With the recent ice storm in the midwest, I was reminded of these amazing images I was able to capture a couple of years ago and the thoughts that they triggered.  Join me this week on a post from my past?

“Those ice cakes may have traveled all the way from South Dakota,”  my dad said as he clicked away on his camera.

The Missouri River runs through my town carrying ice cakes with it toward the gulf.  My dad, the kids and I explored it.  We watched the cakes quickly race by while the stagnant water in small inlets remained frozen, cracked and unmoved.

I wondered what the ice cakes have seen.  How long they’ll stay solid and where the last frozen chunk will melt.  As a child I always wanted to float on an iceberg. Once again, I thought of it as I took pictures on Friday along with my dad.  My heart sensed that there were spiritual truths to grasp here but they didn’t come to me quickly as they often do when I observe nature.

By Sunday I was beginning to think through the ice cake pictures.  The sermon at church drew me to think up on them again.  It included a quote from C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity:

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world…I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same.”

Do you have a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy?

Do you long to love perfectly all those you love (or don’t love)?

Do you long to love the Lord with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength?

Do you look forward to the day you will meet Jesus face to face and live forever with Him fully free from sin?

Do you wish you could do something to glorify Him or serve Him in a particular way but find you just don’t have the skills, energy, time, resources or money necessary to do it?

These are all things I long to have now, but I know I won’t have fully on this side of heaven.

Do you ever dream about your eternal home?

Do you ever wonder what you might do there?  I hope to have a beautiful singing voice.  I wonder at what I might be able to do there with the desires he’s given me.  Will He expound upon them?  Will He have me take pictures, write stories or make movies that glorify Him?

I imagine loving without fear of being vulnerable. Loving without anger ever getting in the way.  Reconciliation with those who seem to be irreconcilable now.

My heart bursts with hope!

I imagine loving without fear of losing.  Loving without wondering when sorrow will hit me.

I must never let my hope get snowed under or turned aside.  Frozen. Cracked. Stagnant. There is something sad that I feel in my heart when look at this ice that is not able to join the ice cakes in their race to the gulf.

And there is sadness in my heart that invades what could be the abundant life when I don’t look toward my heavenly home.

When I get caught up in life circumstances and turn my face toward earth.

Allowing myself to get caught in the rubble of earth.

I must make my hope be the main object of life to press on to that country.  Somehow the Son seems to lift my head and warm my heart when I get caught up in this world.  He turns me back to the race toward my heavenly home.

And what about helping others do the same?

My dad spots a bald eagle floating on one of those ice cakes.  We struggle to zoom in and get a clear shot as the ice moves swiftly carrying the eagle along.  I happened to snap at the right time to get a rare shot.

Jesus is the stream of living water.  He carries us and picks others up right along with us…rushing us toward our heavenly home.  We join Him as we encourage others in this struggle.

Is there anyone in your life who joins with the Lord in turning your eyes toward Him once again?

There are so many things going on in our lives and in our world that can hinder what we set our mind on.  I struggle to keep my mind on eternal truths. I struggle to not set my hope on merely my own strength but on the grace that will be be fully revealed upon Christ’s return and fully on the grace that is given right here and right now.

Will you join me in striving toward hope-filled thoughts?  In helping others who are temporarily frozen by fear and worry?  Let us turn away from the stagnant cracked wasteland of ice toward Jesus, the giver of life and our ultimate hope in this world.

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:13

Linking up this week with these lovely blogs: