Windows of the Heart

Through the Windowpane of the Heart

Malachi 3:10 God told them, “bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there might be food in my house. And try me in this,” says the Lord of Hosts, “If I will not open to you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be enough room to receive it.”

Windows of the heart allow opportunity to look beyond one’s self, beyond circumstances, and to see the possibilities beyond imagination through the certainty of hope and the promise of the Lord.

Each morning we awaken to windows of circumstance.

Flowers bloom amidst natural decay and man’s neglectful apathy and we are blessed in being able to see the flowers in all their delicate grace and beauty.

We awaken to the promise of spring as the warm southern winds take away the chill of winter and the delicate new growth bedecked with Spring Beauties, Bluets, Rue Anemone, and Violets prompt the soul to shout “Yes, Lord!” with exceeding joy.

We may lift our eyes to the mountains and know that God is in control because the seasons ebb and flow according to His plan from the beginning.

Pale green tinges the tips of the tree limbs as they are timed to burst forth in the summer foliage.

Redbud trees soften with the unfurling of the tiny pink buds in response to the longer days and the warmth of the sunshine on their tender growth.

Windows of understanding of the situations that befall us intermingle with the spiritual truth in such a manner as to lift our view of God to heights unknown through being given His peace in the perfectness of His purpose.

He gives vision to see beyond the obvious common sense practicality of intellectual man.

He gives vision to see what lies beneath mere words and what lies beyond the brokenness of empty existence lived apart from His glorious grace.

To some of His children, windows open to witness the wellsprings of Living Water, giving sight that is enlightened to see God’s perfectly detailed order in the midst of mans chaos.

Man’s deeds serve to camouflage the beauty and goodness created by Almighty God for those who do not search for God’s creative presence in the design of all things.

Basic mistrust and misunderstanding of life is made manifest by glaring ugliness created apart from God or the influence of His people.

Windows on our world reveal contrasting visions to each individual, whether looking with defeat and pessimism common to man, or looking with hope of eternity through Christ Jesus.

Only thoughts praising God and only deeds done as unto the Lord allow vision to see the incomparable riches of His grace.

To gaze through tattered curtains and look upon mindless misery requires one to look above that circumstance to see miracles of light.

Opportunities abound for those given the will to see and the desire to move upward with the Lord.

Through the windows of our hearts we may see those resigned to defeat, to suffering through choice rather than to allow God’s mercy and grace to give direction.

We may become a light shining though a window that God might use to point the lost to turn from the wilderness into the sunlit clearing at the feet of Jesus.

One must open the heart to see with uplifted eyes, as though carried aloft upon wings of eagles, to lift heart and hopes higher than the painful hurts of the present life.

Witnessed through the windows of our heart and soul, searching eagerly for what is good magnifies the greatness and gloriousness of God. We are blessed and He alone is glorified. Let us praise Him!!!

Reflections multiply the joy of our understanding, both in nature and in the soul.

Thinking Beyond Time

To See Beyond the Pane of Glass

Windows present themselves as opportunities to see beyond the pane of glass… beyond a time worn frame from another era, perhaps with glass jaggedly broken or missing, and we wonder what thoughts might have stirred the hearts of those who came before.

Windows help frame the context of eternity through the opening in the wall with which we might close ourselves away from the vastness of God’s creation…

Walls limit imagination,  preventing probing the unlimited possibilities promised by God.

Windows allow physical vision to mirror the heart in the perception of what the soul sees.

Our eyes both reflect what fills our hearts and color the vision of a faithful believer through the filter of God’s Word.

A window is opportunity to see beyond self and allow the thoughts of God to transport us in that moment to a heavenly plain.

It gives us pause to taste the goodness of the Lord in the midst of quiet stillness and to rise above the circumstances and the complexities of the moment.

In that quiet as we wait upon the Lord we may hear the laughter of another time…

We may ponder the sovereignty of the Lord in His keeping of each child in His flock.

