As mentioned in my last post, I just enjoyed a wonderful trip to the Sacramento area. Spring has sprung over there, as the trees were in bloom everywhere you looked.
I kept saying, over and over, “God does SUCH good work!”
Melissa wrote a wonderful post on excellence last week, over at the Living Proof Ministries Blog. As I perused the comments, I was blown away by one in particular and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since:
Excellence vs. Enduring. Is it just me, or do you also fall into the latter category more often than the former? We get so bogged down with just getting through the day – being so overwhelmed by it all – that excellence in whatever we put our hand to never even occurs to us.
As I was looking through my pictures of these beautiful trees, the thought came to me that God didn’t have to make the trees beautiful. He could’ve just made them utilitarian, plain vegetation that provided oxygen, food and shelter. Yet, He made them cycle through seasons, each displaying its own kind of beauty. He went several steps beyond what was necessary, to make it excellent.
This God of excellence? This is the God who makes it His business to go above and beyond for us, simply because He loves us and to do anything else would go against His nature. This is the God we are called to serve, whether we pack coliseums to share His Word or hold a child tight to do the same. We are not called to endure the numbered days of this life, but to live out each one with an excellent display of the beauty God has planted in each one of us.
Let’s go above and beyond today, through our excellent God and FOR Him.
Oh Melinda, this speaks volume and packs a punch with pure gentleness!
I love you and I am in pursuit of excellence, not just enduring!
Yolanda
Amen.
I do wish your blog had a “scratch-n-sniff” option today! What splendid beauty.
Last week’s snow has melted and Spring is budding here in Oregon. Again.
Thanks for sharing, friend.
Blessings,
Darlene
I love that scripture in Colossians. I came acrossed it years ago. It kind of coordinates with the one in Ephesians about us being God’s workmanship.
I have been enduring the last 20 months since my world came crashing down on my life and heart. I’m trying now to live each day for itself not for what I know God will do in my future and with reconciliation in His plans for me.
Pursuing excellence…
Wonderful thoughts about how God pursued it with and for us. Think about our bodies…how excellent of a creation He made in us…
It’s so very intentional! To decide what to pursue, and how to pursue it makes us collaborators with God’s creative work. May our beauty be as vivid as your flowering cherry trees!
Amen & Amen! LOVE IT!
Beautiful photos, Melinda! I like the first one the best. Just gorgeous!
After our recent snowstorm – those flowers are MAGNIFICENT! God truly knows how to delight our senses through His creation. Our that our lives would bring beauty to His creation!
Blessings,
Denise
The works of His Hands truly takes our breath away!!
We are indeed, fearfully and wonderfully made!!
Praising our Amazing God with YOU!!