Author: Jane Foard Thompson

Jane Foard Thompson is an inspirational speaker and award winning author and poet. A former Montessori teacher in Texas and Utah, for eight years Jane and her husband were missionaries in Honduras, Central America. After working for the American Red Cross in Idaho, they now live in Florida, where she writes, leads music and women's Bible studies at their church, and enjoys nine grandchildren and her Golden Retriever, Lily.

Got Love?

Flowers
Flowers
Valentines Day. Card manufacturers, gift shops and florists love it. Probably even the post office loves it. Chocolate confectioners count on this day to keep them in the red, as do purveyors of red roses.

But for all the candy hearts and red balloons, cards and restaurant dinners, I’m willing to guess that only a tiny percentage of people feel loved, a tiny percentage of the time.

Children feeling pushed, criticized or ignored by parents, or worse, abused.

Parents frustrated with the ungrateful child, or mourning the anger or loss of a prodigal, offspring they poured their lives and hearts into, only to be shredded in the offing.

Singles yearning for a mate, a partner on the other side of the table, someone to wake up with and grow old with.

Marrieds yearning for a connection to that partner across the table, fearful of growing old in a frozen wasteland.

Love my brother
Love my brother

Our hearts yearn for love, we seek to love, and yet, even in the best of times, fall short. Sometimes, fall to pieces. Or just fall, hoping we’ll land, or be caught.

Our hearts are shaped for love, created by Love, to love and be loved. And to never be fully satisfied, never enough love.

Until we are home, with the Beloved.

Life is a strange dance we step into, loving, ducking, failing, trusting again, always looking over our shoulder for the big moment, for the love that fills us up, makes us whole, complete.

As a young teen, I expressed my struggle with the vulnerability of love.

Slowly, gradually, I began to look up, right there in the muck, to see the face of love, smiling from the cross, life poured out to love me thoroughly. No matter how long it took, he never gave up loving me, seeking me.

And you.

orchid © Jack H Thompson
orchid

God remembered us when we were down,
His love never quits.
Rescued us from the trampling boot,
His love never quits.
Takes care of everyone in time of need.
His love never quits.
Thank God, who did it all! His love never quits!
Psalm 136: 23-26 (MSG)


And now, on the other side of the cross, of the receiving, the filling, I am still learning how to live, to love. What else prepares us for eternity?

To learn the yearning of our hearts. To Love.

Lily in a basket
Lily in a basket

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13 (MSG)

Spoonbill pair © Jack H Thompson
Roseate spoonbill pair

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.
Ephesians 5:1 (MSG)

family love
family love

We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
1 John 4:19 (MSG)

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
I John 4: 7-10 (MSG)

Sandhill crane mates © Jack H Thompson
Sandhill crane mates

I Never Hear a Sound

church in Switzerland ©Jack H Thompson
church in Switzerland
©Jack H Thompson
church in the Alps
church in the Alps

Beautiful, historic churches tower over villages and grace city corners in Switzerland, where I’ve been visiting Middle Daughter and her family. The old buildings have lovely stained glass windows, intricate stonework and impressive construction.

church above vineyard
church above vineyard
©Jack H Thompson

church spire over lake
church spire over lake
©Jack H Thompson

grill work and altar
grill work and altar
©Jack H Thompson
ceiling frescoes
ceiling frescoes
©Jack H Thompson

However, though the country celebrates numerous Christian holidays, many traditional churches attract only a handful of regular attendees.

church bells
church bells
©Jack H Thompson

Church bells toll throughout the day, calling the faithful, but life goes on as if no one hears.

family by lake ©Jack H Thompson
family by lake ©Jack H Thompson

Here’s a video clip I took on a hill, looking down into the valleys.
(Turn up your volume to hear the bells from two different villages. Click on the arrow to start the video. It’s pretty wobbly, but it gives you a sense of the way the bells dominate the countryside. If you can’t see it on your phone or tablet, you may have to change a setting.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fl7/12424359725/

The next day, walking through an alpine village, I stopped to listen to the peal of the bells. Busy shoppers hustled by me, school children giggled on the way home from school, and skiers stomped from the shuttle bus.


children from school
children from school
©Jack H Thompson

As often happens, a song began to play in my mind, this one about how Jesus sings all around us, and we never hear a sound. (Click on the arrow.)

