What We’re Reading Lately (WWRL)

Do you have a stack of unread books, staring at you, mocking you? ‘¦just reminds me of piles of laundry, dishes in the sink, and paperwork on the counter. Sometimes all of this unfinished business starts. to. make. me. crazy! Don’t get me wrong I love books! So we’ve begun to play nice with that snarky stack of books again. The words here have connected with our hearts, and so we share just a few of them now, with you:

Tracy

My life is like a weaving
Between my God and me
I do not choose the colors
He worketh steadily.

Sometimes He weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside

Not ’till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why

The dark threads are as needful
In the skillful Weaver’s hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.

The Five Silent Years of Corrie Ten Boom, by Pam Rosewell Moore

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Sydney

“Look at the rainbow,” said the mother, as she pointed towards it with uplifted arm, “and glorify Him who has formed it. In the fiery lightning and the fearful thunder God shows us His great power and majesty; but in the beautiful colors of the rainbow, He displays His goodness and His mercy.” The Little Lamb, Christoph von Schmid

Makes me think of Genesis 9:13: “I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.”

Carissa

In Beholding Jesus: Letters to My Children, John Gillespie gives this powerful yet brief commentary on John 1:14, which describes Jesus as being “full of grace and truth”:

“…Jesus is full of grace. The word here is charis. It means favour, acceptance, a kindness done without expectation of return. It speaks of the absolute freeness of the love of God towards us, and by definition, insists that we are undeserving. Jesus Christ is full of this!

Finally, Jesus is full of truth. The Greek word here is aletheia. It literally means that the unseen reality of a thing agrees with the seen appearance. In terms of Jesus Christ being “full of… truth,” the meaning here is, where Jesus is concerned, what you see is what you get fully, and in every aspect. The word can fairly be translated faithfulness or truthfulness.

So, we could translate this powerful little verse like this:

Jesus Christ has, without shortage or limit, an abundance of kindness and favour giving love for us. He does not need to or ever expect to get anything back. This is not just a surface thing with Jesus, it is what He is really like way down deep and He will never be any other way.”