Blessings in Broken Clay

Mary’s hand was shattered.

     When our teenagers were playing in the living room, one tripped, and in a minute there was a broken certificate frame, and fewer ceramic figures in our year-round Nativity display.

     We told them we were glad they weren’t hurt, and to get busy sweeping up. I didn’t really have a close connection with the little figurine.

     But I thought of all that I’ve learned from what she represented.

Although the real Mary kept a small profile, in humble circumstances, her example lives large even now.

Wonderer

     She listened to what God had to say. Instead of focusing on how this pregnancy would threaten her status, her security, and life itself, Mary allowed her mind to contemplate and experience the awe of all that God would do. When she focused on His words and His actions, the joy of their meaning shone out in her words. We may not know what her emotions were, but we can see the joy that strengthened them.

     Even before the Holy Spirit enabled her body to conceive God’s Son, it filled her spirit with the hope that God’s message provided. It was a hope so far beyond her, because it was a hope for all her people, and all the nations of the world. It was a hope for all time.

Magnifier

     She allowed that joy and hope to form her response to God. Just as her body would be prepared to carry out the work it had been given, to carry and deliver the divine and human Son of God, her spirit was ready as well. When Mary received a message from God, her response was to magnify the Lord. The word in Scripture translated to magnify is in the present tense, indicating an ongoing state of magnifying the Lord.

     God may seem small until we contemplate and describe Him, which causes us to see how vast His power and goodness really are. To magnify the Lord is to describe His magnificence. Words help our minds to express things greater than we are. When we begin to say ‘how great Thou art,’ we begin to realize it -- on a God-sized scale.

Mary understood the kingship of God. When she magnified God, she made it clear that whatever He commanded, she must do.

     She also understood that He was moving history toward something that was allgood – not pretty good, but purely good.  She understood that God had a plan for justice, and He works His plan through works of giving and healing rather than dominating.

     And because God’s plan for justice often occurs over time, those like Mary who have this awe for God pass it down from generation to generation.

     Mary in particular also understood that God, rather than being harsh, had blessed her beyond all women. For her, His command is love, and always for the good of His servant and the world.

Fellowshipper

     She went to spend several months with her cousin Elizabeth. She knew Elizabeth had experienced her own miraculous conception, after years of barrenness. There, they could both wonder at the lives forming within, and the lives they were living. She knew Elizabeth understood what it was to be touched by God. She knew Elizabeth could rejoice with her. And when Mary arrived, even Elizabeth’s unborn child leapt for joy, as testament to Who was to come.

     Those who love God are strengthened when they can rejoice together. Proverbs explains that iron sharpens iron, and we need others around us who likewise seek God’s righteousness. With the wisdom of God, Jesus did not send His disciples on missions alone. As God guides us on our own journeys, He also guides us to community with those who love Him and who encourage us to walk closely with Him.

Swaddler

     She gave loving, attentive care to the King – swaddling Him and laying Him in a manger. In these times, nurturing meant bathing, and then rubbing a newborn in salt and oil, and finally swaddling. To do otherwise represented neglect (see Ezekiel 16).

     One day Mary’s son would wash our sins and make us clean. One day like salt He would save what would otherwise perish. He also called His believers salt of the earth, because we in turn would minister to others, to bring them to Jesus.

     One day He would be known like balm in Gilead -- the one who healed as He walked and taught, and the one who was anointed for a sacrifice that would ensure abundant life and ongoing healing for a dying world. One day He would rise up from a tomb, having removed his own graveclothes, and thus unbound us all from death itself.

Pilgrim

     She and her husband made pilgrimage to worship at Jerusalem when Jesus was a preteen. The length of a journey in those days makes it clear that worship was a priority for the young family.

     To make a pilgrimage is to set aside time to worship God. We set aside our routine, our agenda. We sacrifice time and energy to be used for His will, instead of our own. We have occasion now to invest ourselves in preparation and relocation. To reconsider our commitments. To decide what baggage is worth carrying along. To seek guidance for the journey.

Seeker

     She sought out Jesus. When it was time to leave Jerusalem to go home, they eventually realized Jesus was not with their group of pilgrims, and they turned back to Jerusalem to look for him.  

      

     It was Mary who spoke to Jesus about the anxiety they’d faced in the search. He told her that they should have know He’d been in His father’s house. She didn’t understand that Jesus was speaking prophetically about another 3 days to come, when those who loved and followed Him would despair over his death, instead of realizing that He was heaven bound.

