Gail Landgraf posted: " Photo by Andre Furtado on Pexels.com ELUL DAY 2 POINTS TO PONDER AND CONSIDER 1. During this month of Elul that covers parts of August and September on the secular calandars; the world will also be observing Labor Day. Not that Labor Day and El"
1. During this month of Elul that covers parts of August and September on the secular calandars; the world will also be observing Labor Day. Not that Labor Day and Elul have much of anything at all to do with one another; but can you see how stopping and resting from your labors (in both instances) will help to get you into the frame of mind that you need for the coming Holy Days? Elul is like a little "lul" in time for us too. Can you compare this type of leisure day rest to the Sabbath. What is different? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What are your immediate thoughts about the labor that you normally do; and how does it feel to take a little break from that labor? (Just jot down your thoughts.)
A lot of Elul meditations speak of God in this season as if He is in the fields of the world looking over the harvest of souls and walking among the workers of His fields.
If God were to walk through the fields of your life today what do you think He would have to say to you?
Are your fields fruitful? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are there some new ways that you can contribute the fruit of your labor towards helping the Master to have a better harvest for this season and any seasons to come?
What would this mean to you in the form of every day actions and how would you describe the ways of turning your face toward this commitment? What would it involve?
Today we want to think about repentance; or as the Jewish people call it: Teshuvah.
Can you see how important Teshuvah is in preparing for the return of Christ?
The Father will be looking for those who have made themselves ready for the Groom. This always involves repentance. As you have studied and meditated on God's word today; what things come to mind that you need to repent of? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Have you given these things over to God and washed your wedding garment as white as snow? How does this feel to you? Are you holding anything back?
"You found me in a dark place and left me in a glimmer of light.
I was living in a prison of browns and grays and trying so hard to find the true colors of the world. "
For those who want to know; I'll quickly confess that today's meditation is not completely my own.
I must give credit to Allen Levi, who has blessed us with the following words/lyrics of a very beautiful and poetic song. The commentary here is all I can claim and nothing more. What a gift this lyrical song has been! I simply want to share the words along with a few thoughts.
My part of today's contribution is to tell you why I love the song, the poem, the lyrics and the feeling that it brings to the spirit. I suppose you could call this article a music review.
To me; this song is a song of hope.
HOPE FROM THE FIELDS
As the hottest heat of summer sweeps to a slow end with scorching hot, dry days that form across the landscape turning everything from a lovely green to a thirsty brown, I long for the bright vivid colors of spring, and I wish for the beauty of sunflowers.
A song is forming in the caverns of my mind, and I catch myself humming....hopefully.
I seem to need a large dose of this favorite old song today as I look out the windows and think of other places I would rather be.
A PLACE CALLED AUBIERE
The first place that comes to mind is a place named in the song which I hum.
It is a place called Aubiere.
I know Aubiere is in the south of France where the sunflowers and the lavender are said to grow side-by-side for miles and miles.
No, I've never been there, except in my heart and imagination. And yes; sometimes I go there inside my mind while listening to Allen Levi's song.
A PLACE WHERE FLOWERS PRAY
If by chance I COULD go there; I would head straight for the sunflower fields and check out those bright yellow rows and rows of praying heads.
If the sunflowers I see there just happen to stand next to a lovely purple field of lavender, all the better!
BEAUTY AND UNIQUENESS
The contrasting flowers of lavender and yellow are like the two countries from which they hail; each of them beautiful in their own unique way.
The endless rows of colorful sunflowers sprung out of a sweet gift from America to France which was brought over the ocean and presented by the Spaniards way back in the long ago days of the 1600's.
Can you imagine how it might have been sailing across the seas with a cargo of sunflower seeds?
Funny how people think of France when you mention sunflowers; because it was the American Indians who first cultivated this amazing flower.
What a gift to the land they have been, for both countries where they now grow as if they were born naturally from both soils, and even more plentiful in the land that received the gift than from the land that gave the gift.
Sometimes beauty, like love; only multiplies when it is given away.
Elul is a time of giving.
What beauty have you given to the world today?
A song?
A poem?
A painting?
A smile?
A dance?
A gentle touch?
A sunflower or two?
Everyone has a favorite song, poem, story, piece of art, lurking deep inside their soul. We all have something of value to leave in the world, a ray of light within each soul that disperses all the darkness. A small portion of God within our spirits that brings life and restoration.
Right?
Golden Choir of Aubiere has always been one of my old favorite tunes, as much for the words as for the melody.
Giving all credit to Allen Levi with the above link; I simply wish to share its healing words with you today.
Did you catch those golden lyrics? Again; giving Allen Levi the credit; I wish to print them out for you to know and ponder during this season. It is a time to be taking lessons in simplicity.
Golden Choir of Aubiere ( by Allen Levi)
Rows and rows of bowing heads, Sunflowers say their evening prayer, A congregation of the field, The golden choir of Aubiere.
Dawn to dusk, they only turn up to heaven where God lives, Every face a separate light Reflections of the love He gives.
Lord of colors, Lord of light, Won't you teach me how to pray like the flowers of Aubiere?
Won't you guide me through the day?
Rose and lily grow so fair, But, Lord, make me like the sunflower, Looking always to your face, Seeking you from hour to hour.
Lord of colors, Lord of light, Won't you teach me how to pray like the flowers of Aubiere?
Won't you guide me though the day?
Rows and rows of bowing heads, the golden choir of Aubiere, the golden choir of Aubiere.
