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We forget

by | Dec 3, 2011 | Uncategorized

Can you imagine the feelings Mary had when the Angel appeared to her?
I often talk about life altering moments. 
When our world changes in a split second and it is no longer
what we we are familiar with or knew.
I imagine that would be what Mary experienced
when her heart would receive this ‘special child’.
A mother is a mother always and she would be taken to her deepest level of love and loss.
Can you even imagine her fear or her questions
wanting to be obedient
but realizing what it would cost her?
In that culture if she was known to be with child and not married
her destiny would be death by stoning.
Stoning
where one is placed in a pit and killed slowly as rocks are thrown
to break the body down till death takes place.
Perhaps that is why Joseph was told by the Angel to take her as his wife and love her as a husband would love.
Through his obedience he would save her life.
I suppose he could have said no.
The story began when two people said yes I will obey.
It is a love story on many levels.
We forget she was young 
scholars have said she was around age 14 just a teenager.
Can you imagine the responsibility for her and the intensity of the call on her life?
In this life altering moment
she was to have a child
he was to be called Jesus
he would deeply change her and also change the hearts of others.
   
This was indeed one of those moments I think
when we forget the heaviness of her heart where Mary had to make a choice.
God found favor with her and chose her to be the mother of the Christ Child.
We forget who she was before that happened.
Would we be so willing to do something so profound
if we were asked?

The Story

by | Dec 1, 2011 | Uncategorized

As we begin the season of Christmas traditions
I pray we do not let go of the original story and the original reason Jesus came.
So much to question and so much to share
about the story of Mary and Joseph and the journey 
they had to set out on.
With faith and with a strong will and with instructions from an angel they were obedient.
They chose to listen and follow and do what they were told.
The angel told Mary she would have a child and the angel told
Joseph to take Mary as his wife and love this child that was not his own.
What courage and what strength this must have been
for them as a couple.
What an honor it was for them to be a part of the Christmas story.
Forever this story would be told and forever
everyone would know how it all began between
Mary a peasant girl and Joseph a carpenter and the love that grew between them.
The advent of a new birth brought new hope and a new beginning and new love.
Can you even imagine their thoughts?
To be chosen out of all the people around them
to be chosen 
by God.  

Closure

by | Dec 1, 2011 | Uncategorized

As November ends and December begins
we rejoice in so many things.
In this month we celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary
and we prayed for more to come.
In this month we learned to be thankful.
We learned to pray deeper and
we learned to be grateful for all things.
We learned to place our trust in someone bigger and wiser than ourselves and
we also learned to release and let go just in case we really had to.
In this month we learned that change takes place in an instant and
time could stand still as we learned to breathe again.
As November ends and December begins
it is with a grateful heart and thankful spirit that we finish this year.
It has been one full of challenges and trials and testing of our faith.
We close this year with a new awareness that life is fragile
and good and challenging
and not to be taken advantage of or thought of lightly.
I pray that we can have closure on all the difficult moments
this year has brought us and
now we can enter into a time of Christmas celebration.
We give God all glory and praise for He has been good to us.
He IS the reason for the Season.

Always Something

by | Nov 30, 2011 | Uncategorized

We found out today that the mass in my husbands liver is nothing to worry about.
It is not cancer.
It is not going to require surgery.
It is with grateful hearts we give God all praise and all glory.
We would praise him no matter what the outcome would have been
but it is so nice to not worry about
 the what ifs between us.
What this lesson has taught us is this:
We are not alone.
We have many who care for us
many who prayed for us
and many who hoped with us
 for a good positive outcome.
We pray that we have time to make plans for our future
and
we believe a powerful testimony will come out of this ‘test.’
Why God allowed us to go through it is a mystery.
We stay true to our beliefs that all things are for a purpose.
Perhaps the reason was to bring us to a deeper place of prayer
Or
 perhaps it gave others a reason to pray for the first time.
Whatever the reason we are thankful for the experience
and we are extremely glad for good news.

Thoughts in a hospital part two

by | Nov 26, 2011 | Uncategorized

Today was the biopsy.
Shower taken fast
early morning coffee rushed
we give ourselves enough time for traffic
as the appointment needed to be on time.
Once we arrived there not knowing where to park
or which floor to go to we become directionally challenged
by a large hospital setting.
Adding to that our anxiety of what was ahead of us
we finally find the right floor
do all the paper work at the desk
get into the room
do more paperwork
have all belongings labeled and
all the iv’s and protocol done.
Then we wait
again
He is wheeled out of the room
and I walk away
trying to be strong and not fearful
trying to have faith and to believe
we won’t have a what if conversation later.
I go out to the waiting room and find my son
we decide to eat some breakfast while we wait
the 60-90 minutes and hot coffee would be good too.
Downstairs in the cafeteria I order a
breakfast plate.
The dish too large for my concerned spirit
so we share the half cold plate
of shredded hash browns,
scrambled eggs scooped like a ball of ice cream
and fat laced bacon that might have been good on a better day.
Not so comforting on an anxiety filled morning.
We return to the waiting room
with hot coffee helping to wake up the mind not yet alert.
The staff gave us a pager like one given in some restaurants
when they have a table ready
only this one serves a different purpose.
The loud shaking noise goes off after
the 90 minute wait and it startles my quiet thinking.
I go to the recovery room and find him eating crackers
and watching a football game playing on the walled tv
muted words of refs talking and spectators cheering
felt out of place for me at the moment.
His way to relax not mine.
The other words not spoken between to who have loved
set the mood of ‘what ifs’ again.
Many things to pray for.
Many things to be concerned over.
Many things God could fix and remove.
We wait and we pray as we have no other choice right now.
Thoughts in a hospital are not that great when one wants answers.
We get him out to the car and head for lunch
then home for a nap and a routine of cleaning up the dishes
left in the sink the night before from Thanksgiving.
The warm sudsy water was actually a form of therapy for me.
Our lives are in a waiting room
all we can do now is breathe and pray and not
let fear move along side us in this new journey.

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