     When we find ourselves on a journey led by our own reasoning, efforts and agenda, we may realize we haven’t sought Jesus before departing; haven’t remained close with Him along the way; and finally that Jesus is our Way, and that we really can’t go any further without Him. 

     God’s word in Phillippians 4:6 tells us to be “anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

Petitioner

     She turned to Jesus. She called on Him when He was a young man of about 30, to help a friend with a wedding feast. They were in need of wine. With his remarks, Jesus indicates that this event is only a shadow of a time yet to come, when He would drink from a bitter cup of sacrifice. He would demonstrate that the greatest love is to lay down a life for a friend. He would make a friend of any and every sinner ready to reconcile and end enmity with God. It was a shadow of his Last Supper, when He would tell his disciples that His blood would be shed for them, and to remember His sacrifice with wine.

     It was Mary who directed others at the wedding, giving them the wisest advise: to do whatever Jesus said. 

     And they did, filling clay jars with water. Soon, where clay jars had held only water, they now held wine. It was a shadow of Jesus’ sacrificial miracle to come: After Adam, our bodies had become vessels for spirits severed from God, but now we would become vessels for God’s Holy Spirit.

     Mary was likely still there when the steward of the wedding feast praised the quality of the wine, saying the best had been saved for last. 

     When she first had celebrated the child that she was chosen to bear, she recognized even then that her son represented God’s best. First had come Adam, a man who would trade obedience for sin, giving all people a death sentence. Then came her Jesus, a man who would be obedient unto death, earning salvation for all who would receive it. God had saved the best for last.

Practitioner

     She listened to Jesus. Mary and her other children came to hear Jesus preach to the crowds. She was there when Jesus explained that “my mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”

     When Mary was a young girl, she opened her mind and heart upon receiving a message from God. She understood that it was meant for her personally. What she had to say in response revealed her familiarity with the Scriptures – the word of God revealed previously. And faith followed familiarity.

     How she lived was how she put the Word into practice. Early in her story, she was willing to praise and humble herself to God’s direction and purpose. Later in life, she was bold in her appeal to Jesus at the wedding, bringing to Him a concern from everyday life.

     To belong to the family of faith is to know that your life belongs to God. To know yourself as His son or daughter is to know you can come boldly before Him with your concerns.

     These things – hearing the Word, committing to it personally, making your life an offering, boldly appealing to God -- define what it means to put the Word into practice. The Word is put to use in the thoughts we focus on, the words we choose, and the actions we carry out.

Comforted

     As her son died in agony on the cross, Mary allowed herself to be ministered to and comforted. Jesus spoke to her, appointing a disciple to her as a son, to care for as his own mother. She who had been daughter, betrothed bride, wife, mother and probably widow, now had a new family status determined by Jesus. 

     Jesus had already begun His work of grafting people together in faith and making them family by blood – His, rather than theirs.

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30

     As with her labor pains, the shared sorrow of this moment was yielding to something greater. Mary was experiencing a grief that would give way to worldwide joy.

     As with Bethlehem’s innkeepers, many would refuse to receive her Son. 

But love, not nails, had stretched Jesus’ arms wide – offering an eternal embrace.

     God and man had been reconciled.

Blessed Conversation

Hope like Hezekiah.
Joy like Job.
This is my prayer.
My neighbor is in critical condition. His wife has asked us to ask for prayer – prayers from the church, prayers for healing.
She asked, so I’m asking.
Praying for healing is the assignment of believers.

God hears our prayers for our own healing.
Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. Psalm 30:2

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, "Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. 2 Kings 20:3-5

For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. Job 5:18

You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:11b,14,15a,16b

Praying for healing is the privilege of believers -- our blessed conversation.

God hears our prayers for others’ healing.
Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave girls so they could have children again. Genesis 20:17a
Praying is how we bring others before God for healing.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. Matthew 4:23, 24 

When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Luke 4:40

That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. Mark 1:32-34

And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed. Matthew 14:35,36 

And wherever he went--into villages, towns or countryside--they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed. Mark 6:56

When God heals, he answers our faith.
Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. Jeremiah 17:14

My husband reminded our neighbor’s wife that doctors are not the final authority on our condition. We act in faith when we recognize that God is in charge of our circumstances.

Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live." The man took Jesus at his word and departed. John 4:46, 47, 49, 5

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering." Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."
The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour. Matthew 8:5-10,13

We act in faith when we pray boldly, expecting to receive.
When we are more in awe of God than our need.
When we continue to pray.

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed."
Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment. Matthew 9:20-22

A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”
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 their dogs."
"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted."
And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Matthew 15:22, 24-28

Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging.
When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you."
Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."
"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. Mark 10:46-52

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!"
When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord," they replied.
Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you"; and their sight was restored. Matthew 9:27-30a

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him. Luke 5:12,13

God asks us to answer Him.
Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.
Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?"
But they remained silent.
He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."
He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Mark 3:1-5

The man who stood up was also ready to stretch out his hand to Jesus, to receive healing.
The men around him were not ready to reach out to Jesus, to receive healing of their hearts.
God in his Word has invited us to reach out, invited us to prayer, invited us to speak to Him. When we pray, we are choosing to answer God’s invitation.
Then God honors that prayer by answering it. With His will reflecting His wisdom, He heals bodies, minds and spirits.
We respond with praise.

Healing is one reason we praise Him.
Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.
The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. Matthew 15:30,31

As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"
When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.
He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan.
Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"
Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." Luke 17:12-19

Those who were healed had personal, often hands-on, experience with Jesus.
In some miracles, Jesus instructed those who were healed not to tell anyone. But in a hands-on lesson with Thomas – the disciple who struggled to believe His resurrection – Jesus explained that His ministry would now seek out people who would follow Him without having seen Him. Disciples who could not touch Him with their hands would reach out in their spirit, seeking a tangible experience with God.

Now that Jesus expected and empowered His disciples to tell, they told.
They told of the power of prayer -- delighting in conversation with a God who is willing and delighted to speak to us.
They told how God answered their prayer, often in ways beyond what they could anticipate.
They told of faith that finds expression and its fulfillment in praise.
We still have this truth to tell. Here is our hope and joy.

How to Count

By June Pulliam
Guest blogger

I was awake most of the night with arthritis-type joint pain. This was my opportunity to put into practice "counting it all joy".

I was thinking about my study of suffering, using a guide by Kay Arthur based on the book of Job. Job never tells us why people suffer, Arthur points out.

To cope with suffering, she says, we aren't to find the immediate cause but instead find out who God is: our Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer, with whom we need a deep, personal relationship. She references James 1:2-4 "Consider it all joy...".

My meditating started there – I’ve always realized that my understanding of what James' words meant was not as deep as I'd like – and I began writing my own thoughts:

In God's presence there is fullness of joy. As we focus upwardly on Him, we become more and more aware of His vibrant presence, and less focused on the trial. Being surrounded by His presence – His light, His love – moves our joy from being only a mental choice, to being a feeling and more – a full experience.

To "count it all joy" or "consider it all joy" (depending on the translation) means to mentally put suffering in the category of joy. We first need to see for what purpose we are doing this.

James’ verse says that the testing of our faith will lead to endurance. It furthermore says that we need to continue to endure, until our endurance has attained its "perfect result" – that we are "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing".

I meditated on this: We can't stop at endurance. God wants us to keep at it until it has its "perfect result". If we endure for a while, even a long while, but then stop, this verse tells us we will lack some things; we will not be perfect or complete.

So then the question is: Will we "count it all joy" when trials come? The thing is … we all count it as something when trials come. The alternative to counting it as joy when we have trials, is to do what most do – count it as disastrous defeat, or a reason to rage and seek revenge.

If we are inwardly focused, we probably count it as pain that makes us feel defeated, depressed, disillusioned, disappointed.

If we are outwardly focused, we probably count it as pain that leads to anger, rage and desire to blame and lash out at others – either those we think responsible, or those who we resent simply because they aren't suffering too.

But if we are upwardly focused, we wisely and courageously count it as joy. We do so in spite of our initial pain, because we are looking not at ourselves, and not at others, but at God, who is our Creator, our Sustainer and our Redeemer. He has a covenant with us to never leave us, and to vindicate us in the end.

