Happy Saturday!

What a wonderful day! My beautiful almost-graduated-from-college daughter treated me to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory today. We sat outside and had great conversation. Geni has grown into such a lovely young woman both inside and out and her Daddy and I are so very proud of her.

Tomorrow, our great niece and Ken’s granddaughter, Holly, is being baptized. Also, Geni is being honored with the other High School and College graduates at our church tomorrow. We will miss the first family baptism ever due to that scheduling conflict. So we are meeting the remainder of the family in Allen for lunch after worship. This year we add two more mothers to the family roster. We add Ken’s daughter Asenath and our goddaughter’s mother Addie. A growing family is such a blessing and a sure sign of God’s grace and love.

Prayer: “Lord, I come to give You praise this morning. Thank you for watching over me throughout the night. I praise You for a new day and new opportunities to serve You. Strengthen me for the tasks at hand. Help me to walk in Your Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of my flesh. I thank You that I can call out to You at any time and You will hear my prayer. I praise You for sending Your Son so I might receive eternal life. Amen.

Psalm 66: 1-4 “Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! Sing out the honor of His name; make His praise glorious. Say to God, “how awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall submit themselves to You. All the earth shall worship You and sing praises to You; they shall sing praises to Your name.”

As I sat across from my daughter this afternoon I marveled at how we were having a conversation about teaching. I am ending my teaching career and by the grace of God she will begin hers. I remembered the early morning of her birth and how they took her from me quickly as they thought they heard a heart murmur (they never heard another one) and then how she developed serious jaundice within the next few hours and was placed into an isolet completed surrounded by lights. I was not allowed to take her out and hold her. She then developed apnea and bradycardia and came home on a monitor. I had to leave the hospital without her. I remember going home where I began to do the laundry because I had no baby for which to care. I called at every nursing shift and went to the hospital in Fort Worth about three times a day to see her. I remember going home and sitting in the hall floor and crying or sitting in the rocker in her room and wishing so hard that she was there. After a week the jaundice finally began to lessen they let her come home. I think I held her in my arms for four solid hours before even leaving the chair. Her life is a miracle.

And today I looked across the table at this precious woman child who treated me to lunch. It caused me to rejoice and give thanks to God for her fighting spirit, her kind heart and the joy we are experiencing as mother and daughter and friends. I was also reminded of the gift of faith with which she has been blessed and how it has brought her through some really difficult times.

The miracle of faith is one that has been given to each of us. It began back with the miracle of the water as God brought the nation of Israel across the Red Sea on dry land and then again as the parted waters of the Jordan River allowed that same nation to cross over into the land of Canaan. God loved this stubborn, willful nation of Israel enough to protect it by His presence so they could get where He intended them to go. The nation of Israel worshiped and celebrated their freedom upon reaching the shore.

We celebrate the miracles of the Cross and the Resurrection of our Lord and the gift of eternal life. And someday when we all reach heaven and are living eternally with the Risen Christ, we, too, shall sing and make His praise glorious because we, too, will have reached the other shore.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Remember when you pray this evening to be ever mindful of God’s faithfulness to be with us in all we do and experience. His Holy Spirit remains with us in all ways and at all times. See you in worship. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.