Notes from Friends

How blessed I am with friends near and far, young and old, who take the time to write and send words of encouragement, blessing, and truth!

Good Morning!

I love the view that greets me each morning - no matter the season.

If I take the time to see.

In summer I feel as if I live in a warm, glowing nest.

In winter I enjoy pristine views of wide horizons, grey, frosty mornings, or sunshine reflecting off the snow into every corner of my room.

A Verse for the Year: 2014

With the verse for 2013 still ringing through my heart and mind, 2014 brought the choice of a new verse. I believe God pointed out not one, but two passages that He knew I would be needing through the incredible challenges of the year ahead. The first was:

"I am still confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the LORD

in the land of the living.

Wait for the LORD;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the LORD."

Psalm 27:13-14

Early in the year I remember walking the driveway speaking these verses aloud; almost sternly commanding my heart to believe the truth despite all feelings.

In the months ahead, Elsa and I had no choice but to wait. We hardly had strength to get off the couch. How could we be strong? Where was that goodness? And yet God over and over gave just enough grace to rest in Him one more day - then to make it through one more long night.

I can't begin to describe the weakness, pain, loss, and loneliness we faced... are still facing. I still can't see the big picture. But I keep watching for His daily goodness in my life.

One instance was in 2014 when a friend sent those very verses without knowing I had claimed them for the year. 

Besides the encouragement from Psalm 27, I was also struck by Paul's words in II Corinthians 4:16-18. The Apostle Paul, who knew so much of suffering...

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Where will we fix our eyes this year? On the troubles which clamor for the attention of all our senses? Or on the unseen, eternal truth of God?

(Also see Verses for the Years: 2013, 2015)

Dreaming

Gulliver dreaming of warm summer days with no snow to wet her paws...

Gulliver dreaming of someplace cool, like maybe Antarctica...

Funny thing is, I heard it was warmer in Antarctica than here in our snowy north last week.

I think it's pretty nice right here - any season!  

Still Enjoying Christmas

Though our Christmas CDs are being played less and less, we are still enjoying our Christmas decorations as January nears its end.

Even Dorothy's Christmas-tree balloon is still hovering a couple feet above the floor. What a comfort it can be to hug a balloon! 

  

  

Wheels for Dorothy

Our little Dorothy is getting tired. 

It is getting harder and harder to stand and walk - even in her fun new shoes.

And it is getting hard to be picked up and set in a car. It seems to be scary or painful for Dorothy. And certainly painful for her brother, who is the only one in the family who can lift her like that.

So we were blessed to find a van for Dorothy to buy - thanks to her parents' foresight and provision in leaving her the funds. And thanks to God who answered many months of prayer in leading us to some great dealers to work with. They even delivered the van to us yesterday - a 2.5 hour drive away from their store.

And that was just in time for today, when Dorothy got all buckled in to ride to an appointment!

Warm Mail on a Cold Day

Through sub-zero temperatures and under the glow of amazing sun-dogs, our mailman drove to the door with a special batch of mail.

We were happy that Dad received the missing part from the water filter he tried installing earlier in the week. The box of necessary health supplements was maybe not exciting, but welcome anyway.

But the best package was the yarn for my first sweater! The first one I am attempting to knit, that is.

Ribbing for the collar begun!

 Chosen for its price, quality, weight, and color, this lovely wool yarn has the special bonus of being named after my favorite winter bird: chickadee!

How fitting that I had already been watching and trying to capture photos of this hearty little bird soon before the mail arrived.

And how fun to dig through the bundle of letters and find one from a friend... with the same little bird on the front!

A Verse for the Year: 2013 continues

Each Christmas Dad has the fun of picking out another little toy animal to give his girls - a tradition not to be stunted by age.

Though only a few inches tall, this Christmas's eagles are a stunning reminder of all I wrote of regarding my 2013 verse-of-the-year.

Have you ever tried reading the Bible in another language? Usually that makes things more confusing, but there is one translation that can bring me a fresh view on certain familiar passages. It is the Hawai'i Pidgin Bible. While being a language of its own - needing a separate translation to really speak to the hearts of its native speakers - I find much of it close enough to English to follow.

See for yourself:

But da peope dat wait for Yahweh help dem,

Dey goin change so dey come mo strong still yet.