Why We Suffer
1. We are God's children, co-heirs with Christ, who first suffered for us. Romans 8:16-18
2. We suffer sometimes so others don't have to. Colossians 1:24
3. It’s evidence that we belong to God and He is refining us. 2 Thessalonians 1:3-8
4. It's sometimes God's will. 1 Peter 2:18-23
5. So we will rely not on ourselves (in our strength or wits to get out of
the problem), but instead, totally on God. 2 Corinthians 1:9

What to Do When Suffering
1. Don't jump to the conclusion God isn't on the job. 1 Peter 4:13
2. Trust God, don't fear. 1 Peter 4:19
3. Be glad you're in the thick of what Christ experienced. 1 Peter 4:14
4. Think of our suffering as a way to be weaned from the sinful habit of always expecting to get our way. 1 Peter 4:1
5. Like Jesus, don't threaten or retaliate. 1 Peter 3:17
6. Continue to do good 1 Peter 4:14
7. Be ready to tell people courteously why we have hope and are living the way we are. 1 Peter 3:17
8. Stand firm. Remember it's not just you, but also Christians all over the world who are suffering.
1 Peter 5: 8-10

Results of Suffering
1. God will restore you and make you strong,
firm and steadfast. 1 Peter 5:10
2. You will be free to pursue what God wants instead of always being so driven to just pursue what we want. 1 Peter 4:2
3. You will be blessed. 1 Peter 3:14
4. You will receive justice later. 2 Thessalonians 1:8
5. You will share in Christ's glory. Romans 8:18

Water and Stone

We thirst for righteousness. We thirst for what is holy. And yet, we walk around without quenching this thirst. We are made of the earth, and like that earth, we thirst. (Proverbs 30:15,16)

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1

God formed us of the clay. Then he breathed life itself into us. When we are born, we begin breathing constantly and automatically. But even though water is so crucial for us that we die in only days without it, we drink only as an infrequent choice; people typically acknowledge that they don’t drink the 48-64 daily ounces advised for our health. We become accustomed to getting by on less than what our bodies need to be fully satisfied.

And so we spend our days in thirst, soon not even noticing our dehydration. Water is what we need, but it’s also what we must seek.

Breathing in and out, we have life, received from our Creator. But do we know our God? We need relationship with Him like we need water. And it is that relationship that we must seek.

O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter.
We all are formed by your hand.
Isaiah 64:8, NIV

When God creates us, He then gives us the choice: Will we continue to be crafted by Him? We are clay, but stone we can become. Clay on a potter’s wheel receives a steady hand and a touch of water that renews. This water keeps the clay from hardening before it is developed into useful form. Just so, our hearts need the touch of what Jesus called Living Water. Jesus introduced a way of living, which is delighting in God and living to delight God. This living water sustains even to eternal life. This living water refreshes spirits. This living water saturates hearts, making them malleable for reshaping.

People living to delight in God were in shortage even in the time of Noah. When men’s hearts hardened and evil was prevalent, God overwhelmed the world with water. He then resumed His craft with a man and his family that were still willing, still pliable enough, to obey Him.

When Moses and the Israelites were trapped by the Egyptians at the Red Sea, one group – the Israelites – received God’s saving grace. These were the descendants of Abraham, a man who chose God over everything else he knew. God had chosen him and his family to become His people, to show His glory among all the nations. When they called out to God for deliverance, God answered. God displayed his faithfulness, carrying out his plan for His chosen people and rewarding Moses’ obedient faith. He saved them in a way they could not anticipate – the parting of the Red Sea – and made them an example they did not comprehend: of deliverance from bondage that is not only physical and political, but spiritual as well.

Another group, the Egyptians, followed a man whose heart was unrelentingly hardened. Their pharoah’s hardness became part of the record of God’s plan. The Egyptians, who did not seek God and who would not hear from Him, were destroyed.

Later, it was the same Israelites who witnessed these miracles who eventually chose fear and pride over faith. Instead of trusting God, they despaired and defied Him. They too became brittle and unyielding, and those who would not be led were not led into the Promised Land. Instead, their children received the land, as evidence of God’s faithfulness.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
Psalm 46:4

O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.
Jeremiah 17:13

When the next generation of Israelites crossed the Jordan River, also parted by their God, He prompted them to build a stack of stones there to recall God’s care. The memorial of rocks stood in the midst of the Jordan just as they had, recalling their physical journey and their spiritual journey. These rocks testified to the survival of these Israelites. They likely also resembled a familiar stubbornness that lingered in their own hearts. Just as the Jordan river current washed over the memorial rocks, God’s presence remained with the Israelites over the ages, continuing to care for them faithfully, in spite of many more generations of rebellion. With time, water shapes and polishes rock. And generations of Israelites came to slowly learn just how faithful their Lord God was.

