I came to live with my Gram and Grampy when I was just eight months old. My parents brought my two sisters and me to live at a Christian home for girls in Manchester, NH on Sept 5, 1967. My sister Lisa was two, and my oldest sister, Robyn, was four. We lived at Boylston Home for Girls until I was seven years old.
Gram and Grampy had retired as directors and houseparents the year I turned seven, as well, so there were many changes happening at once. My parents had willingly left us at the home, so they still retained their rights all those years. My mother had moved to D.C., and my father married my stepmother and lived locally. I wouldn’t have recognized my birth mother if I'd seen her on the street, and my father would visit sporadically. Toward the end of our time at the home, he was back in our lives consistently with his new wife, which wasn't necessarily a good thing.
I desperately missed Gram and Grampy when they left! I believe the memory of them leaving at night to move away was the first time I had ever felt a “broken heart” within me. I looked out the window and cried, saying their names over and over again. When I was found in the music room, I said I was crying because our dog, Benji, wasn’t feeling well. There are just some times when the truth of our hurt is too precious to share with anyone.
Life changed, and new houseparents came to live at the home with all us girls. We weren’t used to them, and they weren’t used to us. I believe they really tried, but patience often ran thin with all there was to do. Instead of smooth, happy days, we had new rules, and the house hiccupped along with stops and starts, moody silences and occasional angry outbursts. It seemed like we were all just trying to make it through the day.
A short time later, my father appeared at the home late at night to take my sisters and I away “forever” as he put it. A wonderful man, who was on the Board of Directors at the time drove over to try to stop my father, but there was nothing he could do. I was extremely frightened of my father through the years, anyway, but that night I just prayed and hoped we wouldn’t have to go with him. We girls were eventually loaded into the car, and my father and stepmother sped away with us.
We drove for what seemed a long time. My sisters and I sat in silence, not daring to speak. Suddenly, my father turned off the main road and into a parking lot I recognized. It was the new home of Gram and Grampy! They were waiting for us at the top of the stairs! It had seemed like forever since I had seen them, but they welcomed us girls in with open arms! I was a tiny seven year old, and Grampy scooped my up into his arms, like he had always done. We were home!
That wasn’t the end of the story, by far, but it was a night of hope, reunification and rest like I hadn’t known for a long time. My sisters and I were content. Whatever the next days would bring didn’t matter at that moment in time.
Three exhausted little girls were eventually put to bed. The nightlight glowed softly, and I could see a poster hanging on the opposite wall. It had a picture of a blond toddler child touching a fluffy yellow baby chick, with a caption that said, “The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention.”
I’ve never forgotten that poster all these years. I drifted off to sleep focusing on the image and the words. I was home, and I felt like that little child in a warm meadow with flowers all around. I was at peace.
Gram and Grampy could have turned us away that night. They could have said, “Look, we’re in our sixties and we’re retired. We did our work for the Lord, and now it’s our time to do what we want.” They didn’t, and they never ceased to hold out a welcoming hand to anyone in need. Gram still desires to reach out to anyone who could use a word of encouragement or an uplifting verse.
The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention.
At night, Gram and I pray together. Gram’s prayers always include thanksgiving to the Lord for all His gifts and prayers for loved ones and friends. I kiss her on the head as we say good-night, and I tell her I love her. I remind her that she always told us girls, “Love is for keeps”. I want her to know I remember her words. If I have any compassion inside me, it was due to Gram’s love and direction, which was possible because she allowed the Lord to work through her life and her words.
James 3:17, 18
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
I thank a merciful and loving Father for making something beautiful out of something tragic. We had the blessing of being left in the care of a couple who had the wisdom and the gentleness written of in the book of James. Gram and Grampy’s small, ‘good deeds’ made a profound change in the world around them.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Follow Me
During the course of conversation last night, Gram said, “If I’m wrong, forgive me. If I’m right, follow me." Wow. I'm not sure I would ever dare to tell someone to act like me!
Gram said that we need to lead no only by words, but by example, as well. I mulled this over as she continued by telling me that it’s not wrong to ask someone to follow your lead if you are right with God. That’s a bold undertaking, but the Bible clearly backs this up. The Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:9 – Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace will be with you.
As I was seeking advice regarding this blog from my (Florida) pastor, he sent a verse to me after reading the first few posts…Titus 2:3-5 "The aged women, likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed". The Bible has many verses that tell us to be examples for other people to follow.
One of the most poignant and greatest examples I can think of, which my Gram and Grampy gave me when I was an adolescent, was on forgiveness. This forgiveness was so complete and pure, it could only come from lives touched by the hand of God.
We were traveling, and I’m not sure exactly where we were, but we stopped at a graveyard after church. We came to a stop and we all got out of the car. I followed Grampy to a little flat stone in the ground, where he silently knelt down and began to use his car keys to dig the moss out of the embedded name and date. The name on the grave marker became apparent, and said, “Roger Earl”. We all stayed very quiet and didn’t say much in the car afterward. Somehow I understood that this was a time of reflection. I knew their first baby had died, and I knew this was his grave, but I didn’t know any more than that.
At some point later in the week, I asked Gram how Roger had died. Whenever Gram had talked of Roger before, she had said he was a strong baby, and she was amazed at how he could wiggle his way up to her chest as a newborn right in the hospital.
Back in the days when Roger was born, hospitals had the swinging “saloon style” doors between rooms and hallways. A nurse had been carrying him "football style" with his head in her hand, with the rest of his body on her arm, up to her elbow. She kicked the swinging door ahead of her with her foot, meaning to continue on through the doorway, but the door had come back to hit Roger in the head, causing him to fall out of her arms and onto the hard hospital floor.
Baby Roger lived – for a while. Gram and Grampy brought him home, and Grampy would walk miles to get him medicine as Gram cared for Roger and prayed for him without ceasing. Gram had told me that there was a point when she knew he was about to die, so she picked him up and cradled him in her arms as he breathed his last breaths. After he had passed, she laid him in the little wooden casket, which was already in her living room. I marveled that, back in those days, life was so matter-of-fact that a young, first time mother could care for her dying baby, yet already be prepared with a casket for him at the same time. In this day and age, we would probably say that would be too much to bear. It probably was, but it had to be done.
Gram and Grampy’s experience was tragic, for sure, but that’s not the end of the story. Gram went on to say that the nurse who had dropped Roger was so guilt-ridden that she couldn’t face them. She ended up with severe psychiatric problems for being responsible for the death of the baby of her dear young pastor and his wife. Grampy went to visit this nurse, and read scripture and prayed with her and for her. She was in their prayers daily. I was never told whether this woman could ever be whole again, but I was, and am, amazed at the compassion and love poured out to her by Gram and Grampy. As a young Christian couple, they held this nurse up in prayer, visiting her and praying with her - the same woman whose actions had cost them the life of their first-born son!
All my life, I loved to sit and listen to Grampy preach. Often, there was a question and answer time after the sermon or in Sunday School. Frequently, someone would ask whether babies went to heaven. Grampy would emphatically answer, “Yes!”. He would always refer to King David, who would not eat or drink, and laid on the earth and prayed for his little baby for seven days while the child was sick and dying. When David’s baby had died, he arose from the earth, cleaned himself up, worshipped and ate. His servants asked him why he fasted and wept while the baby was alive, but when the child died, David got up and ate. David said, “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return unto me (II Samuel 12:22, 23).
How precious and deeply personal that passage must have been to Grampy! He always quoted those verses with such conviction and passion! He knew he would go to his baby son someday. What a reunion it must have been on November 26, 1995 when Grampy went home to be with the Lord on a Sunday just before morning services began here on earth!
As Gram said last night, “If I’m wrong, forgive me. If I’m right, follow me.”
We can all learn a lesson on forgiveness from a young pastor and his wife who clung to the promises of their Lord during the darkest moments in life. Not only did they continue to serve God, they went on to offer love and forgiveness to someone who was suffocating from the guilt and grief of a mistake that would cost her pastor the life of his only child!
Jesus asked the Father to forgive those who took His life at the cross. Jesus, God's only begotten Son. His example is worth following!
Gram said that we need to lead no only by words, but by example, as well. I mulled this over as she continued by telling me that it’s not wrong to ask someone to follow your lead if you are right with God. That’s a bold undertaking, but the Bible clearly backs this up. The Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:9 – Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace will be with you.
As I was seeking advice regarding this blog from my (Florida) pastor, he sent a verse to me after reading the first few posts…Titus 2:3-5 "The aged women, likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed". The Bible has many verses that tell us to be examples for other people to follow.
One of the most poignant and greatest examples I can think of, which my Gram and Grampy gave me when I was an adolescent, was on forgiveness. This forgiveness was so complete and pure, it could only come from lives touched by the hand of God.
