I sit at the kitchen table. My favorite coffee mug is in front of me. Notebook open, pen idle. I consider what to write, hoping to offer you encouragement—a reminder that hope can shine through both darkness and light.
I look out the window. Snowflakes swirl. A squirrel races up a white tree trunk, leaping branch to branch as snow falls. He pauses, nibbles a walnut, and enjoys the silence.
I watch in awe and realize the squirrel’s peaceful pause offers a lesson: in a culture urging us to rush, I am reminded that pausing can restore hope. I am reminded to rest. I close my eyes to thank the Lord for this beautiful day He has made. He fills my soul and inspires me to share words if I only stop and listen.
Will I stop and listen?
Yes. Trust in God and get going.
I write at the top of my notebook: Emmanuel, help me see You here. Help me listen. Let Your presence turn this ordinary morning into assurance that even in darkness, I’m not alone.
I want you to know that the same invitation is yours. When you pause, even for a moment, hope meets you there.
What helps you pause in the hurry of each day?
Friends outside the area: I’d love to help you gift MILES of MEANING! I’m happy to gift wrap with free shipping in the USA. Just reply to this email with the recipient’s address and how you’d like the book personalized.
Thank you so much,
Julie
From what I’m reading:
Author, Alistair Begg, on Peace:
“Finding true peace and prosperity is not about personal achievement. It is not about us fixing ourselves or being better people next year than we were this year. It’s about embracing what Christ has achieved.”
Source: Daily readings for Advent.
Poet, Luci Shaw, on Hope:
Hope has this lovely vowel at its throat.
Think how we cry “Oh!” as the sun’s circle
clears the ridge above us on the hill.
O is the shape of a mouth singing, and of
a cherry as it lends its sweetness
to the tongue. “Oh!” say the open eyes at
unexpected beauty and then, “Wow!”
O is endless as a wedding ring, a round
pool, the shape of a drop’s widening on
the water’s surface. O is the center of love,
and O was in the invention of the wheel.
It multiplies in the zoo, doubles in a door
that opens, grows in the heart of a green wood,
in the moon, and in the endless looping
circuit of the planets. Mood carries it,
and books and holy fools, cotton, a useful tool
and knitting wool. I love the doubled O
in good and cosmos, and how O revolves,
solves, is in itself complete, unbroken,
a circle enclosing us, holding us all together,
every thing both in center and circumference
zeroing in on the Omega that finds
its ultimate center in the name of God.
Source: The “O” in Hope from The Generosity
Thank you for making space in your inbox.
With gratitude,
Julie
P.S. We meet on Monday to write on Zoom at 11 am (EST). See you soon.