We might remember looking into the eyes of a sister and seeing the beautiful light of eternity sparkling through circumstances of that day to reveal a heart tuned to the presence of the Lord.

In looking through the pane of glass we might see the reflection of the touch of God’s loving hand in the changing color scheme of nature that marks the passing of our seasons which are but a day in God’s timing.

Do you suppose that those who went before us paused to watch the changing canvas and gave honor to God for brightening the world with sunshine?

Perhaps they too, just like we do, gazed out through such a window and saw a cloud of fog blocking everything from view for a time.

Perhaps they like us, sometimes waited patiently in expectation for that sea of white to be invaded by the brilliance of the morning sun making its rounds as appointed by God during His creation of the world.

Do you think perhaps they delighted in looking out on a cold winter morning to see the covering of everything with a layer of snow that softened the imperfections and filled the ugly fingerprints of worldly man so that one could again rejoice in the beauty of God’s creation?

In gazing through that glass, that opening to something outside ourselves, we too are able to change focus to what is good and true and beautiful rather than dwelling on the depravity of man.

Looking over the vast expanse in every season overwhelms us with the majesty of our Holy God.

Our image of Him should be grandly magnified so that we might more intimately know our Creator and our Loving Shepherd.

God chose to frame the beauty of His creation with natural frames, which if we will see them, are graceful touches that embellish the glory of all He created.

We in kind, because we are created in His image, might choose to place the windows of our homes in a manner to frame the beauty in which God has placed us for a time.

A graceful willow tree often grows to lean out over the still water of a lake and becomes a frame for the scene beyond.

When our hearts and souls are tuned to be in concert with the music of God’s creation our eyes often see the poetry of the Living God through the windows of our lives.

When one sees with the hope of what is yet to be, our vision extends far beyond that pane of glass to lift us to a higher plain of comprehension.

We are blessed with peace through such vision of our Father; He is glorified through recognition of Him as powerful Almighty God Who was, and is, and always will be the God of Glory.

A Teacher's Legacy~Fifty Years Later

The Last Last Word… Leona Lee

The words of one’s days are counted on the scroll, woven together with golden threads where the Lord wove the pathways into a fabulous tapestry.  As a child, this special friend was woven into my life and her joy touched me before I was her student.  The connection was made.

It is my belief that this woman was placed in this school at this time for God’s purpose.

An encourager, one who introduced her students to many spheres beyond our limited expectations, and set us apart with great works of literature. She was always going before us to make opportunities where we knew none existed. She made learning fun and productive, and gave us a hunger for more thoughts that would stretch our imaginations and our joy in doing all things well.

Fascinated and captivated, we sat in rapt attention, as she would read with great drama.  Her joy in pouring out her love for the language was not lost on her students; some of whom would become lasting friends for many decades. 

Then I only knew of her love for us. I knew the way she made us feel about ourselves and about life that loomed before us; I knew the excitement of those vibrant classrooms and the anticipation for what she would show us through the year. Now, in looking back, I see more deeply into her interaction with each student. She had the gift of seeing into our personalities and weighing our gifts and then inspiring us through creating openings for the use of these gifts to further develop for use later in life. Through the years she remembered these hopes she had for us through what she observed shining through our personalities, and she would continue encouraging, remembering, longing to hear how we were progressing through life.

Through later conversations I began to see a pattern in her questions to me as we talked. And through the moments that she remembered, I see how she used those moments as teaching opportunities, always teaching, encouraging, delighting with me in seeing how God had taken those gifts and had begun to use them for something beyond myself.

Unknown to us then was a monumental moment in which her destiny was set; her gifts were sparked into life in her consciousness.  As you may read below, her sister wrote a bit of history of her life, and we learn that when she first started to school and had this soft-spoken teacher, she decided then and there that she would one day become a teacher. And that she did!

