Small things brought together

Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, nov. 2016

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."

~Vincent Van Gogh

That divine spark alive

"Love is the best and noblest thing in the human heart,

especially when it is tested by life as gold is tested by fire.

Happy is he who has loved much, and although he may have wavered and doubted,

he has kept that divine spark alive

and returned to what was in the beginning and ever shall be."

~Vincent van Gogh

Where God wants you to be

"Because where God wants you to be,

God holds you safe and gives you peace,

even when there is pain."

~Henri Nouwen

The Inner Voice of Love

Trust is our gift back to God

☼    Midwinter Sunflowers    ☼

"The splendor of a human heart that trusts it is loved unconditionally,

gives God more pleasure than Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel,

Beethoven’s "Ninth Symphony", Van Gogh’s "Sunflowers",

the sight of 10,000 butterflies in flight, or the scent of a million orchids in bloom.

Trust is our gift back to God,

and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it."

~Brennan Manning

Wisp of smoke

Last sunflowers of 2015

"A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it,
and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke."
~Vincent van Gogh, 1880

My portion forever

"My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
~Psalm 73:26

Some things

"Some things just have to be believed to be seen."
~Philip Yancey

The whole of our life-story

Drying sunflowers in evening sunbeams

"Job does not say in the end, 'Now I see it all.' He never sees it all. He sees God (Job 42:5). 

Perhaps it is better if God never tells any of us the whole of our life-story."

~Timothy Keller

Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

Light to you in dark places

"May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out."

~J.R.R. Tolkien

Loving it more

"The point is not that this world is too sad to love or too glad not to love;

the point is that when you do love a thing, its gladness is a reason for loving it,

and its sadness a reason for loving it more."

~G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Have held many things

"I have held many things in my hands, and have lost them all;

but whatever I place in God's Hand's, I still possess."

~Maarten Luther

Great and awesome God

"Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God, who is among you,

is a great and awesome God."

~Deuteronomy 7:21

God of all grace

"And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,
after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen."
~2 Peter 5:10,11

An eternal house in heaven

"For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed,

we have a building from God,

an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands."

~2 Cor. 5:1

Put on love

"And above all these put on love,

which binds everything together in perfect harmony."

~Colossians 3:14

Truth that goes beyond

"The Bible does not give us answers fitted to our small-minded questions,

but truth that goes beyond what we even know to ask."

~Rich Mullins

Disturbed within me, hope in God

"Why, my soul, are you downcast?

    Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

    for I will yet praise him,

    my Savior and my God."

~Psalm 43:5

A voice says, “Cry out”

"A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.”"

~Isaiah 40:6

As it was

"And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it."

~Ecclesiastes 12:7