July Twenty Fifteen

July 2015 

Live each day like a child digging through a treasure chest, rifling for the next discovery.  Open your arms and your eyes to the God who stands in plain sight and works miracles in your midst.  Look for him in your workdays and weekends, in your meeting-filled Mondays and your lazy Saturdays. Search for him in the snowy sunsets and Sabbaths, seasons of Lent and sitting at your table. Pray for- and expect- wonder. For when you search for God, you will discover him.  Live awake and aware because the wonder awaits. 

 -Margaret Feinberg Wonderstruck

Don’t shine so others see you. Shine so that through you, others can see him. –CS Lewis

When we pray for wonder and live eyes wide open to wonder, the tone and tenacity with which we live our lives changes. We become expectant to catch glimpses of God in ways we’ve never seen Him before.   -Margaret Feinberg Wonderstruck

In God's garden of grace, even a broken tree bears fruit. - Rick Warren 

Joy is the simplest form of gratitude. -Karl Barth  

I arise today with summer in my heart:

Fire of enthusiasm

Burning sun

Abundant life

Playful spirit

Nesting birds

Lush meadows

Growing gardens.

This is my inheritance in this vibrant new season.

I arise today in the arms of summer.  -Macrina Wiederkehr The Circle of Life 

That we can glimpse you within creation

is a beautiful thought,

but also tells us that you desire to be seen,

to be found and known.

Open our eyes, Lord,

as we walk through this world,

feel the wind and sunshine,

see the majesty of creation

unfolding before our eyes.

Help us to see you

- www.faithandworship.com

Love adds a precious seeing to the eye –Shakespeare

Not knowing when the dawn will come

I open every door.

-Emily Dickinson

"Grow old with me! The best is yet to be." ~ Robert Browning 

(in honor of our 19th wedding anniversary this month) 

Invent your world. Surround yourself with people, color, sounds and work that nourish you. -SARK

Anything, everything, little or big becomes an adventure when the right person shares it. 

-Kathleen Norris  

I felt the iron weight of the pause as I grasped for the perfect way to express what I desired from God. I took a deep breath and plunged. “This sounds strange,” I apologized, “but I’m praying for pixie dust.” I might as well have vacuumed all the air out of the room. While a few stared uncomfortably at me, more than a dozen eyes darted back and forth in an almost unanimous expression: what have we gotten ourselves into? I kept talking. “More than anything, what I long for is our God, the One who bedazzled the heavens and razzle-dazzled the earth, to meet us in such a way during our time here that we find ourselves awestruck by his goodness and generosity, his provision and presence. I’m praying for pixie dust. I want to leave here with a sense of wonderment as we encounter and experience things only God can do.” One by one the members of the team exhaled, a welcome sign they were extending grace to me. A few even smiled. Louie, a pastor whose short grey hair and mustached framed twinkling youthful eyes, broke the silence. “Margaret, I think what your asking for is something my boys and I pray for often. You’re asking for the favor of god. We pray for God’s favor both in good times and bead—that we’d sense the reality that we’re one of God’s children, one of God’s favorites, and wait expectantly for what God will do. “  -

When I returned to my room that night, I tucked myself into bed….God had reawakened a sense of divine expectation. Though God had been at work in my life in countless ways- revealing so many wonders- I realized deep down inside I still backed away from living each day with holy anticipation.  Praying for pixie dust was an invitation for God to lavish our team with his loving-kindness, and for each of us to walk more upright, eyes attentive to what God might do next. You can’t pray for pixie dust and maintain a dour demeanor or dreary disposition.  The Mary Poppins of all prayers, asking for pixie dust is hard to do without a frolicsome smile on your face, a playful cheer in your spirit, a holy anticipation of how God may answer. 

 - Margaret Feinberg Wonderstruck