“Praise the Lord Oh my soul.” (Psalm 103:1) It was printed on a small card on the hospital breakfast tray. I had just given birth to my first child, a beautiful baby girl the doctors said could never be. She was God’s gift to me, the direct and deliberate proof of his love that melted my hardened heart and turned my life around. On that cold morning in November, 31 years ago, I smiled as I continued to read the words of that Psalm. At that moment I had more joy and love surging through me than I would ever have believed possible. So at that moment I didn’t need the words to tell my soul to praise God. My soul was overflowing with praise.

But sometimes I do need those kinds of reminders.

Like the Psalmist David, there are times when I need to command my soul to praise, to be thankful, to be still, to obey. Like David, there are things in my life that block the righteousness Jesus has put in me. My will has been bent by an unholy world and like the old song says, I am “prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” I need reminders to pull me back into the light so I can again see the depth of God’s grace and mercy and move closer to Him.

I am reminded of an old urban legend about a man who said he felt like he had two dogs inside him. One was good and one was evil. When asked which dog would win, that man answered, “the one I feed the most.”

I try to feed the “good dog” – I read God’s word and other books that feed my spirit and nourish my soul and stimulate my brain to follow a righteous path. I listen to music that does the same. I associate with people who are on that same track. It works. God has designed it that way. This is the reason why man will always create, always search out that which is good and pure and beautiful, because he must have it to feed his own soul. He must have it to remind Him of the One who created all that is good and pure and beautiful. The longing is part of our DNA.

That’s why the scripture tells us, “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).

It is in pondering “such things” that we draw closer to our God. When we are confronted with such things – when we are captivated by them – we catch a glimpse of who God is – true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and oh so worthy of our praise. And we are captivated by Him.

All of us have that good and bad dog within us. Both dogs want to be fed. It’s up to us to choose which one will grow strong and which one will languish.

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  An Unexpected Glory is now available on Amazon, Amazon .ca, Barnes and Noble and Kobo.

#5 in Kathi Macias’ 12 Days of Christmas Series.

A reviewer says – “I had the sense that I was reading a Christmas classic. It’s a tale of unlikely heroes and unexpected grace, right up there with O’ Henry’s The Gift of the Magi.”

I have never been an early riser. It was always a struggle for me to get out of bed in the morning when I was young. My sluggishness likely had a lot to do with the fact that I hid under the blankets with a flashlight reading until the wee hours. As the morning sunlight lit my room my mom would call several times before my toes would finally slip over the side and touch the floor. Then it took a long time in the shower to really wake up before heading downstairs for breakfast. And when I got to the kitchen the refrain was always the same.

“Did you make your bed?”

I’d groan and trudge back upstairs, knowing there would be no breakfast until that small task was done. One morning I asked my mother why she always insisted that I make my bed.

“It’s a good start,” she said. “It means you’re ready for the day.”

I couldn’t help but think about my mom’s words this past Sunday as my husband preached on Acts 9 verses 32-43. It was verse 34 that triggered the memory. Peter had stopped in the town of Lydda where a man named Aeneas, a paralytic, caught his attention. He stopped long enough to heal the man, saying, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.” That last sentence made me sit up straight. Why did Peter tell him to take care of his mat? Was it in the way? Was it unsightly? Or was Peter saying something more to Aeneas? I wondered if perhaps he was saying, get ready Aeneas, a new day is beginning, things are about to happen and there’s a purpose for you in them.

And that made we wonder about the purpose of the healing, the purpose of the blessing. God does not act randomly or without reason. His actions, and most especially his blessings, always have purpose.

That made me think of all the blessings I’ve been given in my life. It’s a long list and the realization that it all has purpose made me begin to think about what God intends me to do. He’s given me wealth so I should share it, food and a home to open to others. He’s given me health so I can do His will on this earth. He’s given me family that I might raise them to go into the world and bless others. He’s given me the talent of writing so that I might glorify His name through story. All of his blessings have an outward slant, none are intended to be hidden or hoarded.

