This looks
like a thoughtful
spot to rest.

Deo Gratias!

For the journey!

God keep thee!

Beholding

a new thing!



Deo Gratias!

The most powerful and influential position in any society or civilization is as a storyteller. These storytellers are not just the mythical cultural icons who dress up on Thursday afternoons and read stories to your children in local libraries and bookstores. Musicians are storytellers, and politicians are storytellers. Screenplay writers are storytellers, and business leaders are storytellers. Teachers, preachers, nurses, lawyers, pastors, priests, scientists, salespeople, artists, mothers, fathers, poets, philosophers, brothers, baby-sitters, grandparents . . . we are all storytellers.
The future belongs to the storytellers. The future belongs to us. What will the future be like? Well, that depends very much on the stories we tell, the stories we listen to, and the stories we live.
Stories have a remarkable ability to cut through the clutter and confusion and bring clarity to our hearts and minds. Stories remind us of our values, aims, and goals. Stories sneak beyond the boundaries of our predudices to soften our hearts to a new truth. Great periods in history emerge when great stories are told and lived. Stories are history that form the future. Stories are prophecies set in the past.
Stories are important.
Stories are as essential as the air we breathe and the water we drink. Stories captivate our imaginations, enchant our minds, and empower our spirits. Stories introduce us to who we are and who we are capable of being. Stories change our lives.
If you wish to poison a nation, poison the stories that nation listens to. If you wish to win people over to your team or to your point of view, do not go to war or argue with them -- tell them a story.
All great leaders understand the persuasive and inspirational power of stories. When did you last hear a great speech that didn't contain a story?
A story can do anything: win a war, lose a war, heal the sick, encourage the discouraged, comfort the oppressed, inspire a revolution, transform an enemy into a friend, elevate the consciousness of the people, build empires, inspire love, even reshape the spiritual temperament of a whole age.
Sixty-five percent of the Gospels are stories -- parables. The other thirty-five percent is the story of Jesus Christ.
We are the storytellers. What type of stories are we telling? I promise you with absolute certitude - the future depends on the stories we tell. The future belongs to the storytellers. What will your story be?
MATTHEW KELLY

I love stories . . . living stories . . . and while I am hearing as well as living with and into some new ones these days . . . I carry many of yours with me . . .

I feel sooo rich!

Deo Gratias!

Morning

Stars!




Deo Gratias

I live in circles . . .
within circles . . .

family . . .
community . . .
church . . .

they are beginning to come together . . .
one full circle . . .

I can see it . . .
with my heart . . .

I live in circles.

Deo Gratias!

Reach

A new picture . . .

for Gloria . . .

and Jamie . . .

because they asked . . .

Deo Gratias!

In the name of Him in whom everything says yes . . .

Yes!

Deo Gratias

Eight old hunters and gatherers . . .

gather . . .

reason enough to celebrate ! ! !

Deo Gratias

Judy's post reminded me of the exhibition at The Museum of Russian Art my sister in law told me about last fall. . . one, she knew I would want to visit. The exhibit ends January 14th, so, Carol and I made plans to go yesterday. Judy, Jan, and Heather were planning to meet at the same time. So. . . it was . . . we happened to be together.

ICONS ~ WINDOWS TO HEAVEN
500 Years of Iconography

I prepared myself by reading the following ahead of time:

No one has ever seen God.

God has neither shape, nor dimension, nor color, nor volume. However, in order to reveal himself, to tell his story, God has given us an image, an icon, which does have form and color and measure and volume. This icon is the human being, man and woman together.

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

The icon makes visible the Invisible. Thus, the real icon is the human being, of whom Jesus Christ is the prototype. He is the visible image of the invisible God. All of Scripture is imprinted in Him, in His body, in His being, in His very existence.

Scripture, revelation, is not ink on white paper. Rather, it is imprinted and recorded in our flesh. The Word would continue to exist even though one day all Bibles were to be burned or disappear. And this revelation is the Word: "Hear, O Israel!" (Dueteronomy 6:4). But this Word not only made Itself heard, it also made Itself visible, for this Word became incarnate. The Word is not something, the Word is Someone--Someone who let Himself be heard, who let Himself be seen, who gave Himself as food to be eaten. If we stop at just hearing the Word, we remain at the level of the Old Covenant; the reality of the Incarnation does not touch our being.

From this arises the importance of an icon. An icon helps us become aware that the Word is not just a series of words or sounds. The Word is a relationship. If we talk without communicating with the other, without communication with God, without giving of ourselves, without communicating ourselves, we are just making noises.

Yet, the Word is Somone, the Word is a Face, the Word is an Image: "For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm." (Psalm 33:9)

An icon breaks our boundaries and we become aware that we speak even without using words. We talk by a look, by a smile, by a gesture, an attitude; we talk by our very existence.

