Winter's Womb

~***~

This Place In Between

seed sown

and Heaven's Harvest

From a barren land

to a Bountiful Country...

Held in this holy hush

This pregnant pause

this Crossing...

Your Word is woven into flesh

Your every thought toward me takes shape...

Traveling through these trimesters
This meaningful metamorphosis

Treasuring the transformation of time

Till fully formed,

Delightfully Designed

I am Born

into Brand New Day.....

~***~

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

-Jeremiah 29:11

New Clothes.....

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

New clothes always accompany the transition from season to season, from slavery to freedom, from old to new, from night to day...

The Prodigal Son's return was trademarked by the trading of his tattered rags for a royal robe

Joseph's turning point transpired when he donned the coat of many colors

Esther spent twelve months changing out of the clothes of a commoner into the clothes of a queen

In the same way, from season to season, from slavery to freedom, from old to new, from night to day, the LORD offers us a change of clothing.....He offers a garment of praise in exchange for a spirit of heaviness, the armor of light in exchange for the works of darkness, bridal garments in exchange for prison garb.

And most meaningfully of all, He offers Himself with the incomparable invitation in Romans 13:14 to "Put on the LORD Jesus Christ..."

the ultimate covering

the exquisite exchange

our temporal attire for His eternal embrace...

~***~ New Clothing to wear into Newness of Life ~***~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness"

-Isaiah 61:10

Peace be with you...

"

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

-John 14:27

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"...not as the world gives..."....that tentative, tenuous, temporary "peace"...that fleeting flimsy false sense of well-being that comes from pills and potions, the desensitizing din of distractions, the clamor of  competing deities attempting to drown out the chaos...

....but palpable permanent pervasive Peace.  Peace that "passes all understanding".  Peace that is a guard and a sentry surrounding our minds, hovering over our hearts.  Peace that is His manifest Presence poured out unreservedly from the Cross, paid for in full, bought with His blood, for You, His Beloved.

Peace be upon you, Peace undergird you, Peace guide you and keep you...

~***~Peace be with you~***~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

-Philippians 4:6,7

Consider the Lilies.....

Dan Denardo Photography

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

-Luke 12:27

~***~

The bloom buried, wrapped within the Gift

Will break forth and blossom in time

Invisible inner workings of Providence's plan

transforming the mundane into the miraculous...

...Beauty will unfurl

Love will unfold...

...As it always has

As it always will...

...and the simplicity embodying the complexity of Creation

will give way,

at last,

to insuppressible Life

~***~

Sacred Segue...

"I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.  I stooped and fed them."

-Hosea 11:4

~***~

This umbilical cord between Creator and Creation
Woven between worlds
Between Here-and-Now
and Kingdom-Come

Love's lifeline
Delicately tethering me into Tenderness
through which Living Water flows
and bread of Life is lavished...
His Lifeblood given...

...infinitely...

...immeasurably..

...extravagantly...

...exorbitantly...

"Lilies and birds"
Providence's Provision
Love's plaited pathway to my heart...

~***~

"Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?"
-Song of Solomon 8:5