Tag: Christianity

HEAVEN…WHERE IS IT?

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Show me heaven
Can anyone really do that?
Can one human reflect it to another?
For what is heaven?
Is it a trouble-free life?
Is it a life with no struggle or pain?
Is it where you don’t go insane?
Is it where you don’t worry
Is it where people don’t have to say sorry?
Is it a place that can be found on earth
Is it a place of laughter and mirth?
Can it really be that far away
Or is it closer than we think?
Is it a far away galaxy
Or maybe it’s a star,
You might miss it if you blink
Oh if we could only see

What is heaven
Is it 2 hearts beating as one
Is it being able to forgive
Beyond the seventy times seven

What is heaven?
Is it a smile on a baby while he sleeps
Is it real before we all reach age seven
We see it when we’re little
And then we all fall asleep

Show me heaven
Tell me where it is
Give me a road map
In this life, is there such a place?

-EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2013

 

THE FACE OF GOD

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THE FACE OF GOD
Victor Hugo once penned:
“To love another person is to see the face of God.”
With that in mind
Why do we treat our neighbor
As if he were a mere dog?
If we see God in all our neighbors
Why are we so nasty
And forget to do them kind favors

And just who is our neighbor?
At times the ones you live with
Some are friends
Still others, those with whom you labor
Your husband, wife, children you both created
Blood relatives both near and far
These are all our fellow-man
Yet we forget in whose image we were all created

The hobo down the street, without a home,
The druggie, the hooker, the derelict,
The nice clean-cut guy in the business suit,
The soldier fighting his guts out to keep us free
The baby whose life was aborted
The teen girl who tore her baby from her womb from fear
The teen boy who got her pregnant
The rapist, serial killer, the convict ending his life on death row
Yeah, yeah, yeah, these are our fellow-man
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, God weeps when souls are lost
To hell’s eternal flames
And we ought to also weep
‘Cause to lose a soul is too high a cost

How dare we think that we’re better than another?
“To love another person is to  see the face of God”
We look down our noses and despise each other
It’s become a world where dog bites dog
We have lost direction in every way
When a child beats his father and spits on his own mother
I believe God’d own heart weeps
And when we make God cry
May we for His grace and mercy cry.

EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2013

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/13661.Victor_Hugo?auto_login_attempted=true

Word Picture #12

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Broken Window

What does it mean

When I look in your face

And your soul is blank

When I look in your face

And your demons stand as in rank

What does it mean

When I reach out for a hug

You look down at your shoes

And all you do is shrug

I’ll tell you what it means to me:

Stop looking through that old broken window; it’s busted from years of rocks pelting it. First stone you threw, it cracked from top to bottom. It was not a clean break- jagged,taking up the whole window. Then came bigger rocks, chipping away at the surface,until one day a huge boulder came crashing through…such a terrific noise it made! What a great explosion, it took out all the glass. Now what’s left is an empty window pane;  the house is debris filled from the winds that blow in from all the four corners. Dust,rain,leaves all blowing in. And this is the window you want me to keep looking through? No thanks, I’ve better things to do.

-EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2012

365 Snap Shots of Life: Day 237

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Live!

 

I find that people who put themselves in a box are blasé and quite boring…

 They spend their drab lives asleep, loudly snoring, while life slips by them…

Then, one day, they wake up and are  upset because they claim that those of us who enjoy our lives are being loud and rude; our busy and productive lives make so much noise, it awoke them! Well, I’ll tell ya- excuse me for stepping on your boring and mundane toes. If my too-much activity stirs you to anger, well then, perhaps it’s for your good. Wake up! Take a chance!

Smell the roses, and I don’t mean the one you’ve picked out to deck your early coffin. Live and let live! Yes, this means you! Praise Him who made you. Stop your whining and complaining. Be glad He chose to keep you alive!

-EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2012

 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK-END EVERYONE!!! 🙂

Better Than a Clockmaker

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I know God loves me. I’ve known even. I am becoming more and more aware of a depth of grace that no one ever talks about. At least I have never heard of anyone in church talk about it. What I’m referring to is beyond “amazing grace how sweet the sound that save a wretch like me.” It is a grace so deep that it comforts and nourishes me simultaneously. A grace that gives me room to be human and not feel ashamed about it. A grace that holds me up when I trip and stumble. God said He would never let me fall on my face because his right hand would uphold me when I struggle. I am living those words now. I have a God who looks out for me. I am in love with an amazing God who watches my back at every turn. I am in relationship with the Creator of everything who knows my every thought before I even think it. He knows the inner workings of my soul better than a clockmaker knows every click and turn of all the gears in his clocks. He knows what every one of my sighs mean; He understands each one of my soul’s groans when I have run out of words to pray. He knows why I shed every tear and why I laugh when I am happy.

