Hiking in Pearls

Tag: Love

  • Three Word Story Challenge – Part 7

    Three Word Story Challenge – Part 7

    Faith – Love – Storage

    Words are so much more than a mark on paper or a part of speech to me. Each one is alive and is cloaked with an image. A picture I see in my mind. When they are strung together as a sentence a private film begins to play in my psyche.  

    It was no different when he prayed for me.

    I bowed my head as he talked to our Heavenly Father on my behalf. “Lord, I just ask that you would increase her faith.”

    Yes, faith is good. In the perception of my mind, I held out my open hand and received the package containing faith. I had a fly-fishing creel hanging on my shoulder, and I placed the box into the rectangular basket that rested at my side. It easily fell into the cavity.

    “Give her courage,” he continued.

    Yes! I need courage. With my hand extended a parchment that had been rolled up with a gold ribbon around it was placed on my palm. My fingers circled around it, and I put it in the bag. Even with these items it looked empty. There was vast storage for more.

    “And help her to understand Your love.”

    Love. A moment went by and my empty hand still hadn’t been filled so I looked up. That’s when I saw the back of a dump truck. With the gate open it began to lift, and love poured out slowly and then completely. I couldn’t contain it all! A mountain of love was formed around me. Covering me on all sides!

    I haven’t left that spot since. I am still surrounded by the love of my Heavenly Father.

    Reader, my prayer for you today is Ephesians 3:17-19 KJV. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith: that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height: And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with the fulness of God.

    In grace and peace,

    Sharon Rose

  • Three Word Story Challenge – Part 6

    Three Word Story Challenge – Part 6

    Wacky – Interesting – Spiritual

    First a contribution from my oldest child. Pen name, Balonga:

    “There was a wacky person that was very spiritual, and he had extremely interesting ideas.”

    Here is mine:

    The slabs of wood that made the crate had silvered. A proud display to their age and strength. It was flipped upside down a painfully, ordinary looking man stood upon it. He held a leather book. The cover fell like drooping wings over his hand and bent towards the earth.

    A commotion of people had circled around him.  I was curious if what he had to say was interesting.

    People began to mock and they pointed a finger to the side of their head before making circles. “This guy is wacky!” They said as they walked away.

    Only a few of us remained, and we stepped in closer.

    What he spoke was spiritual. It was life and truth. The book he held was the Living Word of God. The Bible.

    His deep voice spoke eternal truth. Words that had been penned before the earth was formed. (Revelation 13:8)

    “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved!” (John 3:16-17 KJV)

    The message he spoke was one of love.

    It has always been for love…

    ~To begin a life with Jesus, all you need to do is admit that you are a sinner. Believe that Jesus was the sinless Son of God, and that He died in your place on the cross, and that He rose again three days later. Last confess to someone that you put your trust in Jesus as your Saviour. Then watch His gentle transforming work begin in your life.

    In grace and peace,

    Sharon Rose

  • The Pace of a Child

    The Pace of a Child

    If you opened my refrigerator right now, you wouldn’t notice the litter of condiments and leftovers. Your eyes would settle on the pencil.

    Ground to the last inch of its life. It was left by one of my beautiful children…three weeks ago.

    I didn’t move it, because I wanted to remember…

    I stroll to that precious moment in my mind. There I can hear the chorus of laughter from the other room. The picture is clear as I close my eyes. I see an opened package of Cheeze-its spilling out on top of a container of blueberries. A pencil worn far too short to be of any use laid in front of the scene.

    Mementos of fleeting youth.

    Soon the children will be grown.

    Responsibility will lasso their minds and pull them into a place of order.

    I left the pencil to keep what I fear will be lost. For I am all too aware, that this moment will soon be gone.

    There was a time I would clean around their perfect, grubby, little handprints on the window. Knowing one day it would be the last time to wipe them up. Their hands would never be this size again.

    The handprints have since faded…

    Stickers can still be found on the dryer door and legs of the dining chairs. They remind me of innocence and imagination.

    In my flowerbed you will find a pile of broken trinkets. Big hearts displayed through small hands that carried each piece. Their souls spilling over with joy from the “treasures” they had found.

    Treasure, they wanted to share with me.

    I am reminded of Genesis 33. It is here we meet Jacob returning home from his time as a fugitive and working with Laban. His brother Esau came out to meet him and offered to join him for the remainder of the journey home.

    Jacob declines. Telling him that the children are tender and the flocks have young. He doesn’t want to drive them too hard.

    Jacob, rather than pushing his children to hurry up, slowed down with them. He changed his pace to theirs.

    He chose to protect a sacred time. Life shared as parent and child.

    I am finding as I grow into life, I have forgotten. All the things that truly matter.

    My children help me to recall. All the wonderful things I overlook.

    A beautiful gift of remembrance awaits each of us. Parent or not, if we are willing to slow to their stride.

    A life of priceless wonder is at hand.

    Friend, I want to encourage you today to slow to the pace of a child.

    Remember to Tarry…even Stop.

    To Ponder the Majesty of the World.

    To Laugh.

    To Play.

    To Explore.

    To Discover.

    To Dream.

    To Live.

    Friend, there is much yet to enjoy.

    In grace and peace,

    Sharon Rose

  • Seeking Signs: Understanding God’s Love While Hiking

    Seeking Signs: Understanding God’s Love While Hiking

    The Lord called me out to the woods in the early fall.

    I had several apprehensions about going.

    It was a new trail. Therefore, I didn’t know what to expect.

    It was after lunch. Time, I felt was not on my side.

    Our spin in the cosmos was causing the sun to sink behind the hills much earlier in the day already.

    Yet, He beckoned to me.

    I went.

    Acorns fell all around me. I thought about the deer that roam these woods, and how much they like to eat them.

    I spoke aloud, “Lord, would You prove Your love for me and send me some deer?”

    I quickly followed it with, “Never mind. You don’t need to send me deer to prove You love me. You already proved it by sending Your Son.”

    This was a new place for me. It saddens me to admit that repeatedly, since becoming a Christian, I have asked my Heavenly Father to prove His love for me by sending me signs.

    I spent the remainder of the hike in His presence and remembering that I am deeply loved by Him.

    When I came upon the arch, it felt like a sanctuary.

    It took the setting sun to pull me from the woods and retrace the trail back to my car.

    Leaving this place was hard, but praise God I didn’t have to leave His presence. Even now He is walking with me.

    Every.

    Single.

    Moment.

    He proves His love for me with every breath I take.

    I never did see any deer that day, but I have seen them since. On two occasions. They are profoundly, meaningful to me considering the satiations in my life at those moments.

    I want to ask, where are you on the trail, Friend?

    Do you question where God’s love is? Are you looking for a sign?

    Let this be it,

    But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 NKJV

    Oh, how He loves YOU!

    Revelation 13:8 speaks of the Lamb (Jesus) that was slain before the foundation of the world.

    God’s love for you has always been! His love for you was there even before the world was created.

    That’s good news!

    Yes, you are that important to the Creator.

    Today let the meditation of your heart be on His love for you.

    His Great Love, that was poured out before time began…