I am a Christian, a retired teacher, a mother and a grandmother. I love to read and I love the Lord Jesus Christ! Unless otherwise specified ,all visual illustrations are from the YOU VERSION APP of the Bible.
Lord God, I thank you for who you are and for all you have done for me all the days of my life. I bless your name for your goodness and mercy that you have showered on me abundantly. I thank you for your gifts of children, grandchildren friends and other family. These relationships have taught me so much, Lord, about your character and how you want people to be. Thank you, Lord, for being there for me when I was lonely or afraid. Thank you, Father, for being a father to me when mine was not there. I am overwhelmed by your goodness, Lord and your unimaginable and deep love for all of your creation, including me. May I ever be aware of your presence and your desire to bring everyone to you. In Jesus’s Name.
This was my devotional this morning, after a heart-wrenching day yesterday. The devotional is from the YouVersion Bible App and is entitled “Knowing God Has a Plan: 5-Day Devotional by Anne Wilson.”
When Grief Comes, Is God Still Good?
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5
Some say grief is horror at loss…at not being able to touch them, laugh with them, or make new memories with them. Others may say it is soul-crushing…excruciating…and it makes eternity feel instantaneously close… yet so far away. For me, it is all of this on top of the what-ifs and what-could-have-beens rolled into one.
In the “Seventh of June” song, I wanted to be transparent about the process of grief…how it comes in waves and on anniversaries…how it spills out in tears. We are all in the trenches at times – “praying and trying to make sense of what don’t make sense in this life.” We are all put on notice, waiting for the impossible moment that we never want to face. But we all face loss. We are not getting off of this earth without it.
Grieving people ask themselves: Did they know how much I loved them? What should I have done differently? It can be heavy and full of despair, yet empty of adding up to make sense. How could this have happened? Why did this happen? And the ones no one likes to talk about: Is God still good? And where is God in the midst of our grief?
Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the broken-hearted for they shall be comforted…but ask a new mother holding her stillborn baby if she feels blessed. Ask anyone at the edge of a hospice bed if they feel blessed.
I have learned that the blessing is having Jesus to weep with you. To hold you. To give you supernatural peace that only He can give. At my lowest times and my darkest days, the Prince of Peace is there to encourage me and to catch my tears. I want to remind you that He is good and promises us that weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Here are some questions to ponder as you process your grief with the Lord:
Is God responsible for our loss?
There must be a reason we have a period on earth to experience truth, beauty, and goodness but also deception, ugliness, and evil. What could God’s purposes be?
Now, back to me and my losses. Two good friends and former colleagues passed away this week, but I just heard of their deaths yesterday on my way home from my urologist. I was rejoicing that my bladder scan was good and the solution proposed was an easy one of long-term, low dose antibiotics. Then, I got the text that shattered my world and sent my heart into a tailspin. Ann Garner, the attendance secretary at the high school where I worked for so many years here in Virginia, passed away on Sunday morning. Ann was a dear friend as well as a co-worker. She and I used to go out to lunch together several times a month. After my stroke, she was gracious to include my husband Harry in our outings, since I couldn’t drive myself. We shared laughter, tears and a lot of happy times together. I spoke to her just before I went on the grad tour. She called me to tell me that a former student wanted my phone number and she wouldn’t give it to her without my permission. When I called her back, she sounded really weak, not like herself at all. So I asked her what was going on in her life these days. We hadn’t seen each other for over a year since I had health issues, she had health issues and we just couldn’t make our schedules work. But we stayed in contact, so I was devastated to hear her news that her cancer was not only back but she was on home hospice care. I asked if there was anything I could do and she just asked me to pray. So, my husband and I did. I knew then that the end was close, but I refused to accept that truth and kept praying for healing. After all, she had survived for twelve years with cancer. But the end came in spite of my prayers because God called Ann home to be with him. A widow since 2006, she is reunited with her beloved Clarence now, so I know that her cup is filled with joy. I, on the other hand, feel distraught and a deep grief, a sense of longing for our times together that won’t happen again.
The second blow came as I was online trying to find the information about Ann’s services. I finally found it on Facebook, of all places, and in scrolling, I discovered that a second colleague, Coach Joe Harper had passed away yesterday. Joe was a wonderful man and a good friend who encouraged everyone to enjoy life while we had it. After my stroke, he used to come by my room almost daily just to check in with me and ask how I was doing. I should note here that he taught all the way on the other end of a very large building, but he made the trek to the language hallway because he cared about others, including me. He used to greet us in the office at the mailboxes each morning with the same big smile and the words, “Another day in Paradise!” I truly believe that this kind and loving man who was unselfish to his core is also in the presence of the Father.
