“As a deer gets thirsty for streams of water, I truly am thirsty for you, my God.”
Psalms 42:1 CEVUK
As we have shared often flowers and greenery come in many forms and from various places and occasions. Recently we received flowers from Jen and The Barn at Willow Brook, of Leesburg, from a ‘celebration of life.’ They were lovely and, Mr J Hamilton Lambert’s life story connected to the school, ACL, of which at times receive our flower gifts. We repurpose them for more beauty, class lessons including arts and crafts of which we at times share here. We love how connections are made to benefit our youth of today as well as each of us as we share and learn together.
Our focus verse from Psalms 42 is a metaphor for a deep and intense spiritual longing for God. A deer thirsty and longing for water.
Our story telling table arrangement here is a metaphor hopefully serving as a tool to represent complex issues, emotions, or experiences beyond what is literally seen but our souls may be feeling.
Some of our Artists are using visual metaphors from flora designs and other forms of flower art and words to communicate love, loss, or identity, creating layers of meaning for us to interpret.
Our Hope is Love, Joy and Peace will be the reality that springs forth from deep within each of us as we share one with another.
Jeremiah 17:7
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
Psalm 33:18
Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
Psalm 29:11
May the LORD give strength to his people!
May the LORD bless his people with peace!“Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together.”Colossians 3:14 CEVUK
Let us Love one another!
thedailylily.com 
“Our Hope is Love, Joy and Peace will be the reality that springs forth from deep within each of us as we share one with another.”
Sara, just gazing at this blog, the photo, reading your stories/writings, and meditating on the scriptures, gives a sense of the love, hope and peace you write about.
One of the things you seem to be bringing our attention to in this blog is ‘metaphors’ and their importance. That brought a remembrance to my mind of something you wrote years ago in your retreat book, “The Dance of Healing, The “Ultra-Healing Spirit” comes from within”. I went back to read up on this in your book and thought it great to share as I found it so helpful and encouraging.
You wrote in a chapter titled, ‘Journeying of the Soul’: “It would be a good idea to practice the art of metaphors and similes. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest likeness or analogy between them. Simile, an object, activity, or idea treated as a metaphor. (Webster Collegiate Dictionary) Know this: The Mystery within us The Hope of our glory was and is and will always be the mastering of metaphors and similes….”
As you stated in this blog, “Our focus verse from Psalms 42 is a metaphor for a deep and intense spiritual longing for God. A deer thirsty and longing for water.”
The footnotes for Psalm 42: 1,2 says: (NLT)” “As the life of a deer depends upon water, so our lives depend upon God. Those who seek him and long to understand him, find eternal life. Feeling separated from God, this psalmist wouldn’t rest until he restored his relationship with God because he knew that his very life depended on it. Do you thirst for God ?” 🙏. Thank you Debi, for sharing from our retreat book on metaphors and simile that Sara taught several years ago.
Debi and Tammy, thanks for taking the time to write and remind us of the importance of focusing and meditating on scriptures. It is often through the lense of a metaphor or simile that our healing from various wounds take place. Often I awake to read a scripture and/or devotion about an hour later I wonder what did I read and what was the point? Now that I wear reading glasses I try and read through fogged, smudges, and even crooked frames and that being uneven deformed glasses. And, I wonder what did I read?Why didn’t I wash and dry and give these plastic frames a little tug to align to fit my face just right for such an important appointment. Why no one sees me! I’m in a hurry for an important appointment! I feel pretty good and off I go. It’s almost lunch time and things all around including people have a smudged look and foggy feeling. Yet early morning while reading my scripture I had been face to face with The Healer, deliverer, teacher and The Holy Spirit, Jesus and Heavenly Father. Why didn’t I allowed the smudges in my glasses to be washed away? The pain of raw wounds to be soothed with salve? Renew my mind to wholeness with truth and not twisted thoughts? So much more and yet something other might be a quicker short term fix. Even time for an extra coffee would do! This past week I heard often a lot of holiday woes. High prices? Sicknesses? Family dysfunctions! No family? Much more including a loud blasting from some Viet Nam Veterans that said they are tired of “thank you” for your service (it was Veterans Day) and little or no support for the medical/mental needs of Veterans. Back to the sacred spot for my eyes behold the answers and light therapy to increase my faith to be a real help to the woes of life. How many times did I respond with a story that shared a parable Jesus gave us that never fails when we share and interpret correctly? A Prayer that Jesus taught us to pray? A nenewing of our minds as we chatted to look for Hope and Peace. It’s all there.
Seek and you will find.
Seek and you will find” Bible verse is found in Matthew 7:7, which states, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you”. This verse is part of a larger teaching by Jesus about prayer and God’s willingness to answer those who seek Him earnestly and with all their heart. Other passages, such as Jeremiah 29:13 and Proverbs 8:17, also emphasize seeking God with all your heart and finding Him.”
My reflection and prayer for this week; Father God, may I not waste time on futile words and fruitless deeds to satisfy my human flesh while I disregard and leave the ones in front of me without a word or song to help heal their soul.
🎶When I, in awesome wonderConsider all the worlds Thy hands have madeI see the stars, I hear the rolling thunderThy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to TheeHow great Thou art, how great Thou art…🎶
Thank you Sara, for sharing your words, thoughts, prayers, hymns that gives a hurting person directions to seek God, like the Scripture above tells us how the deer needs/seeks water. I agree in prayer with you for myself, as well, ….”Father God, may I not waste time on futile words and fruitless deeds to satisfy my human flesh while I disregard and leave the ones in front of me without a word or song to help heal their soul.” 🙏🙏🙏
My pleasure, Tammy! I love sharing God Love for all. We all are so important and so loved by God
Thirsting and seeking for God…
A portion from Tammy’s footnotes said, ““As the life of a deer depends upon water, so our lives depend upon God. “…
And Sara said, “Seek and you will find” Bible verse is found in Matthew 7:7, which states, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you”. This verse is part of a larger teaching by Jesus about prayer and God’s willingness to answer those who seek Him earnestly and with all their hear.”
Both reminded me of this promise from Jesus: “Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.” John 6:35
This evening as I came out of the door from my classroom at school, there were at least 7-8 deer. Now, the school is surrounded by woods but I wondered what they were doing so close to the building. Then I realized that perhaps they were hungering and looking for food. Our nearby classroom garden (where they had regularly fed after hours!) had all been harvested and put to rest for the winter. Most of the forest trees and tender saplings had lost their leaves. I thought of this blog. Lord, not only do they thirst for water (and their streams have dried due to very little rain), but they hunger for food.
It is good to know that, …” You care for people and animals alike, O LORD.” Psalm 36:6