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| My daughter received these peonies to celebrate the birth of her first-born. No, you're not cross-eyed. They are out of focus. I played Bible roulette again this morning with my Women's Devotional Bible. I pick it up from the side table and read whatever page it opens to. Do you ever do that? |
Today I happened upon this poem by Anne Ortland, a Christian musician and author.
Incarnation
"The Lord is in His holy house"-
Oh, grace beyond describing,
That Christ in me should please to dwell-
Immanuel residing!
"My soul doth magnify the Lord,"
I sing with lowly Mary,
That God should choose to enter in
This
humble sanctuary!
I read it through a couple of times, marveling at her word pictures and the truths of which she spoke. Her inspiration came from Luke 1, the story of the angel's announcement to Mary that she would become the mother of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
Luke 1:35 & 37 jumped out at me:
The angel answered...
"... no thing (word change and emphasis mine) is impossible with God."
Luke 1:37
A favorite daydream came to mind immediately. For several years my Dear Husband and I have been mulling around the idea of moving closer to our children. We want to experience life with them on a WAY more regular basis. We want our visits to be unhurried, not sandwiched between two 3-hour drives.
This dream is my impossible thing for these reasons:
We'd need to sell our home.
In this market?
I would have to quit the job I love.
Not work with my students?
How could we afford to replace the health insurance benefits it provides?
DH would need to continue being self-employed.
In this economy?
We would need to forge new lives for ourselves, individually and as a couple.
This means a new support system of church and community friends-can't expect the kids to fill all of our time
This dream and the accompanying thoughts are never far from my conscious mind. They often surface causing my heart and tummy to ache. But this morning, as I read Anne's poem and the Truth from God's Word, I laid those cares at His throne of grace. Because Jesus, the One that Mary bore, in Whom I "live and move and have" my being,* lives in me and with Him no thing is impossible.
What is your impossible thing?
May God give you grace to trust that He is living and moving in your life
with the knowledge that His plans for you are wonderful.
Love,
Karen
*Paul is quoting the Cretan poet Epimenides in Acts 17:28. I didn't know that. Did you?
P.S. I WILL BE ON VACATION FOR THE NEXT WEEK OR SO AND DON'T EXPECT TO HAVE INTERNET ACCESS. I HAVE SCHEDULED ANOTHER POST FOR WEDNESDAY, SO Y'ALL COME BACK AND VISIT, 'KAY? WHEN YOU VISIT AND, PRETTY PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT, KNOW THAT I WILL VISIT YOU TOO WHEN I GET IT TOGETHER RETURN.
Playing along with
Beverly for Pink Saturday
Charlotte & Ginger for Spiritual Sundays
18 comments:
Oh Karen thanks for your visit!
It was so good to be here with you and visit today.
I loved the Word today.
NO THING impossible with God..empowering!!
Thank you!
Have a great vacation, and may He give you the desires of your hearts!!
Im putting you on my sidebar so I can visit you more and see when a new post comes up :)
In His love,
Deborah xoxo
He holds our hopes and dreams in His loving hands! There is no better place to leave them:)
If He says "Yes" to your dream...it will be so, no matter how bad the house market is. You are right...He can do anything!
I like the poem...very lovely and filled with truth.
Thank you for sharing it!
I stopped by from Spiritual Sundays.
Blessings,
Charlotte
Thank you for this. I have the 'aching heart and head and stomach' thing over a problem at the moment. Our son has dyspraxia and a specialist has said he has the right to use a laptop computer in school. Now, you have to realise that the education system is very different here in France, and the school is totally disinterested in allowing this. Do we just go ahead and send him back to school with a laptop in September? Or do we wait for the school to OK the plan, which they may never do? Will sending him in with it make them so angry with us that they refuse to ever consider it? Or will he just quietly get on and improve his grades and then no one will mind? It feels an impossible conundrum (especially with the additional question of how we'll find the money). You have reminded me that God already knows the answer, and that His wisdom and grace are available to us if we only ask. I'll be praying for you as you ask for His wisdom too.
