70/1000 Hope

Just as there is no loss of basic energy in the universe, so no thought or action is without its effects, present or ultimate, seen or unseen, felt or unfelt. ~ Norman Cousins

~found Photo (idk)

What if the map which was modge-podged to these eggs was really a rendering of where the baby bird would be able to travel to once it began to fly.  I like this image because of that thought.  

Something is being hatched, eventually, it will go somewhere. "It" will become an action.

Recalling The Prayer of Jebez, (here it is :

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain." So God granted him what he requested.

I Chronicles 4:10 NKJV)

prompted me to think of that. ... and, what if rather then a bird, an idea, or an attitude, or ... a golden moment, was being (what's the bird word? ... oh  I bet there is one, or several ...), was inside the egg maturing for the day it would begin pecking through the shell, and growing everything that happens behind that wide open baby beak ... preparing for flight from the nest.  Jabez asked for more. More ... shoreline, more territory ... more area. Seems like he's acknowledging that he has a "place", but is willing to handle even more.  

That your hand would be with me ... .  Hands.  I like noticing the hands.  Hands are one of my favorite things to see about a person.  And, you can know a lot about how someone is by how they move their hands, how they hold things, through touch they communicate how they do things even when they are unable to express why.  I am not praying the prayer of Jabez, but I am wondering about God's hand.  His hand touching me ... my hand reaching for his.


... and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain.   


It sounds  like Jabez is asking for more range while being mindful that he wants to stay near to God's ... near at hand ... close enough for God to steer him away from evil, or protect him from evil.  It is sweet that he is mindful that his actions may cause pain, and he wants to avoid that.  Actions and intentions don't always mesh.  Actions sometimes produce un-intended outcomes.


The birds are definitely back in the nests in the rose vine.  Pretty soon I will see the first sign of buds and then over night the air will burst with the smell of their perfume and soon after that, baby birds will be chirping and maybe I will get to see them fly out again this year.  Hope so.  I like the idea of something new developing, emerging ... . 

~ found image (idk)

I am thankful for those birds.  I'm thankful for the possibility of good things taking flight ... ranging about.  And ... I'm thinking about how gratitude may be nurtured, just like a baby bird, and maybe that was a little bit about what Jabez was thinking about when he prayed his prayer.   Maybe he hoped to send whatever hatched from the eggs in his "rose vine" out ... and maybe he hoped they could fly far from his sight and still be safe in God's hand.  I hope my thoughts, whatever notions I am nurturing, will be stuff that doesn't cause pain ... and it seems like Jabez has figured out that as long as God's hands are involved, that it will be  ... good.  Good in God's good hands.  Not as easy as it sounds. 

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."~ C.S.Lewis