A Glimpse of Heaven

By Susan Dollyhigh –

“At Christmas, all roads lead home,” Marjorie Holmes said. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere but home at Christmas. With the excitement of a small child, I anticipated gathering with my five siblings and each of our families at Mama and Daddy’s house on Christmas Eve. Like the snow on our jackets, the years melted away as we walked in the door where Mama’s outstretched arms met us with soft hugs, laughter greeted our ears, and the smell of delicious home-cooking tantalized our taste buds.

My parents were only in their mid-fifties, and I had never imagined our Christmas celebrations changing, and certainly not anytime soon. However, on December 10th, 1991, Daddy went into respiratory failure, was rushed to the ER, resuscitated and placed on a ventilator. A few days later, he suffered a stroke, and his condition only deteriorated.

Christmas Eve found my family gathered in a cold, sterile intensive care unit of the hospital. “I’m sorry,” the doctor said. “His EEG is flat, and he’s not responding to any stimuli. The ventilator is the only thing keeping your dad alive. Unfortunately, you have a decision to make.”

But Daddy had already made that decision; he’d told us he didn’t want to be kept alive by machines if there was no hope for recovery.

Daddy was taken off the ventilator and moved to a private room. When I walked in to see him, I noticed his eyes were open as they had been in ICU, but something was different. Then Daddy, who’s EEG was flat, began talking to us in a low, raspy whisper. Yet when doctors or nurses checked on him, he returned to staring straight ahead, and made no attempt to respond.

On Christmas morning, a single red poinsettia graced the window ledge of that hospital room. As we gathered around Daddy’s bed, he got a far-off look in his eyes and spoke to us of heaven and angels. “Jesus is here in this room,” he said. Standing there that Christmas morning, I reflected on Jesus coming to earth 2000 years before, and realized that once again, He had come down to earth and given my family not only a Christmas miracle, but a little glimpse of heaven, through our Daddy’s eyes.

Prayer: Father, thank you for your love and grace, and for the blessing of miracles. Amen

Bible Verse: “He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted” (Job 9:10 NIV).

Doggone Wealthy

By Cheri Cowell –

When I was growing up, we had a huge collie named Happy. Happy was the perfect dog for children; he was protective, playful, gentle, and a lot of fun. We often dressed him up like a doll, and he loved to play in the Water Wiggle with us in the back yard. It was my job to feed Happy at night, which meant filling his water bowl, scooping a big cupful of dry food into his dish, and then topping it with table scraps. The bowl would almost overflow, but it didn’t take long for it to disappear. Every once in awhile my father would stop at the butcher to get meat for our family, and while there, he always got a box of bones for Happy. Once a week, my sister and I would go into the freezer and get one of those bones for him. You would have thought he had died and gone to heaven. Today I believe he is enjoying a doggie banquet in heaven, where even the lowliest of us here on earth will sup with God.

“Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.’ Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, ‘Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’ The woman came and knelt before him. ‘Lord, help me!’ she said. He replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.’ ‘Yes it is, Lord,’ she said. ‘Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’ Then Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed at that moment” (Matthew 15:21-28 NIV).

A dog was a term the Jews used to demean Gentiles. Jesus was not demeaning the woman by using this term; he was showing their hypocrisy. She saw in Jesus someone whom she could trust so she offered to eat the scraps from His table if He would heal her daughter. This woman, a Canaanite enemy of the Jews, was then offered the best meal in town, for her faith brought her the very thing she wished. All of us are equal in God’s eyes, so we should not be surprised when one day we see who is seated next to us at His large banqueting table in heaven.

PRAYER: Thank You Lord for the privilege of even being allowed the crumbs from Your table, yet incredibly, You have offered me a seat of honor there. Help me treat others the way You see them: valuable, worthy, and to be honored.

The Wisdom of Benches and Balls

By Hally Franz –

There are lots of lessons that become regular sound-bites in the rearing of children. We encourage them to “treat others as you’d like to be treated”, “always do your best”, and “learn from your mistakes.” I believe few things in life are due to chance. So, with those thoughts in mind, I tried to make sense of my recent bare, right-foot collision with the unyielding incline bench in our basement.

It occurred as I packed away holiday decorations, and the encounter left me with three very sore middle toes and bruising from those toes to my instep. I watched the bruising evolve through black, blue, purple and yellow tones, reminding my family that I never bruise easily. The wound, while apparently without fractures, was worthy.

