Mourning to Dancing

 Note:  I have been reading through the Psalms lately, and many of them inspire me so much that I want to post about them, so if I continue to blog post about various Psalms, you know why;).

So the other night, I read Psalm 30.  And the last two verses really stuck out to me, partly because they're highlighted in my Bible, and partly just cuz....well, I love them!

Psalm 30:11,12

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
    you have loosed my sackcloth
    and clothed me with gladness,
 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
    O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

Mourning into dancing?  Isn't that from one extreme to the other?  YES!  It is!  That's how our God can do it!  He takes our deepest sorrows, pain, and hurt...then guess what He does.  No, you won't have to guess, I'll just tell you, cuz I can't help it--He turns them into joy, beauty, and dancing!  Dancing here is a spontaneous act of uncontrollable joy [source: Talitha's interpretations].  

Our response to this great work of God's is praise and thanksgiving--bubbling out of our hearts for the great work He has done for us.  Know why?  So others can see it, and want it, and seek God because they want it so much!

the magic of snow...

So last evening it dumped around three inches of snow here, and this morning or so we got another couple inches.  While I'm not really fond of walking or driving in snow, I do like to look out the window at it :).  
Anyway, in my looking out the windows last night and this morning, the trees were so pretty.  With gleaming whiteness accentuating each twig, I just couldn't resist taking some pictures. 

The tree outside my upstairs bedroom window, taken last night. And yes, that's the reflection of me and the camera that you see. I call that effect. lol

A tree outside our back window, also taken last night.

this is along the road (I took it when I went outside to get the mail:]) and that's our chicken fence weighed down with snow...

pure beauty, in my opinion:)

This is a shot from our back window across our ravine.

Unfortunately, the camera fell far short of capturing half of the beauty out there, so you can only see the toned-down versions of it:).

But doesn't that make you want to just have a cup of hot chocolate and a good book and  curl up in front of the wood fire?! :)