Your Shade

Psalm 121:5-6

5 The Lord watches over you— 

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day, 

nor the moon by night.

As I sit out on the balcony and read those words & smile. Just this past week, actually, just last night, I had a shade installed on the balcony. It is summer and here in the desert we do what we can to shield our homes from the heat in an effort to cut electric costs. I was excited to get this shade and so glad it now hung up. Project completed.

When I think of the word shade I get this vision of someone reclining, on a hot summer day, under the shade of a big tree. I looked up the word and part of the definition is ‘sheltered’.

When I read that I thought about it more and realized how the Lord is indeed our Shade. Under the shade of a tree, we find rest, we’re usually relaxed, and we’re usually getting relief from something, sun, rain.

When I sit with my Shade, the world seems less. After I pour out my heart to Him, allow Him to pour His into me, there is rest, relief, a more relaxed me; with renewed strength to weather the weather of life.

The Lord is your Shade so grab the Good Book, recline beneath Him and be renewed.

Matthew 11:28 ~ I will give you rest. 

2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 ~ He is just … and will give relief. 

Matthew 6:30-33 ~ What He’s trying to do is to get you to relax. 

All verses from the New International Version with the exception of Matthew 6:30-33 (Msg).

Blessed?

It’s a gorgeous morning out this morning; our mornings have been spectacular the last 4-5 days … COOL!  I sit, as I often do, this morning and enjoy time with the Lord and this morning my schedule being a bit more relaxed than normal for a Tuesday I do something I enjoy.  Coffee in hand, I people watch…

 

©       The couple that checks their mail in the mornings

©       The neighbor that heads off to work before the sun

©       The older gentleman who waits for ARC

©       The young pregnant woman and her baby going on their walk

©       The older couple that simply strolls

 
Looking at them I would consider them blessed.  Oh, I don’t know even know their names but I’m musing here so muse with me. 

I read an article this week, a man suggesting that Christians stop using the word blessed.  I didn’t agree with the article. It began implying that saying blessed reduces God to some ‘wish-granting fairy’.  But nothing  reduces God, and according to Strong’s the Greek meaning for “blessed” is happy, describes God extending His benefits, His favor, His grace.  Strong’s goes on to say that “This happens with receiving (obeying) the Lord's inbirthings of faith.

So what is wrong with saying I’m blessed?  I didn’t get it, I still don’t. 

My eyes drift now to the constructions workers getting on with their day and I think back to the others I have seen this morning.  Each one of them has something from God because everything comes from God.  I look at them and at my own life and think blessed sums it up quite nicely.

About a month ago I was in a car accident and I still would (and did) say that I am (was) blessed as it’s not just a word for when things are going great.  Even in the storms He is extending himself to us, sometimes it’s harder to see but it is indeed there, His Blessing.

I sit here bum knee raised and on ice, the birds chirping, a relaxed morning of time with the Father and a little people watching. 

Yep, I’m going to stick with blessed…I think it sums it up quite nicely.

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