FOOD FOR SOUL MAGAZINE: I Cry in Colors-Brenda Graff I once read a beau...

FOOD FOR SOUL MAGAZINE: I Cry in Colors
-Brenda Graff

I once read a beau...: I Cry in Colors -Brenda Graff I once read a beautiful poem my daughter, Amanda wrote when she was about 9 years old.  It was c...

FOOD FOR SOUL MAGAZINE: SLEEPWALKING By Brenda Graff Th...

FOOD FOR SOUL MAGAZINE: SLEEPWALKING
 
By Brenda Graff

                Th...: SLEEPWALKING   By Brenda Graff                 The alarm sounds, its 4:30 a.m. as you already hear the alarms going off in you...

THIS IS US

THIS IS US...

-Brenda Graff

At the end of a long day of to-do’s, I was kind of in a funk.  It was exhausting trying to force myself to stay awake.  Much time had been spent in bed over the past several weeks in between working and running errands.  There wasn’t much energy for anything else, like preparing a meal for my family, folding laundry, much less doing laundry or washing a single dish.  The day had been wonderful!  It was a pleasant day spent visiting with long distant folks, even with my not so pleasurable to-dos of the day.  The sun was shining.  The weather was brilliant!  I relished riding in my car without teens fighting over what radio station to listen to as I sang to an old country classic by John Conlee.  Had a great lunch and read a full article ALONE without choking down food in between threats to teens squabbling over salsa.  It was a good day!  But, I was saddened at the thought of turning in to bed before the sun had gone down.  

The house needed so much work, and I wasn’t even sure if there were left-overs in fridge for everyone to eat.  I tried to drink some coffee to kick me in gear, but it just wasn’t happening.  It never happens lately, especially on the days I must go for therapeutic phlebotomy.  It drains me.  The running back and forth to doctors is draining.  The waiting on test results, and alarming reports is DRAINING!  The dreaded phone calls coming in with not so great news is draining!  Before this I was going to the gym almost daily, now that has been put on hold.  My poor dogs are depressed from not hitting the park as much.  The kids have become oblivious to my taking up resistance in my bed most of the time.  This is not how I planned my life!  

I told my husband I miss our crazy normal!  The normal when I was running fifty different directions, and running circles around the washing machine!  Cooking up a feast with music playing, candles lit, and occasionally dancing in my kitchen.  I missed our spur of the moment runs to the park, the lakes, the mountains, and hearing the water falls.  I even missed enjoying a grocery store trip!  I know that is insane.  My husband does 90% of the shopping now.  I have to save my energy for work so there is provision for my family.  My husband must work to provide and provide the care I cannot for our children at times, etc. school projects and taxi runs and myself some of the time.  It at times can be bitterly overwhelming.    

What was supposed to be a clear cut medical diagnosis with treatment has turned into a full-time job.  I am not just speaking physically.   Forcing oneself to shut the world off and rest isn’t as easy as it sounds!  However, I brought all this up because it has made me keenly aware of what I do and don’t want in this life left that God has blessed me with whether its five years or fifty more!  Saddened I would often look at the core of my family and marriage and wonder if we were ever going to be what most considered “normal”.  Would we EVER just live a period of time where there wasn’t a fire to put out?  Is our home EVER going to be FREE?  (Free from stress, illness, bills, marred memories of pain) overflowing baskets of laundry and DOG HAIR!  Will I ever be able to walk in my kitchen and not find dishes piled in the sink, or water splashed all over counters, peanut butter smudge markings on the fridge, or jelly stuck to the table?  Will I ever be able to open a drawer to find a fork exist?  Is the light in the bathroom ever going to be turned off after use?  Will the lawnmower make it just one more summer?  Or has it taken its last breath? Will the same telemarketer that calls me on cue every single day FINALLY TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER?  Are we ever going to have enough time and money to take our children camping again before they are too old to care?  Or perhaps it’s too late? Will my husband and I EVER put our differences completely aside and relish in our realness together?  If only time would stand still.  

