A free Hug

Tonight my heart is tender as I look at the photo's of what is happening in Ferguson. From across the globe in South Africa, we are aware of what is being faced. But one image in particular really gripped me, I think it has gripped everyone.

This is the picture. Of a young black boy hugging a police officer. A news article said the following:

Devonte Hart (the little boy) stood on the outskirts of the Portland rally, about 10 feet away from Barnum (the police officer). He was trembling, his mom said. Tears were rolling down his cheeks.

"Devonte was struggling. He wouldn't speak. He was inconsolable," his mother Jennifer, a white lady who adopted him wrote. "My son has a heart of gold, compassion beyond anything I've ever experienced, yet struggles with living fearlessly when it comes to the police... He wonders if someday when he no longer wears a 'Free Hugs' sign around his neck, when he's a full-grown black male, if his life will be in danger for simply being."

Barnum told The AP he noticed the boy and wondered what was wrong. So he motioned for him to come up to his motorcycle.

The officer asked for his name and shook his hand. He also asked Devonte where he went to school (he is homeschooled), what he did this summer (he traveled around the U.S. with his family), and what he likes to do (art). The tears stopped.

Barnum has two teenage sons and has worked for Portland's police force for 21 years. While continuing to talk to Devonte, he looked at the "Free Hugs" sign on the ground and asked if he might get a hug as well.

 Devonte put his arms around the officer.

"Knowing how he struggled with police, his bravery and courage to catch my eye and approach me were impressive," Barnum said. "And it's a blessing for me that I didn't miss an opportunity to impact this child."

Hart said the moment was about "listening to each other, facing fears with an open heart."

The tears streaming down that young boys eyes are real, they are tears streaming from a very real place, just like his mom said - he wonders if, just because he is black if one day he too will be killed. I don't want to comment on Ferguson, I want to comment on the reality of what the enemy has done to our world through division, disunity and racism. South Africa knows the deep scar of racism, so does America and so many other nations and countries. It breaks my heart to think that people can hate each other because of a colour, when we all share the sparkling reality that God created us all. It is not only racism that divides us but our perspectives and prejudices. A few weeks ago I watched a video where a big happy teddy bear was standing in the middle of a town square. The bear had a sign around his neck saying "Free Hugs." Loads of people, old and young came streaming to the bear and giving happy hugs! People were all smiles, they were open and loving, vulnerable and open. At the end of the video, the bear took off its suit and inside the suit was a young autistic boy. A boy who never gets hugs because of peoples prejudice against him, the video says the only way he could get a hug was by disguising himself so that the world could not see him.

My heart breaks when I realise that this is how the world is and yet our Messiah, He went to where others did not want to go. He went on to a deserted street to encounter a lonely leper, he pulled a bleeding woman in close and called her daughter, he went over to the Samaritan women who was even by her own peoples standards, immoral. By the Jewish standard, she was despised and by the worlds standards (and the disciples) she was a woman - which meant she was less. Yet, that was where you would always find Yeshua, by those whom the world considered less. By those who had to draw water at 12 midday, not the usual time for a woman to be drawing water, but a woman who had to go draw water when others weren't around. Yeshua had such a deep love for the broken and the crushed, the hurting and especially the people whom others shunned.

This image in ferguson captures something that deeply stirs our hearts. The desire for us to see one another as people, to love one another as the other and to touch one another heart to heart. 

I think of Paul's written adage, to greet one another with a holy kiss. I believe it is not so much the kiss that matters, but the ability to greet one another by seeing one another. By truly showing that we accept our fellow brother or sister, that our glasses are put aside and our desire to see someone else is what matters. Imagine how much better our congregations, our marriages, our relationships and essentially our nations would be if we could do that....

There is a silence where Words come From!

Shalom all my fellow Peeps!

It is funny, you have all been in my heart even though I have not been posting, I have been hovering when I get the chance. Hovering and staying honoured to learn of all the ups and downs, all the God moments and heart moments you all have been going through. I am in this beautiful season of sublime quietness and stillness. Yahweh our God knows just what to do and even while I am missing the rest of this blog I was reminded of something a friend of mine always said. "There is a silence where words come from."

