Heartthoughts: Persistence!

"Sir, may I have your cart when you're through?" I asked a man headed for the exit at Walmart.  Howard had sent me to get a handicap cart while he waited in the car.  They are always scarce there, so I zeroed in on that one. The man said I could, so I told him I would follow him to his car.

Turns out he was in a truck a distance away, not in a handicap zone as I expected. He nimbly got out of the cart and proceeded to unload a huge order of groceries with no problem. I guess he just didn't want to walk all over the vast store! (I can't say I blame him, though!)

When we had finished our shopping and were headed to the door, I noticed a woman behind us looking at us intently. I didn't pay much attention, but went ahead and helped Howard tear open a bag of cheese curls we'd bought.  She stopped when we did and started when we moved, following  behind us the whole time.  Looking over my shoulder, I saw that the woman was
shadowing us all the way to the door. Then she spoke:

"Ma'am can I have that cart when you're finished?" she asked.  Of course I said she could, and told her we were on the way to the car.  She wanted to know how far it was and if I would bring it back to her. I wasn't too sure how far it was, telling her it was a ways, but she said she couldn't walk that far. Then she asked if we were in a handicap spot, and she followed when I told her we were. 

"Thank you," she said when she got onto the cart, to which I replied, "You're welcome! I had to chase a man down to get it for us!"

This incident made me think of Elisha and Elijah in the Bible.  Elisha knew that Elijah would soon leave this world, and  he determined to stick with him until that happened.  No matter how often the prophet Elijah told him to go back and not to follow him, Elisha was persistent.  Why? He wanted the anointing of Elijah!

II Kings 2:9: And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me."

Elijah told Elisha that if his eyes were on him when he was taken away, it would be so.  Sure enough when the chariot of fire appeared and Elijah went up in a whirlwind (II Kings 2:11-12) Elisha saw it and took up Elijah's mantle.

And Elisha's double portion resulted in his doing twice the miracles of Elijah! In recounting the miracles, there were 8 in Elijah's life and 15 in Elisha's life. Not quite double. Where was the other miracle? The answer is found an interesting side note that appears in II Kings 13:21, when some Moabites tossed a corpse into Elisha's sepulchre. When the man's body touched the bones of Elisha, he came back to life! He had raised the dead after his own death. The other miracle!

The humble shopping cart was not a chariot of fire, but both present a lesson in persistence!

Lifted Up

There is a song that's been going through my head with words about being raised up to "more than I can be."  It refers to standing on mountains and being strong while on the Lord's shoulder. As I listened to the song today, thoughts swept over me and brought tears of realization of my own recent experiences.

"How do you do all this?" my husband asks me.  He tells me how proud he is of me for taking care of him over the past four months after his heart surgery and other complications.  And I surprise myself.  But of course, it is not me, but the Lord strengthening and enabling me, not only for  Howard's care, but for running the entire household without his help.

The early weeks were the hardest, when I was awakened from a dead slumber on my hospital cot several times a night to help him find comfort and relief.  Medication had distorted his sense of taste, and he was constantly craving he knew not what.  Off  I was sent to the hospital snack room to bring back corn flakes, chocolate milk or ice cream in the middle of the night! I still provide a bedside snack to get him through the night, but he is sleeping better now!

Our house was soon overflowing with medical equipment that we made room for but still tripped over. Thankfully, most of that has been relegated to the basement now that his health has improved!  The responsibility of giving and keeping up with his considerable medications is still mine, but he does more for himself now.

My spouse is amazed that I drive him everywhere (he always did the driving).  It's up to me to carry in all the groceries, procure motorized carts for him, and manage to get him to church and doctor appointments. Not to mention that I have trash duty, housekeeping (vacuuming was his job) laundry and three meals a day.  After a rough few weeks, I was so glad to see him take over bill paying.  The slight stroke he had in surgery made those kind of things difficult for him at first.

I heard a preacher say once that when he got home some heavy furniture ( I think a piano) had been  moved. "How did you do that?" he asked his wife, to which she replied, "With my hip!" I know the feeling.  I had to make room for something we bought the other day, and I had no one to help me.  I moved a writing desk from our dining room into the hall (taking out the drawer first), but it was a little tight.  I decided to move it into the bedroom under the window, but first I had to move the tilting mirror.  I wanted it where a small chest was.  To move the chest, I removed the drawers and I was able to scoot it along and placed it in the hall.  Howard was astonished when he saw what I had done!

Part of the song I mentioned is about being raised up to walk on stormy seas.  I feel as if we've walked on stormy seas lately, but he has brought us through the storm and truly raised me to "more than I can be!"

The Right Place at the Right Time

The right place at the right time.  Have you ever experienced this?  Sometimes it seems that God just works it out that something happens to your benefit when you are at the right place at the right time, although maybe accidentally on your part.

Something like that happened in an interesting account in II Kings.  After Elisha had healed the Shunamite woman's son, he warned her that a famine was coming and that she should go to some other place where there was food.  This she did, staying in the country of the Philistines for seven years, until the famine ended.