Last night as I prepared for bed, I remembered the last episode of the season “This is Us” was airing and had to stay up!  I wasn’t going to miss this!  As I watched the “The long-stewing marital tensions between Jack and Rebecca on "This Is Us" finally come to a full boil in the emotional season finale.”  In the lead up to Jack and Rebecca's big fight, Jack and Ben (Sam Trammell) scuffled after Jack learned Ben tried to make a move on his wife. Rebecca had rejected Ben's advance, but didn't get a chance to tell Jack that in the moment. Instead, she left her big gig to drive drunk Jack home.  Rebecca had proclaimed how she had sacrificed her whole life for her husband and kids leaving Jack to say, “I’m sorry that we never gave you satisfaction” OUCH!  The kids were grown not needing her as much, and well Hubby seemed always distant and unaware of her needs.  The argument escalated into a screaming match.

Once back home — again, safely — the couple aired all their grievances. Rebecca was mad that Jack was still drinking. Jack was mad Rebecca had, as he saw it, put her band before her family. Rebecca accused Jack of resenting her taking time for herself. And Jack dealt a devastating blow when he said he didn't see her singing as a "career."

Everything each character had suppressed during the season was finally out in the open for the other to see. And it wasn't pretty.

In the end, Rebecca asked Jack to move in with his best friend Miguel. Jack agreed, but not before making a big, Jack-like proclamation of love the following morning.  The love he couldn’t express in words the night before.  The words that she desperately needed to hear.  The words that perhaps would change the whole outcome of this dreadful scene.  The words left unsaid that were followed by her stating, “Jack I’m very sad now, and tired.  I am going to bed, just let me”.

The words he spoke were ugh…heart tugging!  Especially, when he said “I love how when you laugh, you laugh with your whole face” …. something like that.  Rebecca sat there at the table with tears streaming stating how they have messed up their kids.  Jack on the other hand disagrees and comfortingly says, “This is only a hiccup, we will get through this”.  “This isn’t the end, this is just the beginning”.  He then, quietly leaves out the front door.  Ugh!  A CLIFF-HANGER!  Will Rebecca and Jack get it together?  We won’t know until next season!!!!!  

Anyhow, as I watched the unraveling of this marital moment of crisis, I couldn’t help but think of our own over the years, and wondering if we would EVER get it together, or was our life going to permanently stay in survival mode?  Not just our relationship, but our whole family.  What is the norm?  Is this the norm?  Or is this the new normal?  My husband started a new job, one that he has been hoping for a very long time.  Excited, but also somberly aware of our age, and progression of time and the reality of time limits….and starting over so late in the game… we both kind of hold our breath to see what the future holds.  

Will God’s grace give us the opportunity to try and do over what we somehow failed to recognize in all those time-wasting worries, arguments, and bad choices in life?  Will our bodies line up with the demands of what is needed to take a licking and keep on ticking during this transition?  As the clock ticks forward will we get to step back a little to steal some long-lost moments.  That’s the funny thing about life, you never know.  You never know what the day will bring.  You make your plans, you state your to-do’s, your bucket list of things that you swear one day you will do.  But will you?  Will you actually….follow through?  What would it look like to do what you say you would do?  What words have not been spoken, that  should have been long before a loved one passed?  Words of love, or simply recognizing someone’s worth.  Have we really been so busy in our planning, we missed something?  Is it really that important that one is right and pointing out the other is wrong?  When did feeling more important than another supersede a real relationship?  Was it really that vital that the need to be right overshadowed the need to love?  I think not.  These are time stealers!  They not only take away from what could be a wonderful union, but often rip away the very core of a relationship.  Not only in marriage, but parent-child relationships, friendships, etc.… 

Each day is a given, and to allow anything to rob such a gift by brain stories as I call them is a crime.  These are the assumptions, and story-telling our thoughts hover around when we feel rejected, ignored, abandoned, or misunderstood.  They take place in the board room meetings of corporations, school rooms of instruction, living rooms of over-scheduling families, and church pews of busy ministers.  Life is so fleeting….