Here’s my list of possible insights to be gained by my foot-versus-bench battle:

• I am clumsy. Redundant. I’ve been made painfully aware of that truth on many prior occasions.
• I should slow down. Not likely; that was a lazy January day, and I was completing this task with ease.
• I should look where I am going. Possibly valid, if taken in a broader, less literal sense.
• I need to get rid of some clutter. I agree and am working on it!
• I need to exercise. I’d love to, if I didn’t have an injured foot!
• I should wear shoes around the house. Perhaps, my old-souled son is wise traipsing around the house interminably in steel-toed boots. My grandfather always thought it horrible to walk around shoeless in the winter.
• I need a bigger house. Useless information. My husband swears he’ll die in this house.

In the final days before Christmas 2012, my old-souled son added a couple of items to his Christmas list. He wanted a Magic 8-Ball and a metal slinky. When questioned about the ball, he told me he might use it for making decisions. I “encouraged” him that God would greatly prefer He be consulted on any important choices he faces. Ivan assured me he’d apply this method only to small, insignificant quandaries.

In reality, I can’t glean much meaning from my injury. Nor, will my son ever get worthwhile advice from his vintage toy. We can, however, seek and expect real answers regarding routine and life-changing questions. Our Heavenly Father is there to listen and counsel us when we pray and study His word, without mysteries to solve or magic to work.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, remind me always to bring my concerns and questions to You. Help me to remember that the world holds no inspired answers, and I am too simple to make decisions without the wisdom that You alone provide.

“I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness” (Ecclesiastes 7:25 KJV).

The Invisible Man

By Cheri Cowell –

A few days ago some friends and I went out to eat at a counter service restaurant. When we entered we noticed a table full of older men enjoying their afternoon out with the guys and a group of women in the far corner near the kitchen. The restaurant was busy so when no one acknowledged our arrival we figured they just didn’t see us. We waited what seemed like five minutes without anyone saying anything to us. We almost left when a man came through the back door, but even he didn’t acknowledge us. We asked if anyone was going to help us and a waitress finally said, “I’ll be right with you.” I’m sure glad she said something. I was beginning to wonder if we had become invisible. God must feel the same way with us sometime.

God has great plans for us. He desires to give us more than we can ever imagine and all He asks in return is to be loved by us. He longs for us to acknowledge His presence, to see His love painted in the sky each day, to feel His breath in the breeze, and to love Him in response. When we acknowledge His name as the name above all names, we are saying to Him, “I see, I believe and I love you in return.”

“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name” (Psalm 91:14 NIV).

PRAYER: God, I praise You today for all of the ways in which You show Your love. Thank You for being there even when I treat You as the invisible man. Help me see You more clearly, believe in You more fully, and love You more dearly today and everyday.

Perfect Recipe

By Michelle Lim –

Over the holidays we come up with perfect cookie recipes and New Year appetizers, all in the hopes of impressing our guests.

In February, we long to come up with the perfect recipe for love. The perfect recipe for love occupies the attention of romantics all over the globe. Could it be true that opposites attract? Or are we looking for people with something in common?

No one really knows for sure what the perfect recipe is for each person, because every individual is unique.

How about the recipe for success? There are scads of books out there to address this question.

Somewhere in the midst of it all we forget one really important recipe; the perfect recipe for life.

A recipe has a variety of ingredients depending on the desired outcome. If you try to make peanut butter cookies with the recipe for ranger cookies, they wouldn’t turn out. When you finished you would have a batch of ranger cookies.

Why do we think that there is a perfect recipe for life that is the same for everyone?

The other day I was grousing about something that happened. Why did it happen to me and not someone else? Then God showed me that I am a ranger cookie minus the sprinkles.

God designed me to be a ranger cookie. I have a unique recipe of life experiences that create the person God designed me to be. If I use the peanut butter cookie recipe, I will not become who God intended and will not fulfill the perfect recipe He has for my life.

Sometimes there is nothing perfect about the ingredients. After all who wants to be pressed into the blender and spun mercilessly? But God is right there with us the whole time. He doesn’t bring the disaster, but He allows it to bring about His perfect will in our lives.

What kind of cookie are you? Do you wish you could be something else? God intended something amazing for your life. You have a perfect life recipe to bring about God’s amazing design.

David’s life was turbulent. There were times when he ran for his life and times when he served as Israel’s King. But some of his life must have felt like a recipe in the blender. Still, after he had run for his life, faced many hardships, and reveled in victories he still said this:

“Taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him” (Psalm 34:8 NIV).

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