How true is that! My life is wonderfully full and God is doing amazing deep things within me. I am a vessel in His Strong Mighty Hands and as some of you already know, I am hosting a women abuse event on 6th of December (next Saturday!). It has been an amazing ride, so please I would like to ask that you ladies please keep me and the day in prayer. Even if it is a 2 minute prayer for us, all our hearts desires flow to the Throne Room. I believe so deeply that many are coming and many will be touched by the King. I hope to get some wonderful pictures to share!

This term I started art again after a God ordained break to finish a project I was working on. I can only say that each time I step in to the art class now, something new happens for me, it is truly magical. I praise Yeshua! Last night just before I drifted in to lah-lah land, I was reflecting on the word "Grace." I believe it has one fundamental meaning for all of us who believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah in the flesh. However, for wherever we are in our different seasons of life, Grace takes on new meaning and new faces. As I felt my heart turning over the word Grace, right before I drifted off, I felt my heart proclaim - Grace! Girl Resting in the Assurance that Christ is Enough!
That's me - that's my King, He is Enough, enough for everything!
I just love this Beautiful King of ours and I just want to send you all so much Love in Yeshua. God is truly doing so many amazing things in all of your lives and I honour how each one of you are reaching out and growing, even when it is challenging. Today I met a woman who said she doesnt dream anymore, she is too old to dream ( she is only in her 50's). It was really startling to hear those words, I pray that in someway she will start to dream again. Because I believe truly truly that we are in a God - ordained season of dreams, little girl dreams, big girl dream, big God dreams... it is time to dream again, so let's dream and dream deep!
Praying you are all blessed and that Faith will be your portion and that Grace will be your comfort!
Many blessings of Shalom!!

Thankfulness - and Knowing!

In the background of my thoughts, somewhere in the back over there, I have been reflecting on the reality of thankfulness. Last week everyone came alive with the reality of gratitude. And the Gratitude project is still on going. So because I love hearing from God and learning His Language on thankfulness, I looked at the Biblical Hebrew reality on thankfulness. There is no Biblical Hebrew word for gratitude so, its thankfulness. I know that many of you in the States are celebrating thanksgiving soon, we don't celebrate it here but gratitude and thankfulness is what I understand thanksgiving to be about.

Ancient Hebrew thought was (and is) completely different from much of our Western way of thinking. Out thinking of today is very Greek - orientated. Although the Jewish people are back in the land of Israel, the ancient Hebrew way of thinking (the kind of thinking that was prevalent in the Bible days) has disappeared from our society. As much as what is baffles the mind to perceive, the Greek culture came on to the scene in 800 B.C. and literally took over the world. It has shaped the European, American, South African and even modern day Israeli cultures. Researchers and people interested in Ancient Near Eastern studies, are rediscovering much of what was lost when Hellenism came on the scene. With this in mind, let me simplify where I am going and tell you two things;

1 - Greek thought is abstract in nature. It understands the world through abstract thought. Abstract  thought is independant of the five senses, like touch, taste, sight, smell etc. 

2 - Ancient Hebrew thought was and continues to be entirely concrete in nature. It involved all the five senses in understanding and it always explained things not in abstract terms but in wonderful concrete ways. That is why often one word in Ancient Hebrew can have two or three meanings depending on context. A good example of this is the Hebrew word for anger - it is "af" however the Hebrew word for nose is also "af." There is a cool reason behind this, because the Ancient Hebrews recognised that when people were angry, they would flare their nostrils almost like a bull! The nostrils flare down and breathing becomes heavier, therefore anger was not an abstract feeling it was associated with something noticeable, namely the nose. The Hebrew language is filled with these kinds of beautiful things. The last one I will mention is the name of our Saviour. In Hebrew the word "yasha" mean save or salvation, when the angel Gabriel came to Mary, the angel told her to call the Baby, Yeshua because He would "yasha" - save His people. So the name Yeshua means salvation. Complete salvation is experienced in all ways through the One true Sacrifice of Yeshua.

