Seeing Our Breath

I love the cold air when I walk in the morning.
I am one of those people who love cold weather.
I do not like ice but a cold winter’s day is my favorite.
Put a little snow in the mix and I am one happy woman.

It was always so much fun to be outside as a little girl and see my breath.
I loved to see my breath on purpose.
I still find it amusing when I talk on a cold day and see my breath in front of me.
I do not think about it scientifically; I just love when it happens.

What if we walked around and the words in our head became thought bubbles above us?
What if, outside on a cold day, words came out and were visible?
What if they were words and thoughts we would not want others to see?
What if what was in our minds came out in little puffs before us?

That is a frightening thought.
We all have a thought life that is ours alone.
Thoughts pop in and out of our head and we have no control over them.
No one knows them.

God knows them.

Imagine the thoughts you have on any given day.
Imagine those thoughts in bubbles above your head.
Thoughts that are fleeting and easily dismissed would be readable.
Thoughts without context or explanation would be visible.

People would assess our character by our thought life.
People would judge us on one fleeting thought that came out of nowhere.
People would see us differently if our words said one thing and our thoughts said another.
People would see an unfiltered, uncensored version of ourselves.

That would make most of us cringe.

Do we consider what God would think of our thought bubbles?
Do we think about the fact that God knows all of our thoughts?
God knows the words we are about to say before we say them.
We care about people’s opinion but what about God?

The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)

We think that only our thoughts would be visible in a bubble above our head.
In reality, those thoughts give us a glimpse into our heart.
That is even more daunting to think about.
What we think comes out of nowhere, actually comes out of our heart.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
(Jeremiah 17:9)

I can read God’s Word just fine until I get to verse that says, from your heart.
That little phrase means no hypocrisy.
That little phrase means that we cannot go through the motions.
God wants our walk, our talk, our thoughts, and our heart to be holy like He is holy.

Now that is an impossible task.
That is something we cannot do on our own.
That is something we can aspire to but never achieve without the help of the Holy Spirit.
We may start the day off well but within five minutes we fail; we miss the mark.

God knows.
God knows all of our thoughts, good and bad.
God knows our heart, sinful and deceitful as it is.
God knows us intimately; we are the ones He created in His image.

I saw a picture that spoke to me.
It actually depicts what I had been thinking.
Imagine if our walk, our talk, our thoughts, and our heart were holy as God is holy.
This side of heaven, we have Christ’s Righteousness but we will never be purely holy.

If we are in Christ, we have His Spirit within us helping us, guiding us, and teaching us.
We are not left alone with our thoughts.
We are not left with a heart that is beyond mending.
We, who are in Christ, have been made new.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

God puts a new song in our heart.
God puts His thoughts in our mind.
God puts His Word in our heart.
God guides each one of our steps.

We can be unafraid of our thought bubbles.
We can be unashamed of our heart.
We can walk securely.
We can sing.

Oh, how we can sing!