Growing Old

And just like that layers and layers of life piled high on each other

and we had indeed 

grown old together. 

Merry Christmas!

THIS LIFE of ours has its joy and its sorrows, 
its beginnings and endings
It is an interesting journey like a novel unfolding before us. 
Then there's THAT LIFE, 
the life of Jesus, 
a deity who came to earth as a baby as a living sacrifice
so that one day the tears and heartache will end. 
Families will be reunited 
and there will be a happily ever after to this life's story.
Our gift to God is our belief, 
our hearts.
His gift to us is eternal life, 
a happily ever after.

Believe and Receive.


MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!

The Ocean of Grief

When you stand at the edge of the ocean and the waves knock you down with your grief, sometimes you just have to sit and wallow in it blending your salty tears with the salt water. As time goes by, you stand up and the waves of grief will come, usually a steady, gentle reminder of your loss. There will also be sudden times when an unexpected big wave will make you lose your balance or even knock you over. Tears once again combine with the salted sea.

The waves drift in with caresses of memories that touch you. You savor them and hope that as they flow in and out of your life, that you will not lose some of them as time and distance separates you.

You learn to live with the ebb and flow of life and of death, never stagnant, always touching you. Today I may need to wallow a little. I don't think it's a bad thing as long as I get up again, and I will.

Missing you, Mom. Five years gone today. Love you more than words can say.

Moving Forward

When your heart is heavy

And life’s fog is thick

And the way, unclear

With no answer to the “whys?” of life,

Tears can cleanse the soul but

Weeping, standing is stagnant.

The fog and darkness remain.

Take one step into the fog

Step by step you will see through tears

Glimpses of the path before you.

The future is vague

You may have mountains to climb

Or ditches to avoid

But God is there

Clearing the fog one step at a time,

Until one day when the time is right,

You will find a sunrise just for you,

A new day, a new bright beginning,

One that can only be found

By moving forward through the fog.

Our Unseen Contract

My husband is off this morning to sign a contract for work to be done at the apartment. He has never worked with this person before and he is a little anxious and I reminded him that a contractor acquaintance we knew once never put an end date on this contracts. He ended up taking a year on a project (because he did it part time) and the customers were livid and tried to sue him. So, George is going to be sure there is an end date.

With the recent loss in our family, I was thinking of life. God has a contract for each of us. He knows what kind of life we are going to build and when it is going to be completed. We have no way of seeing this contract. We just live in faith day by day until it becomes clear that God's signature is on our lives and there is a date when our lives here will be done.

If we are in misery and pain, and know there is a better place to go, it should be a happy relief. If we are enjoying life here and surrounded by happiness, and loved ones it is hard. We don't want to leave. Since we can't read the fine print, we can't see the reason why some people are, as we would think, "short changed" with less years to their lives here. We have constructed with God's guidance, a life that is our own, our testimony and our legacy. It is hard to fathom that whatever happiness and good times we have here will be a hundred times (at least) better in heaven. It's hard to let go of that contract that is no longer needed. It is finished.

We hope our construction has been pleasing to God so that we may hear, "Well, done my good and faithful servant". So, today, never stop working on your "construction" and remember that God's plans include hope and a future according to Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

We grow relationships and have cherished people in our lives that we don't want to leave or for those to leave us, but remember..."This world is not my home, I'm just passing through," just know where your destination lies.

The chains we forge in life

This weekend we saw a local production of "A Christmas Carol".  We have seen the play or movie in various forms on numerous occasions but these words stood out to me:

“You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me why?"
"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”

I love Dicken's choice of words. God gave us free will and we choose how to live our lives, yet not realizing some of our choices are like chains weighing us down. This ghost was heavily laden with chains of his past life accumulated link by link and yard by yard. He was forever fettered. What a picture of remorse and despair. 

We know as believers that our chains have been broken by Jesus' blood and we will never be fettered like that. At times we may feel as the chains of life are getting us down but we know who can break those chains and set us free and we will never be forever chained to this earthly life. 

Jesus was the greatest pebble in our waters of life. Touching all our hearts eternally and freeing us from the evil around us. His actions echo on and on forever and ever.  A ripple that has the power to break chains and free us, a ripple that loves and heals and saves us. I have to end with Charles Dicken's closing, "God bless us all, everyone."

Psalm 107: 10-14
"There were those who dwelt in the darkness and in the shadow of death. Prisoners in misery and chains, because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High. Therefore he humbled their heart with labor, they stumbled and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke their bands apart."

The Jigsaw Puzzle of Life

Upon reading Psalm 139:16, my attention was grabbed by the unintentional rhyming in this translation. It's a comforting little poem and makes it easier to commit to memory.

           "All the days (you*) ordained for me

            were written in your book

            before one of them came to be."

*I added "you" to help the rhythm a little. 

We are each a jigsaw puzzle. Every day a piece is added to our life. Unlike puzzles that come in a box, we don't have a picture of the final outcome. We have a vision of what we think it will look like when it's completed, but only God knows what the final picture looks like. 

The story of our life is being formed piece by piece. Each piece fits in perfectly though there are times when we don't feel that way. Sometimes we feel a piece of life is being forced upon us that there is no way would fit into our lives. It's not how we would build our puzzle, but God sees the big picture. Every little piece has a purpose. Every piece is ordained by him and fits perfectly.

This should also comfort us as we are told in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." When the pieces that we didn't expect to be part of our lives become part of our picture, look forward to the following pieces to see the design that God has created. And when the final piece has been placed and our life on earth is through, may people look at how we lived our life with its trials and triumphs and may our whole picture be one of glorious beauty that others will remember with love and admiration.

Starting with a rhyme, I felt led to close with one.

May our lives reflect His love for us
And may His love shine through
As we love others on this earth
As we are called to do.

And when our time on earth is through
May others reflect and see
Our life's puzzle was approved by God
And all was meant to be.