New Beginnings

I love this time of the year. Whilst I know my friends and family in the Northern Hemisphere are going into autumn and experiencing the first hints of a winter chill, we have Spring in September where I am. Heady Jasmine fragrance fills the air, and there are new flowers and buds everywhere.

It always reminds me of romance, and that wonderful verse in Song of Songs: 

Look around you: Winter is over;
the winter rains are over, gone!
Spring flowers are in blossom all over.
The whole world's a choir—and singing!
Spring warblers are filling the forest
with sweet arpeggios.
Lilacs are exuberantly purple and perfumed,
and cherry trees fragrant with blossoms. (Song of Songs 2:11-13)MB

New beginnings. Fresh oil. Fresh anointing, blessings, joy, new life, flowers and buds, bliss, rejuvenation, re-awakening, revival, renewal, energise, invigorate, excitement, refreshing.

Which leads my thoughts to one of the most powerful sentences in the Book of Acts, spoken by Peter:

So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return to God, that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air) may come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 3:19 TAB.

We need this. New beginnings. Yes we do!

Eternity

There always has to be a beginning, and then I want to know, who was there to watch the start?

One of my favourite passages is in the Book of Proverbs: 

 ^22-31 "God sovereignly made me—the first, the basic—
   before he did anything else.
I was brought into being a long time ago,
   well before Earth got its start.
I arrived on the scene before Ocean,
   yes, even before Springs and Rivers and Lakes.
Before Mountains were sculpted and Hills took shape,
   I was already there, newborn;
Long before God stretched out Earth's Horizons,
   and tended to the minute details of Soil and Weather,
And set Sky firmly in place,
   I was there.
When he mapped and gave borders to wild Ocean,
   built the vast vault of Heaven,
   and installed the fountains that fed Ocean,
When he drew a boundary for Sea,
   posted a sign that said no trespassing,
And then staked out Earth's Foundations,
   I was right there with him, making sure everything fit.
Day after day I was there, with my joyful applause,
   always enjoying his company,
Delighted with the world of things and creatures,
   happily celebrating the human family.*

Today I felt challenged and inspired to put some thoughts down in response to a friend (on Facebook, yes I am there along with about half the planet). He was wondering out loud as people do on social media how many days he had left to live (it was something like 16,659 days left if he lived to a hundred) and he asked the question: "How old are you? How many days do you have left for purpose, passion, prosperity and love?" After giving it a few moment's thought, this was my gut-felt response:

"Today is the first day of my life in eternity...living each day in the light of Eternity.. what can I do today that will impact someone's life in a positive way forEVER? So I have infinite days yet each day counts as a treasure." It is so easy to let the essence of our lives slip through our fingers, not living fully present in the moment. And we all do that, to varying degrees in our lives. When I was 16 I wrote an essay at high school on how I wanted to live every moment to the full. And today I am reminded of that. Amazing and wonderful things are happening all around us. We just need to pay attention. My favourite moment today was when a little bird sat on the top of my open window frame and started serenading me  with a pretty song. Had I been too absorbed in my work at that moment I would have lost something special - a moment of communion with nature and somehow through that, with the Creator of us all.