Thank you, Allen Levi, for blessing us with the beautiful melody and placing such lovely lyrical words inside our hearts.
May we all bring our own gifts to lighten one another's days in this season of Elul.
LIKE A BOUQUET OF LOVE
As I listen to the meaning of the lyrics; there seems to be some mystery behind the lyrics that I cannot get to the core of; something that has yet to be revealed, even deeper than the words we have already shared today. I suspect it has to do with the fact that the flowers appear to be fit for a bouquet of love which will be arranged for a lovely bride. Then I know that the song has an Elul appeal to my heart; the vision of the Father walking through the field, the vision of the Bride of Christ being united with the Groom. It all starts with worship and praise; like the flowers in the song.
But the complete mystery of it all will come in time; and it doesn't stop the lovely, almost haunting music from capturing my heart.
The simple beauty of this song has resided like a treasure inside my mind from the first time I heard the poetic lyrics so many years ago.
THE WAY OF THE SUNFLOWERS
That was when I first began to meditate on the ways of the sunflowers in the fields. It was the season of Elul.
I first experienced these rich, poetic words and the lovely but simple tune of the song when they came to lodge inside my welcoming ears during a time when I was missing the natural joy of being constantly surrounded by anything of beauty or grace.
The song found me in a time of despair at the state of the world. Yes, I'm well aware that many people are still residing in this place of gray shadows with only glimmers of light here and there. Thus; we turn our hearts to Elul; thus we study the beauty of sunflowers. There we find the stories of resurrection and restoration for our hurting hearts. They help us to live within the world which we must dwell within today.
But sunflowers are not worldly at all.
They are ever-trusting in a higher power than any that exists on planet earth.
Their heads are always lifted up to the heavens.
The song, along with the gentle rays of slanted sunlight shining into my kitchen windows, managed to transform my darker days, bringing instant hope.
A FREE GIFT OF LOVE
This hope that the lyrics offered to me is free for anyone with a listening heart.
Proof that the old saying is true; "the best things in life are free." You can't put a price tag on a soul-lifting song.
In the midst of struggling through so much mundane day-to-day dullness, these words lent the essence of what I found missing from my surroundings; peace, love, beauty, hope - God!
The slow, soft lyrics and the bright, vivid word pictures from a place I had never known helped me to hold on until better days arrived at my doorstep.
They made me lift my head and become grateful in the midst of all my circumstances; like those lovely bobbing sunflowers praying in the fields.
WHAT SUNFLOWERS DO
Simple words calmly sung made me long for the simple life of the sunflower, one of joy, one of worship and one of faith.
But; that is what sunflowers do; they pray and worship and look up to God. They never give up their faith.
And so my learning began.
Sunflowers don't ask for much, just the nourishment of the sun and rain and the opportunity to grow in God's fields.
Their needs are simple and basically free of charge; surviving on only the gifts from heaven above like the Israelites in the wilderness receiving their daily portion of manna.
Their trust in God is endless and unchanging.
ALWAYS BRINGING JOY INTO UNEXPECTED PLACES AND SPACES
The sunflowers are always patient, beautiful and cheerful no matter their surroundings.
They pop up in the most unexpected places and make your day just a little bit more special.
I learned back in those bleaker times the art of becoming a sunflower. That lesson has made such a difference in the outcome of my life.
BECOMING A SUNFLOWER
It takes looking up to God every day to become a sunflower.
The lifting of the head in praise and worship is the essential element of every moment of a sunflower's life.
For me; in hoping to become more like a sunflower, seconds of previously wasted time suddenly became sacred.
I can now look back on those bleak and ugly days of dullness and smile and know that God was forming and shaping my character into the person He wanted me to be.
He was teaching me how to turn my head toward Him.
God was teaching me to leave my own visions behind and look at the better vision He had chosen to give to me; one of simple beauty, joyous praise and thanksgiving.
KNOWING THE ESSENCE OF TRUE WORSHIP
In those days He taught me the essence of true worship.
We never realize how important these qualities are until we have lived in the place where they do not exist. God let me stay there for awhile; so I would know.
So now for you my friends; I pray that your days are all filled with sunflowers!
I pray that God will show you how to be like a sunflower!
AUBIERE IS EVERYWHERE THE HEART GOES
There is a field somewhere in Aubiere where constant praise is being offered up.
But this type of worship doesn't have to exist in only one place. Father Abraham woke one day to the realization that God wasn't just here and there; but everywhere.
Every inch of the footsteps of mankind will encounter God at some point and time. He is always right where we are.
Oh that we could all live like that lovely golden choir all the time!
Our lives would change if we could teach our hearts to sing the song that Allen Levi sang while (I suppose) he was there observing the natural beauty of his surroundings.
There is a place like Aubiere out there for all of us.
Keep seeking until you find it.
SANCTUARY OF PEACE AND CONTENTMENT
This place where people and sunflowers worship is a sanctuary of peace and contentment; a gift of trusting God for all of our needs.
No toiling.
No strife.
No worries for tomorrow.
Just praise, worship and rest;
And then MORE praise, worship and rest.
The mystery of the sunflowers tells us that this is the continuous motion of a joyful life.
We must not get lost in the hurry of our days and forget to pause in the places of peace, harmony and beauty.
Let's always help one another to remember to give thanks for the simplicity of God's plan for our lives.
It all becomes very simple; once we take a moment to stop and observe The Golden Choir of Aubiere.
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