I can say I have discovered a tender side of God that looks at me not with disgust when I mess up; but with a tender compassion that melts my heart and makes me want to draw even closer to His presence. Has your child ever messed up so badly that when your anger toward him subsided, you took him into your arms and said,” I love you no matter what you do or say.” ? Well that’s the kind of mercy God has been demonstrating to this sinner lately. God shows mercy when you are merciful to others. His love is never ending. His love is true. Give Him a chance to work in your life and you’ll never be disappointed. Does it sound too good to be true? I have been lied to all of my life by people I trusted and I ought to be the world’s most distrusting soul. But alas I found out that God never lies. So even though people’s lies hurt me, God never has and that’s why I trust Him with all I am. Take a chance on God whose very essence is LOVE!

-Eva Santiago

The Majestic Oak Tree

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The majestic oak tree does not produce acorns until 50 yrs. old. Your greatest career capacity manifests after 50! It is the time when your personal history, wisdom and core gifting come to integrated maturity – “convergence” – and thus the time when you need to be open to a fresh INVITATION to join God in what HE IS DOING as you finish your race. Welcome to what you have been preparing for….your entire life.

365 Snap Shots of Life:Day 148

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Do you believe in this old saying: You reap what you sow? Do you still believe in the kindness of strangers? In this world we live in with all the negativity the media broadcasts it’s easy to forget those simple truths.

Yesterday I was at the library. When we came out our car was dead. So we tried to figure out what the problem was,looked under the hood trying to trouble shoot. Then a man in his 60’s walked by us with his grandchild, a cute little kid who wore glasses just like grandpa’s . He offered to help us jump-start the battery and then we ran into the second problem; the jump-start cables were too short. Thankfully I had paid attention to the person who had parked on the other side of us just a few minutes before. I ran back into the library and found her checking out. I asked her if she could help us and she hurried to finish checking out and a few minutes later she allowed us to use her car to jump-start our battery.

There are a lot of good people out there who will help. If you do your part to help someone out, it DOES come back to you when you need it. In the movie BRUCE ALMIGHTY,God tells  Bruce,” Be the miracle people need.” Sometimes those miracles can be something as practical as jump starting someone’s car 🙂 

HAPPY SUNDAY!!! Be someone’s miracle today 🙂

365 Snap Shots of Life: Day 136

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FORCED to FIND MY FAMILY…

I was certain I would never know the love of a mother for myself. God has a wonderful way of completing us when we least expect it and with the most unlikely people. I have been friends with Margaret for 20 years. We met back in Atlanta at a time when I would not allow myself to peek into my damaged,trauma filled past. Margaret came into my life back then with arms opened.

She would look at me with such warmth,enough to begin the process of melting the glacier that was taking over my heart in those days. She knew what I needed emotionally and freely gave it;for the first time in my early 20’s I experienced a mother’s unconditional love and I craved for more.Much like a new-born in dire need at feeding time.

My heart broke when a few years after meeting her our lives changed,sending both of us in different directions temporarily. Like everything else in my life,I embraced the new changes ,still clinging to Margaret even from afar.

A few years ago I reconnected with her and I felt great to have been able to become re-acquainted with another member of my family. Ever since then I have chosen to call her Mamacita because she  embodies  everything I have ever imagined about having my mother.

Have you been ostracized by your own blood relatives as I have been? We all have choices to make. We can stay bitter in our isolation or the alternative is to open our hearts to the people who God sends into our lives to give us the family we need. I chose to forgive and stay open to what God has for me. People get blessed with good looks,good genes,talents wealth and strong family ties. I was not one of the fortunate who comes from a loving family;this set
me on a course that forced me to search out and find a family of my own. And I have,through my friends.

Fear will hold some of us bound ,keeping us from opening our hearts to those who offer to love us.We all come into this world in dire need of love;yet few of us are brave enough to admit our need to ourselves and to others.

Mamacita,thank you for offering me your cup! It was you who offered a drink from your over flowing vessel;to this dusty,weary,thirsty traveler. Cheers to you and I will forever be thankful that you did! Had you not offered, I would not have had the courage to ask you for a drink!
Te amo…tu hija

-Eva Santiago copyright 2012