We were traveling, and I’m not sure exactly where we were, but we stopped at a graveyard after church. We came to a stop and we all got out of the car. I followed Grampy to a little flat stone in the ground, where he silently knelt down and began to use his car keys to dig the moss out of the embedded name and date. The name on the grave marker became apparent, and said, “Roger Earl”. We all stayed very quiet and didn’t say much in the car afterward. Somehow I understood that this was a time of reflection. I knew their first baby had died, and I knew this was his grave, but I didn’t know any more than that.
At some point later in the week, I asked Gram how Roger had died. Whenever Gram had talked of Roger before, she had said he was a strong baby, and she was amazed at how he could wiggle his way up to her chest as a newborn right in the hospital.
Back in the days when Roger was born, hospitals had the swinging “saloon style” doors between rooms and hallways. A nurse had been carrying him "football style" with his head in her hand, with the rest of his body on her arm, up to her elbow. She kicked the swinging door ahead of her with her foot, meaning to continue on through the doorway, but the door had come back to hit Roger in the head, causing him to fall out of her arms and onto the hard hospital floor.
Baby Roger lived – for a while. Gram and Grampy brought him home, and Grampy would walk miles to get him medicine as Gram cared for Roger and prayed for him without ceasing. Gram had told me that there was a point when she knew he was about to die, so she picked him up and cradled him in her arms as he breathed his last breaths. After he had passed, she laid him in the little wooden casket, which was already in her living room. I marveled that, back in those days, life was so matter-of-fact that a young, first time mother could care for her dying baby, yet already be prepared with a casket for him at the same time. In this day and age, we would probably say that would be too much to bear. It probably was, but it had to be done.
Gram and Grampy’s experience was tragic, for sure, but that’s not the end of the story. Gram went on to say that the nurse who had dropped Roger was so guilt-ridden that she couldn’t face them. She ended up with severe psychiatric problems for being responsible for the death of the baby of her dear young pastor and his wife. Grampy went to visit this nurse, and read scripture and prayed with her and for her. She was in their prayers daily. I was never told whether this woman could ever be whole again, but I was, and am, amazed at the compassion and love poured out to her by Gram and Grampy. As a young Christian couple, they held this nurse up in prayer, visiting her and praying with her - the same woman whose actions had cost them the life of their first-born son!
All my life, I loved to sit and listen to Grampy preach. Often, there was a question and answer time after the sermon or in Sunday School. Frequently, someone would ask whether babies went to heaven. Grampy would emphatically answer, “Yes!”. He would always refer to King David, who would not eat or drink, and laid on the earth and prayed for his little baby for seven days while the child was sick and dying. When David’s baby had died, he arose from the earth, cleaned himself up, worshipped and ate. His servants asked him why he fasted and wept while the baby was alive, but when the child died, David got up and ate. David said, “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return unto me (II Samuel 12:22, 23).
How precious and deeply personal that passage must have been to Grampy! He always quoted those verses with such conviction and passion! He knew he would go to his baby son someday. What a reunion it must have been on November 26, 1995 when Grampy went home to be with the Lord on a Sunday just before morning services began here on earth!
As Gram said last night, “If I’m wrong, forgive me. If I’m right, follow me.”
We can all learn a lesson on forgiveness from a young pastor and his wife who clung to the promises of their Lord during the darkest moments in life. Not only did they continue to serve God, they went on to offer love and forgiveness to someone who was suffocating from the guilt and grief of a mistake that would cost her pastor the life of his only child!
Jesus asked the Father to forgive those who took His life at the cross. Jesus, God's only begotten Son. His example is worth following!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Great is Thy Faithfulness!
Gram and I were talking about a verse in the book of James, which talks about the Father of Lights. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”. James 1:17
Gram likes this verse because it portrays the Heavenly Father as the Father of lights – He gives off light and yet, there is no shadow. Noontime is the only time of day when there is no shadow because the sun is directly above us. The Father of lights has no variableness – no wavering or movement - He is directly above us, brighter than the sun at noontime, not far ahead or way behind, and he casts no shadow of turning. Our Father, the giver of good and perfect gifts is illuminating, steady, gracious and dependable. God is light, and there is no darkness in Him.
Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Eph 5:8 also says, “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: Walk as children of light.” God is light and we who are His children are to walk as children of light.
I, personally, don’t like being in the dark. I never have. It’s not that I am afraid of the dark – just the things I can’t see in the dark! I find it so comforting that God is light, and we can walk in the light, as children of light. Jesus is the light of the world. I do know that I do not ever need to fear darkness because God’s light is so much more powerful than darkness. If even a candle is lit in a dark room, it illuminates the room. If we are in a brightly lit room, and a shadow is cast, or there is an effort to darken the room somehow, all light would need to be removed from that room in order for the darkness to be effective. Light is pure and brightens all it shines on. Darkness has to depend on the absence of light to make any difference at all. What a comforting thought – that we are children of light, and a ‘little bit’ of shining brings about a lot of illumination! Why would we ever fear letting our little light shine? It is a good reminder that God, through us, can make an enormous difference in the people and situations surrounding us, if we will only “Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine”!
