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Messy Grace

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

Today I wanted to share this beautiful post by my blogging friend Patty. To introduce you here is her tag line – I’m Patty, and my husband and I are living with our adult son who has autism and epilepsy. I love sharing lessons learned from life around me, especially life with Aaron.

I have been really enjoyed learning from Patty and Aaron about trusting God while dealing with special needs. We have a special needs grandson named Christian who is still young and we have worried about how we and his own mom and dad will deal with that as he grows up. Patty has been such a great encouragement to me that I wanted to share with my readers her latest post. Be blessed and have a wonderful weekend everybody! Here is the link to her blog  “He said What?”

 

https://hesaidwhatks.blog/

Patty hesaidwhatks's avatarHe Said What?!

Last Friday when I went into Aaron’s room to wake him up and get him going for the day, I knew that something was off. Sure enough, Aaron’s bed was soaked. He had a seizure the day before, but I hadn’t heard one that previous night, so maybe he just drank too much water before bed. Thoughts of that continuing issue with the amount of water he drinks made me a little irritated.

So did the fact that because of so many other things going on…and now tons of laundry to do…I had to cancel lunch plans with a friend I hadn’t seen in forever. This was our second time to cancel. GRRRR!

But I’ve learned to look at the positives at times like that. I have a washer and dryer, and they work. I have the time and freedom to change my day around. And now Aaron’s bedding would…

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He Counts Every Hair

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:30 KJV

Some people have fond memories of their dads taking them hunting or fishing and while these are great personal stories, my special times with my dad instead revolved around him cutting my hair. To you that might seem strange, but when you come from a line of barbers and hairdressers, it is just normal family stuff. What stands out most in my memory is how Dad held little snippets of my hair between his fingers and one by one meticulously trimmed them and then finished off by shaving the edges with his straight razor.

This is my grandfather’s actual barber set circa 1915

At the time, this all seemed pretty ordinary to me, but as I reflect back I realize this was my dad’s way of showing he loved me. In today’s verse Jesus teaches us that God expresses His love, the way my father did, not by tears, or some sort of emotional display, but by painstakingly examining and counting our hairs. Numbering our hairs, is a lot different than saying, God knows everything so he knows how many are on our head. God has actually taken the time to count every hair on every head throughout the whole world. It is His way of saying that He knows about us because He has counted the details of our lives one by one and then He gave His life in every detail for us when the hairs of His head were crowned with thorns for every one of us.

The Niagara Falls of God’s Love

/ pastorpete51 / 6 Comments

I would like to thank Rev James Laurence who writes the blog, My Pastoral Ponderings for inspiring me to write today about the unstoppable power of the love of Christ. His post on the Awe of God got my mind turning back to our time at Niagara Falls. I remember standing transfixed as I witnessed the power of the falls and think they are a clue that God has left us to remind us of Him.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 2 Corinthians 5:14 NIV

The Niagara River at just 38 miles in length is barely a creek in comparison to the 2,340 mile long Mississippi. But there is something about the Niagara that draws people from all around the world, and that is Niagara Falls. There that little river crashes 167 feet down to the rocks below in an astonishing display of raw power. It is an unforgettable sight but without it’s waterfall the Niagara would only be remembered as an obscure stream, marking the boundary between Canada and the United States.

Niagara reminds me of another short river that started with the man named Jesus. His early life in the village of Nazareth seemed uneventful to neighbors as he worked in a carpenter shop and played with His brothers and sisters in the streets. But His life picked up speed after he turned thirty years of age and was baptized by John. It flowed at a quickening pace as He healed a leper, ate dinner with sinners and gave sight to a blind beggar. Then what had been the gentle current of His life began to rush ahead as Jesus calmed a storm by his word and raised a man from the dead. Yet the most awesome display of all did not come till one dark afternoon as they nailed Jesus to a cross. There His final breath was swept over the edge of the waterfall of death. But the river of His life did not end there. Just like the Niagara River continues to flow past the falls so the love of Christ has rushed out of the grave and into our hearts. Now its depth and power compel us ahead because nothing – no nothing is more powerful than the waterfall of the love of Christ!

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