Playing With Words on the Internet

Revelation 21:1-5

I've just discovered Wordle. It's my new guilty internet pleasure. Over at Green Inventions Central, L.L. Barkat has invited writers to create word art from their poetry and post it on her site. I don't write poetry, and I am art-challenged at best, so it feels like it would be cheating for me to play along over there. But. Once I figured out how to use Wordle to create word pictures, I couldn't stop. I created one Wordle from the feed from my blog, which was pretty cool, but I like this one better.

I just finished a study of the book of Isaiah through Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) this year and, I might add,  Isaiah completely rocked. As my friend said frequently throughout the study, "Isaiah has everything in it." She's right. Isaiah unpacks the whole story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. His prophecies point toward the kingdom of God that is both now and not yet. Isaiah got me really jazzed, thinking about the new heavens and new earth.

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said:

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

I think that, for me, this practice of expressing gratitude has been a means of finding words to express longing for the new heavens and the new earth. In training my eyes and my heart to recognize glimpses of grace in this world, counting God's good gifts has made me long for more of them. Although I see mere shadows and mirrors of goodness and beauty in this world, these things awaken my desire for the day when there will only be all goodness and all beauty all the time--when sorrow and mourning have finally passed away.

Counting the gifts as I wait for that day:

891. The red fox that wanders through the yard in the early morning.
892. Opportunities for son to use his gift to serve others.
893. Girl talk.
894. Learning how to be empty nesters.
895. Recognizing that my husband is still a fun date.
896. Flowers from baby girl and husband.
897. Husband's gift of new landscaping in a corner of the yard.
898. Writing completed for big project.
899*. Tamer, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba--the four women listed in Christ's genealogy who all have scandalous pasts = God is pleased to work through broken, imperfect women.
900. The scandal of the gospel.
901. Isaiah.
902. The kingdom of God that is already and not yet.
903. Sunday afternoon venison fondue with son and resident student/friend.
904. College students returning home.
905. God's relentless love.

*And, because I pulled  #899 and 900 from Sunday evening's sermon, I'm linking with Michelle: