Just Me, Redeemed
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Sounds Of Home

3/22/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
I was sitting in the backyard recently while my husband Jim was doing some yard work.  I sat there enjoying the warm sun on my back and just some time spent with Jim, when the breeze would occasionally pick up and I could hear my wind chime.  
While we were caring for my mom after a massive stroke, we started working on the backyard.  We had always planned to do something nice, but much of this was for my mom.  Living in Lake Havasu for many years, grass was a luxury that we did not have, except for a time when she had a patch about the size of a floor mat.  So when she was here we started making plans to plant grass and make the yard a haven for her.  She never got to see the finished project, but she would have loved it.  As I went about decorating the gazebo that we put up, I thought of her.  I picked out the pretty little wind chime that to me seemed to have the perfect pitch.  Light and tinkly it sounds so pretty on a breezy day.  It wasn't until that recent day outside though that I realized that to me, that sound was the sound of home.
I don't have a lot of joyful memories of my childhood or teen years.  Things were rough in my home.  I have talked about this in some previous posts.  Though now I know my parents loved me, back then they were broken people who acted out of that brokenness.  So to have something to remind me of home is not always a pleasant thing.  But I do remember a wind chime that my dad had hung up in the backyard.  I could hear it outside my bedroom window, especially when the monsoon weather was upon us, causing those chimes to make a frenzy of noise.
But sitting outside the other day that sound gave me such a feeling of nostalgia I wanted to cry.  To have a sound that reminded me of the good things of home really touched my heart.  It was like an echo of what should have been.

There is another echo that I hear in my heart.  Another sound that reminds me of home.  A murmer of what is to come.  
It is the sound of a song that is sung in heaven.  A song that we who follow Christ, will all hear.
When my dad was dying of cancer I was privileged to help my mom care for him.  The doctors had told us he had six months, but he only lasted two weeks.  What was his final morning seemed to be the same as the previous few.  We had him at home in his bedroom.  He had not been conscious for days.  I would go in and clean him up, change his pain patch and play music for him that I hoped he could hear and would bring him peace.  Much of it was instrumental; beautiful chords flowing through that room filling it with His peace.
That morning as I was sitting with him, I heard loudly and clearly, these words; "Go get the cd you have in the truck and play track 5".  I don't second guess these things.  I ran to the truck, got the cd and played that track.  I heard the Lord tell me that soon my dad would be hearing what was being sung on that cd in person.  The song told of the angels crying 'Holy, holy is the Lord'.  
Up until that point I had not known for sure that my dad had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.  Jim and I had talked to him about it, we had certainly prayed about it, but we had never seen confirmation.  This, what was happening at that moment, was the confirmation I had been waiting for.
I ran and got my mom.  I told her that dad's time here was almost done.  As that song played on repeat, I saw tears begin to run down my dad's face.  Just before he passed into the presence of our Father, his arms raised up almost of their own accord and then he was gone.  You have to realize that he had not moved for the past three days.  Nothing.  So for him to raise him arms up straight above his head was a miracle in itself.
My dad had heard the sounds of home.  A sound that he had not heard before, but that he recognized in his heart and spirit.  And when he heard that sound, I know that he finally felt peace and then in the twinkling of an eye, was in the arms of his Lord.

My heart and spirit can faintly hear that chorus of heaven.  I cannot wait until the moment when the faint echo that I hear becomes a resounding symphony.  When I am finally in the presence of my Father and my Lord and that melody welcomes me home.  
 

0 Comments

Happy Birthday To Me!

3/15/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Yesterday was my daughter's birthday.  A kind of melancholy day for me because she is living many hours away from us.  But I know a happy one for her.  She was out doing something that makes her very happy, riding her horse.
I started thinking of past birthdays. Not only her's but also my sons'.  Birthdays are a celebration of the day that that tiny person finally makes their grand entry into the world.  A day that mom and dad wait for with anticipation and also some trepidation.  Will I be a good parent?   Will they be healthy and strong?  Will they grow up to be a person of integrity and compassion, kind and generous?  Many questions go through our minds, and then that day finally arrives.  Most times not exactly on the due date.  So, surprise!!  It's time to hurry to the hospital or whatever arrangements have been made to usher this anxiously awaited gift from God.  
What a joy it is to be a part of God's creative process.  To know that without Him there is no new life.  But through Him, this red, wrinkled, crying newborn came to bring your life joy.  And sometimes pain and sorrow.  But as a parent there is always that underlying love and quiet awe that you helped bring a new life into existance.  
So, every year we celebrate that day.  A day of festivities to commemorate the day this person that God has given to you as a gift entered your life.  A day to remember that first day when all the world was new and the whole world was before them.  Adventures, thrills, trials and some heartbreak.  Sounds like the trailer for a movie.  Life is like that.  You never know for sure what is around the next corner.
Thinking of birthdays got me to thinking about another birth-day.  That day of new birth in Jesus.  It is a day that we don't usually know when it is coming.  I didn't 'plan' per se to give my heart and life to Jesus on that day that I did.  It was not something that I had set in my schedule for such and such a day at such and such a time.  But I do know it was a day that my Father had been eagerly awaiting.  He set everything in motion for me to come to that saving knowledge of all that Jesus had done for me.  He brought people into my life who would share the love of Jesus with me.  He allowed the Holy Spirit to woo me and begin to convince me of that great and mighty love that was waiting for me.  He had a plan for my life, above and beyond all that I could have hoped and dreamed.  And the day that I realized that I had a Father in heaven who loved me, a Saviour who gave His life for me, that was my birth-day.  Even more exciting than the day I entered this beautiful world He created.  And there was a celebration even greater than what my parents and family had.  There was a celebration in the heavenlies and the attendees were angels.  Rejoicing that another soul accepted life and that life eternal.  Luke 15:10 says that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
As we live this life, we can live it like every day is a gift.  Every day is a new birth-day.  And adventures, thrills, trials and yes, even heartbreak await us.  But oh the joy of knowing that we are not alone.  That we are not without hope.  That in all these things God never leaves us!  
My own parents are gone now.  And on many days I miss them so much, but even more so on April 23.  That was the day that, surprise!!  It's time to head to the hospital and labor though all the pain and blood, sweat and tears.  To finally hold that little baby that was me!  I miss them so, but I rejoice that I have another Father who celebrates that day, and every day with me.  And even greater, that on the day I leave this mortal shell I inhabit, I will have another day of celebration!  As I come into the presence of the One who not only celebrated my birth, but who formed me in my mother's womb and knew everything about me...
So, happy birthday to me!!  Another day of knowing He has a purpose for me.  Another day of peeking around the corner to see what awaits me.  Another day of knowing that my parents and my Father are waiting for that most joyful of days when I arrive...Surprise!!
0 Comments

