More Than a Picture

By Jacob -
This last week Carmen was sick and I had meetings in the city. On my way back I bought a bundle of roses from a roadside salesman for Carmen. A few mornings later, I noticed that all the other roses were quickly wilting. But in the midst of these dying roses stood one, alive and beautiful in contrast to the others. It was an instant reminder of a verse.

"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ...Stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." 1 Corinthians 15:58

In this life, we have the choice to either stand firm, unmovable and confident in the Christ, or we can wilt under the cares of the world. I have to admit, the latter choice is an easy one to make. In fact, it just happens. Many times, by the end of the day I look more like one one of those drooping roses. But thanks be to God, who give us victory so that we can continue.

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10

As I look at this picture with Carmen talking to one of her good friends, I am struck by the vastness of the universe created and orchestrated by the Almighty God. I am so small. 

"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the starts, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" Psalm 8:4 

"Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust." Isaiah 40:15 

I am so grateful that a the God of the universe would even consider me. 

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