Tori Thomas

This week I did an impromptu photoshoot with my friend Tori Thomas. It rained for the first time in weeks, so we decided to utilize the beautiful light and enjoy the puddles. Tori was a wonderful model.

And so she lives

Toes in wetness.

A very wet, but very happy Elsie Ruth.

The remains of chalk art on our driveway. If you can't tell, this once was Elsie's name.

Wiggle those teeth, girlie!

Today I jumped in puddles with Elsie. Today I splashed Jedi when he didn't want to get wet. Today I threw very wet balls for our very wet dog, Enya. Today I cheered Starbucks customers and made drinks just to their liking. Today I ate a cupful of whipped cream. Today I chose not to listen to the radio. Today I went running in the rain. Today I played the piano for the first time in a long time. Today I watched Disney's "Mulan" with some of my favorite people, and laughed my head off with the rest of my family.

And in the midst of it all, I thought, "So this is what it's like to live."

Surprises

Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord Who rises
With healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after the rain

In holy contemplation
We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation,
And find it ever new;
Set free from present sorrow,
We cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow
Bring with it what it may.

-William Cowper, 1731-1800

Some such surprises from last week:

• A drive home at night reflecting on a hard week gone by, enjoying the beauty of the bright moon in a clear sky, then silenced and in awe of the beauty from the combination of truck headlights, fallen leaves, and a wet road.
• A box of Time Life photography books found at our library's book sale.
• Two hours spent wandering downtown Fredericksburg with my camera, then curling up in the window seat of my favorite coffee shop with a good book and a cup of chai.
• An unexpected gift of money toward my laptop.
• Dinner with one friend, lunch with another. An evening of pizza and a bonfire with one group of friends, an evening of hotdogs, fondue, and another bonfire with another group of friends. Good fellowship at all of them.
• Gingerbread syrup arrived at my Starbucks... which means I get my favorite drink several weeks early.
• My favorite sweater was lost for almost a month, but a friend found it for me this weekend.
• Memorized Scripture coming to mind at really good times.
• Finding myself in prayer in the midst of craziness at work.
  
• God showing me the depths of my own heart in painful ways, but finding the pain to be good.
  
• God's truth prevailed, healed me, ministered to my soul, sought me out, firmly grounded, sweetly, convicted, chastened, forgave, revealed, once again found preeminence in my heart.
  
  It was a good week.

Thoughts on Psalm 23

You make me lie down in green pastures. You remove my strength, limit my endurance, or in some other way actively call me to spend times in rest and recuperation. You break me so that You can bind me. You wound me and heal me again.

You then gently lead me beside still waters, allowing me to drink deep from the fountain of healing- the fountain of your delights.

You restore my soul- my emotions, which have long been abused and misused by myself and others in a search for fulfillment; my will, which has been wrongly strengthened in evil and wrongly broken in areas of good and growth; and my mind, which is daily polluted and inundated with perverse "truths" and worldviews contrary to Your Word.

"You restore my soul" is a promise from You and an act of faith in me.

It is truth, and it is beautiful.