As the last vestiges of the morning fade away and the sun comes out to warm things up again, I wonder if I have enjoyed the respite from heat this glorious weather has given enough.  Is there such a thing as enjoying something enough?  Does anyone go through life without wondering if the beautiful things are passing them by?  We are told to stop and smell the roses.  We notice when we don’t stop at all.  But, do we notice (should we notice) when we fail to observe the undertones of fragrance and the nuances of color in said roses?   

The other evening, I couldn’t resist the overcast mist that hung in the air.  I know many people find days like that depressing or just time to sleep, but I love them.  The cool air allowed me to walk about a mile without the showers of sweat that usually come from a Texas walk in September.  Scratch that….the glistening (apparently girls do that instead).   

So, I walked to the end of the road.  At the top of the hill, you can see what passes for rolling hills in this area of the world.  They surround the lake, a calming blue at their base.    Someone was taking the wet as an opportunity to do some burning, so there was a cloud of smoke making a column to the sky in the distance.   

I paused there, feeling the breeze and enjoying the moment.  Nothing else mattered.  God was giving me a gift…a moment of rest in the mist…the feeling that the sky had closed in and His grace breathed upon my skin and framed His creation before my eyes.  The lesson plans, grading and life struggles that everyone goes through all faded away.  It was a fabulous moment.  

The mist was rejuvenating and healing.  

• Genesis 2:6 ~ “and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—“ 

It spoke to me of my fabulous Lord. 

• Job 36:26-39 ~ “Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.  For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain,which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly.  Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? 

• Jeremiah 10:13 ~ “When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.” 

I’m reminded of a song from Into the Woods….”Oh, if life were made of moments/ even now and then a bad one!/ but if life were only moments/ then you’d never know you had one.”  This week, the Lord has used many small things to show me that He is there, that He is listening, and that He will answer me in the manner that I need…whether I know what I need or not.  He has brought me to a place of peace.  I see humor in things…I’m singing… 

I get such comfort in knowing I can be still and know that He is Lord…that He is not always in the whirlwind or the storm….or the laughter or the perkiness….He can be found in the quiet…in the mist…in the hum of the bugs that swarm…hopefully not with West Nile!   

Inspired by my moment of rest, I sang Lindsay McCaul’s, “Come Rest” last Sunday morning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkTuQsL16A8 (This isn’t me singing her song, by the way….it’s her!)  I love the lyrics.  They are all about how we try to do so much on our own, including win God’s favor.  We never can.  It’s His work that completes, it’s His effort that inspires, it’s not about us…and He wants us to find rest.   

As always, He even set the example to follow. 

• Genesis 2:2-3 ~ “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” 

• Mark 6:31 ~ “And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”  

The day is warming up and things need to be done…the moment of quiet and cool is at an end.  I know there will be more and that God will speak in work or a crowd, too.  I feel incredibly blessed that I was given the opportunity to stop and appreciate the “roses” in the mist to the best of my ability. Maybe, if I grow in Him, if I’m quiet enough, if I rest on His promises…He will increase my ability to recognize and experience the “roses” in my life.   

• Psalm 116:7-9 ~ “Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.”