1436. I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker. ~Voltaire

December 24, 2017 by nataliescarberry

If you want to find God, hang out
in the space between your thoughts.
~Alan Cohen Screen Shot 2017-12-24 at 8.30.06 PM.png May yours always be a world blessed
with plentitude and enduring joys.
In your heart, may there be love;
in your soul, may there be peace;
in your mind may there be calmness.
May each season of the years
bring you the best they have to offer.
May you never be lacking enough
and never want for more.
May your home be a sanctuary wherein
you feel the continual presence of the Lord.
May you feel His mantle of love
perpetually around you and yours.
May your life yield a multitude of days
filled with laughter and love.
On rainy or troubling days may there
be rainbows, physical and/or spiritual,
to gladden your eyes and heart.
On starry, moonlit nights, may the orbs of heaven
and the “echoes of the spheres” speak to you
of the Holy One and His goodness and mercy.
~Natalie Scarberry

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. -Ephesians 1:17 ✝

**Clocks photos taken by Natalie in London and Paris; collage created by Natalie

1431. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… ~Excerpt from lyrics written by Meredith Willson

December 15, 2017 by nataliescarberry

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**The Root of Jesse or the Tree of Jesse is an iconographic depiction of the Ancestors of Christ. It shows in a tree which rises from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David. It originates in a passage in the Biblical Book of Isaiah which describes metaphorically the descent of the Messiah, and is accepted by Orthodoxy as referring to Jesus Christ.

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. ~Isaiah 11:1 ✝

**Image found on Pinterest; text added by Natalie

1273. Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance. ~W. Clement Stone

October 13, 2016 by nataliescarberry

I say to mankind, Be not curious about God.
For I, who am curious…, am not curious about God –
I hear and behold God in every object…
~Excerpted lines by Walt Whitman

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(wildflower / Julie Cook / 2016)
https://cookiecrumbstoliveby.wordpress.com/2016/10/

Look at this amazing tiny wildflower…it grows wild along the edge of the woods. Looking at it closely, it really is amazing isn’t it? The coloring…those tiny magenta like spots demurely dotting a milky center…along with those soft yellow streaks…offered by what seems to be the errant brush stroke of an artist’s paint. Those fine tiny little fuzzy hairs, surrounding each gentle and tender petal…ready and waiting to tickle the foot of any visiting bee…Absolutely amazing…Such attention to detail…A microcosm of beauty that sits for no one in particular, randomly along the edge of the woods…Except say for the birds, the deer, the coyotes, the armadillos…and chances are, it is only the bees that pay it any heed…A delightful detail to be marveled over…A sheer tiny portent of beauty…offered freely to any passerby to gleefully behold…Yet I do not see such a tiny marvel as mere happenstance. I do not find it to be some random mix of atoms that swirled together over the eons, then popped out as this flower…I do not look upon anything on this earth as mere happenstance…the oceans and all that they harbor and hold…the sky with it’s endless cosmic delights…the earth be it verdant growth or sandy dunes…Nothing has happened without the knowledge of the Creator…but there are many who would beg to differ. There are those who will cry foul over such thoughts…those who will fight ardently, tooth and nail, to wipe away any such notion…because for them, that’s all that such is…mere notions of the uneducated, the simple, the naive and the misinformed.