My mother trained me well. Making my bed is still something I do each morning. It makes me feel that the day has started and I’m ready for it. This morning, as I did that quick and simple task I wondered what God had in store for me today. What am I to be ready for? Ready to hear his voice, ready to move when he says “go,” ready to speak when His Spirit directs. Yes, all of these things and more. I’m to be ready to receive His blessings and use them for His purposes.

What about you? Have you made your bed?

I saw the small head and long slim neck emerge from the tall grass. Then the goose stepped out into the open and stood still. Another head emerged, then another and another. Slowly the whole family, Mamma, Papa and four almost fully grown goslings trooped out of their hiding place and settled on the grassy bank. One of the adults (I’m assuming it was the Papa) stayed alert, his neck extended, his eyes ever-watchful while the others pecked at the grass and seemed to relax and enjoy the sunshine.

It wasn’t long before they were interrupted by a wandering dog. The watchman – or should I say watchgoose? – squawked loudly and herded his brood back down the bank and into the safety of the pond.

What a clear illustration, I thought, of how our Heavenly Father watches over us. He is always alert, never wavering from his responsibility to guard and protect. I love Brian Doerksen’s song, You Shine that says – “ Why should I lose heart, When I know how great you are? Why should I give up, When Your plans are full of love?”

That song encourages my heart because I do know how great God is and I believe his plans for me are full of love. And knowing that God is watching over me just like that papa goose gives me a sense of security that allows me to go about my business, the business the Lord has given me to do, without worry or stress.

The scripture tells us that there is a “cloud of witnesses” around us and therefore we should “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1,2).

Sometimes knowing others are watching can make us feel uncomfortable and even prevent us from doing out best, but knowing the “cloud” and the One who is watching us has nothing but our good at heart leads us to greater heights than we could have imagined.

Are you feeling discouraged? Look up. Look at that cloud. Look at that beaming face of our Lord, and keep on running.

There’s a blue hooked rug beside my bed. I step down onto it each morning and each morning I think of my dad. He made the rug in 1946, just after the end of World War II. He was living on the psychiatric unit of a hospital in Germany at the time, after joining in the liberation of Bergen Belsen, one of Hitler’s notorious death camps. What he saw there made my father’s mind stop and his soul shrivel. It would be many months before he was well enough to leave the hospital. He worked on the hooked rug a little each day. It was one of the few things he brought home with him when he returned to Canada. His only surviving souvenir, it was more precious to him than the medals he received. I often wondered about that, wondered why he would hold it so close. I never asked because he didn’t like to talk about the war and very few people knew he’d spent time in a psychiatric facility. My mother warned me not to mention it when she told me where the rug had come from.

But I think the reason he prized that hand-made item was because it had been part of his healing. As his hands performed the simple act of forming bits of blue wool into a pattern on a loom, his mind began to heal, his soul began to be restored. Todd Henry, founder of Accidental Creative once said “The creative process is a daily assault on the beachhead of apathy.” I believe it can be more. I believe it can be an assault on the evil and imbalance in ourselves and in the world, a beachhead against chaos and destruction.

I believe that as we write, as we sew or knit or quilt, as we paint or sculpt or weave, we are healed, we are made more whole and we draw closer to the Divine Spirit that guides us on. We also remind ourselves and those who will read our words or enjoy our created things, that complete health, in mind, body and soul, is the state in which we were meant to live. Thus hope is breathed out, made literal in words, in blankets, in hats and paintings and all artwork, and we are all encouraged.

That process brings us joy and satisfaction because it is what we were created to do. We were created to make life better by practicing and using the gifts He has given us, whether it be to write a novel or paint a portrait or hook a rug. Creating opposes the purposes of the
evil one who is set on destruction, and flows with the purposes of God.

And, as Oswald Chambers is quoted as saying: “If you agree with God’s purpose He will bring not only your conscious life, but all the deeper regions of your life which you cannot get at, into harmony.” (Oswald Chambers, from Called of God in The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers) That is true health, true holiness.

“Therefore, my dear friends … continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” Philippians 2:12,13).