We received a Christmas card last week from our Federal Parliament member of the electorate that we live in. The Christmas picture on the front was drawn by young children from a local primary school. The pictures were delightful! They were just like how young kids draw! I thought that the card was so special! Our beautiful, Loving Lord Jesus came to earth at Christmas time, for the reason that He would die on the cross as the one and only needed sacrifice! He died and was raised again, so that we can become a child of our loving Heavenly Father! Our lives as His children, are like drawings to Him, drawings of love! 

 I  was today sent an email from a Christian company, called “YouVersion”  who created a Bible app that you can download and read many versions of the Holy Bible. In the email was the words:

 “The Bible verse shared, bookmarked, and highlighted most often by the global YouVersion Community during 2022 was :

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Isaiah 41:10 NIV

  Mum once told me  about the way my grandpa played the piano as he was left handed. I  hadn’t really thought about it, that being left or right handed can affect the way you play music. He played more chords/was stronger with his left hand and played the melodies more with his left hand. Dad started using his hands to play piano and organ music when he was very young, and has played for so many years ever since! I started to think about “hands”  and how we are lovingly in our Lord Jesus’ and Heavenly Father’s hands ( John 10)  The “everlasting arms” surround us. The most loving arms and hands were wide open on a cross many years ago ❤️

      Many years ago, Mum bought me an advent calendar pop-up book. Each year since I have  enjoyed  opening up each pop-up each day, with two pages to a page. It relates to parts of the Bible and the drawings are really lovely. It is very exciting that while these 25 pop-ups lead to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ,we already know about His birth, death, resurrection and accession! We know the love,joy and peace that was brought to the world by His birth, and though in our daily life often things unexpected do “pop-up”, we can be greatly assured that our Loving Heavenly Father and our loving Lord Jesus who is our Saviour, are constantly caring,loving and protecting❤️.( The 25^th pop-up is a panorama of the stable) 

     Recently there has been a new little baby Asian elephant born at the Melbourne Zoo!  She is due to be named during this week.  Zoo Victoria members  have been invited to vote on  the new name. The 3 cute choices are :  Aiyara (elephant), Chaiyo (cheers) or Roi-Yim (smile). Even though she is a baby, she would still be about a thousand times bigger and heavier than a human baby! 

    This is a cute picture of an elephant, with a little bird and pretty butterflies. It is amazing and lovely that our Loving Lord Jesus and Loving Heavenly Father created all creatures great and small! From the big elephant to the tiny butterfly…He creatively and lovingly made them all! 

      When I was little, Mum, Dad and I spent many happy times walking along Rosebud beach eating chips that have been wrapped up in newspaper! The smell of sea air and looking at waves coming into the beach was so very nice!  

Our loving Lord Jesus and our loving Heavenly Father made the oceans and sea! Our Lord walked on the water and calmed the rough waves  and blustery wind! How majestic is the Lord! May we ever give praise! ❤️

    I made these flower hearts the other day. They represent the beautiful love of our Saviour Lord Jesus and His wondrous death on the cross. God is love! 

 Our beautiful, loving Lord Jesus talks to us all the time, in lots of ways. He is always saying: “I love you, l care about you, just rest in Me” He will bring us through ❤❤

  This Tuesday is Melbourne Cup day. It is fun looking at all the names of the horses! There are such a variety of names! The most precious Name in the whole wide world is that of our loving Lord Jesus Christ!  The name Jesus means “ the Lord Saves” and He is our most beautiful loving Saviour! ❤️He is love! 

 My Grandpa was very sick, for all my life. He was on a lot of medications. I was a little girl when he passed away, but we used to spend hours talking together outdoors in his garden, just chatting away. When I look back, I think of the times very lovingly. We have a lovely Autumntime photo that Dad took of Papa and myself sitting on a seat bench chatting under the Autumn trees. I was wearing a hand knitted yellow jumper, and of course had my red/orange hair. Papa was wearing an Autumn brown coloured jumper.

  Having little chats are lovely expressions of caring love to each other. They  don’t have to last very long, but can encourage another person for the rest of the day. I think that our loving Lord Jesus would have spent many times in His life from when he was young and right through his life, having little chats. God  is love, and supportive words of encouraging  chatting is love in action ❤️

  When I was younger, I used to enjoy making scones for my Grandma, as she wasn’t very well at all, and scones was something she really enjoyed eating. She lived with Mum, Dad and I after my Grandpa passed away. My scones were definitely odd shaped, and would NOT have won any prizes in a cooking contest! But…they were made with lots and lots of love! Our loving Lord looks at all that we are inside and loves us very much! We  love other people because He loves us! He died and rose again for every person! He loves us ❤❤❤❤

 It is October and there has been lots of Rocktober festivals and events that have takenplace this month, where rock n roll music is played! It is a very musical month!   Our loving Lord is our precious Rock is our lives! With all that is happening in our lives,in our day to day living, and in the world around us, we have safety,encouragement  and security in Him, the “Rock of all ages” ❤️❤️

 I got a new Medicare card last week! My old one is about to expire very soon. We are all allocated a “ Medicare number” which helps to keep track of our health details and so that we can claim benefits. 

   It is so very special that we are NOT just a number to our beautiful loving  and caring Lord! He knows each of us by name and so much loves us. Though we go through very painful and tiring times, He is always there to watch over us and we aren’t alone ❤️ May we rest in His love❤️

  Springtime is here! When I was little, I used to enjoy pressing Spring flowers in a flower press. Dad actually made me a special press! I used to make up bookmarks using the flowers. One time, I made a bookmark and wrote these words from a hymn onto the bookmark :

Joyful, joyful, we adore You,

God of glory, Lord of love;

Hearts unfold like flowers before You,

Opening  to the sun above.

May we always look up like flowers  and give praise to our loving Lord ❤️

      Photos capture special memories of times spent with loved family and friends.  Or they remind us of places that we have visited or scenes that we have seen. For many years, Mum and Dad were invited by many groups, gatherings and Church fellowships to present slides program that showed through a projector, slides that Dad had taken. Mum used to do the talking and also poems. One program was called : “ Stop,Look,See” It contained very,very beautiful slide pictures of lovely flowers and nature items. All these  were created by our Loving Heavenly Lord: the Master Creator ❤️ May we  also stop…look…see and give praise to Him Who created us, the world and lovingly loves us! ❤️

 When Mum first started work, she was quite young at that time. One of her older friends gave her a lovely verse plaque gift to celebrate her starting work, and she kept it on her dressing table from then onwards, right through to after she was married and still had it near the mirror in Mum and Dad’s bedroom. 

This was the verse:

Take  a moment to look upwards

 when the morning has begun.

Looking down

you will see just shadows 

Looking up 

you will see the sun 

May we every day look up to our loving Lord ( the Son) with thankful hearts, and be encouraged in His love ❤️

 One afternoon last week, I looked out through our side glass windows and saw a very beautiful rainbow! It was so pretty! The colours were lovely! 

  Rainbows remind us of the beautiful love of our loving Lord. The Lord loves us in  a wide variety of ways just like the variety of colours in a rainbow. The bow arch faces toward Him because He so very lovingly died for us, instead of us, and  brought us eternal peace ❤️

    I was thinking about musical instruments the other day. There are lots of different types of instruments! They each make their own uniquely lovely sound. But when played together in an orchestra, the combined sound is lovely! Just like that, everyone is different. We all speak different, have our own likes,interests, and look uniquely different. But when our inner hearts of  lots of people around the world  sing praise to our loving Lord and His love, it is a big harmony of praise to Him! May we always praise Him for His daily blessings ❤️

 It is very nice the way certain smells can bring back special memories of past things that happened in our lives. When we thought that the electricity may have gone out for a while, dad went on a search for lots of candles in our home so that we would have light at night! He lit one of the candles, and the smell  brought back happy memories of past birthdays when people have blown out the candles on their birthday cakes. Everyone joins together singing the “happy birthday song”. Some singers may sound a bit more “on key” than others! But all are happy and joined together to want to celebrate the “ birthday girl or boy” whatever their age.

   Our loving Lord is the candlelight in our daily life. He guides us, encourages and gives us future hope, in all that we are going through now. He promises to “ never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” One day we will have a huge celebration with Him and it will be much better than a million trillion birthdays ❤️ 

  One of my favourite parts of the Queen’s platinum celebrations was her talk with Paddington Bear! It was so delightful and funny! He offered her a marmalade sandwich from under his hat and she explained to him that she kept a spare marmalade sandwich in her handbag! They enjoyed a nice of tea together!  

I don’t really like marmalade sandwiches but my Grandma used to really enjoy bread and butter spread with apricot jam! She wasn’t very well, and  would always enjoy eating this! 

Jam is so very sticky! If you get jam on your hands ( or paws! ) it sticks to you! Our Loving Lord’s love is like jam. He spreads it thickly all over our day in so many ways. May we have eyes to see it. In our pain and tiredness, His love is the sweetness that brings us through ❤️

  I was thinking the other day about when I first got a bike and learnt how to ride! Mum and Dad gave me a bike for my birthday and I was so excited! It had a pretty floral patterned seating saddle. I was so wobbly when I first started! Dad held onto the bike until I could manage to ride on my own! Then all of a sudden, I could steady myself and ride, and went off down our driveway! I had lots of fun then riding in our court! 

