Beauty around me

Beauty around me

“The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

Living in a city, I often forget to raise my eyes and look up. The stars, the moon and the deep blue sky offer a breathtaking view that forces me to stop and think. What an artistic creator we have! So many details  and, although He is the One who made the universe, he still cares for us, so small in comparison to all the rest. The psalmist says:“When I consider your heavens,  the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,  what is mankind that you are mindful of them,  human beings that you care for them” (Psalm 8: 3,4).

I had the opportunity to visit Arizona over the 4^th of July week end with my husband and that gave me so many opportunities to meditate on these verses. When you sit in front of the Grand Canyon, when you see for the first time the Horseshoe, how can you doubt of the Lord’s almighty hand?? My first though was “those who say there is no God have never been here!”. The same attention for details that our Father had in shaping the rocks was used to create me and you:

 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13, 16)

 Isn’t it amazing news? The  Am I desires a personal relationship with us and wants to communicate His love for us in various ways. He “even put eternity in our hearts”! He even made a dream landscape for us to enjoy! Take a moment to seat outside one night this summer, turn all the lights off and contemplate the ones that are above you and let your Creator speak to you and surround you with His love!

Some Random Thoughts About the Past Two Months

Time goes by quickly. It has been two months since I joined the ISEED Program. I feel myself grow a lot compared to when I just came here.

From the work side, TT is a great patient teacher. In two weeks, she taught me all she had learnt about the accounting job in her past one year. Her experience and techniques are invaluable to me. After she left, I start from what she taught me, and think carefully about the logic and reason behind those working processes. Then, after I get very familiar with the routine work, I start to think about the places that can be improved in the existing process. Or sometimes, just some alternate processes that fit more into my personal working style. Thanks to Don and Karen, who are my great co-workers, they are willing to patiently listen to my opinions and encourage me to keep doing so in the future. I'm so grateful to work in such a productive and innovative environment. When Karen told me that I did a very excellent job in the past two months, I'm so happy and honored.

From the spiritual growth side, I'm so blessed  to have so many mature Christians working and living around me. I really enjoy the teaching from Russ and Phil every week. The Friday night bible study also gives me a great opportunity to learn from other strong believers, and share my own thoughts with them. Besides that, I'm very happy to have Guy as our spiritual mentor. We went through the book "Purpose Driven Life" together and had lots of wonderful discussions. During the reading, I truly experience the inner changing of myself. The book keeps reminding me that I should always put the Lord in the first place in every aspects of my life, which is very important. God gives me time, energy, wisdom and talent, and I should utilize all of those to serve God. It's very encouraging when I read the idea that when we utilize our talents in our daily work, we are actually worshiping him. Because God makes us the way we are, and he enjoys watching us utilizing the talents he gives us. Therefore, when I work everyday at IFI, when I'm using the carefulness he gives me to help other staff deal with accounting issues, I'm actually worshiping him. This idea encourages me to work with more passion and happiness in my heart.

There are so many meaningful, exciting and memorable moments happening in the past two months, and I believe more are awaiting in front of me. I'm looking forward to this incoming July. Trust in the Lord and do not fear about the future, because he is already there.

Tianbang Zhu