Awash in His ways, even our stony hearts can be smoothed, polished, reshaped. Overwhelmed at the fountain of grace, we can allow our wills to be broken like rocks into sand. Once broken, we are finally usable. Broken into dust, we are drenched and renewed by God’s purpose, and made once again like clay pliable to God’s will – found in His Word and revealed in relationship with Him.

Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
John 6:35b

In Jesus’ first miracle, He changed water into wedding wine. First, he directed the servants to fill jars with water; then, He directed them to draw out from those jars. The wine that was drawn out and served was declared as the finest.

Over the years, I’ve brought myself and those I care about before God, seeking not only resolution to problems but also restoration of the people facing the problems. And I’ve come to realize that we who worship God are being shaped, like clay, into jars.

Whenever I've taken time to focus on Him – praying to Him, listening to His word in Scripture, and speaking or singing praises to Him, I have been filling up like a jar with living water, and filling the jars of anyone who took the time to pray with me, read with me, and praise with me.

Whenever I've acted in faith, I've drawn out from that water, which is Jesus’ brand of wine. It comes from Communion with Him, relationship with Him.

This living water, which restores, refreshes and sustains unto eternal life itself, is the finest served.

Still the Storm

We cannot predict exactly what a day will bring – whether it’s weather, or other things we face. But God told Noah that the cycles and seasons of the natural world will continue. These patterns allow us even after that overwhelming flood to begin to comprehend some things.
Water has a cycle. From the clouds comes rain – or sleet, hail or snow – with varying impact. The earth is transformed, receiving and storing it for its needs, and then the water returns where it came.
And so even water has a testimony, tracing a path that parallels God’s interaction with us: He sent Jesus as living water from the heavens. Believers were transformed, receiving Him and learning His message to teach others. With the Holy Spirit on reservoir within us, Jesus returned to heaven, from where He came.
Before He left, he gave us more than a prediction, explaining that in this life we will have trouble. He was advising us as His believers to remember that storms are to be expected.
In rebuking the storm that He and His disciples were sailing through (Mark 4:39), Jesus had already demonstrated that disaster, though not part of God’s design, presents an opportunity for us to see God’s redemptive power. And he continued to demonstrate that in every miraculous act, including His own crucifixion and resurrection.
God makes from every circumstance an opportunity to communicate with us. To introduce us to Him, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

God of Abraham
After Abraham came to know God, his countless descendants were introduced to God through the recited history of Abraham’s faith and relationship with God. The events that lead us individually to God need to be shared. Others need to hear the experiences that have informed our faith.
The history of my hometown includes the 1900 Storm, which was recorded as the worst disaster in U.S. history because of the level of destruction and the many lives lost. For my family, it is a story of survival. My 12-year-old grandmother and all her relatives were spared. Learning the details of that crisis, recorded in a great-great-aunt’s voice as she gave a firsthand account, drives home the wonder of God’s mercy.
My mother shared the story of another storm, when she also was 12. In the high wind, their home swayed on its foundation. The ceiling wallpaper swelled in spots as rain seeped through, eventually bursting, and they hurried to move the furniture away from the leaks. Her father, a building contractor, drilled holes in the floor to drain the water and limit the damage, and my mother mopped the water to help it drain. All the while, her elderly grandfather sat quietly in his rocking chair, even as the winds and rains raged. “Papa, aren’t you scared?” she asked.
Her grandfather responded, “Well… I lived through the 1900 Storm… I lived through the 1915 Storm… and if God so wills, I’ll live through this one.” His was the image of a faith shaped by blessings that were not only received but reviewed and recounted; a faith matured by a lifelong, personal experience with God. It was an example that served my mother well in her own elderly years, when she had to face the damage left behind by Hurricane Ike, which flooded the evacuated city in 2008. Family members and crisis volunteers cleared the debris, and months later a contractor helped her find a way to reconstruct the home she'd lived in for over 45 years.

