The Puzzle

My daughter Deborah is facing a possible move ahead of the schedule she had designed. So many factors will have to come together if their sale of their condo closes by April 1st.
A job for Deborah with the needed pay scale.
A new home, with a landlord who is tender heated toward dogs.
A school for Gabriel or approval of independent study for the last two months.
A place to stay for Micah to finish his senior year.
That does not even cover packing, cleaning, deposits and all those other things I hate about moving.
Today as I was praying about all this, I had a picture in my mind of Deborah at a card table with a thousand piece puzzle on the table. She had not managed to even get the border together yet.
Next to her was seated God with the same puzzle at his table. She got up to look over his shoulder as he worked. His puzzle was ¾ done and he was smiling as he worked. She even noted that, like her Papa, he had the last piece, the most important one, in his pocket for safe keeping. He wanted her to know that no one else could complete this, only Him. For nothing is impossible with God.
He looked up and said
” Rest in my care for you, my daughter. I will work out each detail. I know the plans I have for you dear one. Plans to give you a future and hope. Rest. In my time, I fit all the pieces together. You will be amazed.”
Wow, I can't wait to see it all.

What about Bob?

So here is the rest of the story about Bob as we could piece it together on the internet. We checked out several sites that covered the Far West Junior Olympics team of 2003. It was a mystery search which revealed only some sketchy facts.
We found the team from Tahoe had a coach named Bob. So, perhaps he was the owner of the jacket. Come to think of it, the jacket was probably too big for junior high students and did belong to an adult. Maybe he had that ‘sample” to keep warm??? I wonder why he parted with his jacket? We will never know. If I had had such an important jacket, I would have kept it as a trophy at the very least.
I love that God does not have to search me out on the internet or wonder about me, my needs, my hurts, my whereabouts.
He created me
He knows my name.
He knows my every thought.
He sees each tear that falls
And hears me when I call.
Of all the Mary’s in the world right now, he knows me intimately, including the hairs on my head at any given moment. What a great God yet a tender Father.

Assumptions

I got a lot of exercise a couple of weeks ago jumping to conclusions.
Assumptions are funny things. They can get you into all kinds of trouble. A former boss made that very clear to me showing me on paper what they can make out of us:
Ass u me
I should have remembered that the other day when my youngest grandson was here. He came without a coat or long sleeves and this during our could snap.
So off we went to the thrift store for I am, among other things, cheap. He tried on various coats, including a trench coat when made him look like a gangster. He completed that image by stuffing his hand in the coat pocket like he had a sawed off shot gun!
Needless to day, we did NOT buy that coat.
But we did find a great coat, very warm, that had belonged to some one on the Far West Junior Olympic Team of 2003. Later we discovered it belongs to BOB, but that is another story, perhaps tomorrow.
Gabe loved the coat and I loved the price $6.99.
Did I tell you it has 135 pockets of various sized and shapes and locations? Or so it seemed to us.
That night I washed it with some of our dirty clothes ( to fill the machine, of course) and it was as good as new, after some minor repairs by thread and needle.
As I crawled into bed that night, I found, mixed in the middle of my nightclothes, a small bottle of whisky, like you might get on an airplane! An empty whiskey bottle. I showed it to Jon and said,
’ I am too tired to figure this out tonight,. We will tackle this tomorrow. ‘
The next day Jon confronted our grandson who dumbly looked at us. He knew nothing, he declared over and over, much like his mother before him had done with such questioning. We felt he was lying but could not prove it. So we let it rest .
Well Jon did, but my mind could not let it go.
1. Why put in on our bed where we would find it?
2. How did he get it?
3 Was this a pattern his parents were ignorant of?
On and on my mind worked at this, like a dog with a bone, while I made the bed .
Then it hit me. When I washed that coat, I had also washed my night clothes in the same load, dried them in the same load and it was possible it had been in on of the 135 pockets and fell out in the dryer, only to get attached to my clothes. There could be no other explanation, if what he was telling us was true.
Assumptions, do you have any about God? Watch out, check it out, Get the facts. You know what assumptions can do to you!

If only...