The Book Of (Insert Your Name Here)

3/1/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
I recently watched the movie The Book of Eli, for probably the fifth or sixth time.  I am not in the habit of watching R-rated movies but this one really struck a chord with me.  If you haven't watched it, it is a pretty gritty movie both in tone and content about a post-apocalyptic world.  Eli is on a mission with the last known written Bible in existance.  He has been traveling west for the past thirty years to take this precious book to a place where it will be safe.  Eli scavenges off the land to survive and at one point makes it into a small town.  There he is basically taken prisoner by a man named Carnegie who is always on the hunt for any book that he can find.  Carnegie knows that knowledge is power, but for him, to have a Bible means the ultimate power.  At one point he says, "I grew up with that book; I know it's power."
As Eli escapes from Carnegie a young girl accompanies him.  She sees him read the book every day, but she does not know what it is, as she does not know how to read.  She asks him to read to her and hears the beauty of what is in the book.
As they travel west she finds out he has been traveling for 30 years carrying this book.  She asks him, "Thirty years of traveling, did you ever think you were lost?"  He says no and she asks how he knows the way.  Eli replies that he walks by faith, not by sight.  (Spoiler, that is a key phrase to this movie if you haven't seen it yet.)
Eli was entrusted with the Book and he was protected in his journey to get it to a place of safety.  He read this book every day for strength and guidance.  When you get to the end of the movie, you see that he not only read the book daily, he ingested it.  The Book was his daily food; his very life and existance.  
God has given us this same Book.  This Book of life; the Book of Spirit and Truth.  He has entrusted us with this same knowledge and hope to give to a lost and dying world.  Our first calling in life is to freely give to others the hope that has been given to us.  As we read the Word and ingest it's life-giving message we are to be like rivers of living water overflowing the banks and sharing it for all to hear.
The thing is though, that at times we grow weary in doing well.  Or we fall into a routine, where our daily existance is just doing the same ol', same ol'.  We read the Bible because it is habit.  Let's get these ten verses out of the way and then we can go about our daily business.  Let's mumble a quick prayer and get onto the things that are really pressing.  As Eli says in the movie, "In all those years I got so caught up in reading it and carrying it that I forgot to live by what I had learnt from it."
We do that sometimes too.  We figure that as long as we have read it, it must be coming through in all we do.  Because we 'carry' this book, we must be living a Godly life and be beyond reproach.  We forget that living as a Christian is more than spouting verses at people.  It is loving others, living a joyful life, sharing the hope that has been given to us.  It is not ours to hoard, or ours to say, we have received it, now that is the be all and end all of it.  We are to let His light so shine through us...
This Book is to be our book.  This book of life and hope and truth.  We are to be as it says in 2 Corinthians 3:2.  Paul says to the Christians there that they are a letter, written in their hearts, known and read by all men.  
I try daily to live a life that will glorify God and draw people to Him, but more often than not I fail.  Instead of the Book of Gail being the Bible, I am more often the Book of Chicken Little or The Memoirs of Eeyore.  I worry too much and think the sky is falling!  
But I am learning daily to 'be' rather than just to do.  To live a life pleasing to God.  To let the fruit of the Spirit grow in me so other's can taste and see that the Lord is good.  Not to just carry the Book, but to live by what I have learned and am still learning.
I want at the end of my life to be like it was at the end of Eli's.  He had carried out the mission that was given to Him.  He had overcome the obstacles in his way and had brought the Word to a place where it would once again be shared with others.  His prayer at the end of it all was this...
"Dear Lord, thank you for giving me the strength and the conviction to complete the task you entrusted to me. Thank you for guiding me straight and true through the many obstacles in my path.  And for keeping me resolute when all around seemed lost.  Thank you for your protection and many signs along the way.  Thank you for any good that I may have done, I'm so sorry about the bad.  Thank you for finally allowing me to rest.  I'm so very tired, but I go now to my rest, at peace.  Knowing that I have done right with my time on this earth.  I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith."
And thank you Lord that you have entrusted to me the Book of Gail, that I might give it freely to others.  If this is your prayer also, insert your name here...The Book of __________.

Photo by Jason Jacobs, https://www.flickr.com/photos/jijake1977/42483087694


0 Comments

    Categories

    All

    Archives

    December 2021
    September 2021
    February 2020
    January 2020
    March 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Author

    Gail Holleman

    Submit

    Subscribe to Newsletter
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.