This beautiful picture, taken from the house that now belongs to my aunt, floods my heart with memories of my childhood. My grandparents built their home here many, many years ago, and my sister and I would spend our summers swimming and fishing in the river. These were summers filled with laughs, with ice cream, with tennis and soap operas, with the slobbery kisses of a big St. Bernard, with day trips, and helping my grandfather tinkering about. So many things come to mind, and my heart misses my loved ones now gone home, but there is one thing in particular that brings tears to my eyes as I gaze upon this all too familiar view. Not only is my mind flooded with memories, but my heart is also flooded with love for the One who created this beauty. How could I have missed it and not seen my Father in the reflection? How did I not even notice, growing up, that this beautiful scene is but a glimpse of the beauty of the One who died so that I could be free?
My sweet Jesus was there all along, and my heart overflows with gratitude as I consider the price He paid for me to know Him and to see His magnificence. He is my King, my Lord, the giver of my life, and yet He gave His life for me. I was a sinner; the worst of sinners on a path full of mistakes and bad choices, and yet there He was, the Son of God, making Himself known to me. Our Father longs for His children to notice Him in the reflection of the clouds in the clear, cool water and He longs for us to see Him in colours He paints across the sky every time the sun rises and sets. He desires to make Himself visible through you and through me.
The carefree days of childhood have long since passed and sometimes, as I look around, I long for the peaceful scenery of a time gone by, but what I long for most is Jesus. He has a way of stilling the storms in my heart, and tending to all my scars in such a way that, like the river in the calm of the morning, my heart becomes a reflection of Him. It is my desire, more than anything else, to allow Jesus to become such a part of me that it is no longer clear if it is me or it is Jesus through me shining His light onto this broken world.
Lord Jesus, come. I welcome your presence into my life. I want to know you, and I want, Lord, to give you my all, to walk in complete surrender, so that my reflection of You is so clear, so powerful, that like the reflection of the trees and the clouds on the stilled morning waters, I shine with nothing, but You. I give You all praise. In Your loving and mighty name, amen.
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