Sunday Thoughts

Cactus in Sunlight - Watercolor

From the book of Psalms:

Excerpts from Ps. 139 (One of my favorites)
"Oh Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me...when I sit down and when I stand up. You know my every thought... you chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment, you know where I am.

You know what I am going to say before I say it. You both precede me and follow me. You place you hand of blessing on my head.... I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I go down to the place of the dead you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me... even in the darkness I cannot hide from you.

You made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous - I know that well. ... You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book, every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts of me, O God! They are innumerable! I can't even count them, they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake in the morning, you are still with me! "

This is a wonderful reminder - along with many other passages from scripture - of God's very personal love for each person he has created. How he has a heart that is for us, not against us! And yet, to see and understand that side of God, it is important to also see and understand that he is a righteous and holy God - a God who loves perfectly and also who is perfectly just. Who could live up to God's definition of justice and righteousness? Impossible! Which is why he sent a Savior - his own son - to provide a way to Him, a way of perfect love and also perfect justice.