We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are chosen to be a part of His plan. … Since God is for us, who can be against us? [Romans 8:28,31b (NLV)]
As I looked through my basket of Christmas cards, I thought of all the people who have passed through my life. Contained in that basket is a fair amount of sorrow and misfortune—divorce, heart failure, assorted diseases, surgeries (some successful and others not), heartbreak, disappointment, cancer, mental illness, addiction, paralysis, birth defects, financial difficulty, and loss. Yet, within that basket, I also find hope, faith, resilience, peace, joy, perseverance, strength and love. There are children who defied the odds, families facing tremendous challenges with great courage, people who’ve forgiven the unforgiveable, widows and widowers meeting their new normal with confidence, hurt people determined to heal, caregivers finding strength to continue when many would quit, parents prayerfully waiting for prodigals to return, and people who can still laugh in the face of adversity.
On its campus, our local hospital has a beautiful retreat, The Garden of Hope and Courage, with a one-acre lake surrounded by flowers, trees, benches, and lovely sculpture. My basket of cards is a mini garden of hope and courage and is no less beautiful. I am blessed that God brought people like these into my life—people who have inspired, encouraged, loved, challenged, and taught me.
I pick up one card from friends; it has several photos of their eight beautiful grandchildren. When we were neighbors forty-five years ago, they certainly never envisioned those eight smiling faces nor did we picture the faces of our five equally beautiful grands. Young parents then, we just were trying to get through the challenges of the week that lay ahead of us. We never pictured ourselves in our seventies and retired in Florida! Of course, we never envisioned the illnesses, challenges, pain, heartbreak and loss that lay ahead either. Nevertheless, just as I’d never want to erase the face of any of those grandchildren, I’d never want to erase one moment of the past, no matter how painful it was. I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am now without passing through those dark valleys.
Is my life perfect? Is yours? Of course not—yet it is the life God gave us and we are incredibly blessed by every moment of it. We have people to love and people who love us and, best of all, we have a God who loved us enough to send us His very best! Sometimes I think I should pinch myself to be sure it’s not a dream! Then again, if it’s all a dream, I have no desire to wake up!
Perhaps it’s the end of one year and the beginning of yet another that has me waxing so nostalgic or maybe it’s just the Christmas music playing in the background. I gather up the cards and wrap a band around them. They will be placed in my prayer basket. During this year, I’ll pull out a card or two each morning and offer prayers for the sender. This year, I’ll also remember to thank God for the part each one has played in my life.
I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new. [Ralph Waldo Emerson]
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. [C.S. Lewis]
Be happy in your hope. Do not give up when trouble comes. Do not let anything stop you from praying. … Be happy with those who are happy. Be sad with those who are sad. [Romans 12:12,15 (NLV)]
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It was well past midnight when I finally rolled into bed. Barely able to keep my eyes open, I reached over to read my evening’s meditation. How we choose to spend our time was the topic and the author wrote of the futility of building sandcastles that would be washed away in the tide. “It all may seem worthwhile, but in the end it’s worthless,” were his words. Since I’d just spent countless hours working on line to create a photo book for my mother-in-law, I stopped reading and moaned, “Oh Lord, was this project a sandcastle? Is the book not worthy of the hours I spent creating it?” I’d neglected my writing to finish this project and now the words I was reading filled me with self-reproach. Had I wasted precious time? I knew the book wouldn’t disappear with the tide but would it be appreciated? Perhaps it would be read and forgotten or maybe never even seen. After all, my mother-in-law is 100 years old and her clock is winding down. There was always the possibility that, by the time was book was printed and shipped, it would arrive after she departed! I started thinking of all the other more important or worthy things I could have done with those many hours.
Several “Nancy” comics have inspired my writing and I was curious about the strip’s artist/writer, Guy Gilchrist. From the tenor of his work, I was not surprised to learn that he is a Christian but that was not always so. As a boy, he was poor, lonely, abused and searching for someone and something in which to believe. Missing a dad, he found a father figure in an unlikely place—television—and in a remarkable person—a radio, television and movie star by the name of Roy Rogers. Since there was no difference between Rogers’ screen persona and the man himself, Gilchrist chose an excellent role model in this man of integrity. Kind and honest, Rogers was a devout Christian who stood for decency, truth and justice. Gilchrist, however, didn’t know about his hero’s faith until many years later. When the young cartoonist was unsure how to behave, he’d look to the singing cowboy and ask himself, “What would Roy do?” He knew his cowboy hero would always take the right course of action. Of course, the boy didn’t know that the Christian entertainer had his own model for behavior: Jesus. While Gilchrist was asking himself what Roy would do, the star was probably asking himself, “What would Jesus do?”
Also, the Spirit helps us with our weakness. We do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself speaks to God for us, even begs God for us with deep feelings that words cannot explain. God can see what is in people’s hearts. And he knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit speaks to God for his people in the way God wants. [Romans 8:26-27 (NCV)]
I never thought I’d enjoy my smartphone so much, especially instant messaging. Now that I’ve gotten the hang of it, I love the way it keeps me connected with friends and family who are thousands of miles away. Between the grands’ recent report cards, Halloween costumes, trick-or-treating and the World Series, our phones have been dinging and whistling with texts and pictures for the last several days. Unfortunately, that dinging and whistling can go on much later than we old folks like! With our children living in time zones west of us, what seems like early evening to them is bedtime for us. During the Series, we’ve taken to silencing our phones before going to bed. Like our children, we want the Cubs to win; unlike them, we can wait until morning to find out if it happened!
True confession time—although I often write about making prayer an ongoing part of our daily routines, I tend to compartmentalize my own day. I allocate specific times to prayer and the rest of the day to living when, in actuality, my entire life should be a prayer. Granted, I’ve been known to offer quick thanks for God’s “Aha!” moments and “Please!” and “Help!” are often submitted to Him, but those brief messages are just the emojis of prayer. If I can send a picture or text to my kids, I can pause long enough to tell God how blessed I am by the moment or how much I love and need Him.
Devotions of the Heart 