sickness & sorrow

The weeks and days since Thanksgiving last

have been filled with maladies and sadness, pain and suffering.

One gets sick and then another.

There have been hospitals and nursing homes

and great loss....

rainy, gray, days and some long, sleepless nights.

God never promised that all of our days would be sunny and bright.

One day there will be no more pain and death,

but not yet.

We live in a fallen world.

All of these things are reality for us because of sin.

It's not what God planned for us,

but it IS what His short term plan is....

we just have to wait for the last soul to be saved,

for His plans for this earth to be accomplished,

and then

there will be no more suffering and pain and death.

Precious thought.....

These are the moments when God's grace & mercy 

are demonstrated to believers in the most profound ways.  

These are the times when you know you are being carried along....

that you are under the shadow of His wings....

 in His safe place.....

under His watchful eye....

walking in His grace alone.....

 because you have no strength of your own.

God speaking to those of us who love Him......

"Because he has loved Me,

therefore I will deliver him;

I will set him securely on high,

because he has known My name.

He will call upon Me and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble;

I will rescue him and honor him."

Psalm 91: 14&15

above...Eli and Jake watching their great grandfather's burial....

very quiet and reverent.

"a time to be born and a time to die."

taught at an early age....

so that they will know the "truth."