Then she came back to her country and desired to reclaim her house and property.
In verse 8:4, we find Gehazi, Elisha's servant, being called upon by the king to tell of the miracles performed by his master. As he was recounting them, he looked up and saw the Shunammite woman, who had come to the king to petition her cause.

"Why, there's the woman whose son was healed by Elisha!" he exclaimed to the king.

The Bible verses tell the story: (3) "And it came to pass at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land. (4) And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee all the great things that Elisha hath done.

(5) And it came to pass as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.

(6) And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed  unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day she left the land, even until now."

She was in the right place at the right time! Even after an absence of seven years!  An accident? No, I believe it was a divine appointment.  God had not forgotten her good deed in giving the prophet a place to stay in her home.

The next time you just "happen" to meet someone, or circumstances unexpectedly come together in your favor as a result of a "chance" happening, just reflect on how God cares for you and wants the best for you!

As a teenager, I was walking across the church lawn late one afternoon on my way to the evening service.  Our family  had recently started attending church after the tragic loss of my young brother. I had no idea that a young man sitting in his car noticed me.  I had not seen him at church before, but my husband says that's when he became interested in me.  He was in the right place at the right time and so was I! Soon one of my girlfriends told me he liked me  and arranged for us to meet.  The rest is history!

God Understands

When we lived briefly in Tennessee a few years ago, Howard became acquainted with a friendly neighbor.  The man had been in the military in Afghanistan, and he often talked to my husband about his experiences there.  One day Howard came in and said the man was troubled, because in the line of duty he had had to kill.

"I feel sorry for him," Howard said one evening.  "He says those things haunt him and he wonders if he will be held accountable someday.  I wish there was some scripture I could give him that would ease his mind."

A scripture occurred to me that I thought might be applicable.  I had been reading in II Kings about Naaman's having been healed of leprosy after he obeyed the prophet Elisha's advice to dip seven times in the river Jordan.  Naaman then recognized that there was no god except the God of Israel and was so grateful to Elisha he wanted to give him a gift, which Elisha would not accept.

In light of this, Naaman then asked for a load of earth, (presumably to build an altar to the true God)"...for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord," II Kings 5:17.

In 5:18, Naaman expresses his predicament as a new believer: "In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing."

Elisha's answer to him was, "Go in peace." Evidently meaning  he was not responsible for being required to do this.   Howard said when he gave his friend these scriptures, they seemed to relieve and comfort him.

A couple of times this week, I  had to remember to "Go in peace." We were waiting to check out at a long line in the grocery store, when a register opened up in another aisle. Howard was in a  handicapped cart, and as I struggled to get him in the new line, the woman in front of us doggedly wedged her cart  past our cart and went before us. "Did you see that what she did?" I asked Howard.  He didn't comment, but I'm sure she heard me, and grimly and determinedly unloaded her cart.

On the way home, Howard was hungry, so we went through McDonald's drive-thru for his favorite fish sandwich and a strawberry shake.  (We would worry about supper later, but he needed those calories!) Alas, his sandwich was not warm, so  he asked if it could be reheated.  The window opened and the attendant said they would make him a new one. 

We pulled forward to the waiting area, and that is just what we did: waited and waited. Finally a girl came out and handed us two Happy Meals! I pointed to a SUV across the drive where she then delivered them.  I finally went in to get our order just as they had it ready.  I couldn't help telling them that their service wasn't the best!  But we went in peace!

Home Sweet Home

"Mimi, can I have a tour of the house?" my little granddaughter Maddie asked me.  They had just gotten here from Houston, and she had been spying things and pointing out  pictures of their family scattered around.  She's seven now, and only three the last time they were here.  No wonder Maddie didn't remember being here!

Not that we hadn't seen Jamie and Tammy's family frequently, it just seemed simpler for us to go there before Howard's health problems than for them to get away from work and travel with, especially, a young baby.  But he's bigger now, and he enjoyed the plane ride!

I smiled at Maddie's request, knowing that they often hear that from friends seeing their big house for the first time. I have been to their third floor, but it is not something I do often. Well, it didn't take long to go through our kitchen and the two bedrooms she hadn't seen.  "Is that Anne-Marie?" Maddie questioned at a framed collage of her big sister's newborn pictures.  

"Yes," I said, "and I have one of you like that, but it is packed away somewhere from when we moved, and I haven't been able to find it!"  That didn't seem to faze her, as the little red-head curiously noted this and that item of interest.  She was particularly fascinated by some decorative checker boards and soon put them to good use.

What our  heavenly home will look like is an undying source of lyrics for  many imaginative hymn and gospel song writers. We are told of mansions over the hilltop and just wait till you see my brand new home.  Some say the sights are too numerous to tell, or I can only imagine.  One wants their mansion next to the throne and some want a cabin in the corner of glory land.

But really, our imaginations are not capable of visualizing what it will be like.  "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." I Corinthians 2:9. Jesus tells us in John 14:2-3, that He goes to prepare a place for us and that "...where I am, there ye may be also."

We won't have to be content to see loved ones' pictures on the wall, but we will actually see them! Who knows, they may actually look like our cherished photos of them when they were young and healthy! What a day that will be! And I can't wait to take the tour!

