David who fears the Lord with Jeremiah.

Dear Fleur.
I have been thinking a lot about how God can be loving and God can have this undeniable
wrath.
It is almost startling. Kind of like painting. When you paint, there is an immense amount of colours to choose from. You can crush dark blues and greens and blacks and greys on a page. Or make it bright and vivid and happy. Or light.
I think that might be my favourite.
The light paints. Wheat. Pale pink. Creams. Periwinkle. Sort of like fields. And things that move. Light always moves in my head.
God is like all of that.
I tend to lean towards a complacent Lord. The big man who sits up there in heaven and watches life like it's a television show He wrote and He already knows what's going to happen next. And on some days, I like to think of a kind God. A God of compassion and right and just and peace.
I usually ignore the harsh Lord.
The one who rebukes and chastens and punishes and says to people, "I knew you not." Him. I don't really like Him. I hate fearing Him.
I am so scared of everything.
But I don't like to be scared of God.
I like Him to be my light paints. And even my bright ones.

I was reading Jeremiah the other day, and this is what it said.

Jeremiah 5
20Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, 21Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: 22Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
I had to look up perpetual because I wanted to be sure it meant what I thought it meant.

per.pet.u.al/pərˈpeCHo͞oəl/

Noun: A perpetual plant, esp. a hybrid rose.

Adjective: Never ending or changing. Lasting for eternity.

Did you get that? Perpetual means forever. Forever. Not just till Tuesday. But forever.
God bound the sea forever.
He can be dark colours too.
And He should be.
God is not always peaceful and sweet and soft and the colour of wheat fields. He is not always sure and alive and vibrant and bursting.
But.
There is always a but.
But.
He is always good.
Even in his judgement.
He is good.

And worthy to be feared.

I need to paint tomorrow. The ocean.
Love Bell.