The creeping up of Spring

Heavy sunshine and cool breezes.

Spring and Summer, how I have missed thee.

It didn't seem too long ago that I wore my black thongs everyday in the summer, running around. Yet as I tried them on again, it made me feel like I was meeting my cousins again after a few years; cousins who I could be very close with, yet every time we meet for the first time, there's an awkward shyness, a foreign feeling and sometimes some discomfort when we don't fit together as well as we used to.

Nowadays it doesn't feel like I'm stopping.. there's always something to be done after something else. I'm longing for that time where I'll get to sit around and gaze at insignificant things; the things I never get time to pay attention to.

I've actually been spending a lot of time on sewing and just simple craft design blogs lately. Among my favourites is A Little Red Ribbon - I've realised that a lot of these ladies who run these blogs are mothers who want to express their creativity whilst loving the people around them, and they're a wonderful read.

Bizarrely, the fact that there's only 2 and a half months to go until Japan startles me. So little time.. yet I can feel that God is still teaching me day to day, whether I realise it or not.

Yesterday while on the bus, the gusty winds swung the whole vehicle from side to side - it was quite scary, really. Lately I've been quite unsettled and unsure about some things, and my bookmark that I was quite sure was randomly placed, brought me to Psalm 13 in the bible.

How Long, O LORD?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

¹How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
²How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

³Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
⁴ lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him,"
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

⁵But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
⁶I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Euge has been telling us to do this thing for ages: pondering on the words the psalmist uses, why they use that word, where else in the bible it's used...

Trying that yesterday, it takes a long time to ponder over a single psalm - I can see how someone could be thinking about this for a whole day, or even a whole week!

What does the word steadfast mean? Why does David trust so much in this steadfast love? Should we be trusting in it? What does it mean to be trusting in it? Why does he use the word steadfast and not anything else, for surely God's love is not just steadfast? Is God the only place/one we can find steadfast love in?

Why does David rejoice? Why does it find joy, when the rest of his psalm is in such a longing tone? What does it mean for us to be rejoicing even when we're asking God for answers?

What is the salvation that David speaks of? If the salvation as we know it comes from Jesus, is David referring to Jesus, the one who was promised by God? Or is it another type of salvation, such as from war?

Because. It's a big word. BECAUSE of what He's done already, I'll sing to him - David doesn't say, I'll sing to him so He'll deal with me bountifully... and what does bountifully mean anyway?


Hmm...

Praise God also for Credo mission on campus :) I liked John Smuts' talk on 'If I were God I'd end the Suffering' especially, and the Muslim & Christian debate was especially eye opening -I realise that I have a lot of reading up to do. Be sure to check out the video/audio recordings on the Credo website!

.. and then there's reading for the Constitutional law essay.