Reflections on a Facial

Never mind what my skin looks like (within reason...), the pleasure of being pampered with a facial and head massage because people who love me gave me this oasis as a gift was wonderful. I rushed into the salon having taken a sick cat to the vet first. Since snow was a possibility, I was wearing my usual heavy layers of clothes – vest, two jumpers, gloves, scarf, the lot. To peel that all off in a warm environment, with some sort of meditative music softly playing, was liberating. Then to have the beautician tell me to relax for the next 45 minutes gave me liberty not to make conversation. I could just lie there and receive. 

It may be better to give than to receive, but receiving can be pretty nice, too! A grateful heart, and some rehydrated skin.

A fragrant surprise

The white delivery van reversed up the drive and stopped at the door. Doug and Joey frequently make purchases on-line so I concluded it was something they had ordered being delivered here. So with no sense of anticipation I went out to sign for the parcel.

As he waited for my signature, the delivery man asked if it were my birthday.

Not for a couple more weeks.

Oh well, he said companionably, maybe it’s an early birthday gift, or a late Mother’s day present. Somebody’s sent you flowers – oh, maybe I shouldn’t have told you, he concluded.

A fragrant surprise.  A gift from loved ones, out of the blue, unexpected and unnecessary but wonderfully generous and expressing a love for me which I don’t deserve, but for which I am very grateful.

‘How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!’ That verse from the first letter of the disciple John was in my reading this morning. Love is such an intangible thing, and yet when you are the object of it, you know it. I have felt the warm glow of the Father’s love over these last weeks as I spent such precious time with my elderly mother.

When, on our penultimate day in the Holy Land, the Lord threw a rainbow over the Sea of Galilee, I accepted it as a fragrant surprise, a loving gift to any of his children who would receive it. And the next morning, awakening after a rainy night to a glorious sunrise over the Sea, he  took my breath away.

How great is the love. May you receive such a great love from those you treasure today, and even more importantly, may you know the love of the Father for you, his beloved child.