            Through the years many of her former students stayed in touch with Mrs. Lee, and she in turn delighted in keeping up with them and treasured hearing of their lives in through the passing years.  In the late seventies she and her husband moved to Texas, and my family and I moved to a different address. Somehow she and I lost track of each other for a number of years. I tried to find her on the internet without success. In the mean time I had begun writing poetry and longed to share it with her but had given up on finding her.  She did not give up on me however, and through the detective work of another former student we were reunited with great joy and gifted with a few more years with which to talk and write and remember special times. 

We delighted in the opportunity to see her when she and her sister were able to fly to Bentonville to attend a Gravette High School reunion. It was a great surprise and a joy to so many of us. She was still totally alert and full of excitement in re-uniting with so many former students.

Just a few months ago we received word that her time was nearing the end here on earth, and we were invited to write our thoughts of her and how she had influenced our lives, and to email or mail them to Texas to be read to her.  I trust that she received many such notes. I will add a few of my thoughts, but at this point I would like to comment on this experience.  Leona Lee was very much content in her soul, and looking forward to seeing Jesus.  So in this aspect of writing to her, I was given freedom to share in her joy in what was to come… freedom to write and share memories with her while at the same time celebrating with her the victorious finish of the race for her. Tears, yes. Joy, yes. But she let us know that all was well with her soul. What a beautiful finale to this life. 

            In a very profound statement, Jimm Hendren spoke in simple elegance:  “she taught us how to live with grace, and she showed us how to die with grace.”  Isn’t that a beautiful legacy?

            A few days later, her sister Billie sent us a copy of a hand written letter to loved family and friends that Mrs. Lee had written some time earlier.  I will not go into the whole of the letter, but share just a bit of the essence of her thinking: She asked that there not be a service because she said, she would not be there, in that container of ashes.  She was confident that God would welcome her home. She also spoke of the beautiful life here, and the wonderful place the Lord had prepared for our sojourn here in this phase of life. She loved all of us.

We thought we had been given opportunity to speak our last words to her… that they would be read to her even if she were unable to communicate a response to us. So, indeed, through this letter she had written for safekeeping, she got the last, last word! And we are glad! This is a legacy punctuated with long living words of love.

Mrs. Lee’s sister Billie Bain had written out a nice article about the life of Leona Lee, and I have added it here for those of you who might like more of her life story.

                       

  LEONA ANITA SLAUGHTER LEE, WAS BORNJUNE 25, 1913 IN BEAUKISS, TEXAS. SHE WAS THE ELDEST CHILD OF WILLIAMAND CORA SLAUGHTER. SHE DIDN’T GET TO START SCHOOL UNTIL SHE WAS 7 YEARS OLD AND SHE WALKED ABOUT TWO MILES TO ATTEND CLASS IN A TWO ROOM SCHOOL HOUSE. A BIG ROOM FOR THE BIG KIDS AND A LITTLEROOM FOR THE LITTLE KIDS. WHEN SHE WAS A LITTLE OLDER THEY HAD MOVED TO ANOTHER COUNTY AND SHE RODE A HORSE TO SCHOOL.

  THE FIRST YEAR SHE ATTENDED SCHOOL AND LISTENED TO A PRETTY, SOFT SPOKEN LADY CALLED ‘TEACHER” SHE KNEW SHE WAS GOING TO BE A TEACHER. THAT YEAR SHE BECAME A PLAY TEACHER, USING HER SIBLINGS AS HER STUDENTS. AT THE AGE OF NINETEEN WITH TWO YEARS OF COLLEGE

BEHIND HER SHE STARTED AS A REAL TEACHER IN A FIRST GRADE CLASS ROOM. TWO DEGREES AND 43 YEARS LATER SHE HAD TAUGHT EVERY GRADE LEVEL AND MOST SUBJECTS. THE MAJORITY OF HER TEACHING YEARS WERE IN HIGH SCHOOL CLASS ROOMS WHERE ENGLISH, LITERATURE AND DRAMA

WERE HER FORTE.

