Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts

Friday, March 20, 2009

Happy 1st Birthday, Cade!

One year ago tonight I was anticipating your arrival. I didn't know if you were a boy or a girl, but I knew I loved you and I couldn't wait to meet you.

One year ago tomorrow morning, at 9:08 to be precise, as you began to make your entrance your Daddy said, "I think it's a boy." Our doctor said, "I do too." and Mommy cried, "It's a boy?!" The answer I got was, "It's just a head now, but it looks like a boy." Moments later you were out and the doctor made it official, "It's a LAD! It's a boy!" Then in answer to my prayer you gave a good strong cry right away.

After you got cleaned up your Daddy carried you out to meet your big brother Kyle and many other family and friends who were anxiously awaiting your arrival. The nurse stole Daddy's thunder as someone asked, "What is it?" and the nurse replied, "It's a boy!" Oh well.

Your Daddy video taped almost every minute of you laying in your bassinet in the nursery while Mommy was in recovery, he knew I wanted to see all of it. And I did.

We took you home and couldn't believe there were four of us now. After all the waiting and praying you were here and it was so amazing. Daddy forgot to strap big brother in the car seat, the first of many times to come, it took some getting used to, needing to strap two kids in instead of one. But big brother was sure to remind us each time (not always in a cordial manner).

You were such a good baby, sleeping all the time, nursing like a pro. Between six and seven weeks you started sleeping through the night all on your own with no coaxing from mommy. Wow, a good night's sleep sure does wonders for mommy adjusting to two kids.

At first whenever we would go some place, while on the drive, Mommy would panic all of the sudden thinking we had forgotten you at home (we never had of course).

You figured out pretty early that you did not like your car seat and you made sure we knew about it. You cried pretty much the whole drive, anywhere we went, for the first few months.

You are a great baby brother. You generally go with the flow and things pretty much revolve around big brother, but you take it all in stride. You and your "Bubba" (what you call brother) adore each other and play together so well. Big brother's plans always include you (how you will live together when you are both grown, the jobs you will do, and the vehicles you will drive).

You definitely have your own personality and you smile and laugh all the time and you love being the center of attention when opportunity presents.

A lot of kids first learn to imitate a doggie with a "woof woof". Not you, you love to make the elephant sound complete with trunk (arm) motion. It's often the first thing you do in the morning.

You keep us on our toes, completely unlike your big brother. While mommy put groceries away within five minutes today you were into: the dog food, the trashcan, the things under mommy's sink, and the electrical cord on the lamp.

You do not like naptime, you cry every time I put you down because you were having so much fun whatever we were doing! But you settle down in less than a minute and then take a great nap.

Your favorite time of day is when Daddy gets home from work. You crawl to him as fast as you can and he lifts you high in the air, then you wave bye-bye to mommy as if to say, "Okay, Daddy and I can take it from here."

You are such a blessing and a joy to us and we thank God every day that he chose us to be your family. We love you Little Cade! Dada, Momma and Bubba
Cade, we pray that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. (Ephesians 3:17, 18)

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Healed and Revealed

Don’t you just love showing off your scars? No? Me either. I recently heard a sermon which reminded me that is precisely what we should be doing though.

The pastor pointed out that it was the scars of Jesus which prompted Thomas to believe and stop doubting.

By definition a scar is a wound that has been healed. In the case of Jesus the wounds were caused by sin, not His, but the sins of others – the Roman soldiers’, the religious leaders’, mine, yours.

Our wounds may be from our own sin or they may be from hurts others have inflicted on us.

Some people are great at showing their scars and telling of the Father’s healing touch. I am not one of them. I know I have been healed; I know I have been forgiven. It is one of the most powerful sources of witness I can think of. Yet it is for that very reason our enemy wants desperately to convince us to keep our scars covered. What would people think if you tell them of the sin and hurt that caused those wounds? Good Christians shouldn’t have wounds like that. You’re supposed to be an example, that sin couldn’t possibly glorify God anyway. Hide it. Cover it up.

Just like Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his own brothers, I know that our enemy meant those sins and wounds for my destruction, but God used them for good.

God is good. God heals and He makes new. God didn’t forgive me because of anything good or special about me. He forgave me because of the perfect sacrifice of His Son. My righteous deeds are filthy rags, but He looks at me and sees the Spotless Lamb. He looks at me and sees His beautiful child, bought at a great price.

My past is ugly. My present is full of stumbling, but it is all part of the journey to the foot of the throne of grace – beautiful, wholly unmerited, but fully received – grace.

I want to show my scars, I want to proclaim in humility the touch of God in my life, how he picked me up out of the mire and set my feet on a firm foundation. I don’t have to enter each room and confess my sins to everyone in earshot, but I do need to be obedient and share them when God nudges me.

I want to be the light I am called to be and let others see it is within their reach to come out of the darkness. We can’t pull ourselves out of the mire though. God lifts us out when we stop striving and let His mighty and tender hand redeem our ashes.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Psalm 103, here are a few verses:
2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-
3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

Related Posts with Thumbnails