If only I had gone to see my Mom on that last day. But no, I visited a friend and she died before I could get to the hospital.
If only I had not opened my mouth when I did, I might still have that long time friend.
If only they had loved me the way I needed them to, I could have been an emotionally healthy woman.
Disappointment in myself and others has attempted to cripple my life. Things I had hoped to gain and didn't or hoped to avoid and failed to bring such great disappointment.
But you can't get very far looking in your rear view mirror.
Miss Havershem in Great Expectations refused to move on after her devastation and her wounded heart was consumed with her disappointing life.
What to do?
Grief the loss. Denial has no benefit.
Then run to the Shepherd. Allow him to heal the hurts and give you a new future, free of expectations and full of contentment.

Chain reaction

Here is something to boggle your mind. All over the country people are selling their homes and buying another. Think of how that has to coordinate. Family A needs to move into house B. Family B is waiting for Family C to move so their can move in so family A can move into theirs! WOW.
Here is another:
Buddy wakes me up.
I call and wake up Laurastina who gets her family up for the day.
But before she gets her family up, she calls Claire to get her going!
Now I want to know who Claire gets up???
If you have not blown your circuits yet, this has another application.
Years ago I met Marlene who talked to me about knowing Christ on a personal basis. It really impacted me.
I shared my faith with my children who shared it with their friends.
I shared it with Carol who shared it with Mark who told his father.
I shared it with Martha who shared it with her family, though they are still pre-Christians. She also has shared it with many others.
What a chain reaction.
Who have you shared with?

Timing

Why does my timing always seem to be off?
We have an ongoing routine of moving the patio cushions in and out depending on the weather. I try to keep ahead of the changing weather or we have to run out in our underwear in the middle of the night to drag them in when it is raining. Not the best way to get a good night's sleep. ( Lynn, no jokes about our underwear!)
We have had sun for several days and so today I moved the cushions back out. No sooner had I done that than the sun went behind some fast appearing clouds and now it appears that rain is on the way. I will have to drag them back in- all six of them. And don't ask Buddy to help- HA!
Timing. So critical in so many things.
How long to cook brownies. Surely the length of time for Pork to cook. How long its take you to stop in snow( now there is a story in itself from Idaho).
Did you know that Solomon speaks about time too?
He says that 'God makes very thing beautiful in HIS time. '
Lord, please show every day
As you're teaching me to say
That you do just what you say
In your time.

Money

It's a good time of year to evaluate my budget- that thing we all hate. Why do we hate it? It is just a spending plan. It is such fun getting in debt but hard work getting out of debt. A budget is the way to spell relief in this area.
Did you know that only 1% of the US saves money! Why is that do you think? Because you see things you want. You really can't afford it but you sure deserve it. So saying 'NO' is not an option. Just flip out that plastic and get it NOW. It is funny but not funny how those receipts take up so little room in the file but the lines on the statement add up so quickly. And if you only pay the minimum payment, you never pay it off. You probably will lose it, get a stain on it or get tired of it before it's paid for.
Years ago Jon and I made a pact that if we put it on the plastic we had to pay it off when the bill comes. But that still means that we are not saving but paying that money for things we probably could have done without.
Check out this statement:
The yearning is greater than the earning!!!
More of Jesus parables were about money than anything else!
Or how about this one:
If your income was the same as your spiritual life, would you be a pauper or millionaire?
So to add to my new goals, I vow to save some more each month, no matter what. How about you?

Caught

We have had visitors again, the 'star' kind. I found the evidence in the laundry room on Friday evening. ( DO NOT MENTION THIS TO JON!!!). So I set out a sticky pad last night. No victim this morning so I moved it outside the garage door. When we returned from errands at noon, it was gone .
" Did you move the sticky pad, Jon?"
" No way"
"Well, where is it? Oh no, it is under your big red took box and it's moving. Get inside and lock the door. I will take care of it".
And so I did, but unlike the others I have had to deal with, who are usually dead or dying when I find them, this one was very determined to get away. He kept hopping with his one free foot. I had to put a paint can on the pad and sort of hit him to get it over with.
Yes, I feel bad and will probably have nightmares tonight. But it had to be done.
So how did he get in that mess?
The Apostle James describes the process very clearly:
Each one is tempted when he is carried or dragged away and enticed by his own evil desires.( the temptation for the 'star' was crushed Ritz crackers). These evil desires lead to evil actions and they lead to death.
Boy, does that sum up the "star's" problem!
But it describes my problem too. The key would be to catch myself at step one ( or the first frame) and deal with the temptation. This week it has been self pity with higher pain levels. So, lest I get caught, I vow to stop the self pity at the door of my mind and say, " No one home". But if you find me stuck, don't hit me. Please carefully unstick me kindly with pray and the Word.

