Today!

Grace.  A matter of getting something good we do not deserve.  Mercy.  A matter of not getting something painful that we do deserve.  Judy spoke of grace just a few days ago.  God's grace grants us the right to be with Him through the death and resurrection of His son.  By that same grace, He gives us the desire to intervene where we can to help and bless others as He has helped and blessed us so many times in so many ways.  By His mercy, He expects that we will treat others mercifully; that we can forgive them if they have hurt us, and likewise, that they will forgive us when we hurt them.

Today I am deeply thankful for both.  Just a few short days ago I wondered what to do when God is silent.  David was my example in Psalm 22.  In the beginning he was lost, alone, forsaken, hopeless.  By the end of the Psalm, he was praising God and proclaiming God's name to future generations!  God changed David in the short space of a Psalm.

Today my heart is bursting with thankfulness for God's grace, mercy, love and our changed circumstances.  A few days ago my family and I were in a scary place; frightened, anxious, worried, wondering.  Ours was a normal human response to difficult news.  But God, by His Spirit came along side in a supernatural way just as He did with David and changed our point of view to wait, to pray, to praise, to trust and to rest in His peace that passes understanding. 

Today our precious little Annie Lou has a whole heart!  A whole heart!  And it is with our whole hearts that we are thankful beyond words!  God granted the surgeons the skills they needed.  He granted the nurses and all those who worked to repair this child's heart all the wisdom, the experience, time, desire and effort to fix her up!  And now we are trusting Him to heal her quickly, and bring her back to health. 

Today, after this experience, we look to her little brother's future with great hope; supernatural hope, based on experience and faith.  Her 2 year old brother, as those who read a previous entry know, has a life-threatening illness.

This is God's amazing gift; whether all my family recognizes it is of God or not, in their own ways, as a result of this experience, they are seeing things happen that are out of their hands.  Some of us only need to see the night sky to realize that we did not put those stars in it.  And some need more.  When God takes things out of our hands, out of our control most of us pray.  We turn to Him.  And when those prayers are answered we give thanks.  And sometimes, suddenly, quite unexpectedly, we may realize for the first time in our lives, God exists.  That is a fine beginning!

And something else...just this moment I received the joyful news of the birth of my second grandchild; a brand new, beautiful baby girl.  How I praise God for His grace and mercy and love...TODAY!