http://youtu.be/hXBxImes110 - Give Thanks
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| Does God care? |
It makes me smile when I see how unique each little animal and bird is. No two are exactly alike.
This bird in the photo is a Northern Flicker. One just like this one has taken up residence in our back woods and chooses our back yard for grocery shopping. She is a most beautiful bird. Look at all the details, the belly, the wings, the little black bib... There's a red collar at the base of her neck that can't be seen in the photo. It's incredible how much beauty there is in this one little bird. And don't get me started on the blue birds and the robins and the cardinals, even the little sparrows which are relatively plain in comparison.
I remember God telling us how much He cares. He knows when even one sparrow falls . Surely, He cares for His precious possessions - His children.
Matthew 10:28-30
28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
If God put so much thought and beauty in every living creature, if He knows when even the tiniest sparrow falls to the ground, if He numbers the very hairs on our head, I feel confident that we can trust His love and His wisdom - His plan for us.
He is never going to leave nor forsake us. When everyone else lets us down, He will be the One who holds us up. We can learn from the Boone family about trust and His faithfulness. Come what may, God is love and He loves you and me more than we can imagine. Heaven will be so worth whatever
we have to endure on this earth. God wants us to live to glorify Him - no matter what life throws at us. The more difficult our circumstances, the more people will listen and learn from how we look to our Savior for strength. We can glorify Him by our unwavering trust in His plan and purpose for our lives. I can shout all day about trusting God through adversity, but if I've never faced any real struggle, who is going to listen? Certainly not the person going through some terrible suffering. They want to hear from the one who understands, the one who has faced the same struggle and continued to lean on Christ. Our struggles can make us powerful witnesses for God and His faithfulness and when He trusts us enough to allow those struggles in our lives, it's because He trusts us to be a living testimony to others who need Him.
Jessica Boone is a living testimony. Are you be a witness for Christ, too? Maybe you're facing difficult times. Let your light shine for His glory. Heaven will be so worth what ever we face here.
Please continue to pray for Jessica Boone and her family. Here's is Lisa's post from last night:
March 13, 2012 Tuesday
Posted 9 hours ago
Today....today....TODAY.....Thank you God for TODAY...Today is the day You hath made and we are rejoicing in it.......Today....White Blood Cells normal for the first time since admission three weeks ago... Today...no abdominal pain or nausea....Today we walked many times....Today she worked with PT on improving balance and coordination....Today...Blood work continues to improve....Today...we played Yahtzee.....today...she ate half hamburger with a few fries and some vanilla ice cream.. Today instead of a wheelchair we walked outside and sat upon a bench and got a little sunshine and it was simply beautiful and wide open. Today we have officially started talking about discharge planning with Home Health for continued IV therapy at home. Today we took a nap together for a whole 30 minutes before being interrupted! Today our primary care physician came to visit and told Jessie what a tough little girl she was and it was unimagineable everything her precious little body had endured over the last 3 weeks...She also told her going home at this point would be the best medicine! Jessie fully agreed...and that she would follow her closely while she was at home recovering.
Tonight we have an exceptionally exhausted girl but absolutely NO pain....We are so so thankful for the comfort she has. We are thankful she was able to do so much today and endure so well. She has lost weight and muscle mass but those can be rebuilt over time. We have a very very long road to traverse in regards to her liver and her bile duct issues...Yet we have learned over and over again to stay in this moment. To not look forward in fear to the changes in life, rather look to them with full hope that as they arise, God, whose very own you are, will lead you safely through all things. And when you cannot stand it, God will carry you in His arms. Do not fear what may happen tomorrow; The same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you today and every day. He will either shield you from suffering or will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.(Be at Peace, St. Francis de Sales)
The daily prayer calender from our Church today....Fear not, stand firm....The Lord will fight for you, you only have to be still...(Exodus 14:13,14)
We continue to be still and wait upon Him to direct each step on this journey and our "exodus" home. And at that perfect moment His Great Right Hand will part the waters of this hospital admission and we will journey the path covered in His Love home.
There are no words as we began to list what we are grateful for. There is a book called One Thousand Gifts by Anne Voskamp. She invites us to slow down, learn to live the full life of eucharisteo( with grace, thankgiving, joy) regardless of circumstances. She is a farmers wife and writes about her struggles to live joyfully amid sin and sorrow and suffering. She invites us to embrace everyday blessings and embark upon the transformative spiritual discipline of chronicling God's gifts. She sees the whole earth full of the glory of God. Her daily online journal is www.aholyexperience.com. Tonight I think I could list 1000 gifts He has given us just in the last 3 weeks of this Lenten journey of wilderness. Thank you God for it all but especially for Your constant presence in each step and breathe and width of this journey. We pause....We bow....We say thank you....Amen and amen..
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