faith like a child

I’m six or so, big enough for childlike faith and small enough to still believe in the wonder of Christmas. My brother and I giggle as we dress up for our yearly tradition. I am Mary and he is Joseph.

We put on robes that belong to our parents and cover our heads with bath towels. The color doesn’t match and terry cloth didn’t exist in Bethlehem but we don’t know or notice.

Read the rest and find out how this year can be different at Christmas Change...

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Dark like Light

This week Ann Voskamp invites us to write a psalm of praise in anticipation of Thanksgiving.

As I sit at the kitchen table, staring into early inky blue of both the computer screen and morning light this seems especially fitting.

It has been quite the week for our family. Monday morning we received a call that my dear brother-in-law had been helping an older man change his tire on the side of the road when he was struck by a drunk driver. The only words that stood out in the call were "critical' and "heart fluctuating." We prayed and asked others for prayers...the day a blur that only that sort of news can bring.

And, by evening, the hospital released him with much less serious injuries. He won't work for some time and still needs your prayers. But he is here with us. And that is what matters most.

I flew to be with family this week because my Grandpa Hollie went through surgery yesterday. He is still here too. He awoke from the anesthetic teasing the nurses and we all breathed a sigh of relief. My Grandpa Red is also in the hospital and has been for over two weeks. If you would whisper a prayer on their behalf as well I'd deeply appreciate it.

I share all this not to gain pity but because it's my reason for praise.

It sounds strange doesn't? To string together a list of troubles and end it with thanks? But this is the way we live--half here, half heaven, the burdens and the blessings all mixed into one until we can hardly tell one from the other.

And if God is a Redeemer is there ever really a difference? Or are all simply light and dark threads woven into His tapestry?

 

Lord,

Even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like day,

for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139:12

There is no circumstance not in your keeping,

no life not in your care.

We trust not because we understand

but because we know--

that you are good always,

faithful forever,

molding, making,

turning all in our lives

into something for your use.

So this Thansgiving we praise--

for life restored from near death,

for hope that carries our hearts along,

for love that holds us all together

even as we are held in your hands.

Amen.

Happy Thanksgiving and blessings to you and your family...

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Choice of the Heart

She was 29. Younger than I am now. Two little girls and a life ahead of her.

Then polio knocked on the door of her body, entered unbidden, and left her in a hospital bed paralyzed from the waist down.

My grandmother suddenly faced a future very different than what she had imagined.

Her pastor came and spoke in hushed tones. Then he shared powerful words that changed the course of her heart, "Frances," he said, "You can choose to let this make you bitter or better."

She chose better.

I don't think she realized it at the time, but by choosing it for herself she chose it for the rest of us too.

to read the rest visit (in)courage...

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