Pigtails

Sun shining--

--- the much awaited warmth of spring falls on the shiny-blonde pigtails of two young sisters. Both are biking with the help of training wheels while their “baby-bumped” mother follows behind them. She jogs occasionally while guiding a biking boy of about two years.

As we part ways an unfamiliar song begins to stream through my shuffle and into my ears, Beautiful Lord. “Your majesty is above all I know or can understand. The beauty of Your majesty – on the cross You showed Your love for me. Awesome and mighty, tender and holy; I’m captured by this love I see. Your mercy brings me to my knees.”
Grace is my shelter against sin. In my weakness, He is strong. It is Your mercy that makes me FREE.

I enter the playground section of the park and am overwhelmed with some emotion. What God is this who I desire to serve? – Who I fail? Look at the babies being pushed by their mothers in the swings, children laugh and run with shining faces reflecting the beauty of the sun – reflecting the grace of their unknown Creator.
A goggle of teen girls giggle as they gently tease one another. Husbands and wives hold hands and walk around the lake. Mothers delight in the joy of their children while fathers seek to push their children into the clouds. A team of young football players take the field as the sun begins to set. I walk back to my car.

The sun is at my back and casts a shadow before me. That is a picture of life; a shadow. Here and laughing in one moment and vanishing in darkness the next. Look to the Creator who has blessed you with the grace of His goodness on this day. Enjoy the sun and know His Son. The day will soon come when the delight-giving pigtails will be brushed out and forgotten. Days of pain and trouble will occur, but not yet. Not in the park on a sunny-warm day in Washington.

I wish that these may know Him – He who shines brighter, truer, and longer than the spring sunshine. It is He in who is no variation or shadow of turning; the Alpha and Omega, God alone; beautiful Lord who allows us to graciously experience beauty when we are only death.

Praise Him for the –

--Son Shining.