I am heading north again today – another chance for a week with family – I know that I will look back upon this time, this summer, this year as an opportune one – to see people, to do things, to love being in the moment…

From last time up at the family farmhouse, one new layer of sorting family photos was finding a box of negatives from the 60’s that I came across. I am not sorting them because I am sure the photos exist in the collection that I didn’t get to yet. But we did scan a few just to see what era it was, who the folks are. We did a negative reversal in the photoshop computer program and I see it is 60’s… And what I can see is my grandparents by silhouette, my grandpa’s bend of his back from years of hard work, his height and my grandma’s hair sillouete are clear to me, posing by a Christmas tree with an aunt and uncle. Another snapshot, the same aunt and uncle by a car, distinctive in their heights, in the same driveway that I have seen hundreds of photos with every cousin and everyone – with their cars. In a separate photo is my dad, clearly to me by dad’s haircut and build, I know even by silhouette. I can fill in the rest of the scenery by memory, well not exactly as I wasn’t born yet, but I know the houses, driveways, trees, tables, couches… My aunt behind the camera took hundreds thousands of these photos, I know the same poses in color 60’s and 70’s and 80’s photos later… She was the photo documentation one for sure.

And as for the HEART in taking the photos and in the poses, the filled in memories, that’s all known by LOVE.

I recently watched “Nonna’s” on Netflix, a movie based on a real life restaurant in Staten Island where old world grandmas were featured as cooks, and the actor playing a son grieving his mom’s death had trouble in his grief, naturally, and waited to open a last letter his mom wrote to him. (Spoiler alert) Well the letter was filled with the special family recipe for the Sunday gravy, tomato sauce, and the love flowed in his memories, which he could taste in the sauce that he then made.

Isn’t that the sweetness of life – memories that are treasured…  From LOVE, the specialness of what our memories amplify the gain or the pain of loss, it’s LOVE in us that is filling in the fades photos of time, an unfailing knowledge of love. 

Psalm 33 sings of God’s faithfulness in His Love, as Hod Himself is Love. And God looks at us with the LOVE that HE envisioned before we were even born and before we did anything… And all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. We often talk about righteousness of justice – but LOVE is the ultimate righteousness – that is the ultimate repair – God fixed our broken situation by the LOVE He brought because that is what HE IS = He IS Love and because He IS God then He decides all the fill-in from what we lack.

LOVE MEMORIES for God are PRE-decided – He loved us before anything was even brought into view… He fills us with His Love – we fill in the rest of the living,,,

Thanks Lord…  Love YOU!

AMEN

Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, Just as we hope in You.

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Psalm 33 NKJV 

The Sovereignty of the Lord in Creation and History

Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise the Lord with the harp; Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

For the word of the Lord is right, And all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.

No king is saved by the multitude of an army; A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety; Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy, To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, Just as we hope in You.