed up gently and let myself out of the gate putting the electric fence between us while allowing the water hose to continue flowing into the tubs above the fence, replenishing the gallons of water he had inhaled.   

I had permitted myself to be enthralled in his beauty, becoming unaware of anything else around me.  

It registered with me as I finished filling the troughs that this captivation can be good or bad. Bad when we become so enamored with something in this world that we lose sight of reality and everything else around us. Even good things can become idols. 

However, when we are captivated with the transcendent beauty of Jesus, paradoxically, it actually awakens our senses to the world around us, to the suffering and to the grace. Reordering our loves, as Augustine taught, will cause us to love everyone and everything else in our lives much better. We also develop grace to endure the processes that enable those changes to occur.  

I never understood the beauty of Jesus because I never understood salvation; I thought I did. Once I held still long enough to gaze over and into the Scriptures, his beauty became real to me; I became better at pointing others toward it. I wasn't as intimidated anymore because I had experienced it for myself. 

We must never stop praying for God to open our eyes and stop our wayward feet from wandering away into the things of this world from the beauty of Christ before us, to secure deep inside of us a desire to fix our gaze on him. 

The beauty of Jesus opens our eyes to see the beauty in his creation, to see the budding, awkward calf mature into the handsome, majestic bull. And to delight in it. His beauty gives us the ability to see through the brokenness, and to rejoice at the hope of one day seeing creation restored, imaging the resplendency of the world to come. 

More importantly, the knowledge of his beauty, his love and sacrifice, the emptying of himself for us, empowers us to see ourselves and others growing from immaturity and pride into wisdom and humility. To see the Bride one fine day robed in her future glory. The beauty of Jesus invites unity in her. 

When we come to our senses as disciples of Jesus mesmerized in the majesty, beauty, and holiness of the resurrected Christ, against the backdrop of broken humanity, that is not just before us, but has come to live in us, if this merciful, gracious truth awakens a sudden, holy fear in our souls, we know we are on the right track.  

Starlight and her young bull calf from the Farmer's bull 

Laying down the Law

Have you seen that meme where the man is standing there all dressed up in a suit, clean-cut with a smile on his face, and the caption reads something like, "Me in my Bible Reading Plan," and sneaking up behind him is this monster-looking ogre with the name "Leviticus?" 

That captures the moment, doesn't it? Right now I'm in Leviticus in my daily reading plan, and I've been jotting down notes and questions in my journal, especially today because I'm at the part where God is explaining the importance of blood and sacrifice. Leviticus is the law. Without the law, we would not know what sin is. Jesus expounded on the law all through the gospels. He said that he came not to do away with the law, but to fulfill it. Paul tells us in Galatians and Romans that the law was needed for this purpose, to know sin. It was put in place until the promise was fulfilled. 

I know this may seem reductionistic because there is so much that can and has been written on the subject. I'm just sharing my thoughts from reading it, and I pray more importantly that they are God's thoughts and words to us. 

As I've come to understand more of that promise, the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 15, my love for God has grown deeply. When Abraham falls into a sound sleep and God walks through those divided animal parts himself, he is saying in essence, "You all will fail to keep your part of this covenant and obey the law. When you do, I will become like these animals. I will be cut to pieces for you. I will uphold your part of the bargain because you could never fulfill it." 

That is the most powerful and beautiful thing in the entire Bible because that IS the Bible, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I told the Farmer the closer I get to God, the more sinful I feel. He agreed. This is not a bad thing if you feel this way. This indicates that we are beginning to embrace and understand a speck of the holiness of God and how desperately we need him. 

We also at the same time become more thankful for the forgiveness of our sins because we better grasp the price Jesus paid for our lives. We are finally fulfilled ourselves after our search for wholeness as we begin to understand his amazing grace, and it moves us to tears. It is a knowledge of this grace that moves us to serve others for all God has done for us. We want the same for them. 

One day God will complete that promise, and we will be made like Jesus the Bible tells us, "holy and blameless." ( Ephesians 1:4 ) This is glorification. ( Romans 8:29-30 ) 

Leviticus reminds me that I'm still a long way from comprehending the holiness of God, and at the same time, it encourages me to keep seeking after it. 

