I Love Love Letters

As soon as she could grasp a pencil or coloring crayon,

my youngest daughter, Rebekah,

began leaving me love notes.

Her five older siblings also went through this stage,

I just didn't feverishly hang onto almost every lovable scrap,

like I do now.

Knowing it is my last little one has made me

desperately obsessive.

I wish I had saved more from the other kids.

Why did I save school papers instead of love notes?

(And sometimes, during the teenage years,

it is good to have PROOF that they love you,

but I am not trying to scare you into

forbidding your children to age.)

She thinks I am beautiful.

Song of Solomon 6:4

"You are beautiful, O my love..."

She thinks about my love,

and it changes her countenance.

Her love does not change, although the seasons do.

from the hymn

-Great is Thy Faithfulness-

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.

I love the pictures she draws of me.

I always look skinny.

And, best of all,

I am always smiling.

Isn't she nice to not draw me yelling?

Unfortunately, she has seen my tonsils more than once.

Jeremiah 31:3

“ Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;

Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you."

I love hearts,

so she learned how to draw them

to give me a sea of love.

Her love to me is so constant

and so undeserved.

If I am upset,

she will come and hug me.

If I am crying,

she'll kiss away my tears.

She tells me every day

that she loves me.

She greets me in the morning with love,

and I cannot leave the house without her kisses.

How can one so young

so beautifully demonstrate the Lord's love for us?

This is not a daisy-petal pullin' kind of emotion -

He loves us,

He loves us,

He loves us.

 

I John 4:10

"This is love, not that we loved God,

but that He loved us

and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice

 for our sins."

He left us love notes ya' know -

66 of them.

He wrote 66 books that show how His everlasting love

 outpoured to redeem our souls

and bring us home to Heaven.

We would never leave a love letter unopened,

would we?

The Longest Day of the Year

Most people have written great blogs about their 2009 and giving a summary of their year or their decade. Tonight, I am too tired to do either.  Today was so monumental, I can't begin to think about what happened in the past. We woke up at 3am to catch an early morning flight that saved us  about $150 per ticket.  Arriving home at 10am we discovered the cat was accidentally left inside the house for a week with no food and no kitty litter.  Yea, poor kitty. As we were bringing luggage out, he must have slinked back inside.

We also discovered if a dishwasher is left running so you can return to clean dishes, leaking water can warp your solid maple hardwood flooring and leak to the bedroom below.

So, today we spent a few hours and way too many dollars at the laundromat cleaning all the cushions and the cover from our one month old IKEA couch, cleaning carpeting, consoling and feeding the kitty, and trying to get that nasty smell of kitty urine out of our burning noses. My husband pried up a few floor boards and set a fan at work trying to prevent mildew damage in the kitchen.

Kelly-Across-the-Street saved the day by reading my Facebook status and inviting us over for a delicious meal of beef stew, squash, spinach salad, bread.  Her desert made everything better.  Brownies, with chunks of chocolate, topped with chocolate frosting. 

Maybe tomorrow I'll be ready to face the past year and the past decade.  For now, I have to just know that our family survived two traumas on very little sleep without yelling, fussing and blaming each other, but just quietly, tiredly, worked together.

That's reason enough to celebrate - the grace of our God and the God of all grace - through each day of the past decade, the past year and today, The Longest Day of the Year.

                            

We had a beautiful visual to begin our day, I think it set the tone for the day.

Lamentations 3:22-23 "It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed,

because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is His faithfulness."

As I peered above the clouds, as close to Heaven as I will ever get before death, I marveled in His creation, His power, His majesty.

When my heart was ready, we arrived home, ready to face The Longest Day of the Year, because, we were filled with new mercies.



Great is Thy Faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my father!

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not:
As thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Chorus
Great is Thy faithfulness,
Great is Thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see:
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

(chorus)

Great is Thy faithfulness,
Great is Thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see:
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

(chorus)


Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth.
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!