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father! There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not: As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed Thy hand hath provided – Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!
Gram likes this verse because it portrays the Heavenly Father as the Father of lights – He gives off light and yet, there is no shadow. Noontime is the only time of day when there is no shadow because the sun is directly above us. The Father of lights has no variableness – no wavering or movement - He is directly above us, brighter than the sun at noontime, not far ahead or way behind, and he casts no shadow of turning. Our Father, the giver of good and perfect gifts is illuminating, steady, gracious and dependable. God is light, and there is no darkness in Him.
Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Eph 5:8 also says, “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: Walk as children of light.” God is light and we who are His children are to walk as children of light.
I, personally, don’t like being in the dark. I never have. It’s not that I am afraid of the dark – just the things I can’t see in the dark! I find it so comforting that God is light, and we can walk in the light, as children of light. Jesus is the light of the world. I do know that I do not ever need to fear darkness because God’s light is so much more powerful than darkness. If even a candle is lit in a dark room, it illuminates the room. If we are in a brightly lit room, and a shadow is cast, or there is an effort to darken the room somehow, all light would need to be removed from that room in order for the darkness to be effective. Light is pure and brightens all it shines on. Darkness has to depend on the absence of light to make any difference at all. What a comforting thought – that we are children of light, and a ‘little bit’ of shining brings about a lot of illumination! Why would we ever fear letting our little light shine? It is a good reminder that God, through us, can make an enormous difference in the people and situations surrounding us, if we will only “Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine”!
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father! There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not: As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed Thy hand hath provided – Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Deep and Wide
The past few days have been extremely busy, and I haven’t had a lot of time to spend talking with Gram. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Gram complain about anything, really, even the lack of time people get to spend with her. I had told her, at the inception of this blog that I would be writing down her words and sharing them with others. I sat down with Gram for a while yesterday and she was speaking again of God’s love. She never tires of talking about all He means to her!
Gram spoke of the ocean. She said, *“God’s love is like the ocean. When we stand at the shore, and can see miles of ocean all the way to the horizon, and we feel small as we try to take it all in, knowing that the ocean stretches all over the globe. What we can’t see is the ocean under the surface. It’s like viewing the tip of the iceberg. Under the ocean, hidden from view, is a vast expanse of life and miles of depth. There is another world full of activity constantly moving and fluctuating. Even if we could see the entire surface of the ocean, encompassing the earth, we would still only have a small idea of what the ocean is really like. Underneath the sea, there is marine life so colorful and majestic, we can only imagine the beauty of it all, even with what science reveals to us today.”
Gram continued, “Our perception of God’s love while we’re here on earth is like viewing the surface of the ocean. It’s beautiful and breathtaking, but we can only comprehend a fraction of what really exists. When we get to heaven, it will be as if we are being plunged under the waters, and can view and experience the fullness of the entirety of the love of God! It will be like nothing we have ever imagined we could experience in our natural state. What a journey of discovery that will be!”
“We should write this down and share it with others, “ Gram said.
I love to share the wisdom of Gram’s 97 years! She accepts the love and promises of God, fully trusting, as a child would, yet on the opposite end of the spectrum, she has so many years of “tried and true” service to the Lord. Gram says that He has always been faithful. Gram has had her share of trials, such as the death of her firstborn child as she held him in her arms an infant, after a careless accident in the hospital. Also, when I was a teenager, I asked Gram if there was ever a time she thought she was going to die. Gram told me that, after she had the twins, she had such a severe care of anemia, she believed she was going to die, “But, I didn’t worry,” she said, “I knew that the Lord was with me, and my times were in his hands.”
Life isn’t about the easiest or most comfortable path we can tread. Life is about trusting in the love of God toward us. Some of the most contented people are not the ones who have had a life of smooth sailing, but rather a life of childlike faith and trust in a personal relationship with their Heavenly Father.
In Zephaniah 3:17, God’s joy with His children is expressed – “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing”.
Imagine the mighty God rejoicing over you, singing! What a beautiful, perfect, sound that would be! That’s the powerful and personal love that Gram wants everyone to know about as we view the love of God as the surface of the ocean at sunrise.
