Blogging from a Book

As I was writing this blog, Gordon came through the living room and said, “You’re blogging from a book?” Imagine me doing that!! I have said before that I cannot live long enough to learn life’s lessons first hand. I prefer to learn from someone else’s experience. The lessons are not as painful. I believe God has called me to share things I have learned. I believe that is one reason I have had this tumor. There are so many things I have learned that I would not have slowed down long enough to read had this not happened to me. God admonishes us to give thanks in all things. I have had a difficult time thanking God for this detour in my life, but I am beginning to be able to do that. I have met so many wonderful people during this. I have grown closer to those who already meant so much. I have learned to depend on God for things I have previously taken for granted. I believe God has a purpose for everything in our lives. This tumor was a total shock to me, but it didn’t surprise God in the least. I am not the same person I was before this tumor, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. My family can attest that I certainly am not the same mentally!! OH WELL. Praise God for them too! So much has happened since I last blogged. God continues to be faithful! I wrote about the problems we were having with our newest grandchild, Jude Emerson Maynard. He presented himself on Mar. 26. We have had a few anxious periods, but he seems to be developing according to schedule. He is of course a beautiful baby (you can see pictures of him on Elesha’s facebook), and we are SO thankful for God’s faithfulness to bring him good health. He was given a blood transfusion shortly after his birth, but he seems to be doing really well. Hannah is doing really well too. It is amazing how quickly they change. She was so tiny when she was born, but she is a regular butterball now! She is beginning to sleep through the night some now much to Todd’s and Brandy’s relief! Looking at all the newborn pictures of these precious children, then seeing them a few months older, it is amazing how much alike they all look, yet how different they all are; and each one is just as precious as the next. In thinking how I love them and how they love me, I cannot help but think about our relationship to God and His to us. Those of us who are parents or grandparents will agree that we could not love one child more than another, but our relationship to each one is different, depending upon how they relate to us. God wants to have the same kind of relationship with each of us. He loves us and He wants us to love Him. His love is constant, unchanging, and enduring, so whether or not we have that relationship, depends upon us. He loves us enough that He gives us the freedom to refuse Him. Jean Fleming writes in The Homesick Heart, “Our chief assignment on earth is to seek…Where is that which will satisfy our search?...When the scent of Home reaches us and pulls us up short, we need to remember that it is this that we seek (home!)…How tragic to come within a breath and yet miss what we are looking for.” “The Jewish nation of Jesus’ day longed for the Messiah with a searing desire…Most just wanted Him to make them happy. Unfortunately, their ideas about Him prevented them from recognizing Him when He came. Most of those who stood close enough to reach out and touch Him, missed Him. During the years Jesus lived on earth it happened all the time. It still happens today.” “In Jesus Christ God is revealed and hidden. In Jesus Christ we either find God or lose Him. In Jesus Christ God remains hidden in the fullest revelations of Himself. Man may always explain away whatever God reveals. God always leaves room for us to refuse Him. It must be so. And when at a point in history, God most perfectly and completely reveals Himself by becoming a human being and living among us, God leaves a space wide enough for us to drive a truck through that we might decide what we will do with Him. Some will come to Him in longing, others will stub their souls on an immovable rock. Blaise Pascal wrote, ‘What do the prophets say about Jesus Christ? That he will plainly be God? No, but that he is a truly hidden God, that he will not be recognized, that people will not believe that it is he, that he will be a stumbling-block in which many will fall. We yearn to belong, to be loved and to be significant. Our dreams skirt paths looking for meaning. Jesus comes to interrupt the dream and finish it in spirit and truth. He comes that we might not fritter away our lives on pipe dreams, but that with Him we might act out the rest of the dream. In Christ, the essence of dreams becomes history, reality, and glorious hope. Life with Christ, in Christ, of Christ, is the only tolerable fulfillment of noble dreams.” Choose life. Choose Christ!! I praise God for another good report from the doctor. I had an MRI last week. The doctor said everything is VERY STABLE; PRAISE GOD!!! I am so thankful for every blessing He has bestowed. I have been able to continue to help care for the grandchildren, which is a wonderful distraction for me, and I hope some help to my children. Gordon is still suffering terribly with his back and neck. The doctor is considering an implant of some kind to interfere with the pain signal in his brain and one that will also meter morphine around the clock. He really is useless (not in a derogatory way)!! Thanks for your continued prayers.