Wouldn't You Want to Know?

What if the free gift of salvation
(Greek:sozo-to be made whole)
 is simply
the ability to know the truth
about who you really are?

And what if knowing this truth
is key to living
a life full of peace and joy
with no regrets and no fear...
of hell and death and punishment and rejection...
because in truth
there is none?

What if "hell" is the false reality
we create for ourselves
and live now
because we have believed a lie?

 What if the God who is Love truly
keeps NO record of wrongs?

Nor condemns us?

What if knowing the truth about ourselves...
that we are good
because our Creator says so...
really does set us free?

Wouldn't you want to know? 

Photo:  Girl in Stripes on a Chainlink Fence by Pink Sherbet Photography, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

The Awakening

Those who walked in the dark have wakened to the light.

Those who lived in the land of shadows--

Brilliant light! ♡

Photo: Dogwood by Melissa Campbell. Copyright 2014.

The Risk Of Blooming, So Worth It!

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." ~Anais Nin

Thoughts From my Walk:

The Son wasn't about changing the mind of the Father because the Father's love for Creation...for us, his sons and daughters...has always been with heart and mind and arms wide open.

Jesus had no identity crisis.  He knew he was the Word of God concerning ALL of us made flesh, a living LOVE letter.  Jesus was our older brother sent to convince us to change OUR minds by living his life as the mirror in which we see our true selves...and in which we see the truth of our origin.

God is LOVE. And because we originate in LOVE, so we are, in our true nature...LOVE.

The world tells a different story.  And makes God out to be an angry, disappointed, failure of a Dad.  In ignorance we have believed the deception.  Why does it seem too good to be true that our very nature...the one made in the image and likeness of Creator...is just as good as He is?  Only LOVE can reveal the truth of how good it is to be you and me!

Beautiful like blossoms, we wake to the light.  LOVE frees us to let go of the shadowy shells of who we thought we were and risk all to grab hold of the I AM shining bright within! 

When we get to know and love our true selves...when we get to know our Father who is LOVE in the heart of us...we will see LOVE bloom for others like never before. ♡

 

Photos:  Blossoms from our front yard.  Copyright Melissa Campbell 2014.  All rights reserved.

This is Love

In the last several weeks, spending time with my physically and emotionally exhausted parents as they worked their butts off and weeded through a life-time of memories, memorabilia and material possessions, so much of it tied to great adventures and real-life stories and loved ones past and present...in the midst of all the work in their letting go, we were blessed to experience a most beautiful and holy thing.

We saw LOVE face to face.

LOVE in the gathering of family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to help where they could, loading machinery (my dad's garage was an outdoors-man's and engineer's dream), stopping by with food, calling to get together one last time, reminiscing, not wanting the relationships to come to an end.

LOVE in friends who were family, who showed up day after day just to be there and make sure everything was going okay.

LOVE in the exchange of phone numbers over lunch just so we would have them.

LOVE in grown men tearing up and holding hugs and buying mugs with my dad's name on at the garage sale so they could always think of him when they drank their coffee.

LOVE stepping in and making sure my dad's Harley and my grandfather's pitchfork and all the other things that mattered but couldn't go along would have a good home.

LOVE in the new owners who fell in love, not just with a house, but a home, and wanted all of us to be part of the deal.

We saw LOVE like never before in the baking and sharing of bread (and pizza and cinnamon rolls), in the serenading with kazoos, and in the shine of eyes and hearts and words...and sometimes the inability to say anything at all...of everyday, loving, beautiful and hard-working people whose children even cried when we all said Good-bye.

LOVE working out every detail no matter how small, and constantly confirming with peace and hope that "this" was the way to go.

LOVE loving and caring for one another in the beauty of friendship, promising and making plans to see each other again. And I realized, there is no greater thing! When we love and are loved, we create a place for God to rest.

...Or is it this? God has created a place in us that we may know Love and invite every other to join us?

This LOVE never ends. And never gives up. For Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love keeps going to the very end...and beyond.

LOVE is what holds us all and brings us back together. Love never fails. ♡

Coming Alive

Daffodils by Russell James Smith, flickr, CC BY 2.0

There couldn't have been a more beautiful day for Easter here in Western Pennsylvania.  There was no church service for us. No colored eggs, no dressing up to impress, no sermon or singing in the Sunday choir. Just a morning walk with hubby under the bluest of skies, surrounded not by walls of doctrine and the rules of tradition, but everything living and springing to life...

There was the joyful serenade of birdsong and a good soaking of sunshine, the happy greetings of pets and neighbors, the laughing (at ourselves) and loving and spending the day with family, sharing a meal, telling our stories, digging through treasure, unwrapping the gifts of each other, and falling asleep counting our blessings.

We are learning...to live our lives in freedom with joy and gratitude, to see God in the beauty and wonder of nature and each other, to love and be loved, to count it and us all as worthy (worth it!)

We are coming alive, and this is our "worship." ♡

Wearing A Piece From The Past

I'm wearing a piece from the past...

Yesterday Mom and I were looking through old silver and flatware that belonged to my great-grandmother, Marie Black Murtland. She was a wonderful woman (so I'm told) who was adored by my dad, and who died much too young when he was just a boy. A friend made this ring for my mom from one of her spoons, and yesterday, Mom gave it to me. 

Every time I look at it's shine I think of of those who came before me, my ancestors who held this same spoon in their hard-working and wonderful hands. Was it part of a wedding gift perhaps? Or did my great-grandfather sacrifice to buy it? 

I think of Marie washing and drying and laying it away time and time again, handing it to my dad when he was teething or to her son for a taste of what she was cooking--her 2nd son was my Dad's dad; he also died much too young at 33, just a few years after she did. 

I think of this spoon touching the lips of the generations with love and sustenance, shining bright with the reflection of life and words shared, and what it must have been like to sit around their table. Did they know how wonderful they were? Did they appreciate each other? Did they laugh and cry and show affection? 

I think it strange I know about them, but they had no clue of me. How one day I would wear their history there on my hand and cherish their stories deep within my heart.  How I would shine their light as part of my own, and wonder what it might be like to know them face to face, heart to heart, hand to hand. 

Thanks for the ring, Mom!  I love you and Dad so much it hurts.

And thank you, Dad, for choosing to overcome and pass on this Murtland legacy! This circle of life, it's all becoming clearer the more we see with our hearts.

Like a Diamond

Free Little Girl in Turquoise Sea by D. Sharon Pruitt, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

 

Shine bright like a diamond.

Find light in the beautiful sea.

-Rihanna, Diamonds Lyrics

With little children, one doesn't need to look long to see the light of God.  Love runs full from their faces.

With adults, it's not always so easy.

But we're all swimming in a sea of it. And if we take the time to look deep into the eyes of another we'll see our own beautiful reflection.

We'll see each other ALL as little children...ALL twinkling light. Some newborn and needing breath. Others, fanning into flame.

And those rare few, blazing bright a pathway before us.

We're ALL created and called to...

Shine.