  DURING WW~II SHE WAS PRINCIPAL OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN MENTONE, TEXAS. SHE ALSO DROVE A SCHOOL BUS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO PECOS, TAUGHT SCHOOL ALL DAY, THEN BACK TO MENTONE TO TAKE CARE OF HER DUTIES AS PRINCIPAL..

  OVER THE YEARS SHE HAS RECEIVED HUNDREDS OF LETTERS, PHONE CALLS AND VISITS FROM EX-STUDENTS. SHE TAUGHT IN TEXAS, ARKANSAS AND ARIZONA BUT HER EX-STUDENTS ALWAYS FOUND HER. HER HUSBAND PASSED AWAY IN 2006 AT THE AGE OF 93 AND ONE OF HER STUDENTS HAD THE

OBITUARY PUBLISHED IN THE PAPER IN GRAVETTE, ARKANSAS WHERE SHE HAD TAUGHT..  IT INITIATED A FLOOD OF LETTERS, SYMPATHY CARDS AND PHONE CALLS FROM STUDENTS OF 50 YEARS AND MORE AGO. THEY ALL THANKED HER FOR WHAT THEY LEARNED FROM HER AND TOLD HER THEY LOVED HER..SHE HAS MANY STORIES TO TELL ABOUT STUDENTS AND CLASSROOMS AND MOST OF HER FAMILY HAS HEARD ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT SHE WAS A TEACHER THAT TAUGHT HER STUDENTS BUT HAD FUN WITH THEM ALSO.  SHE COACHED MANY PLAYS AND PROGRAMS OF EVERY KIND AND DESCRIPTION AND LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. LEONA AND EDDIE DID NOT HAVE CHILDREN OF THEIR OWN BUT SHE

FEELS LIKE SHE HAD MORE THAN ANY SET OF PARENTS EVER HAD.  SHE HAD 43 YEARS OF STUDENTS AND SO MANY OF THEM HAVE REMAINED AS CLOSE TO HER AS MOST SONS AND DAUGHTERS REMAIN CLOSE TO THEIR PARENTS.

Expectation: Seek and you will find.

Before you open your eyes in the morning, is there a quickening of your soul as you think about the day before you? Is there an eagerness to seek out the Lord and welcome Him into what ever is the plan for the day? It is so exciting when He gives us ability and light that we might begin to see Him at work around us in ways beyond our imagining. He is always near at hand. He is always ready to take you by the hand and lead you, guide you, and walk with you through every journey. In Isaiah, God tells the people, "Here am I, Here am I." But most do not listen. Most do not hear the the sweet blessings He provides in knowing Him because they reject Him, they reject His Son; They are too busy or they just do not realize the urgency of His message.  But Oh! The joy in lifting our eyes to see as He illumines much to our understanding! His majesty is marvelous and His sovereignty is evident in all He has made. Look around you. Stop and listen. Open the eyes of your heart to the splendor of His glory now. Then awaken to bright new mornings waiting for those whose trust is in His Son.  Blessings.

Anticipation

Oh God! How bright is the anticipation for each new morning upon awakening, for You have been at work in my heart through the night.

Perhaps there are difficulties or unknown challenges, but You are there

There is unequaled anticipation when the day holds particular promise, for promise comes wrapped in the aura of expectation and tied with ribbons of silver and gold.

For You, God, always provide abundantly in ways beyond my thinking out.

On the way to the good things of expectation, sometimes the phone may ring. A friend’s voice brings added joy to a day already filled with sunshine! A grandchild may call purposefully to tell me I am loved. A deer might walk out into a meadow to graze while pair of hawks soar overhead.

Oh Lord, in Your Word You promise, “If we seek you we will be found by You.” Every day can be such a day for You are lavish in Your gifting of Yourself. When I pray with expectation, You allow me to see You working in ways beyond asking.

When I begin a journey by praying that You would choose to reveal more of Your Glory, I am never disappointed.

