Taste and See

Photo credit: Free-images.com

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Lake Superior. After setting up camp in Muskallonge Lake State Park in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, we and our kids walked across the street from the campground and then followed a trail that led to Lake Superior. When we emerged from the lush trail and stepped onto the beach, the sight of this gorgeous Great Lake took my breath away. As I gazed at the expanse of beautiful blue water and multi-colored stones covering the beach and extending into the clear lake, the song “How Great Thou Art” welled up inside me. I remember feeling convinced that anyone who’s an atheist has never stood on the shores of Lake Superior.

We don’t have to travel hundreds of miles to experience the wonders of God’s love. Sometimes all it takes is a conscientious effort to look for the amazing blessings that He’s showering upon us right here. Sometimes, we just have to see what’s already in front of us. 

For example, this time of year we can look beyond the corn in the field and the tomatoes in the garden and see God’s loving hand behind them. We can use our imagination to picture Him dreaming up and designing all the different vegetables to feed our bodies with His loving, joyful creativity. Also, we can see our family and friends as gifts from Him to feed our souls and look at them with renewed gratitude. Sometimes we just have to look around with fresh eyes and try to begin to grasp how great God is. 

When we seek God – when we look for expressions of His unconditional love – we move closer to Him. When we acknowledge how He provides for us, we begin to trust Him more. Sometimes, when we look for Him in the beauty of nature and the people we care about, we may experience His presence – not on an intellectual level but sensing with our heart that He’s with us. Sometimes, when we seek Him, we may get just a taste of the magnificence of His goodness. All of this brings us deep joy, as I experienced on the beach of Lake Superior that summer day. And so we keep seeking, drawing nearer to Him, trusting Him, and opening our hearts for a greater understanding and experience of His love.   

God’s goodness is all around us. Let’s seek Him; let’s look for the many blessings He’s gifted to us – in the wonders of nature and the people we love. Let’s let a song of praise rise up to Him from the depths of our hearts for the immeasurable love He has for us.

“Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” – Psalm 34:8  

Let everything I do be with You, for You, and because of You.

Thank you for reading my reflection.  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words!    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 

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P.S.

Pray for peace at home and around the world. Donate to a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the people around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.

Christ Sees Something in You

 

Photo credit: Free-images.com

When she was in college, one of our daughters was interested in a particular part-time job but didn’t feel qualified for it. “I have no experience!” she said. She applied anyway. During the interview, her potential employer saw some things in her that he knew were valuable assets: her openness to new endeavors, her past accomplishments, and her willingness to learn. She got the job and thrived in it.

In Jesus’ time, women were at the bottom of the social ladder. Yet it was to a woman, Mary Magdalene, that Christ first appeared after His resurrection. (Side note: Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute as some have portrayed her to be. Rather, she became one of Jesus’ constant companions after He cured her of seven demons. See Luke 8:1-3.) Jesus didn’t appear first to Peter, the ‘rock.’ He showed Himself to Mary, a ‘nobody’ in society. Maybe He chose her because He had seen something special in her: love and loyalty, demonstrated when she stayed at the foot of the cross with His mother. 

When Jesus instructed Mary Magdalene to tell the apostles that He had risen, she didn’t say to Him, “But I’m a woman; they won’t listen to me.” She didn’t consider that she wasn’t qualified for the job. She did what Jesus asked her to do: She ran ahead and announced to the apostles that she had seen the risen Christ. She trusted Him to open their hearts to this incredible news. Because of this, Mary Magdalene has been called ‘the apostle to the apostles.’ 

Maybe you’ve had thoughts like, "I would love to ____" or "I wish I could be more ____." If you’ve had an idea of how you could make a positive difference in your part of the world, or how you could be more loving toward the people you encounter every day, trust that Christ has put those ideas in your head. If you’ve come up with reasons why you couldn’t accomplish those things, remember that Christ sees more in you than you see in yourself. He sees your potential. He sees your goodness. He sees your desire for a more loving world. He sees your wanting to be a more loving person. 

Try to see yourself as Christ sees you. Seek Him, as Mary Magdalene did. Ask Him to guide you toward turning your ideas into realities. Be open to something new that He may want to do for you or through you. Do everything, one moment at a time, with love. Trust Him to work in the hearts of those around you to find Him through your actions.  

“Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’ and what he told her.” – John 20:17-18

“Lord, help me see myself as You see me.”

Thank you for reading my reflection. © 2024 Gina Bedell     Comments are always welcome! 

Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. Blogspot doesn’t have a ‘subscribe’ feature and so I appreciate your help in sharing my reflections. Thanks!

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly to your inbox, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list.

You can also find my posts on Facebook!

P.S.

Pray for peace in Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, and around the world. Donate toward a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the families around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.

Walk Humbly With God

 

 

 

“You have been told what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.” –Micah 6:8

 

The prophet Micah summarizes the Ten Commandments in these three: do what’s right; love goodness; walk humbly with God.

‘Walk humbly.’ When we’re humble, we acknowledge that all we are, all we do, and all we have are gifts from God. We recognize our need for His grace to help us generously and compassionately serve others, and that it’s through this loving service that we become more like Him. When we’re humble, we trust that He knows what’s best for us – what will bring us closer to Him -- and so we search for Him and His loving guidance.  We ask Him to lead us to the complete joy and true peace He wills for us; peace not as the world gives but as He gives (see John 14:27).

‘Walk with God.’ You can’t walk with someone who isn’t alive. Micah didn’t say, “You’re on your own. Memorize the Ten Commandments, and good luck following them.” No. He tells us to walk with God now, because God is alive and with us now.

This ‘walking’ may be taken both literally and figuratively. Let Him walk with you through the ups and downs of your days. Go for a walk or sit down for a bit and pour out your heart to Him. Tell Him what’s on your mind. Share with Him your deepest desires, hopes, joys, fears, and doubts. Let yourself feel loved by Him, protected by Him, affirmed and encouraged by Him. Learn from God what He wants to teach you. He uses anything and everything to speak to us, including nature, the people around us, and the words of Scripture. Let Him love you where you are.

‘Do what’s right, and love goodness.’ God is love, so when we love goodness, we want to stay close to Him. We reject what pulls us away from Him. When we have a choice to make – and we make many throughout the day -- we seek His wisdom, and we’re drawn to what’s loving, right, and good. Sometimes more than one option is good; in that case, we can be at peace with the one we select.

“Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face continually.
Remember His wonders which He has done.” –Psalm 105:4-5

God is alive and He is with you! Seek Him. Walk with Him. With humble reverence ask Him to fill you with His power, peace, love, and joy so that you may become more like Him. Ask God to use you to show His love to the world so that the world may know Him.

“Lord, I need Your grace to become the loving person you created me to be. Walk with me and teach me to love what’s right and good.”

 

Thank you for reading my reflection. © 2022 Gina Bedell    

If you would like to receive these reflections directly to your inbox, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list.

Comments are always welcome! Feel free to share it with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. Thanks!

 p.s.

We continue to pray for an end to the war. If you’d like to help the people of Ukraine through the Cleveland Maidan Association, you may use either PayPal or a credit/debit card here:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/...