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ~John 1:17 ✝

**Julie Cook was kind enough to let me us part of one of her posts.

1030. What was that? Did you see it? There, there it goes again! Look! It can’t have disappeared.

January 6, 2016 by nataliescarberry

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In the half light of dawn a quick flash of red had been darting back and forth just beyond the blue gazing ball. Whoosh! There is was again! Surely you saw it that time. No? Ohhhhhh, but I did! Even from 30 yards away the vibrant color and black mask of a male cardinal is unmistakable. Fully awake and focused now I could clearly see what the beautiful flash was, and yet sadly I had not obeyed the call earlier to get up and find my camera. After weeks of early wake ups, I just couldn’t make myself get up out of my chair; I was being lulled into a kind of stupor by the gray, quietude of the early January morn. Then I remembered the last line in Kalidasa’s Sanskrit poem, “The Salutation to the the Dawn. “Look well therefore to this day,” he said. So with a better late than never resolve, I started trying to untangle myself from a blanket and get up from my chair when all of a sudden the amazing crimson creature landed not ten feet away from me on the other side of my patio door. Lots of cardinals live in and around our yard, but until today none of them had come this close to the house. What a brave, cheeky guy was this one who had found and perched itself atop the blackberry vine I’d purchased last week. Though he tarried there a while, I was afraid to move for fear I’d shoo it away. So I eased back down in my chair, watching in awe and admiration until it flew off. Afterwards, I did go grab my camera in case the beauty returned again. Alas, however, it did not. Instead now it was only flying back and forth, along with its mate, from the feeders to the top of my rose arch outside Natalieworld

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Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming. ~1 Peter 1:13 ✝

**Images found on Pinterest

822. Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. ~Claude Monet

July 28, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Gardens are a
form of autobiography. ~Sydney Eddison

I know that if odour were visible, as colour is,
I’d see the summer garden in rainbow clouds.
~Robert Bridges

When I was in college we used to discuss frequently an old philosophical question about the 5 famous people we’d like to meet and get to know. At that time I’m sure my list was different from what it is today, and back then I was never really sure who would top the list. Though I’m still not sure about who all five would be, I do know for certain who would top the list, Jesus Christ and Claude Monet, and in that order.

A soulmate is defined in the dictionary as a person ideally suited to another as in a close friend or a romantic partner. Perhaps not in a romantic sense but Jesus is the Lover of my soul and therefore is my eternal and divine soulmate, and I’ve long thought of Claude Monet as a soulmate, someone with whom I would love to have been close friends. Needless to say our trip to Giverny confirmed and solidified Monet’s spot at number 2. Sadly there are hundreds and hundreds of people who visit Giverny each day, and we were prodded along much like cattle being driven down a chute so it was hard to get really nice photos or spend as much time lingering as I would have liked. But I did get some to which I have added to a few more that I found on Pinterest and the internet so as to try and give you all an idea of the exquisite beauty of Monet’s gardens and the charm of his house. If you look carefully at the map in the opening photo, you may be able to get an idea at least of the scope and size of Giverny. There are literally flowers EVERYWHERE, and they are scattered over acres and acres. So here we go on today’s leg of my little photo tour of Giverny. Enjoy.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ~Deuteronomy 6:5 ✝

810. Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open. ~John Barrymore

July 16, 2015 by nataliescarberry

In oneself lies the whole world
and if you know how to look and learn,
the door is there and the key is in your hand.
Nobody on earth can give you either
the key or the door to open, except yourself.
~Krishnamurti

I truly believe that everything we do
and everyone we meet is
put in our path for a purpose.
There are no accidents;
we’re all teachers – if we’re willing
to pay attention to the lessons we learn,
trust our positive instincts and not be
afraid to take risks or wait for
some miracle to come knocking at the door.
~Maria Gibbs

Doors are always intriguing, don’t you think?! Our hotel in Paris was at 8 Avenue Rapp in the 7th arrondissement, and we frequently walked past the Art Nouveau Door above at 29 Avenue Rapp, on the way to the Eiffel Tower or to find some place to eat dinner. The beautiful door was built in 1901 by Jules Lavirotte, and I believe it to be the entrance to apartments or town homes. And oh, mais oui, oui, oui, how I would love to live in those surroundings and behind that beautiful door.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” ~Spoken by Jesus Christ in Luke 11: 9 ✝

715. God will not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars. ~Elbert Hubbard

April 26, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Experience is not
what happens to a man.
It is what a man does
with what happens to him.
~Aldous Leonard Huxley

