• Things that are hard can both protect and crack • Our lives are like icebergs, holding much beneath the surface • Change, whether slow or rapid, requires many adjustments • The support of others covers many difficulties • Use caution when navigating slippery situations • Calmness can be cool and refreshing when things get hot • A heated temper needs space and time to cool down • A cold heart is an unhappy heart • We can become numbed through adverse conditions • Preservation of positive character helps bring and maintain lasting relationships • Like people, frozen water comes in many forms and varieties • Homes are formed in our very diversity… we penguins, polar bears, and seals • Refractions through these prisms bring forth amazing results • The shining Light of God displays beauty within
Ripples… Ripples spreading across the surface of the water. We kids laugh as we challenge each other to see how far we can skip our rocks, chosen with the greatest care for shape, size, and weight. … Dad and mom smile as we enjoy our afternoon at the local lake. We race along the shoreline and then gather at the table for our impromptu picnic of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, perhaps with some chips or apples, maybe some pickles, and something for thirsty throats. Thinking of those happy days makes me smile.
My mind travels ahead through our growing years and into adulthood. I think of all the ripples that have been set in motion by each of our lives. All that we have said, done, and thought echo through the waters of time. Through joy and pain, peace and tumult, life and death… new birth grows around us and through us.
And do we live in contentment? May it be so! For there is One greater than us all, who travels with us and looks after us. They are daily reminders of wonder and awe, if we but see it and hear it, listening fully and resting in God’s awesome presence.
I am reminded of Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “…if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things… I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” [Philippians 4:8b, 12b-13]
When discontent churns in me, I have discovered that finding that calm place is a great challenge and sometimes a long road. I cling to God like a young child. His patient love fills me. The psalmist must have had a sense of this as well when he said, “But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.” [Psalm 131:2]
So, from this racing world and anxious hearts… for good or harm, the ripples of our being spread. May we turn to God for quiet, compassionate hearts and lips.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23
Ripples… Ripples spreading across the surface of the water. May God’s light shine. Be encouraged.
The Still Small Voice 