James 4:14 (The Message) And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”

Taking moments to recognize what is truly important at that moment is what brings meaning to the life and lives around you.  Some of the most profound moments I can remember is when our children were younger and we had hiked a 600-ft. waterfall.  The kids sat on the edge as we stood there experiencing the flow of freezing waters brush over us after walking in the grueling summer heat.  It was incredible!  The sounds of bubbling brooks flowing past our tent as we lay there staring up at the stars in complete awe…too many to count.  Other times were just completely losing it in hysterics in a grocery store as hubby grabbed his stomach mimicking a birth in pain after eating too much.  We laughed so hard couldn’t catch our breath as shoppers stared at us in disbelief.  There were moments with the kids in travel as they flung crayons across the front seat from their make-shift sling shot or sticking a smelly foot between us and asking, “Why does my foot smell like mustard?”  Then there is the time when our youngest girl discovered in awe a butterfly land on her and stay for what seemed like an hour as she watched its majestic wings open and close.  The military graduation, high school graduation, Fire Fighter graduation, birth of grandchildren, the first laugh, the first cry, the first steps, of our children were monumental and will never ever be forgotten.  Nor that moment when your toddler grabs your cheeks with their sticky fingers and says, “I love you mommy.”  The time we sat all night with candles lit in a snow storm power outage with our family and just talked. One evening we threw a blanket on the ground in our backyard and grabbed our kids and just laid there and stared into the sky.  Often times sitting in a kiddie pool to cool off with our tots or just by ourselves.  I think of the times we stayed up all night to watch meteor showers with our kids with lawn chairs, radio, BBQ and all on the sidewalk just waiting for the grand entrance of natures phenomenon as neighbors thought we were crazed…. You think we were thinking of when the water bill was due, or how well we had made our floors shine?  Or is there jelly still stuck on the table?  Has anyone switched out the laundry?  

There was this time when my husband and I lay at a campsite while kids sleeping and talked about our dreams to live in a villa somewhere in Greece.  We planned our entire abode with a wood-shop for him, and a small writing room for me attached to my little café with a library of books for my fellow coffee drinkers to enjoy in an unforgettable ambiance.

We had many plans moving back to Texas, and here we are nearly six years later, and have yet to take that trip.  We were robbed of time when my husband was thrust into working nights, which spiraled down a whole new set of problems.  Our family became distant.  We lost touch with one another.  Our kids grew up rapidly!  The need for togetherness became unnatural.  How?  How does this happen?  We waste time on what we fail to see is important.  That’s how.  Every life needs balance.  Rest is a major.  I failed to see that for too many years and now I am paying for it dearly!  We don’t make sound decisions when we are exhausted, hurried, or frazzled.  This often leaves undesirable consequences, unbridled emotions, and poor relating habits.  Busyness takes up residence in every area.  And if we stay too busy we miss something really special.

We don’t necessarily get the chance to do it all over again.  The day is gone, the night comes, morning sets in, and we’re off again.  Another day down and how many more will you have to go?  How much more time will you have to make a difference, be the difference, love the different, and differently do things?  

I realized in watching “This is Us” that our reality isn’t much different than many others out there.  Instead of mourning what we don’t have, or what we lost, we need to embrace who we are and accept “This is Us” with all its flaws, good, bad, and ugly at times…and that God loves “us” no matter what… and takes care of “us” by giving this incredible gift of life to celebrate in every area no matter what we are doing, whether it is work, play, worship, visiting with someone, or eating dinner together or apart.  

I know our life together isn’t movie screen worthy or picture perfect…but we have been “us” for a little over twenty years.  We have laughed insanely at some of the most ridiculous things.  We have also cried an ocean together over horrific situations.  “Us” has experienced some GREAT heights and low “Lows”.  We have feared together, prayer together, and fought at Memorex levels together.  But I wouldn’t trade it for the world and all it has to offer!  I am glad that “This is Us”.  