So how does this all relate to thankfulness? I'm building you up for this!
In hebrew the word for thanks, thankful and thanksgiving is the Hebrew word "Yada." In Hebrew yada is a verb and literally means "an oustretched arm or hand." It's root word is Yad - a hand. Praising God with outstretched arms and hands to say thank you is in fact not a modern day movement, it is a very Biblical reality of how we should praise God and as I told you earlier the Hebrews were a concrete people. So when they wanted to give thanks they lifted up their hands, they stretched out their arms and from their hearts and mouths they gave the Holy One pure praise and Love. Isn't that beautiful! 
On a deeper level, Yada can also mean "to know someone intimately." In Genesis it says that Adam knew his wife, in other words they were physically intimate. The ancient Hebrews understood that physical intimacy in a marriage was a connecting of yourself, your soul very deeply to another. In that way you begun to truly know someone else because you became in essence, one. In our thanksgiving we can grow and draw closer to God, also when one walks intimately with God, your eyes will be more open to all the wonderful blessings that God is bestowing daily. 

Psalm 63: 4 -5  I will praise you as long as I live,
    and in your name I will lift up my hands.
 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
    with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

From a psychological perspective, when we involve our senses and our body in anything that we do, science has proved that we will remember it. So when we lift up our hands and feel a pumping beat of joy and we declare God's praises so that we can hear it, we will not forget it!

How may you praise God this week? When was the last time you lifted up holy hands to praise His Gracious Name? Let us stop this week and even reflect on the Biblical perspective of giving thanks, involving our body and our senses, how may we use all of this to praise the King? HalleluYah! 

Also sharing over at The Loft.... 

Thirty Days of Gratitude

Just yesterday I visited Jeri's blog and read about her 30 Days of Gratitude list. It is something so beautiful and so intentional. Being grateful is intentional and I personally believe it is a discipline we can cultivate. Personally, it has been a strange season these past few weeks. A season where dreams seem to be postponed, vision seems just that vision alone. Hopes seem to grow dim while time continues to move. Yet I know there is much I am grateful for here and just yesterday I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to do this, for a deeper reason then I know. While I wrote this down I realised just how happy I am for all my blessings! Here is my intentional gratitude list today and I want to encourage you to visit Jeri and get her download and do your own list, let it flow and let it go!

One thing worth its weight in gold..... my hubby!

One thing I found when I looked up today..... the most amazing sky as I walked out of the mall. The entire sky was cloudy with one ray of sunshine peaking through, it was breath taking. 

One thing restful..... sitting on my blog, enjoying the music and resting. What a blessing because I started this blog for this resting place.

One thing sung...... today the music flowed, His eye is on the Sparrow - one of my favourites by Lauryn Hill

One thing savoured.... the feeling of love

One thing that nurtures your soul..... just resting here

One thing of a blessing in disguise.... my current detox the homeopath put me on last week, what a blessing it has been. Wheat free, sugar free - my life has changed, Im not going back, I am so grateful!

One thing unexpected..... fish and chips with my hubby tonight, what a good meal!

One thing that took my breath away...... I am currently reading through Genesis and I am pausing to learn about all the relationships and connections in this book. This afternoon I was reading about Rebecca and how she watered the camels. How she loved Isaac and how much he loved her from the moment he saw her. Their whole relationship was just a God connection, it literally physically just took my breath away today. I think they would have been amazing friends to have :)))

One thing I realised today..... I realised more about myself today and my journey in this life and I am so very grateful that although I dont always know the answers yet, God has all the answers already. Daily, He is teaching me more about me and I am loving it.

One thing I am grateful for this week..... solitude, I love being alone, just me, it has been refreshing. I am grateful. 

FMF - Be Still

Five Minute Friday - Start. Where writers get to write on the topic for exactly five minutes!

Still. Be still. Hush. Go quiet. Not out there, inside.
Hush be silent in your surroundings chaos, but inside it is still.
Journey, the measure of stillness within your spirit, it's a journey. Some will never find it.
But you, you have wondered in to it. Still, be still - stillness, rest in the Palm of God, nowhere else.
No man can give it, no person can endow it - only Messiah truly gave it.
His perfect death, His moment on the cross burst like wind across the landscape, bursting through the temple, bursting through the soul, the spirit, the sickness, the wounds - and then suddenly all grew still. Still.
Be still, you have journeyed so far but still in the ravines you stand, longing for the stillness.
Not found on the shorelines of a quiet ocean time, not found on the banks of a river full of ducks.
Stillness, found within. Not as the new agers grin to give it, not as the super stars of Sodom think they understand it. Stillness it comes through walking across the Ultimate Cross, the wooden Beam that stretched across the great ravine and closed that divide. It made rest possible, it made peace tangible. Still. Found within the Soul, in the Spirit who knows its God. Be still, breathe in and keep going, across the great divide until all is peacefully still....
STOP!

