Faithful

Most days, I spend time praying for my little “life of grace” using the Inspired to Action Prayer Calendar.  Today the attribute was faithfulness.  Faithful, God.  He is faithful.    It reminded me of this poem I crafted a few years ago while spending time reading Psalm 103:1-5 at a Last Wednesday service. 

God you are good.

So good.

Nothing escapes your notice.

Observing all

You  take care to provide for everything I need—

Right now and all eternity.

Faithful, God.

You are faithful.

I treasure you for you have done great things—

For me.

Around me.

In me.

How beautiful the works of your hands.

I marvel.

I worship you.

***

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we know God’s goodness, witness God’s faithfulness.  May we respond in worship through all we do.

Jessica :)

Wear Love

We sit side by side.  My pen is in hand to capture the thoughts we will share when we gather round loved ones to bless as two plan to become one. 

It has been eight years (this week!) since I said yes and we looked with great anticipation toward the late summer day when we would say “I do” as they do now. 

I ask what words we will speak. 

I don’t know.  He doesn’t know. 

What is it we have learned in eight years worth passing along? 

Wanting to be prepared and growing agitated I suggest we stop and pray.  He grumbles.

“Well if you don’t want to talk to God I will,” I say in a sing-song voice. 

“Nice.  You stole that line right out of my playbook,” he retorts with a smile.

“Yeah.  Well…”  I reply with a grin.

We slow and pause.  We try to get our hearts right before God.  We bring our friends before Him.

Lord, what is it that two hearts preparing to be knit together as one need to know? What have you taught us?

I share how I’m thinking of Colossians and Genesis and what it means to live in unity as one flesh before God.  He tells me he likes the sound of that.

I wonder what thoughts he has and I have no idea why he says I am better at this than he is.  He lives love so much better than I do.  He is patient with me when I exasperate…sometimes intentionally.  He steps in and does what I fail to do—from making dinner, to humility, forgiveness, and love.  He doesn’t complain. 

I have so much to learn from him.  I tell him so. 

He quips back about how he has just the verse.

“Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.”  Proverbs 21:9

I scowl. 

He tells me he would be sitting on the addition roof with his porter if he really felt that way about me.  We laugh.

With a poke, I ask him what he would say, seriously, to our friends.

He tells me his words to them would be:  Marriage takes work.  Don’t do it alone.  Live in community that will support you in loving one another.  Marriage will be the hardest thing you ever decide to do.  It will also be the best. So work at loving each other well.

I smile at his words.  They are true to the way he lives.  I also think about how they complement and fill in what it looks like, practically, when unity is lived out.  We bring out the best in one another.

“We are a good team,” I tell him.

I think about how this is as it is meant to be. 

Two people come together in love and are united as one flesh before God. 

This oneness is a mystery that He works in us as we lay down our lives (our time, our pride, our way) for one another.  It is a mystery that runs deeper than the joining of two bodies.  It is oneness of heart and purpose and vision for life together.  It comes as we seek Christ; both of us yielded and open and focused on Him, we write our story together.  And it is beautiful.

This is what we have learned to practice in eight years.

Wear love.

“So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.  Beyond all things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”  Colossians 3:12-14 (NASB)

It comes down to this, dear ones.  Put on love.

***

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we live united in Christ by wearing love.  May we find great joy in oneness as we go where the Holy Spirit leads us.

Jessica :)

It Stands Forever

She had Alzheimer’s disease, my grandmother—Hazel.

In the time before she passed away my mom read Romans to her.
 

Romans, that book which tells it like it is. 

There is none righteous, not even one.  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  

Romans, that book which tells of grace through faith in Christ. 

All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. 

Romans, that book which tells of hope. 

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans, that book which encourages us to live life as worship, changed, free and following the Holy Spirit.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  […]  Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans, that book which reminds us to live love.

I still remember my mom describing the peace that it brought to her mother.

I marveled, thinking of this as I stood in front of the kitchen sink reading the verse from John: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5

For Grandma, it was God’s word that remained a source of strength when the familiarity of life gave way to darkness.  This was something my mother seemed to know intuitively.

It’s funny that I should remember all this before sitting down to read this in Isaiah:

“All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.  Surely the people are grass.  The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”  Isaiah 40:6-8

All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 

Yes.  Life sweeps through our bodies—growing, learning, blossoming, living—full and abundant.

My grandmother was a lover of algebra, a crafter, a baker.  She was well past doing these things during my lifetime; but I think we would have enjoyed one another, because these are all things I have enjoyed too.  From stories my mom has shared my grandma had a servant’s heart; and reading between the lines I think she must have been rather feisty.  I think of my mother and my sister—these women are like her also.

When I was very little my grandmother lived at home with us.  I have a few memories of that time—the one I remember most clearly, Grandma got sick when we were out on an errand.  I have many more memories after Grandma was moved to a nearby nursing home where we visited on the weekends.  On Saturday, my mother would wet and wind up Grandma’s hair in thin loops, before putting it in bobby-pins to curl overnight.  It was a time of cartoons, hide-and-seek, visiting and exploration of the nursing home.  On Sunday, we would return to brush out Grandma’s curls, feed her lunch, and watch American Gladiators.  A lot of time has passed since then. 

The grass withers, the flower fades—and so do we, some quickly and others over a long period of time.  Alzheimer’s disease being a neurodegenerative disorder took its toll over years on Grandma.  

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

But this!  As her body was failing, as her mind stopped functioning in the here and now, it was God’s word that brought my Grandma peace and hope. 

The word of the Lord stands forever. 

Forever, breaking through to Grandma’s heart, holding firm when memories faded and life was confusing and lonely and not the way she remembered it.  When people cared for her and did all the things she once did for herself and was humbled to let them do for her.

Forever.  In Christ, The Word, who lives—a sure hope that one day all things will be made new, including her mind and body.    

Forever.  In the word lived out in the lives of His people, led by the Holy Spirit—serving her out of love.

The word of the Lord stands forever.

I take courage from this.  I delight in this.  I give thanks for this bedrock truth that a life can stand upon when life itself is so very different from all one has ever known. 

The word of the Lord stands forever…bringing peace and life and hope even at the end.

***

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we trust that the word of the Lord stands forever.  May we steep in it and find that we are like the tree planted by streams of water yielding fruit.  May we find that whatever rains and floods come we are firmly set on a foundation that will last.

Jessica :)

Heavenly Valentine

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Receive God’s great love for you today by giving thanks for His most precious gift.

 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”  - John 3:16 

 

Will you be mine?

A Heavenly Valentine.

What a lovely way

To spend such a day

Wrapped up in the embrace

Of the one who took my disgrace

And calls me beloved.

I am Yours.

You are mine.

And Your banner over me is LOVE.

Grace and peace be ours in abundance as we celebrate God’s great love for us.  May we enjoy Him and respond by loving as God has loved us in Christ.

Jessica :)

Just One of Those Days

I have been working on a post today, but it will have to wait until next week.  It has been put on hold while I have been becoming adept at learning about jumping a car.  Mine to be exact.  Twice to be specific.  Yes, it appears that you have to let the vehicle run for 30 minutes after it is started.  My poor husband pushed my car out into the street twice, blocking traffic and being an all around wonderfully patient man.

See you next week!

Grace and peace be ours in abundance when the day doesn't go as we planned.  May we receive it with a laugh and words of thanks for the people who help us through all that comes.

Jessica :)