Dey goin fly up jalike da eagle

Wit dea wide wing.

Dey goin run an no come tired.

Dey goin walk and no come worn out.

Isaiah 40:31

Sun Dogs

It was when visiting with some friends from South Africa that I was struck by the fact that those of us from cold climes have been given a special privilege to cheer us through the frigid days. 

My southern friends had never heard of sun-dogs: the rainbow-like smile to each side of the sun that warns us to bundle up well before heading out.

And while I have once spotted a rare sun-dog on a warmer day, they seem almost exclusively saved for times like today. Our high is -10° F (-23° C). The sunshine is lovely and wool socks and sweaters a must.

A Verse for the Year: 2013 and On

Some people make New Year's resolutions.

Some choose a theme "word" for the year.

And some of us choose a Bible verse for the year.

2013 was the first year I really narrowed down to one verse to keep in mind all year and wrote it in the front of my Bible. Isaiah 40:28-31 - especially vs. 31

How neat to also find my verse in an envelope that I had picked up when sorting Grandma's apartment after her September 2011 death. The worn envelope was full of index cards with her hand-written memory verses. Grandma was even memorizing more scripture on her final days in the ICU after a heart attack. She was 90 years old.

Here is the verse in context:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 

but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. 

2013 was the year of fading strength for Elsa and me. (We can now look back and see it had been waning ever since an illness in 2005.  Likely when we picked up Lyme.) I held onto this verse as my body grew more and more tired and weary.  Daily life became harder. Extra activities had to be cut. We spent more and more time lying in silence on the couch to recover.

One day as I sat on my bedroom floor reading my Bible and praying, I needed hope. For some reason I suddenly looked up at the window and was given an amazing gift. A huge, bald eagle flew straight at me, its 6-7 foot wingspan filling the window's view as it soared up to clear our 2nd story rooftop! 

I have never seen an eagle fly that close - before or since. My family probably couldn't understand me right away as I came racing down the stairs gasping out the news! And of course, my verse came to mind... with renewed hope.

Little did we know how much more of God's hope and strength we would need in the months and years ahead.

That summer Elsa and I made one more trip to visit and work with our dear friends in Russia. When we came home, we were determined to return the following year. But we never recovered from "jet-lag." Our bodies began to seriously stumble that autumn, and in early 2014, they fell.

But in that very dark time, God graciously gave us more hope to hold onto. He clearly told Elsa that "this would be harder than we imagined, but He would get us through it."

We are still in the midst of "it" and wait for more of that promised renewal. When we feel like giving up, He reminds us again in various ways.  And He keeps using His glorious creation of eagles.

Our doctor is a six-hour drive from home. That certainly has its challenges as we travel every 3 months for appointments. But each time we look forward to counting the bald eagles along the Mississippi River bluffs. In 2014 we counted at least 50 on one winter trip. Elsa spotted more than a dozen in an hour on our last drive. And we remember this verse. A gift!

In 2014 Elsa was given some delicate origami paper and learned how to fold eagles.  Here's the one she gave me.

One of our regular drives passes a local bald-eagle nest. We always crane our necks to look for the resident pair and miss them for the few months they disappear each winter. We were amazed at how quickly they rebuilt the gigantic nest after a storm knocked it out of their dead tree.

Then in 2015 we watched as the parents diligently guarded and fed not one, but two fuzzy, black eaglets.  The newspaper (where this picture was printed) explained how very rare that is.

Even though 2013 is long past, the verse for the year continues to bless us. And we continue looking for God's reminders of hope and relying on His daily strength.

Topic continued in later post
Also see Verses for the Years: 2014, 2015 

Is There Any Good?!

With all that is going on in the world, this verse caught my attention recently:

Psalm 4:6

"Many are asking, 'Who can show us any good?'

"Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD."

What was shining on me at the moment I read that? A "little" light that God created - called the "sun."  Certainly no where near being the biggest star and not even comparable to the light of God's face.  But a sweet and fitting gift nonetheless on these cold, often grey days.

And because of the all-powerful, never-changing Source of God's Light, we can go on with the Psalmist to say:

"You have filled my heart with greater joy...
I will lie down and sleep in peace,

for you alone, O LORD, 

make me dwell in safety."

Psalm 4:7-8