For those who love God all things work together for good.

We must not think of God as highest in an ascending order of beings starting with the single cell, then the fish, then the bird, then the animal, then man and angels and cherubs and God.… This would be to grant God eminence or even preeminence but that is not enough. We must grant God transcendence in the fullest meaning of that word. He's wholly other. He breaks all the categories of being and knowing.24

Artists cannot be trained. One does not become an artist by acquiring certain skills or techniques, though one can use any number of skills and techniques in artistic activity. The creative is found in anyone who is prepared for surprise. Such a person cannot go to school to be an artist, but can only go to school as an artist.

In the terms in which you set it, the problem is unanswerable; but in the Kingdom of Heaven, those terms do not apply. You have asked the question in a form that is much too limited; the 'solution' must be brought in from outside your sphere of reference altogether.

here?" She dipped into the box and pulled

I don't understand it all, but when heaven decides to invade earth, who are we to argue?

Lord, here we are, Nate and me. One hundred percent available. We don't know what's ahead, but you do. Whatever it is, we'll love it because you love us. And you are good.

God was like that, wasn't he? Dreaming big dreams for those he loved.

"Pass in, pass in," the angels say,"In to the upper doors,Nor count compartments of the floors,But mount to paradiseBy the stairway of surprise."

What we love about this life are the things that resonate with the life we were made for. The things we love are not merely the best this life has to offer—they are previews of the greater life to come.

Don't limit God to fit in the way that you think that He is going to speak, because just about the time that we think we have Him figured out, He will oftentimes speak to us in another way. God wants us to be in tune with him, and not just in tune with one of the ways that He gives those words.

I'm totally a supernatural freak in real life.