I can’t wait to hear the Lord singing and rejoicing as I someday cross over to heaven and am plunged into the fullness of His vast love!
*Paraphrased*
Gram spoke of the ocean. She said, *“God’s love is like the ocean. When we stand at the shore, and can see miles of ocean all the way to the horizon, and we feel small as we try to take it all in, knowing that the ocean stretches all over the globe. What we can’t see is the ocean under the surface. It’s like viewing the tip of the iceberg. Under the ocean, hidden from view, is a vast expanse of life and miles of depth. There is another world full of activity constantly moving and fluctuating. Even if we could see the entire surface of the ocean, encompassing the earth, we would still only have a small idea of what the ocean is really like. Underneath the sea, there is marine life so colorful and majestic, we can only imagine the beauty of it all, even with what science reveals to us today.”
Gram continued, “Our perception of God’s love while we’re here on earth is like viewing the surface of the ocean. It’s beautiful and breathtaking, but we can only comprehend a fraction of what really exists. When we get to heaven, it will be as if we are being plunged under the waters, and can view and experience the fullness of the entirety of the love of God! It will be like nothing we have ever imagined we could experience in our natural state. What a journey of discovery that will be!”
“We should write this down and share it with others, “ Gram said.
I love to share the wisdom of Gram’s 97 years! She accepts the love and promises of God, fully trusting, as a child would, yet on the opposite end of the spectrum, she has so many years of “tried and true” service to the Lord. Gram says that He has always been faithful. Gram has had her share of trials, such as the death of her firstborn child as she held him in her arms an infant, after a careless accident in the hospital. Also, when I was a teenager, I asked Gram if there was ever a time she thought she was going to die. Gram told me that, after she had the twins, she had such a severe care of anemia, she believed she was going to die, “But, I didn’t worry,” she said, “I knew that the Lord was with me, and my times were in his hands.”
Life isn’t about the easiest or most comfortable path we can tread. Life is about trusting in the love of God toward us. Some of the most contented people are not the ones who have had a life of smooth sailing, but rather a life of childlike faith and trust in a personal relationship with their Heavenly Father.
In Zephaniah 3:17, God’s joy with His children is expressed – “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing”.
Imagine the mighty God rejoicing over you, singing! What a beautiful, perfect, sound that would be! That’s the powerful and personal love that Gram wants everyone to know about as we view the love of God as the surface of the ocean at sunrise.
I can’t wait to hear the Lord singing and rejoicing as I someday cross over to heaven and am plunged into the fullness of His vast love!
*Paraphrased*
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Truth Part II - Truth and Love
What exactly does truth mean to you or me? I think it’s pretty much cut and dry for most people, and it is a choice from there how to act with their idea of truth. Some of us try to tell the truth, some of us try to live the truth, some ignore or change the truth and still others run from the truth that was planted in their hearts years ago. I have been in all of those positions through the course of my life.
I’ve been mulling all of this over since writing about the truth yesterday, after Gram quoted the verse, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me”. (John 14:6). How is Jesus the truth, and again, what does that mean to me?
In looking up truth in an exhaustive concordance, I also read that God is a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. (Deut 32:4) The Holy Spirit is also truth …and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth…(John 14:16, 17). And (John 16:13) when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth…Even the word of God is truth (John 17:17) Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.
So each member of the Trinity is truth, and so is every word of God truth. Again, what does that mean to us? Ephesians 1:13 says that Christ, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were seal with that Holy Spirit of promise. There’s the truth/trust relationship again. Truth creates trust, which leads to the next step, belief, because of God’s promise.
God has called Himself both truth and love. Truth and love exist equally in the nature of God. I have always heard Gram talk about God’s love, but I have to honestly say that I haven’t been able to grasp the concept that God loves ME. If a human loves me, I know it and I feel it. It gives me pleasure and joy to know that someone, like my Gram truly loves me. Why, then, have I not been able to grasp that about God? I know it, but I’ve only known the idea of it, not the deep down trusting satisfaction that I am loved. I read something not too long ago that said something like, “If we don’t really trust God to love us as He says, then we can’t trust Him to always do what’s best for us. We also can’t truly love Him back, because we don’t trust Him”.
I have heard Gram praying, even tonight, thanking God for his loving kindness. She thanks Him all the time for His love, and then goes on to pray for people she loves. She receives and believes, or trusts in the truth of His love for her, and in the very next breath, she speaks of her love toward others as she prays for them.