After these two deaths had time to settle in my conscious, I cried quietly, then I sobbed. Then, I went to bed early, long before my regular time. In fact, I was asleep before 6:30 last night, praying for peace and comfort for all of the friends and family and that God would give me peace and allow me to rest. He did, and I did. I awakened a couple of times as usual, made my bathroom stop and fell back to sleep. Today, I am feeling a little numb and like I have entered a world that is not well known to me. The death of two friends within days of each other invokes grief but also a wake-up call to my own mortality. None of is promised tomorrow, but if we know the Lord, we are promised eternity.
So, to answer the questions in the devotional: God is not responsible for the loss. Sin came into the world and death follows sin. God’s purpose is not always known, but He is always working out His plan, in others and in me. May the deaths of these loved ones point others to Christ. I know this must be part of His plan.
I am not really feeling joy this morning, but I am feeling a peace and a comfort that can only come from God. Whoever you are missing today, I hope that as you read these words, you will know that God is close beside you and longs to comfort you with His loving presence.
There was a lot of buzz this week about the appearance of the strawberry moon for the first time since 2006, an anomaly that we won’t see again until 2043. Naturally curious, I looked up information about it and when to best view it. During the best time to see it, we had dense cloud cover, so I couldn’t see the moon at all. But I did capture a shot of it as we returned from Bible study Monday night.
It was supposed to be most visible on Tuesday night at dusk, but our cloud cover interfered. So here is a photo from http://www.flicker.com that shows the strawberry moon over water.
Here is a second photo that my husband took from our front yard on Monday.
Why all these photos of the moon? Am I directing your attention to the created things? Absolutely not! I want everyone to understand that the Creator of the Universe makes all things beautiful for us to enjoy. He put the moon there and even created special views like a strawberry moon.
When we are gazing at the sky, at least we are looking up. While our eyes are focused upwards, let’s remember to give praise to the Creator for all the wonder He has made all around us.
To God be the glory, always and in all ways for all things!
I am fairly certain that at some point in your life, you have seen a turtle meandering across the road. Perhaps you even put on your flashers and got out to help it. What I am amazed at is the advice that if you move a turtle, you should move it in the direction it was headed. Turtles have a compass. One really good site I found information about this is:
If you are familiar with turtles and practiced in the art of helping them across roads, you are probably aware that turtle conservation groups and experts urge rescuers to move turtles across the road in the direction they are facing when found. Why is this? When you find a turtle crossing a road coming from a lush wetland, heading towards a dry rocky outcrop, doesn’t it make the most sense to turn it around and place it back in the wetland? Even though your natural instincts might tell you to turn a travelling turtle around and put them in a more “turtle-friendly” habitat, this will actually result in the turtle having to cross the road again when they inevitably turn around to head back the way they were going. To understand why turtles will turn back around if you take them off course, you need to know how turtles navigate.
Turtles are excellent navigators within the areas they are familiar with, ie. their “home ranges.” These home ranges include their yearly nesting site (if female), their overwintering grounds, and the wetlands they frequent during their active season. In the early years of their lives turtles will create ‘mental maps’ of their home areas, and it appears that as turtles age they lose this ability to create new mental maps (Caldwell and Nams 2006). Adult turtles tend to rely on their internal compass to navigate through their home range that they know well and have previously “mapped.”
So what do turtles’ mental maps and internal compasses have to do with always making sure to help them across roads in the direction they are facing? Well, everything! Because turtles are such good navigators, when you find them crossing a road, they are heading some where specific – don’t think for a second they are just wandering or confused!! They know where they are going – even if they are heading somewhere that seems to you like poor turtle habitat.
Now, let’s apply the turtles’ mental compasses to our lives as Christians. We can certainly learn from them how to keep our lives on course and keep traveling in the right direction, even when a well-meaning person (or even a temptation) gets us off course by moving us away from our destination. Our journey is one that does not take a few hours and one in which we can put the address into our GPS and just follow it. No, our journey is a spiritual one and to arrive at our ultimate destination, i.e. heaven with our Father, we have to stay focused. Our compass is God’s Word and the more we have it inside of us, the more likely we are to stay on course and not deviate from God’s plans for our lives. Like the turtle, others may try to “help” us and give us advice that is not Biblically based, so it is not sound advice that we should be taking. They are trying to move us in a direction in which we should not be going. So, what are we to do? Stay in God’s Word! When in doubt, pray and consult God’s Word. God is leading us in the right direction if we just follow. He has gifted turtles with the ability to know their home range. He has gifted us with His word so that we can stay on track and keep moving towards our eternal home.
