Andi and Bella June 14, 2017

Today was enchantingly marvelous! My soul sister, and absolute kindred spirit Andi brought her nine year old grand Bella over.  Tears flowing, we binged on “Anne with an E”, and indulged ourselves with ice cream.  Our individual imaginations were keenly bright as our hearts and minds were wonderfully bathed with the newest version of Anne of Green Gables.  Sensitive to the Spirit, our eyes welling, we embraced the freckly faced actress who gushed the wordy, colorful visions.  Anne’s uninhibited tongue renamed anything that impressed her as “royally beautiful”!  Both Andi and I hold dear the words that Anne used to adequately describe the glorious moments of her soul’s response to God’s creation. This orphan reminds us all to search our hearts and to forever  seek the best of words THANKS to speak.  The “White Way of Delight” is how she proclaimed the wonderfully silent, yet vivid impression she received when Matthew quietly drove her through the Avenue. “It’s the first thing I ever saw that could not be improved upon by my imagination!”  What a deliriously happy day it has been and will continue to be!

Bella June 10, 2017

 Today we can assert with confidence that together we saw beauty! We were arrested by the story of this unwanted and abused orphan who was finally welcomed into a family. The wonder of God so captured this uneducated girl that she overflowed with gratitude for every bloom, tree, and droplet of water.  The wonders of God purposefully mesmerize and should fill us with awe in every breath.  Daily we breathe in more than 11,000 liters of God given air, and each evening millions of stars blaze and yet we hesitate to gasp in glory !  Listening to this girl’s glee filled bluster of praise for the tiniest confrontation with a rosebud – awakened me to the grandeur that ever hopes to pierce my ho-hum soul. Thanksgiving envelops us in grace and joy.  Who does not long to capture and hold onto that seemingly slippery and elusive three letter word “JOY”?  A wise person proclaimed “Without exception…all try their hardest to reach the same goal, and that is, joy.”  The quest for ‘more’ is all about obtaining JOY and keeping it.  Many struggle to reach, seize and squeeze the most joy we can.  What Anne seemed to understand is that deep joy lasts as she was determined to declare thanksgiving in all things, good, bad or indifferent. Her joy spilled out during her outbursts of thanks!  “As long as thanks is possible, then joy is possible!” Like Anne, all of us are on a quest, in a unique physical buggy, with either red, brown, blonde, or grey hairs!  The holy grail of joy is NOT in some exotic location.  It is right here, in every single hurtful, messy, and glorious moment.  As we inhale oxygen, let us exhale with thanks and experience His abiding joy!   One day our Father will take us home, to a place that also cannot be improved upon by our imagination!  “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.  And the One who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.” Revelation 4:1-4  — It seems quite possible that the Author of our souls knows how beauty implores us to respond in praise! God’s living Word gives us a glorious indescribable glimpse of His impact, His brilliance and His promise to us as He calls us to “Come up here, and I will show you”…the unmatched beauty and magnificent sounds of what our eternal home, in His presence will be like. Anne of Green Gables, Andi the Authoress, Bella and Barb of Bright Fables  were created to joyfully worship our faithful Father, our generous King, our powerful God for Who He is and for all that He promises and delivers in us and through us. Today I am astounded and ambushed by the glory of God. The amber-brushed hillsides on both sides of the road are like hands applauding Lake Chapala’s graceful shifting landscape.

Andi Cook went home to Jesus November 2, 2017

A beach receding that is flush with ethereal shades of green bobbings and a body of water that shimmers incandescently under a rainbow colored sky. Anne would certainly call Chapala’s big translucent pond “the Lake of Shining Waters”. Lakeside is a little valley that is saturated with God’s creative handiwork. Wistfully and eagerly I thank my Lord for His shining light of guidance, provision, promise and for bringing me a kindred spirit in Andi. Joy without ceasing is possible as long as I am grateful without ceasing!  My mind is raptured into silent reverence as I consider ALL what You have prepared for those who love You. A Word that fits: Hallelujah and Praise be to God.