Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. I was awake most of the night last night and it seemed like forever before the sun came up. At first, the sky slowly got brighter as if God was using a dimmer switch to light it up and then FINALLY, the sun could be seen on the horizon. It was a beautiful shade of orange but it wasn’t your average sunrise. It looked a little mysterious “peeking” through the trees and for some reason, it couldn’t be captured on camera like it usually can be. As I sat in the presence of a Mighty God to pour out my Love and my Thanks, I thought about how nature is a lot like Life. There is a mystery to the Journey and we can’t predict what the future holds. We can’t control every turn. We can’t Comprehend the Plans of God. But when the Right Heart meets with Determination to embrace the Journey, we can find the beauty in the mystery just as surely as we find it in a photograph at sunrise. Isn’t that the way you look at Life too?

One of the Greatest Mysteries of all time is Faith. Some accept it – some don’t. Some “buy in” to every Truth between the pages of the Bible while some believe it’s nonsense. Some have a relationship with the Living God and they search for the Truth all on their own while some rely solely on a “man of the cloth” to lead the way. Some surrender every aspect of Life over to the God they Trust, while some consider that weakness as they attempt to steer their own ship. I don’t completely understand it, but I know that when we come to our Faith with a humble Heart the ways of God aren’t mysterious to us at all…we just accept them! No scholar on the planet could change my mind and no science can refute what I Believe. God formed the earth in 7 days. Jonah was swallowed up in the belly of a big fish. Moses used his staff to part the sea. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. The sun stood still at God’s command. The earth once flooded destroying everything on it. Jesus died for my sins and He was resurrected from the grave. I believe it all! “Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of what we do not see.”

I am blessed to have a wonderful family; the love that flows through it is almost tangible. I raised my kids on my own and we still laugh about some of the silly things I told them when they were young. Truth be told, I could have told them anything and they would have believed me. They trusted me. They loved me. They depended on me. They respected me. We had plenty of ups and downs but they never doubted me in the process because they knew I would never leave them and they knew I’d do what’s best for us all. No doubt I flew by the seat of my pants sometimes and I made plenty of mistakes – but when it came to raising my kids I had ONE goal…to be a Reflection of the One I wanted them to Follow. I was absolutely sure that if they could see the Unconditional love of Christ in me, they’d learn to Trust Him too. They witnessed my Faith day in and day out. They saw my Love for Him in every part of our lives. They experienced my Unconditional love no matter what, and “tough love” wasn’t in my vocabulary. I met each offense with Christ-like gentleness and I didn’t rub past offenses in their face as a reminder of their rebellion because Christ doesn’t do that with me! They watched me depend on Him when I couldn’t see the future. They knew I Respected His Word and His Will ESPECIALLY when Life looked as mysterious as the morning sun. I took the mystery out of Faith by walking it out in Living Color and today they’re doing the same thing. My ONE goal for my family will be paying off for generations to come!

There’s plenty of mystery to this Journey called Life and sometimes we feel uncertain about the future because of what we see with our eyes. But there’s really no mystery when it comes to God. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forevermore” and He is Trust WORTHY. Some of us Believe every single thing we Read in the Bible and we Trust Him through it all. We love Him. We depend on Him. We respect Him. Our Faith is unshakable and our Belief unquestionable … and it’s such a mystery to a lost world. All the more reason to “peek” through the trees and Shine like the Stars…if the lost world can see the Unconditional Love of Christ in us, they might learn to Trust Him too!

How about you?