Wings

Tidying up this morning, I saw something on the china cabinet ledge that I at first thought was a twig.  On closer inspection, I realized that the dull, gold-brass colored object was one of our grandchildren's  plastic wings! The ones they received on the airplane on their trip here. I think I remember seeing Anne-Marie lay them there, so they were probably hers.

She had gotten her wings! No, I didn't hear a tinkling bell, and she isn't an angel, but close!  I'm not sure if 2 1/2 year old Isaac received his wings; they may have thought he would stick himself with the pin. And 7-year-old Maddie probably got home with hers. I put the tiny wings up in a safe place as a sweet remembrance of their visit.

Nine-year-old Anne-Marie was excited about her church's Kids' Camp she would attend when she got home.  This would be the first time she was eligible to go, and they were getting to stay OVER NIGHT! Turns out Mom is going too, as a sponsor, so no worries!

Our son Jamie said Isaac did well on the flight, bravely sitting in a seat beside him.  But during a few moments of turbulence, Isaac wanted Daddy to hold him. He calls a plane a "harepane."  I can see his fascination with "harepanes" when he plays with the small, sturdy wood airplanes I got him for Christmas.  He loves to race them on the glass-top coffee table at home.  I often watch on Face Time as he pulls backward on the toy, revving it up then letting it go for a zip along the glass runway.

In one of  the photos of their time here, Jamie and the kids were in our son Greg's canoe on the beautiful body of water at his place. Looking at the picture, I noticed there was something different about the boat. Greg had attached something to it that looked like a pipe running lengthwise, fastened by braces attached to the boat, giving it the look of an outrigger canoe.  I knew it provided stability, especially when I saw little Isaac standing in the boat and no wobbles!

Just as Anne-Marie needed the security of her mother's presence when sleeping at camp, and Isaac needed his dad to hold him during a turbulent time, and a stabilizer bar on the boat promoted a safe ride, we can look to our Heavenly Father for those things.  Sometimes we just need the Lord to hold us tight and to feel His presence.  Our boat may feel a bit unsteady on life's rocky seas, but Jesus in our lives provides stability. On making our heavenly flight safely, we won't be awarded wings, but a crown of life!

Holy Ground

A poignant photo on Facebook caught my eye yesterday as I read from a niece: "This is where Grandma and Grandpa's house use to sit. I write the insurance on it for the business that now owns the land. I told them it is Holy Ground."

Tears sprang to my eyes as I recognized the plot of land where we had so many wonderful family gatherings in the small frame house of Mama and Daddy's retirement years. It was always bursting at the seams when our large family came to visit from Mississippi and the local Texas relatives dropped in.  The trees in the picture in what had been the side and front yards reminded me of sitting in their shade in chairs from the kitchen, laughing and talking the afternoon away as laundry Mama had hung on the line flapped  in the dry Texas breeze.

She was the Holy Ghost-filled grandma who grabbed shirts from Grandpa's closet to cover the skimpy swimsuits her then-teen granddaughters were wearing to the lake. She was also the one who dragged them to revivals and services at her church, influencing their young lives (for which they are grateful to this day)!

My own Texas grandchildren came to visit us this week. They hadn't been here in a few years, and the two-year-old, never.  It always seemed simpler for us to visit them, but this year Howard's heart surgery and recuperation put our travels on hold.  We see the grandkids often on Face Time, but nothing equals seeing them play and interact in person!  On their arrival, Isaac methodically removed everything from the coffee table and  handed it to me for inspection. When asked how old he is, he said, "Half," short for 2 1/2!

One day I had made a peach cobbler as dessert for our roast beef Po-boy meal.  Isaac loved the cobbler and ate two helpings. When he came in the next day from their hotel, his first words as he headed for the kitchen were "Where de cake?" He wasn't sure what to call it, but I knew what he meant!

In the car one day, I saw Anne-Marie, 9, bury her nose in a thick book. I asked her about it and suggested she read to me.  This she did, reading with perfect tone and animated inflection the story and conversations of the characters.  Noticing all the underlined passages, circled words and notations from her pen, I questioned what they were. "Oh, I just like to do that with certain parts," she replied.  The mark of a serious learner!

They went to church with us on Sunday, and I was so proud of how willingly they went to Kids' Church and little Isaac went bravely and uncomplainingly to the nursery!  Seven-year-old Maddie was a joy (her middle name, actually,) as she looked up from her messy sandwich at lunch and said, "You were right, Mimi! It does taste better with gravy!"  (I took it as a compliment when she said the next day over a chicken casserole, "You need to give daddy your recipe for this!")

A few comments on the Facebook picture referred to a large flat rock on the property that had been the bottom step on my folk's back porch. A couple of the grandsons wrote that it had been Mama's knife rock, where she sharpened her knives. I could just see her, as I had many times, bent over in her apron whetting her knives against the stone. One of the guys spoke of the possibility of retrieving the rock.  Whether they do or not, they can never forget the Rock that their grandma pointed them to when she was still with us, living on that Holy Ground!