I know that at the end of the day, there is no other family, other experience that would have made this one so customizable crazy and full of LIFE.  “This is Us” isn’t just some show that pauses for a season…we won’t always know the outcome, and we can’t change the channel to avoid the mistakes.  

However, we can consume the moments with a perspective that will bring “Us” closer to our God-given purpose and perhaps our own fairy tale ending some day and embrace the fact that we have that choice.  What will your story look like in the end?  Will it be full of regrets?  Will your "I" want supersede "Us" needs?  Will your purpose be "ME" planned or "GOD PLANNED"?  You don't have to wait to tune in tomorrow....TUNE IN TODAY...by tuning out all the distractions that prevent you from being "US".  You have that God-given choice.  He planned out your story...now LIVE it!

BE INSPIRED!

CLICK HERE TO READ FOOD FOR SOUL HOLIDAY ISSUE - 2016-2017

MERRY CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD!

AFRIKAANS	geseënde Kersfees
ALBANIAN	gëzuar Krishtlindja
ALSATIAN	gleckika Wïanachta
AMHARIC	መልካም የገና (melkam' yeghena) / የልደት በዓል (yel'det' be'al)
ARABIC	ميلاد مجيد (miilaad majiid)
ARMENIAN	Shnorhavor Surb tsnund
AZERI	Noel bayraminiz mubarak
BAKONGO	Nowélé ya mboté
BASQUE	Eguberri on
BELARUSIAN	З Божым нараджэннем (Z Bozym naradzenniem)
BENGALI	subho baradin
BOSNIAN	sretan Božić
BRETON	Nedeleg laouen
BULGARIAN	весела коледа (vesela koleda)
BURMESE	Christmas nay hma mue pyaw pa
CATALAN	bon Nadal
CH'TI	joïeux Noé
CHEROKEE	ulihelisdi danisdayohihvi
CHINESE	圣诞快乐 (shèng dàn kuài lè)
CORNISH	Nadelek lowen
CORSICAN	bon Natale
CROATIAN	sretan Božić
CZECH	veselé Vánoce
DANISH	glædelig jul
DHOLUO	bedgi sikuku maber
DUTCH	vrolijk Kerstfeest
ENGLISH	Merry Christmas
ESPERANTO	gojan Kristnaskon
ESTONIAN	häid jõule
FAROESE	gleðilig jól
FILIPINO	Maligayang Pasko
FINNISH	hyvää joulua
FRENCH	joyeux Noël
FRISIAN	noflike Krystdagen
FRIULAN	bon nadâl
GALICIAN	bo Nadal
GEORGIAN	gilocav shoba axal wels
GERMAN	Frohe Weihnachten
GREEK	καλά Χριστούγεννα (kala khristougenna / kala xristougenna)
HAITIAN CREOLE	jwaye Nowel
HAWAIIAN	mele Kalikimaka
HEBREW	חג מולד שמח (hag molad saméa'h)
HINDI	Krismas ki subhkamna
HUNGARIAN	boldog karácsonyt
ICELANDIC	gleðileg jól
IGBO	annuri Ekeresimesi
ILOCANO	naragsak a paskua
INDONESIAN	selamat Natal
IRISH GAELIC	Nollaig shona
ITALIAN	buon Natale
JAVANESE	sugeng Natal
JAPANESE	merii kurisumasu
KABYLIAN	tameghra tameggazt
KHMER	រីក​រាយ​បុណ្យ​ណូអ៊ែល (rik reay bon Noel)
KINYARWANDA	Noheli nziza
KIRUNDI	Noheli nziza
KOREAN	메리크리스마스
KURDISH	Noela we pîroz be
LAO	souksan van Christmas
LATIN	felix dies Nativitatis (literal translation) / felicem diem Nativitatis (spoken)
LATVIAN	priecīgus Ziemassvētkus
LIANGMAI	mathabou Christmas