Karen, this made me feel as tho a 18 years problem has hope, tho I know when it should change He will let it change.
Beautiful share. TY
Happy PS weekend.
TTFN ~
Marydon
I have the EXACT impossible dream! In THIS economy. I will tell you, we were transferred mid-dream to the opposite coast and not at all to our beloved south (and son).
However, I did ask for a miracle and it was granted. Our house sold, without a huge loss, in a market where only 12 houses were selling in a year. It took 60 days instead of the 366 day average. So I say all things are possible.
For now, I'm embracing the best I can a NEW "country", California, and still keeping my eyes open for opportunities...and miracles.
Happy Pink Saturday!
Karen, my husband and I have the same dilemma. Our children live across the country to us in Colorado and we are only able to visit them and see our grandchildren a few times a year. I want to be a part of my grandsons lives so I would love to move from NY to CO..but I also have an elderly mother here that I help take care of. I pray on this all the time, and hope the Lord will guide us.
Thanks for visiting me on Pink Saturday!
Thank you for sharing the beautiful poem along with your hopes and dreams!
Have a wonderful, relaxing vacation and we will " see" you when you get back.
Blessings,
Shawn
I hope your dreams come true. I would love to live closer to my grandchildren! Happy PS!
dreams...funny...that's what I posted about too.....wishing you a great vacation.....and
Have a great vacation! I am going to leave blogland for awhile,too. May we both come back refreshed and renewed, energized to serve the Lord!
I have had a lot of "impossible" problems just disappear with time. I know how you feel about being close to your kids. I'm so glad ours are just about 5 minutes away. For years they lived in a different state. God worked out all the details to bring them to Arizona.
Blessings as you plan and dream and let God work out the details.
Charlotte
Hi Karen Sweetie...
I am visiting you through Pink Saturday. What a gorgeous share today. I absolutely love your photo of the flower. The color is gorgeous, and I see only the beauty within, not any perfection of non focus. I can close my eyes and see God's beauty, so beautiful.
Now, One day at a time sweet friend. Continue praying, God is guiding you down the path you are to take. You will know when the time is right (if you are meant to put your house on the market, jobs) everything will work out, even with our economy. He is guiding you, keep following and he knows your hearts' desires.
Such a beautiful share, just beautiful. I am now a follower, so I will be back. I would love to have you stop by as well, and would be tickled pink to have you follow me as well. I love sharing my day to day life, and crafts along the way. Have a glorious weekend. Country hugs from Phoenix, Sherry
What an encouraging post. I have some of those heart/tummy hurting problems. I'm going to be reminding my self "no thing is impossible with God."
I hope you have a restful vacation.
Blessings,
Pamela
I often just open my Bible and read, I take it to heart. What a big decision you have about wanting to move closer to your children,there are so many things to consider you are right.I will keep you in my prayers.
God Bless,
Ginger
Congratulations to you daughter (in her new little addition) and congratulations to you too.
That is a lovely poem and I am so glad you decided to share it with us. My husband and I too are at the same threshold...thinking about retirement and moving closer to our children. We are always looking through the real estate listings. Although we have found many that we consider nice enough, there just hasn't been the home we are willing to trade our current one for. I believe that true belief in God and one's self is the answer to all. I believe that if we stay true to our faith, our search, our goals and ourselves, the perfect house will happen.
Have a pinkshly beautiful day.
Yes, I take the random selection approach more frequently than not. Usually get some interesting and unplanned input!
Amen! Just excitement in nothing HE can work all things out (according to HIS plan). Nothing is too big or too small. Have a great time away from the computer!
I do understand your ache to be closer to your children and their families...but I also understand your reasons for why you can not. My impossible (well, not impossible but quite unlikely:) dream is similar, to live close to my family in Canada...but it isn't so much that I want to really live there, I just want our lives to be so much more a part of each others. It would be wonderful. Thanks for this beautiful post!
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