I am still so far away from understanding the pure love of my Father toward me, and I really don’t think I’m alone in this. I have all these preconceived notions about who I am, and why I can’t possibly be loved completely by God. God doesn’t love us because we are worthy of that love. He loves us because of His grace and who He is. Also, when you know someone loves you, you understand that they are pleased with you and want to spend time with you. Sometimes I spend my time thinking of all the things I could have done better, and forget that God gives grace for today, and does find pleasure in a relationship with me (and you). Yesterday, Gram said it best when she reminded me that parents don’t love their kids any more or less based on the child’s behavior, and neither does God.
What do we, as parents do as our hearts are filled with love for our kids? We laugh at their “cuteness” when they are small, we get choked up when they tell us they love us, we tell our friends all the important things our kids do right, and can we ever share enough stories or pictures of our kids? Not a day goes by that we do not feel love for our kids. No matter what – and as they get older the “no matter what’s” get bigger - I love my children enough to die for any one of them.
Oprah has coined a phrase called the “Ah-ha” moment. I’ve heard and read it all before, that God loves us as His children, but yesterday, I had an “Ah-ha” moment when Gram spoke of my love toward my own kids. God is our father. God is truth. God loves us as his children. He would, and has, died for us. Don’t you think that He has all of the thoughts and feelings that we have for our own children, only on a perfect, supernatural level? If I stop thinking of myself as an unworthy adult, and more as God describes me – as His own child, then I can begin to have a small understanding of His delight in me because He is my father! Only then, can I return His love as He wants me to. He has even loved me through my struggles of not feeling His love!
It is my prayer that each time my heart swells with compassion and love for my kids, I will be reminded that God is also my parent, and has a more perfect compassion for me as his “kid”. As I trust in His love, I will be able to believe in His truth, and seek truth for my own life in ways I have never viewed it or practiced it. Once I trust Him to love me, I can also love him back, and show the truth to others. Just as truth and trust go hand in hand, so do truth and love.
I’ve been mulling all of this over since writing about the truth yesterday, after Gram quoted the verse, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me”. (John 14:6). How is Jesus the truth, and again, what does that mean to me?
In looking up truth in an exhaustive concordance, I also read that God is a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. (Deut 32:4) The Holy Spirit is also truth …and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth…(John 14:16, 17). And (John 16:13) when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth…Even the word of God is truth (John 17:17) Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.
So each member of the Trinity is truth, and so is every word of God truth. Again, what does that mean to us? Ephesians 1:13 says that Christ, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were seal with that Holy Spirit of promise. There’s the truth/trust relationship again. Truth creates trust, which leads to the next step, belief, because of God’s promise.
God has called Himself both truth and love. Truth and love exist equally in the nature of God. I have always heard Gram talk about God’s love, but I have to honestly say that I haven’t been able to grasp the concept that God loves ME. If a human loves me, I know it and I feel it. It gives me pleasure and joy to know that someone, like my Gram truly loves me. Why, then, have I not been able to grasp that about God? I know it, but I’ve only known the idea of it, not the deep down trusting satisfaction that I am loved. I read something not too long ago that said something like, “If we don’t really trust God to love us as He says, then we can’t trust Him to always do what’s best for us. We also can’t truly love Him back, because we don’t trust Him”.
I have heard Gram praying, even tonight, thanking God for his loving kindness. She thanks Him all the time for His love, and then goes on to pray for people she loves. She receives and believes, or trusts in the truth of His love for her, and in the very next breath, she speaks of her love toward others as she prays for them.
I am still so far away from understanding the pure love of my Father toward me, and I really don’t think I’m alone in this. I have all these preconceived notions about who I am, and why I can’t possibly be loved completely by God. God doesn’t love us because we are worthy of that love. He loves us because of His grace and who He is. Also, when you know someone loves you, you understand that they are pleased with you and want to spend time with you. Sometimes I spend my time thinking of all the things I could have done better, and forget that God gives grace for today, and does find pleasure in a relationship with me (and you). Yesterday, Gram said it best when she reminded me that parents don’t love their kids any more or less based on the child’s behavior, and neither does God.
What do we, as parents do as our hearts are filled with love for our kids? We laugh at their “cuteness” when they are small, we get choked up when they tell us they love us, we tell our friends all the important things our kids do right, and can we ever share enough stories or pictures of our kids? Not a day goes by that we do not feel love for our kids. No matter what – and as they get older the “no matter what’s” get bigger - I love my children enough to die for any one of them.
