Sometimes you don't have to go very far to be on vacation.  I had two out of town trips planned that had to be put on hold.  But today I was carried away from decisions and responsibilities for a few hours while kayaking on Lake Zorinsky.  Even though it's only a few miles from home, it was as energizing as a mountain climb or a walk on a beach..  My heart is filled with gratefulness that I was able to get in and out of the kayak with ease.

God added his special touch to the afternoon.  He is a God that delights to delight us.  As I came out of the marshes, there were two herons on the sandbar.  One stayed put so I could get a few pictures of the moment.  What a glorious vacation!  What a glorious creator!

I haven't gone camping for quite some time but love taking day trips to nearby lakes and surround myself with the camping atmosphere.  Tents are the 'home away from home' dwellings that allow us  to enjoy the joy of creation, friends and family.

Tents are important to a camping trip and do need our attention if there are rips, holes or leaks. However the camping trip is not about the tent. It would be silly to spend time obsessing about a tent and miss out on hikes, campfires, and other experiences.

2 Corinthians 5:4 compares our earthly bodies to tents and reminds us that while we are on this side of heaven there will be groanings and burdens.  It's not a promise that we like to meditate on but it's one that we all experience.

 In the season I am in, I have had to give more attention to the holes and rips in my tent than I would like.  It's hard to keep my tent from becoming my focus and identity. Doctors and nurses talk about my tent.  The people I love and who love me are concerned about my tent.  I wake up each morning to the reality that my tent has holes in it.  But it's just the tent.  It's what the real me is housed in for this flash in time.

 The end of the 2 Corinthians verse talks about the promise of our eternal home- a permanent home without holes and rips that has an all loving Father.  We can only imagine and then it will still come far short of what is being prepared for us.  Thank you Jesus!

So for this flash of time in my tent,  I choose to enjoy the Creator. my friends, family and take the opportunities He gives me here to live life for Him.  I won't neglect my tent, but it won't be my focus.  It's not the real me.

At the end of last school year I brought home two small flowers that were left over from a banquet.  I unloaded the car and threw the flowers on a table in the garage.  Several days later, the single blooms were wilted from neglect. My hope for their revival was small and I thought of throwing them in the trash.  However, that small bit of hope caused me to find a pot and soil to give them a chance at life. The two scrawny blooms were dwarfed by the container I put them in. I didn't have much faith that much would ever come from such small beginnings.  

'O Ye of Little Faith'.

 As I left the house the other day, I paused in awe at the change that had occurred. It's now over a month later and two wilted plants have turned into a plethora of blooms.  Abundance from what looked like little.  I love to see God's lessons in the natural.  Jesus taught us about the small mustard seed.  It's barely visible on a fingertip yet grows into a  15 foot tree.  Such hope and potential in what first appeared lifeless and insignificant.

God over and over takes the little and creates His miracles.  He wants us to see the potential in the little.  He takes great delight in showing us His greatness. When we feel like a wilted plant or that small mustard seed, God knows the plethora of  blooms that is possible if we Trust and take Him at His Word.  He is Hope, He is the Miracle Worker, He is Abundance, His Is God.  We just Trust, Dwell and Believe.