Select Page

Excitement and wonder

by | Dec 8, 2011 | Uncategorized

In Luke the story is told how Mary after hearing from the angel hurried to see her cousin Elizabeth.
(as soon as the angel left her presence)
Isn’t is like two expectant mom’s sharing tea and each others joy
as they reflect on the new babies to come?
Only this time it would be different.
This time it was not just a cousin to a cousin
it was a moment in time
a moment of awareness
where Elizabeth knew there was something very special in Mary
and where Mary became aware
that her life would be different from then on.
Luke 1:39
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” 
Isn’t it awesome that God would use two precious babies
to declare truth to two women?
Isn’t it awesome that God would do something so exciting
like a fresh new birth
to help us see and feel and experience
his love for us?
I really find it fascinating that upon hearing Mary’s greeting
the baby inside Elizabeth reacted to the holy ‘voice’.
Isn’t it wonderful that God in his word declares
a baby in the womb has value and importance?
When I was expecting our little ones I talked to them, and I know they knew
the feel of my hand and my husbands hand as it rested upon my ’round tummy.’
Perhaps they know and hear the voice of others too?
Why would God not use the symbol of a baby to reach us.
Everyone loves a newborn.
Everyone loves to look upon and gaze into their precious eyes of innocence.
Everyone loves the soft tender skin that smells so pure.
God sent his son in a form that we could accept with
open arms and open hearts
so that we could be like Elizabeth and be excited for his coming.
Mary was chosen among all women
to be a part of the wonderful Christmas story.
A baby would come to save us from ourselves.
Are we ready to receive him?

I have wondered

by | Dec 6, 2011 | Uncategorized

I have wondered about Joseph.
How he responded to the angels news and how
he reacted towards Mary and her new baby coming.
He thought about it I am sure.
We aren’t told about his feelings or how many sleepless nights he had.
Don’t you wonder what he was thinking when Mary told him,
“Joseph an angel came to me and told me I am expecting a baby and the father is the Holy Spirit.”
Do you wonder how he felt or what he would have said to her?
Did he sit up late in the night trying to decide what he should do?
Did he tell her, “Wow I have to think about this one for a few days.”
This was his fiancee who he was going to marry.
The plans they were making to be a family were not supposed to start so soon.
Was he wondering how he could break it off with her?
Is that when an angel came to talk to him and tell him to marry her?
How life changing it would be for him to be with Mary but not ‘with her’ as a husband and wife.
He was told to take her as his wife even though she was already expecting a new baby.
It was a choice he had to make. 
He could have said no but he didn’t.
He chose intimacy not abandonment perhaps even as protection for her.
If he were to marry her
no one would have to know the baby was not his.
Except for the angel who brought the news to both of them
perhaps Joseph and Mary and later Elizabeth were the only ones who knew
the real truth surrounding this special child.
If he were to expose her
the rule of the day was for her to not just be stoned
but stoned in the doorway of her fathers home.
Which also would include her immediate family ‘stoning’ her.
The rule was anyone who was a relative could throw the stones until she died.
Joseph couldn’t let that happen in good conscience.
Perhaps he really loved her?
Not understanding and not knowing how it would affect him for the rest of his life
Joseph obeyed the angel.
He chose obedience not entitlement.
He could have said ‘my first born son will have my family name’.
He didn’t.
The angel said, “you will call him Jesus.”
So many choices within this story.
It is a love story on many levels.
Isn’t that like God to give us many things to think about?

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.

Being Strong

by | Nov 23, 2011 | Uncategorized

I have had a few moments lately where I have felt like
being strong was not something I wanted to do any more.
This new journey seems to be a bad dream that arrived
without an invitation.
We wait.
We pray.
We wait.
We worry.
We trust.
We pray more.
We acknowledge our lack of faith.
We acknowledge our strong faith.
Can it be done in the same breath?
We are tested and we want to deny news that could
change us forever.
Soon we will know what we are dealing with
and
what has to be done for healing to begin.
God is in control we know that.
Others tell me I am very strong so I must be.
Fear cannot come in like an uninvited guest and
ruin the peace we have tried to create.
This journey is one more path we must walk this year.
Praying that it will be a short path and over soon.

Still waiting

by | Nov 22, 2011 | Uncategorized

We still wait in anticipation of the news from the MRI done last Friday.
This Friday there is a biopsy scheduled.
Lord we ask for wisdom for the doctors
and peace to come and rest into our hearts.
Where there is anxiety and fear
fill us with calm and faithfulness.
Where there is a restless spirit
give us restful sleep.
Help us to know
You are in all things.
You work through all things.
You are the great healer and
we know you can heal
if you desire it and it is your will.
Thank you ahead of time for whatever
you lay at our feet
help us to be willing to open our hands and accept.
Whatever the outcome is
let us learn the lesson and remain faithful.
You are a God who listens to the cries of our hearts
and we thank you for being so near to us.