Up the Sunbeam

In Sausalito, CA there is an artist named Bill Dan who works with rocks in a very unique way. As this picture shows, he balances groups of rocks in formations that seem to defy gravity. In fact, the first time I saw his sculptures standing on the shore of San Francisco Bay like frozen sentries, I was sure there was some kind of wire or glue involved. As if he could hear what I was thinking, he turned to one of his creations and just nonchalantly took it apart, tossing the rocks into the pile, turning them back into ordinary rocks again. Moments later, he began a new stack and I was completely transfixed as I watched him work. He held each stone carefully like he was listening to something he alone could hear. He would position stone upon stone, making almost imperceptible adjustments until suddenly he would just remove his hands and as if by magic the rocks stood still. Despite appearances, it is not magic, but his understanding of physical laws that allow this wonderful artist to...

"What I'm about to tell you is true. Anyone who will not receive God's kingdom like a little child will never enter it. Luke 8:17 (NIrV) She was only 7 or 8, riding in one of the youngest divisions in the junior rodeo. She was clearly on a very well-trained and experienced horse and her confidence in him was unmarred by fear or apprehension or pressure of any kind. This beautiful little girl rode in every event for girls of her age group, and the entire day she rode with her feet out of the stirrups and a smile that never left her face. She was the picture of pure joy! Everything seemed to exhilarate and delight her. You could see that she rode every race to win, but it was the doing of it that she loved--winning could only be icing on the cake for her. She loved the wind in her hair, the sun on her face and the horse beneath her that gave her wings to fly. Ever since that day, when I think of the "joy of the Lord," this is the picture that comes to mind. No...

“Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Isaiah 64:8 (NIV) I am so often prone to believe that I have to ACT right, WORK hard, TRY with all my might to become the person I ought to be, and yet, this passage tells me that I am clay in the hands of the Master Potter. The only help the Potter needs from me is to be soft and pliable when He shapes me. That is so counter-intuitive in our modern culture where everything is about performance, achievement, success, image. I have the hardest time being patient with a process that takes place on God’s timetable, not my own, and over which I have no control except to be still. I was writing about this to a friend this morning to encourage her in her Christian walk. I wanted her to rest in the truth that the Christian life is not about self-imposed behavior modification, but the transformation that comes at the hands of a loving Father who has promised to make us just lik...

"And these are but the outer fringe of His works; how faint the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?" Job 26:14 (NIV) I squeal over wild skies and catch my breath at mountain splendor and fairly explode with the exhilaration of the wind roaring like a freight train through the pines. I can't pass by an Iris in bloom without stopping to marvel at the imagination of the God who not only thought up its form and colors out of nothing, but made it exquisitely beautiful for everyone . . . or no one . . . to see—He made it just because He can and because it displays something of the beauty that He IS. C. S. Lewis once wrote to his friend of the blessing of seeing, feeling or experiencing something pleasurable, "It is a message. We know we are being touched by a finger of that right hand at which there are pleasures for evermore. There need be no question of thanks or praise as a separate event, something done afterwards. To expe...