found in you

The song, Shadowfeet, by Brooke Fraser has spoken to me in the past few months. These are the beautiful words:

“Walking, stumbling on these shadowfeet
Toward home, a land that I've never seen
I am changing: less and less asleep
Made of different stuff than when I began
and I have sensed it all along
Fast approaching is the day
When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
When the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees,
When time and space are through,
I'll be found in you.”

It is so good to find out that when my world is absolutely upside down, and all I thought was “sure” is broken…God stays the same. He won’t leave me. He’ll be here, and I can find my true self in the surety of Him.

our hope endures

As Natalie Grant sings in “Our Hope Endures:”

“Sometimes the sun
Stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky
Rains night after night
When will it clear
But our hope endures
The worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Our hope is unchanged
Emanuel, God is with us
El Shaddai, all sufficient
We never walk alone
This is our hope
Our hope endures
The worst of conditions
It's more
Than our optimism
Our hope is unchanged.”

Lamentations 3:21-23
“ Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

God is with us. He is all sufficient. He never changes. This, and only this, is the hope that we have. This hope endures forever.

Thank you, Father,
g

merry christmas, sister

Merry Christmas, Sister. We miss you so much.
g

decorating for christmas

Today we collected boughs of pine, sprigs of cedar, and various kinds of holly from the woods. Deb put them all together with a big, beautiful bow, and we placed them on Kathy’s grave. We were honoring the lovely, creative, and giving spirit of our sister. She would love it! We were decorating for Christmas.

g

sorrow will end

Isaiah 60:1B,20B
“Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Your God will be your glory…and your days of sorrow will end.”

hold my heart

“One tear in the dropping rain,
One voice in the sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breakin' heart?
One light, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Won't You come close and hold my heart.”

“Hold My Heart”
Tenth Avenue North

light

I love light! I always have. As a child, I can remember how much I looked forward to walking to the top of our driveway to look down on our decorated, lighted house at Christmastime.

These days, I drive through our downtown area, which is alight with beautiful holiday lights, on my way to the gym every morning. When it rains, the lights are especially beautiful, because of the reflection of light. It seems there are two or three times as many lights.

It reminds me of how God’s light has been reflected around me in these past five months. His light has multiplied…grown…glowed into unexpected places…lit up days that would otherwise be dark and lonely.

It also makes me think of my own life’s light. As Malcolm Muggeridge answered to the question of what he most wanted to do with the rest of his life: “I should like my light to shine, even if only very fitfully, like a match struck in a dark, cavernous night and then flickering out.”

g

giving comfort

Reader’s Digest has an article in it, this month, written by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. She is the daughter of Robert Kennedy, and if anyone knows about death and grief, she would.

She gives four things that one can do to give comfort to someone who is grieving the death of a loved one:
1.“Go to the funeral.” She says: “Death opens an enormous hole in the heart. A funeral service brings together those who can help fill that hole.”
2.“Call or write your friend when someone close to her or him has died.”
3.“Never say, ‘You will get over it.’ People rarely do.”
4.“Embrace the person who suffers. (The death of a loved one rips us apart, shakes us up, hurts terribly.)”
She goes further to say:
“Make it clear in the letter or phone call to your friend that she or he is wonderful. The outstretched arm, the warm embrace, the freshly baked cookies, or the fragrant flowers do not replace the life. Not by any means. But they do say to the grieving friend, ‘You are loved. You are cherished.’”

I will never forget the wonderful acts of love that we have been shown in the past five months. Just this past week, I was having a hard time, and I got out my “Kathy” box…it includes all the cards and letters I have gotten in the past months… the words and thoughts warmed my heart all over again.

It is good to feel loved and cherished.

g