Isn't she just lovely?

At our zoo we have a very large giraffe enclosure...large enough for them to roam and run around all day with the small antelopes that are in the enclosure with them.  But if you get there in the morning...before it's just horribly hot out...or very late in the day...you can feed them by hand from a platform that has been built so that you are face to face with these beautiful creatures. 

When I went recently with two of my grandsons and their mom we had a wonderful day.  If you haven't been to the zoo lately...take a child...even a teenage child...you will have a lot of fun discovering and helping them discover...and sometimes even get upfront and personal...with some of God's 4-legged and winged...even slithery...creatures. 

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 Crucifix Bone

Can you see it?  On this skull bone from a fish called the sailcat?  Look carefully...it's the crucifix...Christ on the cross.  Isn't it amazing!?  I have two of  these...found on my beach...on either side of my closet door...their simple beauty reminding me of the sacrifice of Christ...for 'a wretch like me'...and his words, "Father forgive them...they know not what they do."

As I read my Daily Word this morning...I felt it was a message I just needed to share.  I can't...of course...post the exact message due to copyright...but the message was...in my best translation...as follows:

FORGIVE

God, I love Your forgiveness...the gentleness in Your spirit...and the love You have for all of your children.

Today I want to turn to You and Your forgiveness and ask that You help me to forgive others.  I ask that you help me release any hurts I have that I feel were caused by other people...and heal any pain that I have from any slights I perceived were caused by others.

I want to forgive...and forgive freely...all those who I may resent...all those who I feel have hurt me...all those who I judged...I do this knowing You will grant my prayer and I will be healed of these judgemental thoughts...and that those I forgive will feel Your loving presence in me.  I ask that You help me not to be judgmental now and or the future and that you heal not only my heart of these types of attitudes and feelings...but also those of all Your children.  I know...and believe...that all thoughts of judgement block Your love and Your light.   I ask that Your forgiveness of my judgement of others be so complete that it encompasses every heart and mind...not mine alone.  I ask this so that all relationships may be healed and that friends and family wake up to the knowledge that through You friends and family may be loved, enjoyed and treasured and the value in these relationships is what serves You.  That our loving acceptance of others, and their differences is not to be feared or shunned...but celebrated to Your glory.  It is in these relationships that we grow.

I ask all these things, God, knowing that You will grant them...perhaps not in our time frame...but in the time frame that will be best for all Your children.  I will try to release all of this to You and not "snatch it back" every time I remember these grievances...and when I remember them I will again ask for Your forgiveness for my judgemental attitude...and in doing so trust You to keep the spirit of forgiveness alive in me and in all of Your children.

Thank you, God for all of your blessings.

Amen

"So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift." - Matthew 5:23

Forgive me your illusions, and release me from punishment for what I have not done.  So will you learn the freedom that I taught by teaching freedom to your brother, and so releasing me.  I am within your holy relationship, yet you would imprison me behind the obstacles you raise to freedom, and bar my way to you.  Yet it is not possible to keep away One Who is there already.  And in Him it is possible that our communication, where we are joined already, wil be the focus of the new perception that will bring light to all the world, contained in you. --- The Obstacles to Peace/The Second Obstacle

My God grant you peace.