  Some days we may feel a bit “ wobbly” inside. We may have a lot of pain, or feel tired, or just a bit anxious. Our Loving Lord is always there to reassure us that we are kept safe is His love. His loving  hand is on our lives and He knows what we are going through ❤️

 Many years ago, Mum bought me a plain white fleecy top, and stitched a pretty row of flowers along the top. It looks so lovely! I still enjoy wearing it, as I think that they are “stitches of love”! 

  Our Loving Lord “sews stitches of love” throughout our day and our lives! ❤️They are little blessings that seek to encourage us and remind us of his neverending love. Our days may sometimes seem a little plain and white,but his love stitches brings beauty to all that our day and lives are holding ❤️

   I was thinking the other day about all the varieties of Arnotts biscuits that you can buy, and they all have their own particular name! There are Marie, Milk arrowroot, Milk Coffee, Scotch Fingers, Granita, Tim tams, Shortbread creams, Monte Carlo, Gingernuts, Salada,and many,many more! 

   We also all have our own unique names. Our Loving Lord knows all of our names, and gently whispers our name to us through the day to comfort and encourage us. We may not hear Him  talking, but we know His love ❤️ One day we will hear His beautiful voice face to face ❤️

 Our loving Creator Lord created all creations! It is wondrous when you stop and think about it! There are so many different types of insects and animals! They are all uniquely different! Our Lord gave snails there own shell as a mini home! And the colours and patterns of butterflies are so very beautiful! May we give Him always praise! 🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌 🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

  I was thinking the other day about the word : holiday. It originally came from two words which are “holy” and “day” Every day really is a holy day! Our loving Lord has created it, and makes the sun rise and sun set on each day. He watches over us in each minute. May we live each day in His love and for Him! ❤️

  I think that these pictures

of colourful painted eggs are very pretty! They look very lovely! They are also a very nice reminder of Easter and our Loving Saviour’s love on the cross and triumphant resurrection! Eggs represent new life.Our Loving Lord Jesus came out of the tomb and gave new life  to all who believe! Just like   the painted eggs, it doesn’t matter the colour of your hair, skin, clothes you wear, your favourite colour, He died for us all! 

     It is often in the little “ordinary” things that happen in the day that our loving Lord says a little “I love you” to us ❤️ The other day I was in the laundry and sunlight was shining through the window onto some white paper that was there. But it shone through some coloured bottles of detergents that were there, and it created a rainbow on the paper! It looked so pretty! It was a reminder that He lovingly cares for us and keeps us safe in His hands.

Earlier this year,  Dad and I decided that we would get a seedblock to hang on a hanger on our side patio, for birds to come and eat. Dad put the seedblock near our side sliding glass windows so we could out and see if birds arrive. So far though no birds have come visiting! Perhaps they will visit soon.  

  It is very encouraging and comforting that just like our Loving Lord cares about the sparrows but even more He cares about us! He knows how we are feeling and what is happening in our lives. He knows each time our “ chirping” turns into tears ❤️

 When younger, I used to go for a walk near where we live, and there was a lovely wattle tree in someone’s home. After there had been rain, the scent of the wattle was so very beautiful! It was such a very lovely fragrance! The love of our loving Lord is such a lovely fragrance! It wafts around our heart, and seeks to provide a soothing comfort  in our pain. May we rest in his fragrant love❤️

 On the hot days last week, our electric fans were “furiously” spinning around trying to keep us cool! It is quite funny that one day we have our heater on to keep us warm, then the next day we need to use a fan! The love of our Loving Lord both makes us warm and also refreshes us and gives us encouraging hope for what is ahead. May we keep our eyes and thoughts on Him, and He  will carry us through to what is ahead ❤️

   I was thinking the other day about a song that we used to sing a long time ago. It was called : “He’s got the whole world in His hand” I am not sure what made me think of it, but I remember that I enjoyed singing it! Our Loving Lord really does have “the whole world in His hands”! He knows all that is happening, in the world and in our lives. He makes sure that the sun rises and that the sun sets each day , and that our planet keeps spinning as it should and doesn’t tumble off into outer space! He makes sure we have air to breathe, and that gravity keeps us from flying away. May we forevermore praise our wonderful, powerful, Sustainer Lord! ❤️ 

 We were doing some sorting the other day and found a photo album of photos of family and friends taken many years ago! Everyone looks so much younger! It is lovely and special though to remember that though we may age on the outside, we are still the same inside. We all are encouraged by the love and caring kindness of each other, just as we also receive joy as we give out love and care to others❤️

   Paddington Bear is so cute! When he first arrives at Paddington Railway Station in the UK, he has a sign on him that says: “Please look after this bear!” He also likes marmalade jam! The Brown family kindly take him home to look after him. May we also “ look after” and care for each other. We can do that through kind words and/or actions. Kindness and knowing someone cares brings comforting encouragement to us, and helps us in all that our day is holding ❤️