He lives

The Lord is risen indeed
Luke 24:34

He has risen and death is no more.

I have believed in God my whole life. My earliest 2 memories are when I must have been about 3 or 4 years old. I am standing before the lupins in our garden. They are taller than I am at that young age and I touch them gently with a finger and laugh to myself. My Father God made these; I know it is so. In the second memory, I am walking hand in hand with my Dad across a meadow. A lark is high in the blue summer sky, birds are singing, the air is sweet, the meadow is covered with buttercups. I must have laughed to myself as my Dad looking down at me says, "You happy, little 'un?" I look up at him and smile. "This is God" I say to him. I don't know what he thought of that statement and being so young I didn't consider his thoughts, neither did I have the means to express myself better.  But what I meant is as clear to me now as it was then; that this wonder, this love, between me and my Dad and between me and nature, was God. It was of His making and His love. Clearly I was still surrounded by 'clouds of glory.'

I have wandered far since those days. I have wandered into dark places and at times have lost my direction. I have been sick in heart, in mind and in body. I have been accused and betrayed. I have stumbled over my pride and thus suffered more. But even in these darkest moments, I have always known that God was there and that all things beautiful, full of love and goodness, is He.

Today, when I am closer to the end of my life than the beginning,  I can claim that He lives. I know this to be true. He lives, and I rejoice that He lives. For with Him will live all that is the best of me, and all of true Creation.

How ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God
And to wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus
1 Thes. 1:9-10