God of Isaac
Local history records many storms, including Hurricane Alicia in 1983. I was a teenager, and I knew God then in the way that Isaac did. Son of Abraham, Isaac was heir to his family’s abundant blessings and to the legacy of their faith. And just as Isaac was surrounded by riches and celebrated in his family, I had a comfortable home and was doted on as the youngest – nine to 18 years younger than my siblings and cousins. As Hurricane Alicia approached, my brother stationed himself in my room, staying alert and ready to reassure me. But he’d have to wake me up first. “I can’t believe you’re sleeping through all of this!” he said, laughing, during the few times that I did wake up. I told him that I knew God would take care of us. My mother called it the faith of a child.

God of Jacob
In March 2000, my husband heard the weather news and called from work to tell me about a tornado watch. The sky was sunny and blue as I picked my son up from preschool, but turned gray by the time we passed downtown.
When I looked to the left, the tornado was headed for us. It followed high winds that slowed the van in a sudden sheet of dirt and leaves across the street. And there was nowhere to go. Outrunning it was as unlikely as in every tornado tragedy story I had ever read, knowing its speed and that we’d have to cross a bridge to do it.
My son sat strapped in behind me. His seat belt seemed to be the best way I could protect him. Being thrown or flipped was what I thought of, as we sat vulnerable without shelter. I put the car in park, turned the motor off, and reached back to put my hand on his leg. And in it came. “We’re going to be OK,” I yelled over the wind.
As debris crashed against the van, I looked back at him, and saw the back windshield peeling away from a hole in its center. I told him to keep his head down and not to move it, as he sat strapped upright, the headrest behind him. I bent down at the waist, away from the windows and over the baby inside me. I was almost 6 months pregnant. And I called out to God as the wind roared: “Dear God, please help us! Lord, I know you are with us! It’s OK,” I told my son, “it’s OK! God is here!
“God, please save us!”
Rock and pieces of roofing were flung through the car, the glass pieces whipping in. In the wind, I continued to yell to my child that we were OK. I continued to pray. “Please spread yourself over us, Lord. I know that you will and are. Please do! Help us, please. Please spare us. I know that you will!”
I squeezed his knee as he held his hands over his ears and squeezed his eyes shut. I can’t say how long it took the tornado to pass. From the reported time it touched down until I arrived home (about a five-minute drive from that point) was about 30 minutes. I only know it was long enough for prayer without ceasing. I only know it was swift enough to leave us without shelter, but still not powerful enough to remove the refuge of our faith.
When the winds first began to slow, I began to cry and to say thank you, still bent over. “Why are you crying?” my son asked. I tried to form an answer.
“Because God saved us,” I said, “and I’m glad.”
I straightened up, and checked him out. A car drove up behind us and blared its horn. I started the car and drove forward a block, slowly reasoning how to drive around a wire stretched across the road, navigating our way home.
In our driveway, feeling worn, I unstrapped him and eased him past the glass. I scooped up my old Bible from the wet seat next to him. As we got out, my husband came to the front porch, unaware of what we’d been through until he saw the van. He’d left work early so we wouldn’t have to drive our child to and from his evening baby sitter, just in case. But as he realized what we’d come through, his face crumpled. And our child, seeing him, began to cry too.
I handed my son to him, as we walked into the house. My husband reached for me, and it was then all three of us sobbing. Until our son heard us over his tears, and told us what I’d told him in the van. “It’s OK,” he said, patting my arm. “It’s OK. It’s OK.” When I could, I told him he was right.
Hours later, after we’d combed the glass and debris from our hair, I looked out at the van to confirm what I knew. The only windows that remained were the front windshield and the window only inches from my son’s head. Both were intact.
Days later, the man who replaced the other windows and cleaned out the debris pointed to a gouge left in the van’s ceiling by embedded pieces of roofing that he’d removed. There was a foot-long gash directly behind where my son’s head had been.
In the days that followed I went over my decision that my son’s safety belt would offer more protection than my arms. But in God’s plan, my role was narrow, limited. It was one thing only: to trust. It was the same part he had for me afterward as I questioned what I had done, finally realizing that quite frankly my actions were irrelevant to this plan, because God’s power, glory and faithfulness had to be fully on display.
My mother told me that my sister had said she could imagine an angel in the van, its arms spread to brace the two windows. A co-worker told my husband he also imagined an angel, its wings spread over the window so close to my son’s head.
I didn’t see God’s methods.
I did recognize his faithfulness. Power greater than the force of a tornado. I also recognized the maturity of faith that God calls us all to. As a child, I trusted in how he always placed me far from danger. As an adult, I acknowleged the myriad times he had led me from trouble. That day, I had to accept that I and my child would not be led away, that we would be in its midst. But that God would be with us.
I came to know something that Jacob came to know. Jacob needed to wrestle a bit, needed to exercise his faith by calling on God to bless him. God’s response, renaming Jacob, led him to see himself in a new way, shaped by God’s purpose. God also literally touched him deeply, and gave him a new way to walk.
Shaped by God’s purpose, I shared my testimony. I passed out written copies of our story to my newspaper coworkers, about a week after the tornado, overruling my shyness.
Touched deeply by God’s grace, I was also amazed by His favor. A coworker shared the story with her pastor, who asked to read it to his congregation as part of his sermon one Sunday. Another coworker asked if she could run it in the newspaper, on the Saturday religion page. And several readers emailed their responses, sharing how the testimony had touched them personally.
I had trusted God in the van, and in hard times before that. And in the years after the tornado, I began to see more things to surrender to Him. Like shyness when a chance comes to minister, or be ministered to. Like trying to lean harder on my own efforts, when I need to be getting closer to Him.
Like evaluating myself or letting others judge me. Not only does only God have that right, I prefer for God to do it. He’s so much more loving and effective than anyone else. My time is also better spent praising Him, and rejoicing at how God encourages and rebukes me.
Like clutching my to-do list. I prefer when the Holy Spirit supervises my time. God teaches me how to steward every blessing, and I receive His power and His grace.
I also prefer life with a view, taking time to see God everywhere. I marvel at his omnipresence, glimpsed in the people and situations around me.