My thoughts on this prayer are yes! and amen! I am not a bold person, but with the Holy Spirit’s help, I can be. I love that I can fight fear with faith. That is what I leaned on while we were traveling so far these last few weeks. I leaned hard into the Lord and he calmed me. I even fell asleep in the car yesterday, and I never do that (you can ask my husband). I’m usually so anxious about traffic and weather and the car in general that I just can’t relax. But I actually snoozed. Thank you, Lord! I needed that!
I am praising God that we are home for a while now and we can both rest and recover. Our daughter is traveling home today, my brother and his wife are going to see my sister in NC and then home to CO, so I am still praying for them and their safety.
I am praising the Lord for a wonderful time with my family as many of us joined together in SC this week. I got to see my brother (we see each other every couple of years), his family from Colorado, including his new grand baby Juni, and our daughter from Pennsylvania and her granddaughters. We enjoyed meals together, swim time, game time and a lot of laughs. So, praise God!
Think about this verse. We imagine, and God does more, so much more!
I know many of you don’t need this prayer on a daily basis, but I confess that I do. I was raised in an environment where worry was a part of everyday life and it was almost like it was expected. As a result, I joined in at an early age, worrying about mundane childish things. As I got older, my worry increased. I wanted to make good grades and was anxious that I wouldn’t be able to, that I would disappoint my perfection-demanding mother. So, I strived, oh, how I strived! College was the same. Then, after college, I became a Christian, but I still did not let my worry habit go. If anything, it increased as I faced the challenges of raising children, working a full-time job and having my husband constantly deployed with the military. Nevertheless, I did pray, probably almost unendingly, to the point that I felt as though I was having a conversation with God all day and that He was the only One keeping me going. Nowadays, I still fret, I still worry, but I have learned a new habit. When a worrisome thought comes in, I counter it with a scripture verse or a prayer of thanksgiving for all God has done and is doing. Does that mean I “have arrived” and I don’t worry anymore? I wish I could say that is true. What it means is that I am leaning into God a lot because I am a worrier. I can blame it on genetics, family habits or whatever, but it is a habit that I don’t want to have but can’t seem to break. Thus, I pray, I memorize and cite scripture verses. I don’t think there is a “magic bullet” to cure me of this malady, but I do like this part of the prayer from today’s Daily Refresh Devotional on the You Version App, so I am making it mine.
“Please replace worry with peace, anxiety with hope and concern with confident trust.” May we all press into God as He will also draw closer to us. May He be as close as our next prayer and shape us into the confident, worry-free and hopeful children He created us to be. ~Amen.
Think Like a Child (Daily Refresh, YouVersion, 6-02-25)
Think about the greatest person you’ve ever met. What is it about the person that makes them stand out to you? Maybe it’s their accomplishments, their character, their power or wealth, or the way they handle hard situations.
Now compare that impressive person to a child in your life. According to Jesus, anyone who is truly great in His kingdom will be like that little child. In fact, to even enter into His kingdom, we need to be childlike. Here’s why:
– Children rely on others to meet their needs. Little children instinctively know that they are vulnerable and helpless. They aren’t afraid to ask for help when they need it because they know that help from the right person is their source of strength.
– Children don’t care about acquiring power. They don’t view others as threats to their authority because they don’t have any authority to threaten. Everything a child has is given to them.
– Children know who they belong to. Children know who to run to when they’re hurt, afraid, overwhelmed, happy, confused, or joyful. When they know they are loved, they approach their parent figures with authenticity and confidence. They know they can come just as they are, and receive what they need.
As we grow older, we tend to lose our childlike innocence … but we don’t have to. By surrendering our desires for power, fame, and authority, we position ourselves to receive Jesus’ power and authority. By recognizing that we need Jesus, we are able to let go of the pride that might keep us from His presence. And when we know that we belong to Jesus, we can approach God with childlike confidence.
We don’t have to bring anything impressive to God—we simply need to come to Him.
So today, what would it look like for you to approach God with the humility and confidence of a small child? Perhaps this means honestly telling Him what you need. Maybe it looks like asking Him a deeply vulnerable question. Or perhaps it starts with trusting that He loves you and isn’t mad at you. Whatever step you need to take, know that God is waiting for you to come to Him just as you are.