As I become more and more thankful for the constancy of God’s Presence through moments not only “where He maketh me lie down green pastures” or when “He leadeth me beside still waters and refreshes my soul” or during the times He walks with me “through the valley of the shadow of death,” the Lord lays more and more blessings on my table. So it is and has been that the cup of my soul is filled to overflowing and the contents therein have been steeped in a mellow and ripe richness. The fact that God is good and all that He created is good has grown increasingly more apparent even in moments of darkest despair. Such trials have stretched me upward to His saving light where I am able to see the “scarred” Christ who calls me, flawed and scarred, to be more than I dared dream was possible. Much like the embryonic infant who has to push its way agonizingly through the narrow straights of a mother’s womb to be born, gratitude tunnels a way bit by bit through dark and adverse portals where His fruits of the spirit are forged by fire into being. As well, as in the eye of a storm peace can exist in the midst of the turbulence and greater patience can be acquired by relinquishing control to a God who has always dwelt not only within and without Creation but also within and without each of His children.

Holy Spirit, You are welcome here
Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere
Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for
To be overcome by Your presence, Lord

I’ve tasted and seen, of the sweetest of loves
Where my heart becomes free, and my shame is undone
By Your presence, Lord

Let us become more aware of Your presence
Let us experience the glory of Your goodness…
~Excerpted lyrics by Bryan Torwalt
**To hear a recording of this song click on this link:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. ~Romans 5:1-4 ✝

691. Unto the Cross came death, and unto death came the Cross. ~Anthony Liccione

April 3, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Our Father. We have killed Him, and we will kill Him again, and our world will kill Him. And yet He is there. It is He who listens at the door. It is He who is coming. It is our Father who is about to be born through Jesus Christ our Lord.” ~Frederick Buechner

For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. ~John 3:16 ✝

**Images via Pinterest, collage created by Natalie

683. Whatever we are waiting for – springtime, peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance – it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart. ~Edited line by Sarah Ban Breathnach

March 26, 2015 by nataliescarberry

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy,
if a blade of grass springing up in the fields
has power to move you, if the simple things
of nature have a message that you understand,
rejoice, for your soul is alive.
~Eleonora Duse

Spring is teeming. Even in areas where snow still covers the ground, much is happening in the hidden realms at this time of year; tight buds get looser, nutrients begin to nourish roots in the sunny corners of the earth, and the hibernating creatures among us start to awaken. ~Excerpted and edited lines from Gratefulness.org

Out of His (Jesus Christ’s) fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ~John 1:16 ✝

**Image of Pink Ranunculus via Pinterest

665. Come, gentle Spring! Ethereal Mildness! Come! ~James Thomson

March 8, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Down, down, down and drip, drip, drip
falls the gray, gray, grayness of yet another rainy day.
And outside my feet go squish, squish, squish
from the rain and snow and rain and snow and rain,
but oh heavens no, no, no you won’t find me a fussin’
because now, my friends, a grow, grow, growin’
we’ll find the sweet green, green, greening things
of advancing, birthing, sprouting spring.
~Natalie Scarberry

O the green things growing, the green things growing,
The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!
I should like to live, whether I smile or grieve,
Just to watch the happy life of my green things growing.

O the fluttering and the pattering of those green things growing!
How they talk each to each, when none of us are knowing;
In the wonderful white of the weird moonlight
Or the dim dreamy dawn when the cocks are crowing.

  I love, I love them so – my green things growing!
And I think that they love me, without false showing;
For by many a tender touch, they comfort me so much,
With the soft mute comfort of green things growing.

  And in the rich store of their blossoms glowing
Ten for one I take they’re on me bestowing:
Oh, I should like to see, if God’s will it may be,
Many, many a summer of my green things growing!

But if I must be gathered for the angel’s sowing,
Sleep out of sight awhile, like the green things growing,
Though dust to dust return, I think I’ll scarcely mourn,
If I may change into green things growing.
~Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ~Ephesians 5:19b-20 ✝

** Image via Pinterest

Sacred Touches

Life is a time of purpose and anointed blossoming…

Tag Archives: Jesus Christ