Today I was thinking about how to encourage people and had a flashback to when I was a little girl. I would tiptoe into the front hall to watch Granny in the early mornings after spending the night with my grandparents. She would be sitting at her secretary desk writing letters to far away family. This was her familiar way of reaching out to show love even after most of them had telephones.
That was the same desk that drew me in like a moth to light. There were books there that I loved. She would hold me in her lap and read bible stories to me as a young child. When I was older I was awarded the honor of borrowing books to read. The images in my head of the Appalachian mountains and people from reading Catherine Marshall’s Christy have stayed with me. One of my favorite places to visit is The Great Smoky Mountains. Two pieces of art in my home are done by artists from the area.
I have spent time searching for a desk like she sat at on those early mornings so I could write there and store treasured books. Words are powerful. Perhaps I blog and my children write because of her influence. It seems to be a gift that has been passed on. As communication methods have evolved we have so many options to tell stories, offer encouragement and offer hope. We should choose our words wisely and wrap them in love.
On some of my most challenging days I have walked to the mailbox or opened an email to find love expressed from someone who listened to God’s guidance and wrapped their arms around me from a distance to say, “everything is going to be ok”. The phone calls end but the written word can be revisited when I need to be reminded that I am loved.
If you need to read some words wrapped in love today, I have a few to share.
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Deuteronomy 7:9
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. Isaiah 49:16
For you, Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,
Psalms 116:8
These are God’s words wrapped in love for you. I can speak these words but only God has the ability to keep a covenant of love for generations. He alone knows the plans to prosper you. He alone can hold you in His hands. Trust him to give you health. Allow him to wipe the tears of fear and anxiety and sorrow. While the very ground under our feet feels like it is shifting with all of the changes in our daily lives, we can trust God to keep us from stumbling.
If you think my relying on God is blind faith and I am leaning on a crutch, you are exactly right. I have made a choice to trust God and take Him at His word. The crutch I lean on is shaped like a cross. I have cried tears curled in a chair at my mom’s bedside when she no longer knew me as her daughter. I watched my dad close his eyes for the last time as his body shut down. I have felt my stomach tighten when looking at the bank account and wondering how we are going to make it. I have watched children leave the nest as I prayed for their safety and protection. I have walked away from two car accidents with only bruises that totaled the cars because God had more for me to do on earth. I have watched my in-laws battle cancer. I had a brush with cancer myself. Through it all I knew God was with me. He loves me enough to send Jesus to die for my sins as the song for today speaks of. I believe in Jesus. I trust in God and I will not wait until I am in heaven to bow at his feet. I choose to do it now while still walking in a world full of sorrow and pain.
I hope you choose the same path, but God gives you a choice. What will yours be? If you choose God, get your hands on a bible. It is the truth wrapped in words of love!
Be blessed and know you have hope when you have God.
Word for Today
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
John 3:16-21
Song for Today
Prayer for Today
Our Heavenly Father,
Today we pause to reflect on your many words wrapped in love. Help us to understand that regardless of what the media speaks, we must listen to your words. Give us ears to hear you speak into our lives. Your words of comfort, peace, healing and strength are what we need so desperately in our world today.
Give us courage to share your words with boldness. Give us more faith when fear creeps in. Give us assurance that you will meet our needs according to your riches, not ours.
We do bow and surrender our lives to you. In you we trust.
Amen
Walking Them Home 