And that Jesus made a way for me to do so. 💜

Pretty young doe feeding with the cattle

T.G.I.M.

There's this saying in the farming community that one day of the week is no different from another; probably because animals aren't too keen on fasting over the weekend. And anyway if there's going to be an emergency, say like the cows busting free from their field, trust me on this, it will definitely transpire on the weekend or a holiday or the morning of your nephew's wedding. 

Farmers know Monday to be the same as Friday. 

As Christians, since mankind was created in a Garden, I believe we are all farmers at heart; I also believe this should be our attitude toward Mondays. We should look forward to them. Monday should be like a clean sheet of notebook paper for a Christian, ready for us to write our stories into the stories around us. 

"Eternal life does not begin when Christ returns; eternal life begins today as the Holy Spirit brings that life to us through the gospel, the power of God unto salvation." (1) 

On Sunday mornings when we sit in our pews hearing the gospel,"We are not just listening to a religious lecture. The greatest power in all the world is at work bringing new life to sinners, heaven is coming to earth, a glorious "not yet" is breaking into the "here and now." (1) 

After our Sunday experience of worship and learning with our church family, Monday is the "not yet, but here and now" when we begin to put some flesh on our faith. 

"For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." ( Ephesians 2:10 ) 

What we see here is that God works, and his work is good. He said so himself in Genesis. What we also see in Genesis is that God created us to work before the fall. Work was originally designed to be good, but once sin entered into the world through the disobedience of our first parents, it became full of thorns and thistles. Work is hard now, but it wasn't supposed to be in the beginning. 

God prepared work for us to do. We are not saved by good works, but for good works. This should change our whole perspective on work. 

First as God's dearly beloved children, we should thank God for our employment. We should see work as a gift. Even if we are in a temporary position, it is still for such a time as this. Who knows what God is doing? Nothing is arbitrary with our Lord. 

Second, no work is beneath us when we remember we are doing it for the glory of God and because he has called us to it. All work is meaningful. 

Whether I'm changing Meadow's diaper, raking up sheep poop, or figuring up farm receipts at my desk, I've learned to view the work as good and as unto the Lord for his glory, and this has radically changed the way I perform my tasks. I recently heard a Bible teacher say that even in the morning when we comb our hair, we are bringing order out of chaos. I love that. 

As God's sons and daughters in his kingdom as we go about our work week, we are helping to establish order and create an environment for flourishing so others can behold the glory of God. 

It's not so much the work we do as it is our attitude towards the work we do. In this particular season of life where we find ourselves, in the workforce, in between jobs, working from home, retired, or unable to work for various reasons, we are always employed by our heavenly Father. 

I believe work can be divided into "visible" work and "invisible" work, similar to how Augustine proposed the idea of the visible and invisible church. All of us, might not be in the visible workforce, but as Christians we are all in the invisible work of our Lord. I'll have to think about this some more. 

At any rate, God allows unforeseen work circumstances to crop up and turbulent environments to endure, but there is always a method in the seeming madness of it all. It's true that God does certainly work in mysterious ways, but only from our perspective, never his. How God's sovereignty and human responsibility work together is a paradox to us, but not to him. Our work is to keep working for his glory. 

Just this morning my farming friend Ava called me while I was working on this blog, and we began talking about all of the rookie farming blunders we've made and then discussing how important it is to learn from all of our mistakes out on the land. She encouraged me with another farming motto:"When I know better, I do better." 

When I know Monday counts as much as Friday, I do better. I'm in the right work space.  

Thank God it's Monday, Friends! 

Happy Labor Day! 💚

(1) The New City Catechism Devotional; pg. 155, Mika Edmondson

Lion of Judah, Our Living Hope

"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and a little child shall lead them." ( Isaiah 11:6 ) 

Last blog post I shared my two favorite Atlas stories, and today I want to write a really great one about the grandson Atlas left behind. After the lovable behemoth was airlifted over the rainbow bridge, he was still taking care of me. Bless that gentle giant heart of his. 

