Except Ye Become Like Little Children

She walked in the door and ran over to me, her blond curls dancing along the way.  Before her parents had barely said their "Hello, We made it!" she was on a mission to place an envelope in my hand.  "Grandma, I made this for you! Open it, open it!"  Her younger sister echoed the words, "Yes, Grandma, open it!"  


My hands unfolded the delicate tissue, and I read the words that my little Granddaughter had so painstakingly traced, as she lifted my heart with her words of love:  "Grandma, I know all about your sickness and I pray for you every night!"  The hugs overwhelmed me, while her younger sister again echoed the words, "Yes, I pray for you too, Grandma!"


So the tissue-paper-letter sits on my table today, alongside a beautiful card of encouragement that arrived in the mail yesterday from a sweet Sister-in-Christ.  Words swim in my heart from another new-found friend who lives hours away from here, yet tells me that his entire church has been praying for me.


Was it only last week that I felt all alone in this journey?  Mere days ago that I whispered my failures to Jesus, my weakness to find His Joy?


He never abandons us, oh I know that truth, but my own heart seems so quick to abandon Him.  I feel the sting of being cut-off from His people, and so I allow the cutting-off to extend to my own choosing as well.  "Not now," I hear myself say, "I have no strength left to talk myself into being cheerful."


So, He brings the cheerful to me.  He brings the Blessings to us, to His Body, when He hears the weakest among us whisper the faintest of cries.  

 "Hear my voice, Lord, when I cry out! Be gracious to me and answer me."    --Psalm 27:7

Sometimes He brings it even when we think we cannot face the weight of one more day walking the path of Hard. 

"Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, because I will praise Him once again, since His presence saves me and He is my God."

--Psalm 43:5

And sometimes we need the voice of a child to restore our hearts to that place of trust where our faith begins.

"He (Jesus) called a little child to Him, and placed the child among them. And He said, 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven'."

Oh! May we ever let Him keep our hearts soft, and find that child-like place of Wonder and Awe of our God's Love. 

Linking this week at Jennifer Dukes Lee, #TellHisStory.

Community. . .

The Body of Christ. . .

Bear one anothers burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galations 6:2) . . .

Because He told us that HIS yoke is easy and HIS burden is light, why is it so confusing to us, this burden-bearing-process?   Why do those burdens that we pick up along the way with each other feel so heavy?

My Counselor gave me a hard word for my "Homework" this week:

BOUNDARIES

I have a hard time with that word. You see, years ago, Jesus tore down my own walls of perfection that I had set for myself.  Now I don't like the idea of  re-setting fences; re-erecting walls to fend off possible attacks;  re-forming masks to keep out prying eyes. . .  Neither did Jesus. After all, He called out the Pharisees with their whitewashed sepulchers! (Matthew 23:27)

And yet, BOUNDARIES are spoken of quite differently when the Holy Spirit places them:

"Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; 

you make my lot secure. 

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; 

surely I have a delightful inheritance." (Psalm 16:5-6)

Have I created my own confusion?  What if I have picked up yokes along the way that were never meant for me? What if I have set up protections for myself that never needed to be in place?  But what if I have MISSED the very protection that would have been pleasant for me, by walking on past the YOKE that Jesus would have desired me to bear? 

Here in this place of RA/Fibro weakness,  a new Season of Yoke-bearing has become inescapable. I cannot bear the old burdens any longer; I cannot live the old way of

NO BOUNDARIES
OPEN SEASON
FREE-FOR-ALL

that I was in the habit of doing. And I have felt adrift. Cut off from the Body. Because if NO-BOUNDARIES-LIVING is not possible, how can I ever learn again to bear ANY burdens?

In the middle of these questions, I came across this beautiful Hymn, sung so sweetly by Angela Figel:

I can remember my 9 year old self standing outside at recess and singing this song to my friends! (Yes, I KNOW that's not normal, but that's the amazing connection with this video:  I found out I was not the only child who loved this hymn!) 

Ah, but it has been this little girl inside of ME, who has needed to pay attention to the Words.

JESUS LEADS ME WHERE HIS LIVING WATER FLOWS, AND GIVES ME ONLY THE EASY YOKE INSIDE OF THE BOUNDARIES THAT HIS HOLY SPIRIT DRAWS. 

Walking forward in this Journey, if I listen to HIS promptings,

the boundary lines can indeed be pleasant.

Even in the most trying of places, HE still carries the heavy part of our load Himself.