LIGURIAN	bón dênâ / bón natâle
LINGALA	eyenga elamu ya mbotama ya Yezu
LITHUANIAN	su Kalėdomis / linksmų Kalėdų
LOW SAXON	vrolik Kersfees
LUGANDA	mbagaliza amazalibwa a'malungi
LUGOSA	mbendheza amaisuka agobhusa
LUXEMBOURGEOIS	schéi Chrëschtdeeg
MACEDONIAN	среќен Божиќ (srećen Božić, formal) / Христос се роди (Hristos se rodi, informal) / Навистина се роди (Navistina se rodi, as a reply to the informal greeting)
MALAGASY	tratry ny Krismasy / arahabaina tratry ny Krismasy / arahaba tratry ny Krismasy
MALAY	selamat hari natal
MALAYALAM	Christmas ashamshagal
MALTESE	il-milied it-tajjeb / milied hieni
MANX	Nollick ghennal
MAORI	meri Kirihimete
MIZO	Krismas chibai
MONÉGASQUE	bon Natale
MONGOLIAN	zul sariin bayariin mend hurgie
NORMAN	jostous Noué
NORMAN (JÈRRIAIS)	bouan Noué
NORWEGIAN	god jul
OCCITAN	bon Nadal
OROMO	baga ayyaana dhaloota Kiristoos isin ga'e
PAPIAMENTU	bon pasku
PERSIAN	کریسمس مبارک (Christmas mobaarak)
POLISH	wesołych świąt bożego Narodzenia
PORTUGUESE	feliz Natal
ROMANI	baxtalo Krečuno
ROMANIAN	un Crăciun fericit
RUKIGA	Noheiri nungi / webale Noheiri
RUSSIAN	с Рождеством Христовым (S rozhdestvom Khristovym)
SAMOAN	ia manuia le Kerisimasi
SARDINIAN	bona Pasca de Nadale (logudorese) / bona paschixedda (campidanese)
SCOTTISH GAELIC	Nollaig chridheil
SERBIAN	Христос се роди (Hristos se rodi)
SHONA	Krisimas yakanaka
SILESIAN	Radosnych godów
SINDHI	Chrismas joon wadhayoon
SINHALESE	suba nattalak wewa
SIOUX LAKOTA	wanikiya Tonpi ampetu kin washte kte ni / wanikiya Tonpi (ampetu) wowiyushkin
SLOVAK	vesele vianoce
SLOVENIAN	vesel božič / vesele božične praznike
SOBOTA	dobro dedek
SPANISH	feliz Navidad
SRANAN	switi Krisneti
SWAHILI	heri la Krismasi
SWEDISH	God Jul
TAGALOG	Maligayang Pasko
TAHITIAN	'ia 'oa'oa e teie Noera
TAMAZIGHT	asgwass amaynou
TAMIL	கிறிஸ்மஸ் தின நல் வாழ்த்துக்கள் (Krismas dina nal vaagethoukkal)
TELUGU	Krismas shubhakankshalu
THAI	สุขสันต์วันคริสต์มาส (souksaan wan Christmas)
TONGAN	mele Kilisimasi
TSWANA (SETSWANA)	Keresemose sentle
TURKISH	Noeliniz kutlu olsun
UDMURT	Shuldyr Ymuśton
UKRAINIAN	З Різдвом Христовим (Z Rizdvom Khrystovym) / Щасливого Різдва Христового (ʃtʃaslyvogo rizdva Hrystovogo)
VIETNAMESE	Mừng Chúa Giáng Sinh
WALOON ("betchfessîs" spelling)	djoyeus Noyé
WELSH	Nadolig llawen
WEST INDIAN CREOLE	jénwèl
YIDDISH	אַ גוטע ניטל (a gute nitl)
YORUBA	e kun odun Keresimesi
ZULU	UKhisimusi omuhle

A Bird's-Eye View

A Bird’s-Eye View

By Brenda Graff

It is amazing how we can go through life so busy that we lose sight of people, places, and things in our environments.  Our focus is merely on reaching a point of destination within a certain time frame, speeding right past the roses that we fail to stop and smell much less water, leaving only shards of petals on wilting stems.  