In January of 2022 during a snowstorm, and unlike Great Pyrenees, I don't do well with snowstorms, but during that one, a bright ray of sunshine came bursting through the inclement weather when I found out that Atlas's daughter Duchess was about to deliver a litter of puppies at her family's farm near Winston-Salem. I didn't even know she was pregnant. In fact, I thought her human mama had had her spayed. 

Without saying what he was really saying, the Farmer said, "You need to get a boy pup from her so Atlas can get him trained." There was no arm twisting involved. 

From the beginning the Farmer called our new puppy "Pups," but I named him "Aslan" after C.S. Lewis's lion king, the Jesus figure in his Chronicles of Narnia series. 

The Farmer often times looks at Aslan and asks that famous question from the second book, "Are you safe, Pups?" I follow up with Mr. Beaver's excited responds,"Safe? Who said anything about safe. Of course, he isn't safe, but he's good." We really get into Narnia. 

Atlas did a great job with Aslan. He guards me and his food bowl like nobody's business. When I do chores in the morning, Aslan comes with me and waits while I work. After entering the first sheep field, Skipper, who is Atlas's granddaughter with Nicky, approaches Aslan immediately because this is her field. She tolerates Aslan's presence, but not before she subdues him, standing up and placing both of her front paws on his back reminding him just whose field it is. She runs a tight ship, and that big goof ball better mind his manners. He's no king to Skipper, more like a court jester. 

Aslan is bigger than Skipper now, no matter, she still pulls rank when he enters her field. He stands there in humiliation during the interrogation process until she gives him his clearance and access to her field. 

Sometimes I still keep Aslan on a leash when we walk outside of the fenced in areas since he hasn't quite earned his stripes yet. The girls tend to mature quicker than the boys in this working class breed. 

One morning a couple of weeks ago before we headed to the barn, I noticed as I was filling up the duck's swimming pools and finishing up with the cows that I hadn't seen Aslan for more than a few minutes. Usually he's right beside me chomping at the bit to get moving or wrestling in the red clay with Shasta his cousin and guarding partner. 

I was worried he had left without me because I was taking too long. The sheep fields are at the back of our property, and we walk around the front field by the road where the cows graze and maybe a quarter of a mile back. 

Suddenly when I went to check down the driveway, I heard the sound of multiple hooves running toward me. I picked up the pace as I came around the curve at the top of the gravel and here comes half the sheep stampeding up with Aslan behind. 

Come to find out the Farmer didn't secure the gate the night before where this particular flock was feeding. No telling where the sheep had been, but Aslan heard them when I had not. Clearly, he had gone after the flock and kept them from going down the road or across the street to the neighbor's pasture and herded them up the driveway and straight to me. 

When I told the Farmer what happened he said, "It looks like Pups just earned his stripes." Great Pyrenees are strictly guardians, but Aslan did the breed one better that morning. I didn't even know the sheep were out. Skipper will have to adjust her opinion of him now. 

I was so proud of Aslan; I hugged him and praised him over and above. When I put the sheep into the cow field for the time being, Aslan went in too and sat with them. It was so sweet. He knew he was the hero. Atlas did a great job with that boy. 

I don't want to give the impression that everyday life always turns out perfectly with a happily ever after ending on our farm. Not even. But every so often, God gives us a glimpse of the life to come through his creatures and his creation. If we will only have eyes to see and ears to hear, creation whispers the name of her Creator, the name of Jesus. We have to slow down and listen. We have to be intentional. 

That morning God reminded me in the ordinary, mundane working of chores and in the brokenness of life that Hope is glimmering on the horizon waiting to explode into unspeakable joy at the Lord's return. One day when we hear his voice, Jesus will come find God's children and shepherd his lambs home, up the driveway to Heaven. 

Aslan reminded me to never forget our Living Hope. 

Pups didn't just earn his stripes that morning, my King Aslan gained his crown. 👑🐾🐑

Everyone please have a safe and a good Labor Day Weekend!