Your Storms of Trouble
If you’ve already looked over your circumstances, checking them like a weather report, you may have forgotten that God actually knows them better than you. With the view dim or fogged, you might not see change on the horizon. You might spot broken branches, but not see the pruning and regrowth to come. If you ask Him, you might be amazed at what God shows you, and what He can bring out of your circumstances.
If you are chilled to the bone, and your face is stinging, standing with you in the storm is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is a refuge you can turn to, someone who can teach you to say as He does:

Peace, be still.




For prayers and praise: Verses to treasure

Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family that you have brought me this far?
2 Samuel 7:18b NIV

I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
Psalm 77:11 KJV

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Romans 11:33a KJV

If the Lord had not been on our side – let Israel say – if the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us, when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away.
Psalm 124:1-5 NIV

And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
Mark 4: 39 NKJV

Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"
Matthew 8:24-27 NIV

Making Room

I sit in the living room, looking out the window.
The birds sing as the sky lightens, over the sweet porches with their lightbulbs still glowing, and over the picket fences.

I thank God for this place where I live. Our once-unfurnished house now has belongings in every corner. I thank God for how He has filled us, the family inside the house, with hope, with joy, and cherished gifts of his Spirit. I thank God for how He has furnished our lives.

As we make plans to build a new home nearby, I thank God for the experience of living in this well-known, well-loved place. Our family remains thankful for all the comforts of the house we’ve shared for these many years. Yet even as we fondly live in this place, so familiar and very much home, we keep before us that we do have another place that we will go. We needfully acknowledge the limitations of where we are, to better appreciate where we are going.

I thank God also for the visualization, the expectation, of this place where we will live, one day when we move. As we’ve talked about it at length, it's a home that’s become a reality long before any piece of wood has been bought. Each time we revisit the topic, this place too becomes more and more familiar to us. And even though we’ve never walked there, it is a place already special to us.

We’ve made room for it in our minds.

We’ve had the opportunity to sit and talk with the architect, to examine it from every view that he provides. We’ve heard and shared his enthusiasm and excitement about what he has crafted for us.

We need to know that we’re going, and we need to know where we’ll be. But it’s a home that we will trust someone else to construct. We won’t place any portion of it, not a single timber or stone. All we will place is our trust, that someone else will put together what we need. We’ll also be trusting that someone to craft it well, to make it special.

I thank God for this hope, and I thank God for this life that we share.
I thank Him for how His presence has blessed our time here on this earth. My once uncharted life now has tasks and responsibilities that fill the moments. I thank God for how He has filled me with purpose. I thank God for how he has furnished our days.

We remain thankful for all the memories we cherish. Yet even as we recall that today is the day which the Lord has made, choosing to rejoice and be glad in it, we keep before us that we will have a life beyond this one. We needfully acknowledge the limitations of this world, to better appreciate the joys of the heaven that we will share.

