An article in National Geographic several years ago provided a penetrating picture of God’s wings.

After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno’s damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother’s wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise.

She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her babies. When the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, the mother had remained steadfast. Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.

Author Unknown

“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge…” (Psalm 91:4)

Creed of Life: “Let your love be stronger than your hate and anger. Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend a little than to break.”

Your life is a reflection of your thoughts. If you change your thinking, you change your life. Accept that you are where you are, and you are what you are because of yourself. If you don’t like it, change it!

Things may go wrong, but life must go on. Tears may run dry, but smiles must be given. And every time you fall, you should always rise… coz this is how God teaches us to be strong.

Life has uncertainties. We don’t know when our time on earth is up ’till it’s over. So take many pictures, laugh much, have a long walk with someone, take time to look up at the stars, eat well, sing your praises, feel the wind, smile a lot and love… because every 60 seconds you spend is a minute of happiness you can never get back.

Even if love is full of thorns, embrace it. For between those “THORNS” there’s a “ROSE” that’s worth all the pain.

Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. What you really need to do is to find one good reason why it will.

It is always a risk to like someone. It involves time, patience, and understanding to get someone’s heart to open up. At times, it will work. Other times, it won’t. But that’s why you call it a risk - you invest in something and there’s a possibility you won’t win. However, you still get something in return: strength of heart and mind, and the assurance that you won’t have any regrets from not trying.

(I saw this story circulating around in the Internet and I was deeply moved by it. This Christmas season, hope this story will remind you of the true spirit of Christmas, which is “giving”. Let’s not forget, it’s Christ’s birthday and we should honor him and give him glory through our actions towards others.)

Bobby was getting cold sitting out in his back yard in the snow. Bobby didn’t wear boots; he didn’t own any and he didn’t like them anyway. The thin sneakers he wore had a few holes in them and they did a poor job of keeping out the cold. Bobby had been in his backyard for about an hour already. And, try as he might, he could not come up with an idea for his mother’s Christmas gift.He shook his head as he thought, “This is useless, even if I do come up with an idea, I don’t have any money to spend,”

Ever since his father had passed away three years ago, the family of five had struggled. It wasn’t because his mother didn’t care, or try, there just never seemed to be enough. She worked nights at the hospital, but the small wage that she was earning could only be stretched so far. What the family lacked in money and material things, they more than made up for in love and family unity. Bobby had two older sisters and one younger sister, who ran the house hold in their mother’s absence. All three of his sisters had already made beautiful gifts for their mother.

Somehow it just wasn’t fair. Here it was Christmas Eve already, and he had nothing. Wiping a tear from his eye, Bobby kicked the snow and started to walk down to the street where the shops and stores were. It wasn’t easy being six without a father, especially when he needed a man to talk to.

Bobby walked from shop to shop, looking into each decorated window. Everything seemed so beautiful and so out of reach. It was starting to get dark and Bobby reluctantly turned to walk home when suddenly his eyes caught the glimmer of the setting sun’s rays reflecting off of something along the curb. He reached down and discovered a shiny dime. Never before has anyone felt so wealthy as Bobby felt at that moment.

As he held his new found treasure, a warmth spread throughout his entire body and he walked into the first store he saw. His excitement quickly turned cold when the salesperson told him that he couldn’t buy anything with only a dime.

He saw a flower shop and went inside to wait in line. When the shop owner asked if he could help him, Bobby presented the dime and asked if he could buy one flower for his mother’s Christmas gift.

The shop owner looked at Bobby and his ten cent offering. Then he put his hand on Bobby’s shoulder and said to him, “You just wait here and I’ll see what I can do for you.”

As Bobby waited he looked at the beautiful flowers and even though he was a boy, he could see why mothers and girls liked flowers.

The sound of the door closing as the last customer left jolted Bobby back to reality. All alone in the shop, Bobby began to feel alone and afraid. Suddenly the shop owner came out and moved to the counter. There, before Bobby’s eyes, lay twelve long stem, red roses, with leaves of green and tiny white flowers all tied together with a big silver bow. Bobby’s heart sank as the owner picked them up and placed them gently into a long white box.

“That will be ten cents young man,” the shop owner said reaching out his hand for the dime.

Slowly, Bobby moved his hand to give the man his dime. Could this be true? No one else would give him a thing for his dime!

Sensing the boy’s reluctance, the shop owner added, “I just happened to have some roses on sale for ten cents a dozen. Would you like them?”

This time Bobby did not hesitate, and when the man placed the long box into his hands, he knew it was true. Walking out the door that the owner was holding for Bobby, he heard the shop keeper say, “Merry Christmas, son,”

As he returned inside, the shop keeper’s wife walked out. “Who were you talking to back there and where are the roses you were fixing?”

Staring out the window, and blinking the tears from his own eyes, he replied, “A strange thing happened to me this morning. While I was setting up things to open the shop, I thought I heard a voice telling me to set aside a dozen of my best roses for a special gift. I wasn’t sure at the time whether I had lost my mind or what, but I set them aside anyway. Then just a few minutes ago, a little boy came into the shop and wanted to buy a flower for his mother with one small dime.

“When I looked at him, I saw myself, many years ago. I too, was a poor boy with nothing to buy my mother a Christmas gift. A bearded man, whom I never knew, stopped me on the street and told me that he wanted to give me ten dollars.

“When I saw that little boy tonight, I knew who that voice was, and I put together a dozen of my very best roses.” The shop owner and his wife hugged each other tightly, and as they stepped out into the bitter cold air, they somehow didn’t feel cold at all.

Author Unknown

It’s amazing the peace of mind you get when you’ve come to terms with acceptance. It’s amazing how clear things become when you’ve opened your heart to the inevitable. In life, you’ll never get everything you want. Your maturity and strength as a person are not measured by the number of victories you acquire but in your willingness to admit defeat when you know you’ve lost.

