The Full Heart

There are days when your heart is just so full that you feel giddy. There are days the Holy Spirit fills you with so much joy you can barely stand it. There are days you can't explain and days you wouldn't explain if you could.  Good days...just really good days.

My heart is full, not because of anything that happened in particular.  My heart is full because of a renewed vision of all that God has given me.  A grateful heart is a grand thing.  It can look over all the ugliness and see the good.  It can sing even when things may not be going our way.

There are days that God gives you a renewed vision.  Open eyes are a true gift.

Yesterday, our family went down to the local Independence Day Festival.  I'm going to be honest and just say there was no excitement about it on my part.  It's so HOT here in southeast Georgia.  I know it's hot everywhere, but it's just a different sort of hot here.  If you've ever lived here or visited during the summer, you can understand where I'm coming from.  However, I did put on a happy face and trudged on.

The festival is a friendly atmosphere and it is nice to see all the local vendors and sample the foods...so my attitude did brighten.  I started to look around and God stirred my heart.  These are all people He loves.  Everyone was wearing the red, white, and blue.  Smiling. Happy faces. Proud to be Americans.  Veterans who still wear their military medals proudly. Military men and women who wear their uniforms beautifully and respectfully. Kids running around eating snow cones and drinking lemonade.  The police men and women watching with vigilant eyes, yet still stopping to share a laugh with the community.  These are people God loves.  All these people.  The girl with the green hair and multiple piercings, the guy in the tank top and tattoos, the mom with the sticky kids, the dad pushing the screaming kid in the stroller, the fireman passing out water, the church group making animal balloons for the kids, these are people God loves.

Sometimes all it takes to change a heart or fill it up is to take a good look around to see how God loves, to see how God moves...a laugh with a friend, a handshake, a smile, eye contact and a reassuring nod.  Some days we have to take a look outside ourselves, a long hard look, to see the blessings, to appreciate the grand gifts that God has so freely given.

This morning I woke up with a heart overflowing with joy because I saw God yesterday, in the faces of those around me.  I'm looking for Him again today.  My heart is full.