How did we get so crazy busy?  What are we all rushing about for?  I thought of this one morning as I was rushing out my own door to head to work.  I open my door to see our area had been hit with heavy fog, and regretting that I had not gotten up earlier.  As I drove down the road with daughter in tow, I began to pray for our safety.  You couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of you.  I was navigating with near zero visibility and with other vehicles having no headlights on.  This made it especially worrisome travel.  I must be at my job before the sun rises.  I was forced to slow down and risk being late.  I don’t do late.  This caused me to be a little anxious racing to get into a parking spot, to time clock, grabbing my gear, and heading to my ride to hit the road again.  

I am a school bus driver.  I must be on time to gather the students to deliver to their schools on time.  Everything hinges on my action or inaction and safety skills in the morning, and afternoons.   I felt my heart racing that morning, exhausting myself nearly into panting as if I had just run a marathon, just to be on time!  I didn’t like that feeling.  Call me a type A personality or predictable and boring if you must, but I like to be prepared for all situations.  I am just that girl.  I enjoy knowing I have an organized plan for my day, which by the way…. RARELY happens!  I’ve spent most of my life living in the unknown.  Never knowing what to expect.  However, there is always a plan B, C, D, E, F… of scenarios prepared and stored in my brain always in case Plan A fails and so forth.  I’m sure a psychologist would have fun breaking that one down.  I know that I live a flight or fight mode most of the time.  I am having to learn to relax, be at ease, not disease!  

As I get older, am finding that there are just some things not worth trying to conquer.  I no longer am trying to change anyone but MYSELF!  Whew what a relief!  I spent years exhaustively trying to conquer that quest…fighting this cause and that cause, and suffering relationships… and who was I trying to change you may ask?  Anyone and everyone who didn’t believe the way I believed. I finally realized that God was doing perfectly good on His own with His creation, and didn’t need my assistance.  I realized that I am here as a tool for Him but only to be used in His will not my opinion.    If we could all grab that concept we would get along so much better.  I am finding that getting along is getting much harder these days in our society.  

There are a lot of angry folks functioning in this crazy race of life rushing to work, soccer games, grocery stores, banks, doctor offices, etc.…I see it every day from the bird's-eye view of my bus as I sit in heavy traffic on the feeder roads of the freeway watching near death experiences from road-ragers, tail-gating texters, and distracted drivers.  All the while I am wishing I have a bull horn to scream out, “SLOW DOWN”!  I am stuck for many hours throughout my week at traffic lights where I see quite a bit going on.  I see the teen disagreeing with dad in a car, the couple quarreling, the baby crying, the worker scarfing their lunch racing through the stoplight, the coffee spiller, the face painter plowing through caution lights while applying mascara.    

However, I also get to perceive the sadness in the eyes of a driver who is waiting on the light to turn green, or is possibly waiting for the green light in life to live.  I see the worn-down faces of the weary waiting patiently to get home after what may have been an excruciating day for them.  Did they come from a funeral?  Or perhaps caring for a long-term ill loved one.  Did they just lose their job?  Have they pulled double-shift?    Often, I witness the distraught appearance of a driving damsel with children in tow probably wondering how she’s going to make rent this month or feed her kids this week.  One day I got to see a homeless Veteran with a shopping cart carrying all his belongings across the busy roadway nearly missing a direct hit as he limped his way to a spot to rest.  

My heart broke, as tears blurred my view just enough for the light to turn so I could go, I became bitterly angry as I thought how this man must have fought for our freedom at one time to end up like this.  

