This morning I was blessed to start my day remembering our Mom’s words to us that it will be okay. No matter what was happening in our lives, she would reassure us it will be okay and it was. With those wonderful reassuring memories, I remembered being around the professors she worked for at the University of Maryland who taught chemistry and sciences. They delighted! They were delighted to learn and teach and that joy was infectious. Do we delight to learn? I think one of the reasons they found reason to delight was they were learning about what God created and how can you not delight in that wonder?

One of the books I’m currently reading was recommended by John Behr, one of the presenters at Open Table Conference, while I was watching the recording of the wrap-up of the discussions of Hebrews. The book is called The Order of Time written by Carlo Rovelli. I would have loved to talk with those professors about the concepts in this book! Time is not what we understand it to be. A lot of it goes way over my head, but I can appreciate it in the simplified way the writer presents.

There is so much I don’t understand. One thing I’m beginning to grasp is that this life is a wonder! I want to have a heart that delights in “noticed” things. How often do I miss noticing beautiful, wondrous things because my heart is weighted down with worry?

In a way, reading this chapter, 2 Kings 12, reminds me of that…not noticing and delighting in what is good. When Joash, king of Judah, was in his 7th year of reigning, he tasked the priests with repairing the temple of God. In the 23rd year of his reign, it still hadn’t been done! Were they bogged down in the weight of the mundane? They finally begin the work and ensure money to pay the carpenters, builders, masons, stonecutters, and supervisors of the work. And then, their neighbor, king of Aram, yet again turns his sights on Jerusalem and Joash appeases him by giving him the sacred objects, the gold of the temple and satisfied, he withdraws from Jerusalem. Joash is later killed by his officials and his son succeeds him as king. In the notes below it told us we find out more about why he was killed in 2 Chronicles 24:7. See why I chafe at reading Kings and Chronicles?

That was their time – history to us; and this is our time yet to unfold; and the weight of the world’s problems can bear down and I don’t know about you, but I feel that weight at times like a physical force. It will be okay. I want to give my worries to my Creator God and not cling to them. Without that weight I cannot bear, I want to notice and delight; I want to bask in hope because it will be okay. With my hope in Almighty God, I’m free to learn from Him and delight in all He shows me. He is the Head…let us learn from Him!

Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: Power belongs to you, God, and with you, Lord, is unfailing love. Psalm 62:5, 11, 12. How wonderful is that? The world seeks to condemn and blame. My Lord seeks to delight and teach if we would just notice. He’s here. Always. Let’s go!!