Oprah has coined a phrase called the “Ah-ha” moment. I’ve heard and read it all before, that God loves us as His children, but yesterday, I had an “Ah-ha” moment when Gram spoke of my love toward my own kids. God is our father. God is truth. God loves us as his children. He would, and has, died for us. Don’t you think that He has all of the thoughts and feelings that we have for our own children, only on a perfect, supernatural level? If I stop thinking of myself as an unworthy adult, and more as God describes me – as His own child, then I can begin to have a small understanding of His delight in me because He is my father! Only then, can I return His love as He wants me to. He has even loved me through my struggles of not feeling His love!
It is my prayer that each time my heart swells with compassion and love for my kids, I will be reminded that God is also my parent, and has a more perfect compassion for me as his “kid”. As I trust in His love, I will be able to believe in His truth, and seek truth for my own life in ways I have never viewed it or practiced it. Once I trust Him to love me, I can also love him back, and show the truth to others. Just as truth and trust go hand in hand, so do truth and love.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Truth Part I
Gram often talks about her childhood. Through the years, she has brought a smile to my face as she fondly remembers different things that helped shape her into the woman she is today. It had seemed to me that Gram must have had an idyllic childhood from the way she talked, so I was surprised in my early twenties to learn that my Gram had come from a broken home. She had even been separated from the rest of the family for a while as a great-aunt offered to help by taking her in. Those were especially trying times, but, even as a child, Gram has spoken of a relationship with Jesus, which saw her through her loneliness. She matter-of-factly told me that He became her friend and confidant. She never felt that she was alone because He was always there. Even tonight, she quoted Matthew 28:20b Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. To have that certainty and knowledge deep down inside, especially as a young child, is something that is rare. In the past I have also heard Gram say, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. We could all learn from that simplistic, yet profound motto.
Gram often thought of her four sisters and one brother when she lived away from home, and waited for the day when she would be reunited with them. She also loved and missed her mother very much. She told me that her mother once sat all six of her children down and said, "Our relationships will be built on truth. Everything I say to you will be the truth, and if I ever learn that something I tell you was in error, I will come back to you and correct it. I will also apologize to you, so you know that you will always be able to trust me."
Truth and trust go hand in hand. Some of the least trusting people in the world today are the ones who have learned that they can not depend on receiving the truth from others. There is another motto - Fool me once, it's your fault. Fool me twice, it's my fault. We are programmed to be suspicious.
What a different world it would be if we could trust the "truth" of others. Truth is not relative, it is absolute. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me".
Even though we may come from broken homes, or have learned that people here on earth can disappoint us with broken promises, untruths, half-truths or white lies, we can trust the Only One who is truth. And by the way, if it isn't all truth, it isn't the truth at all, so a "white lie" is just a "lie of a different color".
I wonder what an amazing difference we would make to the next generation and the future in general if each one of us sat our children down to tell them the words that Gram's mother said to her as a child. I believe in my heart that we would not only be nurturing an honest future generation, but we would also be bringing up our children to be trusting individuals. How much easier would it be for our children to trust HIM when they know they can trust us?
Gram often thought of her four sisters and one brother when she lived away from home, and waited for the day when she would be reunited with them. She also loved and missed her mother very much. She told me that her mother once sat all six of her children down and said, "Our relationships will be built on truth. Everything I say to you will be the truth, and if I ever learn that something I tell you was in error, I will come back to you and correct it. I will also apologize to you, so you know that you will always be able to trust me."
Truth and trust go hand in hand. Some of the least trusting people in the world today are the ones who have learned that they can not depend on receiving the truth from others. There is another motto - Fool me once, it's your fault. Fool me twice, it's my fault. We are programmed to be suspicious.
What a different world it would be if we could trust the "truth" of others. Truth is not relative, it is absolute. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me".
Even though we may come from broken homes, or have learned that people here on earth can disappoint us with broken promises, untruths, half-truths or white lies, we can trust the Only One who is truth. And by the way, if it isn't all truth, it isn't the truth at all, so a "white lie" is just a "lie of a different color".
I wonder what an amazing difference we would make to the next generation and the future in general if each one of us sat our children down to tell them the words that Gram's mother said to her as a child. I believe in my heart that we would not only be nurturing an honest future generation, but we would also be bringing up our children to be trusting individuals. How much easier would it be for our children to trust HIM when they know they can trust us?
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Faith, Hope and Love
I remember a few years ago, Gram and I were discussing I Corinthians 13:13. And now abideth faith, hope, charity (love), these three, but the greatest of these is charity (love). I always wondered why love would be greater than hope or faith. To me, it seemed that each one had an equally important status. I understand that God is love, so maybe that’s why love topped the list of the things that “now abide”. Gram proceeded to explain what that verse meant to her, and I’ve never read it the same way again.