God is Word, and God is Silence. The icon also speaks by silence. It grounds us in that silence. It grounds us in contemplation since it communicates all of Revelation to us, in silence by our viewing. In Hebrew and Arabic, the word for eye is "ain," which also means source or font. We drink in all of Scripture, all of Revelation by our looking. All of the Word, the Face of the Other, flows into us, and we flow into the Word. The Word is a Relationship, it is Comm-Union.

I must admit I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping for more words (smile) I struggled with the icons in the exhibit . . . to see the face of Christ. They were beautiful . . . and I want to read more about them. Oh, but then . . . we moved on to look at the rest of the museum . . . and my eyes fell into Nikolai N. Baskakov's Milkmaids, Novella . . . and . . . I saw Him. Look . . . can you see?

God became incarnate so that man might contemplate his face in every face.

So, it was, I contemplated His face in the face of my companions at lunch . . . for me . . . windows to heaven!

Deo Gratias!!!

IMAGINE

US . . .

a

living

story . . .

redeemed

by

God . . .


















And, lo, the star, which they saw in the East, went before them, till it stood over where the young child was . . .

HE CAME FOR US . . .

It wouldn't be until I was an adult that God would redeem the family stories buried beneath my father's struggle with alcoholism when I was a child. It was a woman with a similar background, now living her life redemptively, that would help me to reinterpret the story in which I found myself. She helped me to understand that the heart is where the story forms--and that it needs something larger to give it redemptive meaning. It was she as well as many other women like her that showed me it was possible for stories that were broken or diseased to be made well, or if necessary, replaced by a story that had a plot worth living.

When we married our stories twenty four years ago . . . we knew it would take courage and His amazing grace to live our lives redemptively. (Think Wild at Heart.)

Daniel Taylor in The Healing Power of Stories says: We are our stories. We are a product of all the stories we have heard and lived . . . they shape how we see ourselves, our world and our place in it. We cannot change the way the way our story began . . . but, we can tell our children of the stories redeemed . . . family stories that give them a sense of something larger than themselves . . . perhaps preparing their hearts to receive the really big story . . . the story of His love for us.

We tell stories like this every chance we get . . . this is one of the stories that wrap our family in gift every Christmas:

As far as we know our story begins in Sweden. So, every year we have a Lucia celebration on Christmas Eve. The story of Lucia, the symbol of light amid the darkness for Sweden is told. One of the girls has the privilege of being our Lucia, wearing a long white gown sashed in red, with a lighted wreath on her head. One of the boys is our Star Boy . . . generally associated with the wise men. Another child carries the advent candles. All of the children carry battery operated hand held candles. As the song Sankta Lucia is played (my niece practiced her violin all summer to play for us this year) our Star Boy and Lucia lead all of the children in a procession throughout the house ending in the livingroom with our Tomte (the Christmas elf) passing pepparkakor to their aunts and uncles as the story is passed on to another generation . . . a family story reminding them they are part of a larger family story . . . one that brings light and hope into our darkness . . . one with power to redeem our stories for the family of God.

HE STILL COMES . . .

FOR US!!!

Glory to God in the Highest--Peace, Good Will to All!

God Jul!

Deo Gratias!

He comes for you . . .















It takes a prophet of sorts, one who has traveled the highway before and remembers everything, to guide us beyond our blind, selective remembering. Choose your friends carefully and listen to those who speak truth to you, who help you remember all things, "so that you may value the things that really matter, up to the very day of Christ" (Philippians 1:10).

Ask the Lord for companions (sometimes Jesus alone!) who will walk the highway of remembering with you, mentors in the Spirit who can help you fill in the valleys and level the mountains and hills, making the winding ways straight and the rough ways smooth.

When the soul is ready, the teacher will be found.

RICHARD ROHR


















And, so . . . HE comes for me . . . word made flesh!

MERRY CHRISTMAS . . . dear . . . dear . . . companions!

Deo Gratias!

Let it be.





Deo Gratias
Illustration by Julie Vivas

Thanksgiving leads us to dangerous places: generosity and joy.

Deo Gratias!!!

God write your hope into my desiring.

Deo Gratias!

I knit as I pray . . .


reflections
of














Creating Love













planted deep within me.




Deo Gratias!

Luke 13: 10-17

"The truth of faith has little value when it is not also the life of the heart." Brennan Manning

Deo Gratias

"If we
search
for
one word
to describe
the
mission
and
ministry
of
Jesus Christ,
reconciliation would not be a bad choice." Brennan Manning)

"This is the power of the Gospel in all its glory, to change everyone, bringing the possibility of reconciliation and peace for all." (See Jan's Blog, The Power of Repentance)

So, it is . . . in power and wisdom you shape me and my world . . .

Deo Gratias

"God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who He is, and we know who we are: Father and children." ROMANS 8:16

So, I cry Abba . . .

Deo Gratias

. . . everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation . . .

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Deo Gratias

For Talia Grace . . . praying gifts of grace and peace!

Deo Gratias!

In power

and wisdom . . .

you shape me . . .

and my world . . .

Deo Gratias