μεταμορφόω You ready?

     I don't know why I still get surprised when revelation comes. But sometimes, even without the least bit of contemplation on my part, God lays something very clearly upon my heart.
     The thing just rises up from that pool of murky water and when the light hits it I get this breath of knowledge. A deep truth comes that I can rarely keep to myself. Most of the time this happens after a period of marveling over or meditating on something in Scripture.
     On Sunday, it rose from a Sermon. Romans 12:1-3 says this. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
     I learned that the word "transformed" in verse two comes from the Greek word,  "metamorphoō." The definition says this.  1) to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure.  I learned through Sundays teaching that this exact word is only used 3 other times in the original translation of Scripture.  It is used twice in Matthew when he speaks of the "transfiguration" of Jesus, and once in 2nd Corinthians 3:18 when it says that we are "changed" into the same image from Glory to Glory.
      It was when Dr. Veenker began to give examples that the murky thing began to rise.      Scripture says that by the renewal of our minds, we are to metamorphose. To change into another form. 
      Of course!  Tadpole to frog. Caterpillar to butterfly. Orange flower to yellow squash. Acorn seed to Eucalyptus tree. 
     Romans 12:1 exhorts us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Alive, holy, and pleasing to God.  It is our spiritual worship. 
      Did God give us earthly examples? Heck yeah! He gave them to us so we could know. So we could see. He wants us to understand. This is "metamorphoō" It's what God does.
     There is a journey to this road of transformation. It does not happen over-night. We are, however, called to walk it just the same.  
     Are you ready to be changed and made new? To be transfigured like Jesus? 
     I'll take some wings Lord. I really want to fly...

Prophetic painting by a Nana...

     Do you know how something can be right in front of your eyes, day after day, and yet you just don't see it? There is a picture hanging on the wall downstairs in our house. It is in a darkened hallway that goes from our family room into a bedroom. It's been there since my husband brought it home from his Nana's house in Cleburne, Texas five years ago. It hangs in the hall right outside our office and I must have passed it hundreds of times as I've gone from here to there, and yet...I never really saw it.
     It was painted by Paul's Nana in Oklahoma City in 1976 (the year we were married) and is inscribed to him on the back, "Love Nana."  It recieved a "Runner Up" ribbon in the local fair in 1980 and she kept it with her until Paul brought it to our home in California five years ago.
     After a terrible tragedy, Paul's Nana gave up her life and walked without hesitation into the shattered world of two teenage boys, one adolescent boy, and a five year-old baby girl. She prayed, she trusted God, and she walked in faith.
     Nana died in December at age 98.
     Paul and I were laughing and telling stories about Nana for weeks after her funeral, then one night when we got into bed, Paul said to me, "I've been thinking about that painting Nana made for me. I think it was Prophetic."
     "Which one?" I asked him thinking about the rose painting in the upstairs bedroom and the "Rare Bird" album cover painting that Nana had done for Charles. I had recently put that one in a closet and suddenly felt bad about it. "The one I brought home from her house and hung in the hall. The one of the Road."
     "There's a painting of Nana's in the hall of a road?" I asked.
     "Yes. Over the King chair, outside the office."
     Was he crazy? I wondered. Was I?
      I got out of bed and rushed down the stairs and there it was in front of me. Paul said Nana had painted it the year we got married.
     It looked so much like a picture I had taken just a few months before, that tears filled my eyes. It's our "Glory Road." How could I have missed this?
   
     The last picture on this blog post is my photograph. I show it to you because I don't want you to miss what was right in front of me and what might be right in front of you.

     I'll think I'll paint it, frame it just like Nana's, and hang them side by side.
     I know that Nana and Jesus are smiling right now. It took me awhile Nana, but I see it.  I see it and I love you. Thank you for this.