Oftentimes, we are given problems and dilemmas that will test our ability to deal with life. It’s difficult to accept things that give us pain and suffering. But acceptance is not merely ‘admitting defeat’ or ‘ceasing to fight’ or ’surrendering’. When you look at it in a much bigger perspective, it’s actually embracing the truth and welcoming the bittersweet fact that there is a reason why these things have to happen to us when they do. It’s especially difficult when you don’t see that “reason”, and you feel so miserable… but once your heart is really open for acceptance, you have to have faith too — that God has a plan, and that there is something else waiting for you.

Copyright©2008angel

Dear God,

I’m doing this for you… I’m letting go… I’m giving up the greatest happiness I’ve ever known… because You made me feel that it’s the right thing to do. I’m so confused and I don’t know if this is really what you want me to do… but I took a risk. I took a huge risk. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done… but thank you for giving me the courage to do it.

This is the best thing to do, right? I think I’ve made the right decision. But why am I crying? Why do I feel so miserable and alone? Will this wound ever heal? Will the pain ever go away? Will I regret this for the rest of my life? They say that when one door of happiness closes, another will open… so I’m holding on that hope. The hope that you want something better for me, and at the end of it all, it will be worth the sacrifice.

I’m doing this for you, Father. My greatest sacrifice. Please help me through this coz I can’t do this on my own…

Copyright©2008angel

I got a comment from Carmen (thanks Carmen!) for one of my posts here in this blog entitled Broken Reflections, and instead of writing a reply as a comment on that particular post, I decided to write a new post for it. Here goes:

“I’ve been where you are now. In fact it has been 15 years and the pain is still the same. Love, pretty word. No one ever tells you how deadly it can be. The hypocrisy of the world is countless. And the betrayal of your so called family and friends is like a burning flame that never ceases. Love is nothing but a four letter word, that robs you of your very essence and leaves you gutless, empty, torn, confused and worthless. If there is a god in heaven watching every single move that we make, every thought in our minds before we speak it. Why does he let our hearts be broken and torn apart on a daily basis.” -Carmen

First of all, I’d like to note that NOT every post that I write or post in this blog is based on my OWN personal experience. Since the theme of this blog is about life, love, and inspiration, sometimes, I include posts or sentiments here that I know many people in the world are experiencing, broken hearts, life issues, etc. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m experiencing it too in my life at that particular moment.

So with that said, this comment from Carmen really says a lot about the not-so-wonderful side of love. You can feel it overwhelming with pain and bitterness. And we all experience bad moments in our lives, right? Sadly, we can’t avoid that because as I said, this world is not our final destination. That’s why we experience all kinds of pain here, to remind us that we shouldn’t cling too much to the physical world. Our goal would be to unite with God in heaven, and there we will live a life that is free of pain and worries. I’m not preaching, neither am I convincing people to believe in what I’m saying. This is my own personal belief, and I’m just sharing it to those whose minds are open enough to receive it.

Carmen, I know from your words that you’ve experienced it all, pain, bitterness, confusion, a sense of worthlessness, and yet you’ve survived. And you should be proud of yourself for that.

Love is a beautiful experience. Yes, it will always bring pain and God knows what else… but it also brings joy and a feeling of being complete that none of us can ever explain or fathom. In my experience, I’d rather have love and lost, than never to have loved at all. I’ve experienced pain, but I’ve also experienced happiness beyond compare. And I’ll never trade that happiness for anything. I am who I am now not only because of the positive moments that happened in my life, but essentially because of the bad moments too. We experience these painful moments so we could well appreciate the good moments. Experience the bad, to appreciate the good. God allows these things to happen, He allows our hearts to be broken, so we would GROW. Every time we feel pain, He’s on the works, He’s working on us to make us better persons.

The same is true with love, without love, we will never be complete. Love makes the world go round, love is the force that keeps us innately good. I wouldn’t blame love for the pain it brings, nor will I hold a grudge against it for the misery it caused, instead I will thank God for it. We get wounds from it, but those wounds will heal if we allow God to heal them. But it’s not like magic that poof! it’s all healed. It will start from us too, FORGIVENESS and ACCEPTANCE are the keys to healing. Pain is just but a reminder, that we have lessons to learn, joys to look forward to, and a God to go to in times of need. Don’t be scared of pain and love because it’s part of LIFE. Grieve from it, get angry at it, but don’t be consumed by bitterness because of it. Instead, learn from it and use it to become the best person you can be.

Copyright©2008angel

To: YOU
Date: TODAY
From: THE BOSS
Subject: YOURSELF
Reference: LIFE

I am God.Today I will be handling all of your problems. Please remember that I do not need your help.

If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. All situations will be resolved… but in My time, not yours.

Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now

If you find yourself stuck in traffic; Don’t despair. There are people in this world for whom driving is an unheard of privilege.

Should you have a bad day at work; Think of the man who has been out of work for years.

Should you despair over a relationship gone bad; Think of the person who has never known what it’s like to love and be loved in return.

Should you grieve the passing of another weekend; Think of the woman in dire straits, working twelve hours a day, seven days a week to feed her children.

Should your car break down, leaving you miles away from assistance; Think of the paraplegic who would love the opportunity to take that walk.

Should you notice a new gray hair in the mirror; Think of the cancer patient in chemo who wishes she had hair to examine.

Should you find yourself at a loss and pondering what is life all about, asking what is my purpose? Be thankful. There are those who didn’t live long enough to get the opportunity.

Should you find yourself the victim of other people’s bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities; Remember, things could be worse. You could be one of them!

Author Unknown