I see that glory in the changing seasons, in a sunrise, or in a storm moving overhead. I feel Your glory in my soul as I witness You opening scripture to understanding and fitting it to bring wisdom to every situation; I glimpse Your glory when You give words to encourage another as You allow me to see Your image shining through them in a specific way.

You give light to see answered prayer, but often it is in a different form than that for which I prayed. Your way is the only perfect way Lord, as You always work in each heart for good; My way, without Your leading, might soothe or improve circumstances without allowing Your molding process to dispel dross and divulge more of Your light shining through.

You fill me with joy when You allow vision of fruit filling my basket; fruit is of Your doing as You take my small offering and use it as You have purposed. As a small stream pours over a mountain cliff to become a voluminous waterfall, so too do You fill Your people to overflowing with Your grace and loving kindness which is then imparted as sweet nectar for others.

When I open myself to You, You have promised to guide me and give me perception of someone’s needs; You give me patience to ponder, followed by desire and wisdom to proceed.

Your glory is revealed in Your grace and mercy shining into the darkness to restore the years in a mysterious manner, but as with the wind and the Spirit I can feel the results of Your working within and respond with the fullness of Your joy.

Your glory shines through the brokenness of nature as well… ice storms snap limbs; insects gnaw on the leaves, and yet beauty lives wherever there is a spark of life.

I search for perfection in all that is living but find it not with my own eyes; my understanding of perfection is to be without blemish and perfect in physical form.

But You, oh Lord, weave beauty with inner light into all You have made, no matter what the season of life, regardless of present trials. I see that beauty as the broken trees continue to put on leaves of green that change into the brilliant golden rewards of autumn. I see the continuing beauty as the clouds clear and allow the sunshine to touch ice-laden limbs and cause them to sparkle like thousands of diamonds.

I tell You the truth; I feel lovingly enveloped in Your imparted beauty when I am driving up the mountain road; as I near the top I find myself set apart to gaze to the west toward the late afternoon sunshine, enthralled, as the whole forest is transformed into a phenomenal scene.

You have promised to continue that work in me to restore my brokenness and Your light should shine through to point others to Your gift of life. Without Your light my heart would see only death and destruction in the physical world; I would grieve inconsolably in witness of brokenness surrounding me; but in the light of Your working there is displayed perfection in glorious gold that outshines darkness with the hope of eternity.

There is perfection in everything You sovereignly allow, for You purposed every detail for the revelation of Your glory from the beginning.

You draw the children of promise out of the darkness and into the beautiful light, and Your Spirit teaches the deeper things heard from the Father. You give desire for those deeper things; You alone satisfy that longing with eternal food for the inspiration of inquiring hearts; scriptural poetry seems filled with deeper symbolic truth enfolded, providing great treasure when we are impassioned to contemplate meaning as we interact with that scripture by application through Your grace.

When I behold You in glory Lord, I will know You; I will recognize the Hope of my life for Whom I have hungered. I will rejoice in the light of Your amazing love that transcends all else and shines into every recess of my heart now with joy abounding.

I know the light of that love now through the Holy Spirit as He illumines the words of scripture stored in my heart; I know it through the eyes of believers; You promised to guide me with Your eye and You do that through Your leaders in so many ways.

I see Your compassion now. I read of it, and then see it poured out in graceful rivers of living water to impart the truth of Your gospel wherever You direct the flow.

The beauty of Your artistry sings of Your glory; with my heart and soul I harmonize with great rejoicing because I am confident in Your promise to be with me always.

Anticipation must unquestionably be accompanied with blessing designed for eternity just as surely as is obedience, for anticipation comes through trusting Your sovereignty more fully each passing day. There is nothing that exists that is beyond the powerful reach of Your mighty long arm.

With much blessing follows responsibility to open the floodgates of blessing to encourage others as You would enable me to do so through Your gifting.

I humbly thank You for giving me eyes to see Your blessing and for filling me with eager expectation of glimpsing more of Your glory each new day. AMEN

IMP 10/24/09