My Thoughts
I must confess that as I grow older, I have lost my childlike wonder. I remember seeing things differently, as if everything I saw, I was seeing for the very first time. That is how I felt in the presence of our youngest grandson when I cared for him for four months. The wonder in those little eyes as I pointed out new things to him. A squirrel on the back porch fascinated him. A wildflower was a source of delight. I want to be like him, finding wonder and delight in the small things that God has provided for my pleasure.
I also want to be like my other grandchildren, older but who have the complete assurance that their needs will be met and that they can totally rely on the adults who care for them them and love them. That is the kind of assurance and dependence I want in my relationship with God.
I have often read this scripture but didn’t really meditate on what it means to me. Today, I did and I want to be like that child who knows the Father is a good, good Father who wants what is best for me and who is always there for me.
Whenever one looks for a new job, they go through the interview process and are asked a lot of probing questions about their experience and suitability for the position. Having moved so many times and being a teacher, I went through interviews each time. And although I did not say it aloud, I was thinking to myself, “What are the benefits of this job for me?” I was thinking of perks, health insurance, vacation days, bonuses, etc.
When I became a Christian over five decades ago, I heard about Jesus, read about all He had done for me in the book of John and accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. There was no interview in which the Holy Spirit asked me what I was bringing to the table. Nor did I wonder what were the benefits of this new relationship. I just knew that God had sent His Son to die for me so that I could be reunited with Him, freed from sin and shame and a new child of the King.
In today’s devotional, the verse was from Isaiah 53, probably a verse familiar to those of you who regularly read and study the scriptures.
As I meditated on this verse, I saw the suffering Jesus, the One who did no wrong and yet paid the ultimate price for mankind. But I also saw the benefits I have as a Christian. My transgressions and iniquities are gone, no longer a part of what God sees as He looks at me. The peace that I need daily to face the challenges of life is mine as long as I press into my Savior and depend on Him. Finally, I am healed. Most people would ask, “How can you say that? You still have asthma, a compromised lung and one kidney that is failing?” All true. But the healing from the Lord is not just physical. I am healed emotionally from a childhood that was less than perfect, I am healed mentally from always feeling “less than” and, most importantly, I am healed spiritually. I have been made whole. All of my physical infirmities are part of being in an imperfect body in an imperfect world. God can and does heal physically, as I well know since I am a stroke survivor. But He doesn’t always heal the physical because His emphasis is on our spiritual well-being. Part of being close to God is having physical problems that persist, even when we are Christians. I think of Paul who had an unknown “thorn in the flesh” that we don’t even know what he suffered from. We just know that he had asked God repeatedly to “take it from him.” So, I count my life as a blessed one and I am healed in all the ways that matter. Yes, I have aches and pains, all part of the aging process. But I am thankful for life, even with all of the physical limitations that I have. God is always God and life with Him is filled with blessings and benefits!
God provides for each of us so that we can in turn provide for others. He gives us time, talents and money and wants us to be generous with them. Instead, we tend to be insular, hoarding things “just in case we need them.” That is not God’s way!
Suppose God saw that you have a need and decided to wait or to hold onto His bounty “just in case” someone else needed it more. God owns everything, so He can bless everyone. He teaches us the concept of giving in the person of His ultimate sacrifice, giving His Son that we might have eternal life. So, who are we to say that we will just hold onto what we have and wait to see if we need it. There are people today who need what we can give. We may not be able to give much, but we can give something.
The great thing about giving is that honestly, once you have given, you won’t miss it. I have found that God blesses me in the most unexpected ways and at the most surprising times, if only I will open my hands and give. But I have to give with the right spirit, one of cheerful optimism, knowing that God will use what I give in a way that will bless others more than I can imagine. Talents? Use them for God. Time? Dedicate it to God. And money, that thing we have a tendency to hold on to? Don’t let money be the thing that stands between you and God’s blessing. Let it go and see what He will do.
When the Holy Spirit urges you to give, just do it, with a smile on your face and a light heart. Don’t expect to be repaid but rather give thinking you may never get repaid. The blessing you think you deserve won’t come the way you expect it or when you are demanding it, but it will come in God’s time and in proportion to your faithfulness.
God meets your needs when you meet the needs of others. It is the cycle of giving that God started and He wants us to continue it. I am not saying what to give or to whom to give, but I am saying that giving should be part of your Christian walk.
Have a blessed day! And may you give as the Spirit tells you of your time, talent and money.
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 