Perfect

This week I had a chance to get together with a dear friend, well actually two dear friends, but I want to tell you about one of them, Cristy. I met her about 13 years ago at church. She and her family were new to the church and Jon said, 'we need to introduce ourselves to them after the service and invite them to our home group. '
The family consists of Cristy, Robert and their two boys. They were dressed prim and proper, their children well behaved and they seemed to be the 'perfect' godly family. In the weeks ahead I got to know Cristy and found her to be a woman of the word, if you know what I mean. She knew the Bible well and loved to read and apply it to her life. I was and still am blessed to be her friend.
But within a few weeks I received a call from the Behavioral Center. Her husband had been admitted and she needed our support, which we gladly gave. It was a long process and I know that she was glad to have friends to pray with her and be there for the whole family. As an aside, her husband is doing great today and we are all thankful to the Lord.
The reason I bring this up is that Cristy and I often laugh about Jon's and my first impression that they were the perfect family! On the visit this week, we talked about it again. But on my way home, I thought about how rehashing that was not very uplifting and in fact, probably hurtful.
Just as quickly, God brought a verse to my mind:
Jesus has, by the offering of his life, made perfect forever those he is making holy.
That says that Cristy and Robert are already perfect. As are all who have called on the name of the Lord to be saved. Including me, the one who fails and falls and struggles.
I am off to call her and relay this to her and apologize for my insensitivity.

What is in a name

I had an occasion to think about names recently.
I know a young man who was born after his father had left his Mom. He was given his Dad's name at birth. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
Some time later that his mom remarried a nice man and this boy took on the new husband's name, though he was not adopted. Today he still goes by that name.
Time passed and the biological Dad did not show much interest in the young boy, perhaps not feeling adequate in caring for him. I wonder how he felt that his son used the name of his step dad?
Fast forward to 2007. The young man struggles with the death of his biological dad and other life issues.
Here is where I come in. God moved me to pray for this boy turned man yesterday. As I did I sensed that God wanted the man to choose God's name as the last and best Father. God had prepared the adoption papers for him but being an adult, the man has to choose for himself. So I will pray he sees the love waiting and say "Yes"

My Brother

Today my brother would have been 68. I long to call and wish him Happy Birthday and tell him that I love him one last time.
This time of year I loved getting a cute card with a brother and sister doing things together . I did by one to put in the scrapbook that I am doing. In that book is my favorite picture of he and I when I am only a year old.
I have a special memory from our childhood together of him reading to me from the newspaper- Uncle Wiggly. But in his creative way, he's reading the story backwards!
I also have a snapshot in my mind of him eating his breakfast in the garage since I refused to put milk on my cereal and made too much noise for his liking.
All these firsts are painful. I missed a birthday card from him in December with his characteristic printing of his name. ( so like me in that respect) I missed getting the Christmas card of his favorite picture of he and Diane for that year. I have missed him being there on our walks and visits with Diane this fall. Now the first birthday missed.
The Word talks about brothers too.
Isaac and Ishmael
Cain and Abel
Jacob and Esau
Joseph and his brothers and sister Dinah
David and Jonathan- brothers of the heart.
Peter and Andrew
James and John
Question:
Am I still a sister since my brother is gone?
Jesus calls himself our elder brother- the friend that sticks closer than a brother, the Eternal God, El Olam who never dies.
So in my lose today, I still have Jesus, forever.
And that is enough.

1-1-2007

A year ago 2006 was a distance tomorrow, unknown and full of promise and surprises. As I look back there are event that I could not have dreamed of then.
Birthday camp for the Long women, including a near death 'accident'. We won't wait that long again to steal time away from our families just for us.
My Brother's death - sudden and huge in it's impact.
opportunities to get to know my brother's wife and children.
Time to learn about grief and it's unpredictable nature, including how it can erupt at unexpected moments.
The birth of our first great grandson, and great he is. Coming the day after the funeral for my brother, it gave me joy in the midst of sorrow.
The 'scattering' where God showed up to hold me in a tangible way at such a heartbreaking moment.
Medical challenges that ended well, for both Jon and I.
New friends made and new insights gained from Bible Study.
Chances to spread my joy for God's glory.
Now I look to 2007 and wonder what it will bring??? Based on 2006, it could generate anxiety big time. But to quote songwriter Ira Stanphill:
'Many things about tomorrow
I don't' seem to understand.
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand.'