As we make plans to spend eternity with God, I thank God for giving us this expectation. As we fellowship with each other and other Christians, paradise is a home that’s become part of our reality even now. Each time we revisit the topic, this place too becomes more and more familiar to us, and already more and more treasured.

We’ve made room for it in our hearts.

We’ve answered the invitation to prayer, taking the opportunity to sit and talk with the architect. Reading through the Word, we examine eternity from every view that God provides. In Scripture and in spirit, we’ve heard and shared his enthusiasm and excitement about what he has crafted for us.

Because this life ends, we know that we’re going. Because of His sacrifice, and the gracious revelation in His word, we know where we’re going. Acknowledging the quality of His work, it’s a place that we trust God to construct, and God alone. Our eternal welfare is not in our hands. We place our trust in God, for all our needs and our wants.

There’s light yet in this day. There’s day left to spend time with Him. Rest in Him. Abide in Him. And invite Him to abide in us.
Let us dwell on relationship with God.

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Isaiah 55:1

Last Sunday, our pastor reminded us of this, God’s invitation to invest ourselves in His ways and His kingdom. Our Lord calls us forward, in our hunger, to a banquet table filled with peace, joy, and all other fruits of the spirit. He calls us to leave behind the things that the world values – acquiring material wealth, social status, etc. – to seek the things that will finally satisfy.
Our Sunday School lesson also told the story of Jesus’ friend Mary, who invested herself in her worship, anointing Him with costly perfume. The disciples chided her for wasting money. Jesus chided them, saying she had her priorities straight.

The day before, I’d been selling food at a tournament held by the martial arts academy we attend. We volunteers chose to be accountable to each other, asking each other to witness when we took money to the cashbox to buy food for ourselves and our families. It was all bought cheaply -- a dollar here, a quarter there, at our half-price volunteer discount. Because of our teacher’s generosity and appreciation, we had all eaten for very little.
We also had fun with our friends from the school and with the families in attendance. I tried to hand out the food with care and consideration, and the folks on the other side of the concession table more than returned it. One martial arts teacher, who outranked most of the people in attendance, took time to joke with the kids standing nearby, and lavished compliments for the cheeseburgers grilled just outside the door. And later, I sent my son after another customer who forgot his change; but my son returned with the change, explaining that the customer decided to donate it to the cashbox.
It was an event well worth the investment of our time.

The next day, we visited the bookstore, and then tried to decide where to eat. I got voted down; the steakhouse was the husband’s option. But I really enjoyed all of us just sitting down at the restaurant talking together. There was time for jokes, for stories, for reminders on table etiquette.
During dinner, our waitress showed up with her hands outstretched, ready to personally take away the trash from our table – torn sugar wrappers and the paper napkins damp from the glasses – so we could better enjoy our meal. I didn’t really want to deal with any of that at that time; I wasn’t so eager to hand all that to her while I was still eating. But I was humbled by the fact that she was willing to put her hands on it right then and there.
The food was also very delicious, worth choosing to pack lunches for a while afterward to maintain balance in our budget. At the restaurant, we spent a great deal, but because of my husband’s generosity in taking us out and because of our family fellowship, as well as good food and service, we were glad for the meal. Just like the day before, it was worth our investment.

So it is with our God. Generosity, service and fellowship, part of both the tournament and the restaurant meal, are found in God’s invitation to us. He invites us to His well-stocked banquet table and calls the spiritually poor to fill themselves, to change a life that does not satisfy. But this is no redemption drive-through, or a blessings buffet. He invites us to sit and eat.
He’s tending needs beyond our stomach. Like the tournament host and customers, He teaches us by His example the importance of kindnesses extended to the least of us – being generous with time, with money, and with praise. Like a patient parent, He teaches us good table manners: how to be considerate of others in the things we do. Like the waitress at the restaurant, He refills our glasses with living water that refreshes and revives. He also sees the things that we’ve just shoved to one side, that really don’t belong there anymore, and clears the way, personally and hands-on. In all he does, He is showing us by His example how to serve.
The most important thing on the table is that He’s talking with us. He’s teaching us how to spend time with him. When we give Him our time, we give Him ourselves. When we anoint Him with that, there are stories to be told and joys to share.
Generosity, service, fellowship. These are priceless things that ultimately satisfy – the very meat of our lives.