I drove past a few more on street corners begging for their bread for the day possibly the posers that never served in the military, or became mentally ill, or lost their homes due to irrevocable circumstances and become disturbed.  But who’s to say?  It isn’t my judgement call.  I just give as the Lord directs.

The bus I drive has no radio, or A/C for that matter.  The only sound I hear is the roar of the century old engine, and the rattling of the doors barely hanging on their hinges “clack…clack…clack” with each bump in the road.  I spend more than half my day on the bus.  This gives me plenty of one on one time with God.  

As I viewed these images that broke my heart or cause me to feel the injustice of it all, I began to ask God why He would allow me to feel this pain as if it were me personally.  I genuinely hurt for that Vet, that driver I see distraught, the impatient mother ranting at the child…. “Lord, I don’t want to feel it” “Lord I don’t want to see it”, I pleaded.  “Jesus, Do something”.   I wanted to see something good, something I could find beauty in.  I know there is pain in this world, it is shoved in our faces through social media, news, radio, on the streets EVERY DAY!  I don’t want to focus on that.  I’m worn out mentally from all the negativity before noon of that day.  As I approached my second shift run I prayed asking for God to show me Him.  

Once back in traffic I experienced the same race-car drivers dangerously darting in front of my bus with no signal. It was the same impatient ingrates, who apparently don’t care to live or how someone dies…. cars honking at my long yellow obstacle in the road because I can’t cross a medium with a semi running towards me at warp speed with a load of students.  It’s enough to make you hang your keys up permanently, and commence to walking everywhere, but then you would have to worry about being run over.  

Anyhow, that evening as I was heading on last route, I noticed up on a wire hundreds of birds gathered.  A group would swoop to the ground and snatch a worm, and fly back up, and then the next group would commence to follow, and so forth.  There was unique rhythm as they would swoop with such grace and grandeur, it was a majestic mid-air dance to watch. So much so, I suddenly felt the presence of God, it overwhelmed me as I was reminded of this verse.

Matthew 6:25-26 The Message (MSG)

“If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

These birds were not given a map or a manual on how to gather their food to feast.  They were not choreographed to fly musically swaying together in a motion so majestically flawless, free, and unfettered.

They weren’t running into each other hen pecking their way fighting to get the worm…and no one was flipping a bird for being cut-off in traffic. 

Oh, no, instead they were created to clearly see with a unique bird’s-eye view the hand that feeds them, the one who created all living things including their meal moving about under the soil in which we were created from.  They follow the rhythm of the heartbeat of their maker, our God.  They swarm to safety in the shelter of His majestic wings without a care, without a worry.  

These birds migrate together flocking and staging themselves high on a wire safe from predators, close knit together to protect themselves as they prepare to eat, travel, swoop, and swarm in a dance that only our Dear Heavenly Father could have taught them. 

Did I tell you?   I saw Him, I saw God…. I witnessed His beauty, His magnificence, His omnipotence, through watching those birds in action, but mostly I witnessed and experienced His LOVE as I realized how much He does love us…ALL His creation!  He reminded me that despite what I may witness in this world.  

I must keep that bird’s-eye view from the bus to keep His perspective on people, places, and ALL living things.  And the pain and injustice I feel for these folks when I see it, is because it is what our Heavenly Father feels, and has planted in me. To remove it would be to remove His heart, His truth, and His love from my being.  The being created to comfort those who are in affliction, to bind up the broken-hearted, tenderly whisper His love and display His desire for all mankind, to reach out, touch, and bring glory to His kingdom.

To not see the pain would be painfully unjust.  We should hurt for our fellow man or women, our children, our society.  If we who are created in Christ cannot, then we are nothing more than an empty vessel wasting our days on this God given journey in life.  We need a bird’s-eye view not only for the perspective of pain but to pry open the purpose God has instilled in us, to see how His heart beats for us and through us.

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:24-25)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Cor 1:3-4)

Pain removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.  ~ C.S. Lewis

 Watch this incredible starlings flying in rhythm!  CLICK BELOW