So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John 13:34

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John 13:34
One of the great joys of visiting family in Ohope is watching the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, the ever changing morning and evening light. Ohope Beach lies on the eastern end of the Bay of Plenty, an eighty mile curve of sea three hours southeast of Auckland. Because of its north-south location, this ocean expanse, unlike the Oregon coast, receives both sunrises and sunsets. The light is unique. Enjoy these pictures.
Full moon setting at sunrise, Ohope Beach
Long ago, through prayer, I was blessed with a miraculous, intense healing of mind, body, and soul. As I have prayed the years since, I cannot specifically claim that “I” have caused anything equally miraculous to happen. I do know that I find incredible peace and rest when I let go of my “chattering voices” and in stillness, feel the incredible connections with God and His Creation. And I do accept what Oswald Chambers writes: “The purpose of prayer is that we get ahold of God, not of the ‘answer.”
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Zumwalt_Prairie, Wallowa_Mts |
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White_Island, Bay_of Plenty_NZ |
Whale Island, or Moutohora in Maori (meaning whale), lies five and half miles off the coast of Whakatane, in the Bay of Plenty, of North Island, NZ. It is the remnant of a volcano. Purchased by the government in 1984, the island still displays its history with active hot springs– including a warm sand beach where access is not allowed. The Department of Conservation has eradicated goats and rats and reintroduced native birds, bushes and trees.
Meg and I enjoyed a late afternoon kayaking adventure paddling around the island with an outfitter, KG Kayaks. We returned in a gorgeous sunset. We had hoped to see blue penguins coming back on shore for the night, and dolphin. No such luck, but we were well entertained by seals doing wonderful ballet movements as we paddled close to the rocks where they hung out. We also enjoyed the lovely pohutukawa trees that bloom in December and are only found on coastal areas of North Island. We had missed doing this trip on earlier visits. In the future, it is now on our “to do” list.
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Whale Island from Air New Zealand flight to Whakatane |
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Meg paddling around Whale Island with KG Kayaks |
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Whale Island, KG_Kayaks |
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Kayaker with seal on right on rocks |
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Seal, Whale Island |
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Whale Island from Ohope beach |
“Freedom comes when you know with your heart that you are loved. If you could accept and believe that you are unconditionally love and embraced, you could go all over the world and never be lonely…In our personal relationships a moral life is not enough. We must also live the mystical life, a life which is embraced by the God who says, “I love you fully and unconditionally.” Henri Nouwen
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Mt_Harris_OR, Union_County_OR |
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Ohope, Bay_of_Pleanty |
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Ohope, BAy_of_Plenty, Whakatane |
God calls us to participate in a reciprocal relationship of love, but too often we are too busy, too “moral” (in our own eyes), too self centered to respond. More than three thousand years ago, when the people of Israel were forming their relationship with him, Yahweh instructed the Israelites to show their love for him by “walking in his ways and holding tight to him.” As we know, then and now, we fail in this walk. Yet God never gives up on us. He “delights in showing us unfailing love.”