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Her First Smile

My niece loves me...YAY! She looks for me when someone else is holding her and when I talk to her she listens intently. It might be my dashing good looks, it might also be that I act like an insane ( excuse the pun :) preschooler when I talk to her and use any part of my body that will, to make a noise at her. She is just learning to smile, I am yet to receive one, but I am told her mummy did get 2 yesterday. Its funny how they go from being newborns, to adapting to the world in a matter of weeks. She is taking stuff in and learning who we are, she even copies me when I poke my tongue out! But seriously, how crazy is creation! That from nothing being in  our tummies, comes a baby with eyes and organs and an incredible brain.
Where does all that stuff come from??? Like I know where so don't all reply with your dirty minds:), but I mean even when I was pregnant I'd look at my tummy and think, there is definitely no eyes in there to give a baby so how did he come out with them?!  And even what sex they are, its incredible! I made a boy in my tummy! Its funny how we just take it as normal yet it is a complete and utter miracle. We walk past the ocean and think, oh yeah its a lot of water. We see the sun everyday, yeah its bright and warm........its a ball of blazing fire that just sits in space and creates light for us during the day when we need it !!! Its bizarre!!!!!! And that same sun lit up the other side of the world only hours before.

Then I think, isn't it sad that the same sun we tan in, is the same sun the burns and heats up the countries that cant survive in its heat, the dying babies that cannot get water or food. That we sit in the sun to look better and 'brown' and are slowly killing ourselves by exposing ourselves to its rays without protection, for recreation, and people are dying from the same affects of the sun but without another option, without a way to get away from it. The water that we say is "gross tap water" would be a life line to millions of others. Even the fact that we have "low-fat" options as we walk down the many aisles of food everyday, we have so much to put in our faces that we are dying from it. We are overeating so much that it makes us sick. It all seems out of order. We are killing ourselves with excess. And I am preaching to myself, let me tell you. Hand me chocolate and its all over people. Isnt it odd the culture we live in, the things that we accept as just normal. Sunsets are cool, but I  have an iphone app that will knock your socks off, we are replacing beauty and the miracle that it is with 'stuff' that will perish, and stuff that billions of others can somehow live without.
As I walked through the shops today I thought about what others were doing on the other side of the globe. At the very moment I entered Target, a homeless man was  freezing to death, someone just held their baby as it took its last breath, others were dying to find something to feed their families. Devastation is everywhere and it is happening all the time. Jesus never promised anything different, we live in a fallen world and it reaks of pain and disgust more than ever before. But what He did promise us, He has never ever ever not delivered. Jesus promised to never leave us or forsake us, to use our bad for good, to protect and comfort us. He never changes, and that is the beautiful thing. Although this world crumbles, and our circumstances crumble, sometimes our entire world crumbles, there is one thing that remains that will never crumble. It will never cease. It will never diminish. It will never stop shining in the darkness. And that very spirit of beauty and genuine love, and that light that is foreign to this world, is in us. So that as we crumble, we become the light in this world. As we suffer,  He remains in us and He remains the beauty in us and the hope in us. And as we keep Jesus in our heart, we are keeping hope and love in this world. Even in the darkest of hours, He makes things new. The harder we fall, the further He reaches.
Life sucks. It hurts, it makes no sense sometimes. This world and our life on it may very well be a painful one, but never is there a moment when there is no hope. Don't let your circumstances destroy you or snuff you out. Even the smallest of flames can be fanned. Circumstances don't change who God is, He is who He is from the start to the finish. Through whatever we go through, although our perception of Him may change if we let it, He remains. Lets get back to the simplicity of  faith like a child. As if we are learning about the world for the first time, as if we are seeing things for the first time. Lets learn to see the beauty of creation for the miracle that is it, there are miracles in each day if you look at life through the right eyes. Some days are much harder than others, but the miracles remain none the less.
Even when it, no I'll change that to especially when life is hopeless and the hardest of days, Jesus never leaves us. Hard times do not mean that He has forgotten us or He has changes on us, life is made up of such things and Jesus has never promised anything different. His promise is the cross, its the center of all of us, it is the center of everything. It is the hope that no matter what changes or doesnt change, we are anchored to Him. We are set in stone and we shall not be shaken, even when our world dares to shake us.

Lets be like kids, it makes life simple, plus its fun :) Sam is having a crazy day today, I swear he had straight red cordial for breakfast. Better get to him before he starts boucing of Nanas walls.

love you all xxoo

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