The Real Reason

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Margaret

My last 24 hours have been spent in the company of 6 women with whom I’ve been friends for more than half my life. Though the 7 of us are quite different (ages, interests, abilities, passions), God brought us together for a multitude of reasons:

As a support system through trouble
To challenge one another spiritually
For good, old-fashioned fun
To learn from each others’ wisdom

This morning in our radio-church time together, the Scripture centered on a verse in 2 Corinthians that speaks to the frustrations of physical decline, something we 60-plus “girls” are well aware of (v. 4:16). But that downward spiral was countered with an uplifting truth: inwardly we can be renewed day-by-day through our relationship with the Lord. In other words, we don’t need external improvement to experience internal enrichment.

Today God gave me a burst of internal enrichment through one of these friends.* “Beth” and her husband “Ron” are part of a program called Safe Families, giving temporary safe shelter to a child whose family is in crisis. The hope is that with a little short-term help, the parents can become a safe family themselves.

Beth and Ron never know when they’ll get a call to pick up a child in need. They don’t know if it’ll be a boy, a girl, a baby, a pre- schooler, or an older child. They can’t predict if he/she will be difficult or compliant, but they aren’t particular about those details. They love them all.

Safe families welcome children for as little as 2 days or as long as a year. As our group listened to Beth’s stories, someone said, “How difficult it must be to be separated from your parents, then separated again from your safe family.”

“I know,” Beth said. “But even if we have a child for just a short time, once we’ve met them, they go on our permanent prayer list.”

Bonk.

(That’s the sound of God hitting me over the head with something new.)

It’s possible that the steady, scriptural, far-reaching prayer poured into the lives of these particular children is the real reason God moves them in and out of Beth and Ron’s home, more important than the 2 weeks or 2 months of care they give them.

For example, little “Sammy” who’s with them now for just a short time, will be prayed over for 2 decades or more, as long as Beth and Ron live. They fully believe God can do what people cannot, and on that basis, when they say goodbye to their young charges, they have high hopes for their futures.

That exchange — 2 weeks in their home for 20 years of prayer — is one that will benefit the children in astounding ways, through their rest of their lives.

“The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going [for example, in and out of Beth and Ron’s home], both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 121:7-8)

* [This dear friend has asked that I not use her real name.]

Love Notes

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Margaret

Those of us who are widows are familiar with this statement: “We’re in a club none of us wanted to join.”

But God has made it clear he’s the #1 fan of our club and is tightly tuned-in to the needs of its members. Amazingly, this attentiveness includes even unspoken needs no one else knows about. He knows, and is steadily working to meet them. Once in a while he’ll even put a note in one of our mailboxes, personally written by him.

Yesterday my mail included a sunshine yellow envelope from someone I’ve never met, a compassionate person who is encouraging widows in concrete ways, and she isn’t even in our club. When her personal note mentioned she’d been married 43 years, I knew we must be about the same age.

Cathy introduced herself as having heard my story on the radio a couple of weeks ago, and the fact that she continued listening after learning the programs were focused on widowhood is a testament to her big heart. She wrote, “Thank you for giving me insight as to how to treat widows.”

But the best part about Cathy’s note was the gift inside: a dozen colorfully decorated cards, each with an encouraging Scripture passage, and all of them laminated. As the cards spilled out of her envelope, I was overcome with her kindness, a woman I didn’t even know who wasn’t in “the club,” reaching out to one of its members.

But the best part was that she said, “These are love notes from the Lord,” refusing credit for herself and giving it to him instead. He’d written a love note to me, and Cathy was, in a way, the mailman. Some of the heart-stirring things he said were:

“The Lord’s people may suffer a lot, but He will always bring them safely through.” (Psalm 34:19)
“You are complete in Christ.” (Colossians 2:10)
“God takes care of orphans and protects widows. He finds families for those who are lonely.” (Psalm 68:5-6)
“How precious it is Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly.” (Psalm 139:17-18)
“You’ll get through this.” (Isaiah 43:2)

Cathy used different Bible translations for the verses and a wide variety of papers, texts, fonts, and card sizes to frame God’s words attractively. The process probably took a great deal of time, and yet this gift came from the hands of a busy woman with 9 children (she said) and probably many more grandchildren (she didn’t say). I stand amazed.

The only right thing to do is to emulate Cathy, passing along her inspiring love notes to other widows after benefiting from them myself. After all, our club has thousands of members, and every one of us needs a love note written by the Lord himself.

“The Lord your God is with you; He is a hero who saves you; He happily rejoices over you, renews you with His love, and celebrates over you with shouts of joy.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

Forever?

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Margaret

My local post office is small and utterly charming, cute enough to be on a post card. Actually, I think it has been, having stood in the center of our tiny town for quite a few decades. The ladies who run it are charming too, always welcoming and always amiable.

Six years ago the United States Post Office issued the first “Forever Stamps.” They had a picture of the Liberty Bell on them and cost 41c apiece, which was the going rate for a first class letter then. The idea behind a Forever Stamp was that it wouldn’t matter when you’d use it; it would always be “good to go.”

I still have a few of those original Liberty Bell stamps in the zipper pocket of my wallet, the ones I paid 41c for. If I stuck one on a letter today, it would be worth 46c, the amount required for first class mail. That was the whole idea. Invest in Forever Stamps and watch their value escalate. Although it’s only pennies, we Americans like that kind of thing.

Of course these stamps aren’t literally good forever.

If something has the ability to last forever, that means it’ll have no end but will go on eternally, and there are precious few things on that list:

God the Father, Son, and Spirit
Human souls
Spirit beings, as created by God
Emotions (love, joy, peace, etc.)
God’s Word
The New Heaven and New Earth

Stamps aren’t on the list, and it’s good for us to recognize how many of life’s other “essentials” aren’t there either. Of course we have a practical need for stamps and lots of other things, but the trick is in prioritizing them all. Which items occupy the top few slots?

For those of us who care about eternity, the top slots ought to closely resemble the list above, and not just in a “don’t-I-wish!” category. Our priorities should be looking back at us from our day-timers, our check books, and our conversations. If not, we ought to ask, “Why not?”

The majority of our world would say, “Why bother with all that spiritual stuff?” But that negates the unnumbered benefits of living a life submitted to God. And though I’m far from doing a good job of that, it’s worth a great deal to keep trying for even one glimpse of the Lord’s work in my life or in someone close to me.

By the way, recently our post-mistress told me that all the stamps sold at post offices these days are Forever Stamps. I love that and sometimes buy hundreds at a time, hoping they’ll last past the next rate rise.