Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow...                                Is. 1:18

...Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Ps. 51:7

As I ponder the above verses, snow is lazily falling, blanketing the earth and I wonder how anything can be whiter than this freshly fallen snow?  Yet, Isaiah and the Psalmist attest to the fact that when God cleanses us, washes away our sins, our hearts will be even whiter than this fresh snow– no trace of ugliness.  Isaiah says our sins are the color of scarlet, not black.  I wondered about that.  Matthew Henry, in his commentary, says that scarlet is a deep dye and the cloth needs to soaked a long time.  So, Isaiah must be assuring us that even if we are steeped in sin, if we go to God and repent, God can and will cleanse us so much so that not even a trace of the scarlet dye remains.  What a promise and a relief that I don’t have to be stuck with my sins.

Don’t know about you, but I think that is something to get excited about!  Anyone need some cleansing?  Don’t be afraid to go to Him and have Him wash you clean; He’s waiting.

Whiter than fresh snow

are sins forgiven and cleansed

remembered no more

                         -Margaret Slabach

The day yawns and sighs...

goes back to sleep, not wanting

to face the snowstorm

A whistle echoes

faintly in the morning fog

clanging wheels chugging

slowly up the valley floor

to destinations unknown

2013

a new year with limitless

possibility

 

Songs in the Storm

Thunder peals, in terrifying echoes, bang across the heavens, chasing each other.  Wind lashes the trees as hail and rain beat against my windows.  I confess I am not a huge fan of storms.  I understand why they happen and that they are necessary to vacuum clean the atmosphere.  I know that BUT I also know how powerful they are and what destruction can result.  It’s the not knowing that strikes fear in my heart.  And I am alone!  I pray for protection and for the God of the storm to quiet my fearful heart.  Then I wait.

I am finally able to lay in bed as the storm moves eastward.  And then I hear it.  I hear the music- music created by the storm.  The wind chimes outside my bedroom window were playing a deep Key-of-D melody for me; and it was only because of the storm.  I listened and was quieted.

In life, storms hit, expected and unexpected.  I need to let the God of the storms quiet me and I need to choose to listen for the music.  If I don’t, my focus will be on what is happening around me.  It’s certainly not easy to hear the music; it takes a refocusing on the God of the storm.

I have a feeling there is a song in every storm but I have to CHOOSE to quiet my fearful heart and listen for it.

5:45 am. Its already 80 degrees.  I’ve just come in from setting the soaker hoses.  The boney, dry ground soaks up the meager watering almost before it is out of the hose.

I am reminded of Ps. 63:1 which I read earlier this morning.

O God, you are my God;
    I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
    my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
    where there is no water.

I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain Ps. 143:6

David expresses how much he longed for God- like a dry and weary land, a parched land, without water. Did he feel dry and weary spiritually?  Or was he just hungry for more of God than he was experiencing at the time?

It got me to thinking; am I hungrily seeking God as much as my bone-dry garden seeks moisture?  That is a whole lot of thirst! Am I satisfied with just getting by? Or do I really want more?  What does my hunger really look like?  What keeps me from seeking God that earnestly?  Is it busyness, offenses, pleasure, “stuff”, relationships?  Or is it a laziness, selfishness, or callousness?

This much I do know, if I don’t seek God I will become like that dry and weary land.  So, just as I water my dependent plants daily, I need to go to God for daily living water so that I become a well-watered garden (Is 58:11).  I don’t want to be just any garden; I want to be a lush, thriving one.

Sometimes life happens so fast, its hard to keep up. So I apologize to you if you have been wondering if the “to be continued” would ever be continue.  Today our   precious little girl with the big brown eyes, Semira Joy, has her first birthday.  And she weighs over 16 lbs.  God is so good.

It wasn’t too long after we sent the first batch of special formula that we were    informed that the supply was depleted.  Even though it had been designated for her and we had sent plenty, we are sure the other babies benefitted from it as well,    especially when we found out that formula was in short supply.

So we were back to finding a way to send more formula.  This time God provided a mother in California to carry it when she went to bring her adopted child home. By this time we had been informed that she had gained some weight..  We waited through February,  March and part of April, praying daily that God would move the case quickly since we knew that she was not thriving.  In the midst of this, her mama had to have emergency surgery.  We are sure God delayed the process in   order to give her enough time to heal, but it still didn’t keep us from praying “hurry". Then God moved!!  Normally, once a case is submitted to embassy, it takes weeks or even months.  Ours took 6 days.  So travel plans were made and tickets purchased.  A few days before my two daughter-in-laws were to leave, the one going along came down with a bad case of the flu.  So unexpectedly, I found myself once again going to Ethiopia, but this time to help bring our little one home.

When I arrived and saw her, I was amazed at how much she had changed in the 3 months since I had last seen her.  We spent a few days getting acclimated.  After a long trip home (and she did really well), Semira  landed at Columbus International Airport, an American citizen.  Tears of joy!! and thankfulness that God had brought her home!!  Our miracle.

So, our precious miracle from the Lord has a story that is still being written and we are excited to see the plans and purposes God has for her life.