How often do we rush through our day, disregarding the call of the Holy Spirit, the yearning of our God to engage us?

walking away ©Jack H Thompson
walking away ©Jack H Thompson

While we strive, he sings to us in the beauty of creation.

swan ©Jack H Thompson
swan ©Jack H Thompson
tree on snowy landscape ©Jack H Thompson
tree on snowy landscape ©Jack H Thompson

moss and stream ©Jack H Thompson
moss and stream ©Jack H Thompson

“God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening.” Psalm 19:1-2 The Message

While we struggle with loneliness, he speaks through the warmth of friendship.

Caitlin kisses
Caitlin kisses

friends walking in woods ©Jack H Thompson
friends walking in woods ©Jack H Thompson

MD and friend ©Jack H Thompson
MD and friend ©Jack H Thompson

And while we scheme and work to make life conform to what we desire, he whispers to our hearts.

What compels us to push on, ignoring that voice, avoiding that face?

Are we trying to do it right? Make it right? Get everything under control so we can bring our to-do list, all checked and fulfilled, to gain rights to his presence?

Do we hide from his gaze, like Adam and Eve in the garden when they became aware of what their choice cost them, unable to bear those penetrating eyes?

Are we turning away out of anger, shaking our fist at a God who would allow evil and pain such as we, or a loved one, have suffered?

Or are we so competent, so intent on doing it our way that this Creator God I speak of is irrelevant?

profile ©Jack H Thompson
profile ©Jack H Thompson

Whatever the source of our discontent, he continues to pursue us, dancing over us, singing to our hearts, seeking us,

    offering the only gift we truly yearn for, though we often mistake our need for something far less.

With open arms and eyes full of love, he calls our name.

    He offers all-encompassing forgiveness that we do not deserve and cannot earn, which cost him everything.

And with that forgiveness, comes hope. And with that hope, comes faith to trust that he is great and he is good.

To trust his love.

If we stop.

And listen.

“Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.” Revelation 2:29 The Message

No fear?

I’ve always fought the constraints of fear in my life. I assumed it was from my childhood, with an abusive father with hands two feet long, and the complete lack of affirmation.

However, after recent experiences, I am questioning that assumption.

In the Swiss Alps with my two grandsons, Middle Daughter’s boys, watching the difference in those two makes me wonder how much is built-in.

The oldest, Jeremy, is more like me. He thinks a lot, projects what might happen before he takes action, and is, therefore, sometimes paralyzed when the prospects of harm loom greater than the benefits.

Kyle, two years younger, seems to have no fear.

They have been taking freestyle skiing lessons every Saturday. Jeremy studies the moves and calculates his jumps and landings. He has wonderful form, and once he decides he is ready, executes the moves beautifully.

On the other hand, Kyle watches the instructor and goes for it, never even looking to see where he will land.

Last night, they spent several hours practicing in a special freestyle gym, with all kinds of trampolines and foam pits, jumps and ramps.

Jeremy awed me with his freestyle moves on the trampoline, naming each move.

Click on the arrow to see Jeremy practicing. (This has several video segments together, so watch to the end.)

I moved on to watch Kyle ride a scooter down a ski jump into a foam pit, and worked to get my heart back in my chest. After several of those, he did flips into the pit from a platform at least fifteen feet above. After a back flip from there, looking for a greater challenge, he scaled the rock climbing wall and did a back flip off of it.

Kyle jumping from the climbing wall

Kyle on kickboard on ski jump doing flip

Kyle flipping over the edge of the wall.

Today, I asked Kyle what he thinks about before he tries something new. He shrugged and replied, “If it seems like it would be fun, I do it.” That simple. When I asked if he was ever afraid before he did something, he looked at me with a puzzled expression.

So if we are born with these tendencies, then God created us that way. Maybe I can stop beating myself up for being so cautious.

And you impulsive ones can rest assured you weren’t made that way by mistake, either.

For the cautious ones like me, Paul encourages us.

God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way.Ephesians 6:10 The Message

More than encouragement, Paul tells us the real battle is the spiritual one, and we are all fitted for that.

This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.Ephesians 6:11

So perhaps we are made so different in order to band together, in marriage, families, friendships, churches, small groups, wherever we find support. It’s the body of Christ thing. Together, we have the courage to move, as well as the forethought and planning to take into account what might come against us.

And God gives us all full armor for protection, and for the weapons we need for the battle before us.” Ephesians 6:12 The Message

What’s your tendency, too much or too little caution?

How are you growing with the bent you are created with?