The Washing......

Well it's Monday morning.  Of the week we bring our oldest daughter, 18 years old, to college for the very first time.  It's quite the experience!  I was hoping for a sunny day...one last day to the lake with both daughters....but.....

 it's dreary, rainy, cool, humid.  Not my favorite conditions for an August day.  Although  we need the rain.....and....

Yet, as I sit on my couch in the family room, after my husband left for work, I marvel at the way the rain was coming down......I can see out past the deck onto our backyard...or some of it...and I notice how vibrantly green everything looks:  lilac bush, red currant bush,  the 2maple trees, Courtney's pine tree, and the grass...even the crab grass looks ok today!  And my morning glories are open with that purple hue....so pretty...and the leaves are wet with wash.....like tears running down cheeks...

....it appears that everything is getting washed!  How I love that!

 

yesterday in church...a time for goodbyes....a time for worship....a time of washing.....watched my daughter with her friends...she was sitting through most of worship..very unlike her...i signed over to her, "are you ok?" (yes, we do signing sometimes!) and she signed back that she was praying!  My mind was worried/anxious that she was upset at having to say good bye to  church for a few months...she won't be back until Christmas....I thought she was crying tears...but rather...Jesus was washing her with worship....sweet worship....

and my husband and I just smiled.

and the song by Twila Paris began......we haven't worshiped with this song in many years...it's an "oldie"....

He is exalted the King is exalted on High
I will praise You
He is exalted forever exalted
And I will praise His name

He is the Lord
Forever His truth shall reign
Heaven and Earth
Rejoice in His holy name
He is exalted the King is exalted on high

and i looked up to see a tear being wiped away...washing her eyes....my pastor's wife...most likely thinking of her own daughter being dropped off on Friday (both girls are attending the same college) and I found my eyes being washed as well....

and our souls....washed by His Love, His Power, His Cleansing....and our minds washed with the Word on Being Holy...living a holiness life....and our pastor being washed and renewed by his call to ministry....and our teens being washed with new experiences, new lives, new friends, and a deeper relationship with their Savior.

and then that glorious hymn...that classic timepiece of music 

Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace

streams of Mercy, never ceasing

call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above 

Praise the mount!  I'm fixed upon it,

mount of Thy redeeming Love!

Oh to grace how great a debtor,daily I'm constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

 here's my heart, Oh, take and seal it, 

Seal it for Thy courts above. 

are you being washed today??

Courtney c. Cornick Photography 4/11