A promise (or two)

Joni Eareckson Tada said that God's children don't live on explanations but on His promises. *

This week during my bible reading two passages have jumped off the page shouting 'Alice' at me. 

        'My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.'
(Psalm 139)

This, and in fact the whole psalm, brings a lot of comfort to me as the mum to a child with a genetic disorder. We often read a children's version of this psalm. As we read ' I am wonderfully made, I jump for joy for what you have done', Alice jumps for joy around the room. Good, I want her to know this to be true with all of her heart, body and soul. 

The second passage is from Isaiah. I discovered it when Alice was ill; I read it every day and clung to it. So when it appeared on my kindle today, naturally my thoughts turned to Alice.

Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
(Isaiah 46:4) 

I walked home today from a meeting with Alice's teacher, turning to God in my mind and wanting to talk to him about her. Then I realised that God had initiated a conversation with me about Alice days ago! And I realised the significance of these two promises together: He was there at the very start of her life, and he will sustain, rescue and carry her till the very end. 

*Diamonds in the dust by Joni Eareckson Tada

January Grey

It turns out I am a New Year- scrooge. I genuinely have been surprised at how many people have wished me happy new year. In my half-empty way I don't see the point of making resolutions that I didn't manage to keep last year or the year before, and can't really believe that a change of date makes anything different.

Then there's January. It's cold and dark and weeks till spring and no lights and decorations to dispel the gloom. (Although there are here, we deliberately left one string of lights up.)

So I have made some resolutions that I have a chance of keeping- read more books. Watch more films. Get more sleep. It's dark and cold, might as well embrace it. The children have rediscovered a love of baking so we are spending lots of time huddled round a mixing bowl with the oven on.

I am doing quite well on the reading front, having started my third book of the month (the top one in the picture.) It's by one of my favourite bloggers, Sara Hagerty. I have talked about her blog before, and her book shares the same name, 'Every bitter thing is sweet.'

Let me share some words which have struck me this morning, a beautiful description of those that know God:

   They acted as if they believed God didn't just tolerate them; He enjoyed them. And yet their messes were more visible than mine. I couldn't understand this combination, but it intrigued me. They lived and walked as if they knew God was good to them, though their circumstances said otherwise. These people liked to pray, and they referenced their day-to-day experience with God as if it were an adventure.

(Sara Hagerty, Every bitter thing is sweet.)

I have friends like this. They really bless me. We get together and 'gossip God'. They say things like 'guess what God is doing'. Or else we just catch up on the details of each others' lives, good and bad. But always with a reference to our God who is good to us. Always with an eye to where he can be found, or at least a heart longing for him. And I come away feeling encouraged by their very real stories of God's unfailing, pursuing, faithful love, and praising him in my heart.