Gram took the verse word by word. The first word that “now abides” is faith. Gram explained that faith is necessary “now”, because we walk by faith, not by sight (I Cor 5:7). We are saved by faith - And He (Jesus) said unto the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace (Luke 7:50). Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is necessary, and even the tangible substance of things to come, as well as evidence of things we can’t just point out in our natural world. If you think of today’s justice system, many people can be convicted on “circumstantial evidence”. This evidence paints a picture of something that happened, and people can confidently come to a conclusion based on that evidence. The same concept is written about faith – it is evidence of things not (yet) seen.
Finally, Hebrews 12:2a speaks of Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith… Faith will have an ending. Jesus is the author of our faith, and he is also the finisher. The day we enter heaven, there will be no more need of faith because For now we see through a glass darkly; but then, face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known (I Cor 13:12) When our journey is over, faith will no longer be a necessary part of our relationship with God because we will behold Him in all His glory. We shall see Him just as He is! This is why faith “now” abides.
I excitedly saw where this was going. Gram explained that hope has such an important place in this life, along with faith and love. Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27b) shows us that hope has a place “now”, so we can be comforted and empowered as we anticipate glory. We also have in our spiritual warfare, a helmet, the hope of salvation (I Thes 5:8) Salvation is something that we have hope in, as something that will come to pass, although we are already saved if we are believers. Again, in Titus 1:2, Paul speaks of hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Now abides hope, but hope will reach it’s destination someday, along with faith. Faith and hope propel us along in our Christian walk as we believe the things we have not yet seen.
Like faith and hope, love also “now abides”, but that’s only part of love’s story. There will be no ending, so even though love is now, it always has been and always will be. One of Gram’s favorite verses, Jeremiah 31:3, states, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. God often speaks of love as everlasting, timeless and ageless. The powerful verses in Romans (8:38,39) say that nothing, not even death or time itself, can separate us from the love of God, through Christ – For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Love truly is everlasting.
Every time I read I Corinthians 13:13, I realize that faith has the power to save us, hope has the power to sustain us, but love is the greatest of all, because love transcends all time, past, present and future, and the love of God is the reason faith and hope exist! Faith and hope will accompany us in this life and see us safely to the other side, and once there, we will bask in the love of God for all eternity!
Gram took the verse word by word. The first word that “now abides” is faith. Gram explained that faith is necessary “now”, because we walk by faith, not by sight (I Cor 5:7). We are saved by faith - And He (Jesus) said unto the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace (Luke 7:50). Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is necessary, and even the tangible substance of things to come, as well as evidence of things we can’t just point out in our natural world. If you think of today’s justice system, many people can be convicted on “circumstantial evidence”. This evidence paints a picture of something that happened, and people can confidently come to a conclusion based on that evidence. The same concept is written about faith – it is evidence of things not (yet) seen.
Finally, Hebrews 12:2a speaks of Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith… Faith will have an ending. Jesus is the author of our faith, and he is also the finisher. The day we enter heaven, there will be no more need of faith because For now we see through a glass darkly; but then, face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known (I Cor 13:12) When our journey is over, faith will no longer be a necessary part of our relationship with God because we will behold Him in all His glory. We shall see Him just as He is! This is why faith “now” abides.
I excitedly saw where this was going. Gram explained that hope has such an important place in this life, along with faith and love. Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27b) shows us that hope has a place “now”, so we can be comforted and empowered as we anticipate glory. We also have in our spiritual warfare, a helmet, the hope of salvation (I Thes 5:8) Salvation is something that we have hope in, as something that will come to pass, although we are already saved if we are believers. Again, in Titus 1:2, Paul speaks of hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Now abides hope, but hope will reach it’s destination someday, along with faith. Faith and hope propel us along in our Christian walk as we believe the things we have not yet seen.
Like faith and hope, love also “now abides”, but that’s only part of love’s story. There will be no ending, so even though love is now, it always has been and always will be. One of Gram’s favorite verses, Jeremiah 31:3, states, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. God often speaks of love as everlasting, timeless and ageless. The powerful verses in Romans (8:38,39) say that nothing, not even death or time itself, can separate us from the love of God, through Christ – For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Love truly is everlasting.
Every time I read I Corinthians 13:13, I realize that faith has the power to save us, hope has the power to sustain us, but love is the greatest of all, because love transcends all time, past, present and future, and the love of God is the reason faith and hope exist! Faith and hope will accompany us in this life and see us safely to the other side, and once there, we will bask in the love of God for all eternity!
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