Linking up with Kate Motaung 

We are all Specialists!

A few weeks ago I checked in to a class I thought would be uplifting in terms of learning new skills for a particular discipline. But as I sat through the first and then the second lesson, all I could see was how much the teacher enjoyed breaking the "students" down. Bewildered, most of the time I was not concentrating on the art work at all, I was more stunned and shocked at what was happening around me. And it was all done in the name of Christ. There were a lot of things at work here of course, a religious spirit, control spirit, pride, lack of love - all the kinds of things we can expect to happen in these final days.These are not the kinds of things I want to go in to here, but needless to say I did not return to the class, but shared what I saw with the teacher and left.

But while I was standing in my kitchen today, I remembered the students I used to teach two years ago. I was employed to teach English to beautiful Indian nurses (both make and female) who had come over to South Africa to work. As I began to train them (I trained different groups for over 2 years) I learned their stories. I learned their hardships and their pains, their fears and the things they wouldn't say. Through their eyes, God gave me a profound sense of love for the people of India. Even once while on holiday with my husband a tour bus of Indians in traditional garb climbed out and happily started snapping pictures of the beautiful scenery. I stood back, watched them and just begun crying, it came from such a deep place.

So today while I thought about those years of training, I realised how each one of us is a specialist and each one of us is a teacher. It is true. Even if you dont think it is of yourself. One of my students was a male nurse who worked as the very first Indian to ever work in the heart surgery unit, he even made a way for me to see open heart surgery (I think he couldnt understand how I could faint when I saw blood!). Another one of them wrote Indian poetry which fascinated me. While I may have been there to teach them English, they were there to teach me from their perspectives. Each person you teach has a gift, each person you teach has a calling and each one is good at something, or maybe two things or maybe many things. One of them was a really good chef and could teach me a lot about food! That's how life is and maybe we should start seeing each other like this. Teachers often come from a fleshly place of control, because of their own places of woundedness, they struggle to be Christ-like teachers. So many of us have bad memories of bad school teachers! But now that we know how deep and how wide Messiah's love is for us, we can start teaching with a heart of love.
Each time you teach, teach to draw out what is good in someone else. When you are teaching your child to bake bread or to tie her shoe laces or to tell the time. If you are helping someone learn to access their email account, or you are teaching your kids in homeschool - think, what are they good at and let's realise, we are all teachers, teachers saved by grace and specialists in the areas God has called us to.
Let's build a community of teachers and specialists who love and are grace centred. Let us honour what we ourselves are good at, let us honour ourselves as teachers and then let us humbly help others to see themslves through the Honour of Grace.

In the Clouds

Tonight my husband and I watched the animated movie Ratatouille. I found it such a delightful movie. I loved the ending, it was my favourite bit and it was so sweet!

It whispered to me "imagine."
Imagine.
Imagine - little girl dreams.
Imagine....
All the things we longed to be as kids, all the things we spent time imagining.
Lying on our backs on the grass and staring up the clouds, imagining the shapes in the sky.
All the time we spent as little girls, imagining the beauty of life all around us.
Imagining that the birds could talk and the trees could sing.
That if we touched the fur coat in the cupboard it just may be Narnia in there, imagine..
And sweetest of all - imagine..... what you could become when you finally grew tall.
Imagine!

How sweet to imagine and don't we lose our imagination as we get older and life gets more serious, we grow too soon and forget we are all still kids, God's Kids. 
So it is time to imagine... I'm ready to be Remy, with nothing but a dream and also the reality that what I imagine is not just imagination but something deep within, I don't have to pretend, I don't have to hide behind someone else's hat and pull their puppet strings. I can be me, with my little girl dreams, smiling and shrieking, happily imagining!