Recently, we were honored to attend a friend’s memorial service for their mother.

As we entered the sanctuary a beautiful family photo was on the overhead screen. It was a beautiful image of what we saw lived out each week when we gathered for church.

However, it wasn’t until Jane*, (names changed to protect the privacy of our friends), the daughter-in-law of the decedent began to speak did we learn their family was just like many of our own.

Jane* prefaced her eulogy with the following statement, “Before I begin, I feel I should warn you that what I’m about to say about my mother-in-law Sharon*, may be rather controversial and painful to hear for those of you who have wonderful, loving relationships with your family members. Ours… unfortunately, was one marred by hurt, distrust, anger, and pain.

Fighting back tears, Jane* went on to explain that she and her husband had tried endlessly to build a bond with Sharon* but something in her mother-in-law’s past had caused her to become a difficult person to love. In fact, Jane mentioned her husband’s efforts stating, “he is the most forgiving person I have ever known.”

I believe Jane did everyone in attendance a great service with her transparency of their family dynamic. It was riddled with heartache and hardship and loving perseverance.

We don’t need to remain in our brokenness as Sharon did, hurting and lashing out at those who try to love us. Instead we can be changed to love deeper and with a forgiving heart just as Christ did through Jane and her husband.

Jane shared how thankful she was for Jesus. Because although Sharon’s life was riddled with heartache, she loved Jesus. And because of her love for Him, she was no longer in pain. She was completely whole because of the love of Christ. The Sharon we all knew no longer existed. The moment she passed, she left all of that behind her and entered heaven whole. She didn’t carry her pain into heaven.

All because of the blood of Christ.

What a beautiful reminder that the Sharon we knew on earth is not the Sharon in heaven. She’s been made new. And one day, just like Sharon we too will pass and the moment we do, we too leave behind all our brokenness, pain and sorrow and embrace God’s love, wholeness, and joy.

Which leads me to think…will we even recognize one another?

I believe we will. But not because of our past but because of whom we love.

Jesus.

In the meantime, as we walk this earth, Jane’s words remind me that we all need Him. We need the love, grace, and forgiveness of Christ.

If we can begin looking at ourselves and others through the eyes of Christ and not through the damaged lenses of sin, we will be changed. We can begin to understand that we all come from a place of brokenness. None of us have this thing called life down pat and perfected.

With Jesus there is healing and hope. We do not have to remain shattered. We can walk in the way God designed us, to love Him and to serve those around us.

What hope springs forth from God!

This is my prayer for us, that Christ would change our sight so that we would begin to see ourselves and others as God intended and not through the tainted view of sin and pain.

Remember, His Word says that God does not look on man as we do, He looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) And thus, should be our guiding step towards our relationships.

I pray today and moving forward the good Lord would allow us to be changed by His Son Jesus so that we may give to others what He has so abundantly given to us, forgiveness, grace, love, and hope.

Until next time,

May God bless and keep you in His arms.

^{Psalm 103:2-5}

² Bless the Lord, my soul;
    and do not forget all his gifts,
³ Who pardons all your sins,
    and heals all your ills,
⁴ Who redeems your life from the pit,
    and crowns you with mercy and compassion,
⁵ Who fills your days with good things,
    so your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Did you know that? Do you believe it?

Up until this moment, I’ve heard it a thousand times and probably never truly believed it.

Here’s how this lightning bolt of truth hit me.

This morning I read Job 19:25-27, “²⁵ I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth.²⁶ And after my skin has been destroyed, yetin my flesh I will see God;²⁷ I myself will see Him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”

Did you catch it? Those precious words of promise?

…my Redeemer lives.

I felt my heart race as I read and re-read those words over until it clicked. Somewhere between my hard head and hurting heart, it clicked. I, we, are redeemable.

Let me be straight with you friend, I’ve spent my whole life feeling like the lyrics from Casting Crowns song, “Nobody,” 

Why you ever chose me

Has always been a mystery

All my life I’ve been told I belong

At the end of the line

With all the other not-quites

With all the never-get-it-rights

That’s me over and over. The same way, forever. I’m not a good enough supervisor, co-worker, daughter, sister, wife, mother, daughter-in-law…you name the title, I’m sure I’ve heard a slight against whatever expectation was laid down and how I failed to live up to it.

Truth is, I’m human, I make mistakes and disappoint others. According to the world, my mistakes make me disposable.

But…we are NOT! We are redeemable!

In God’s eyes, we are perfect because of Jesus. We are forgiven, redeemable and loved. His sacrifice on the cross paved the way to walk with Him back to God’s open arms.

Is this a magic wand to wave over our lives and poof! all of the old tapes, negativity and nasty influences in our lives are gone? Oh, how I wish that was true. But it’s not. We’re going to repeat bad behavior, upset ourselves and others.

The key is remembering and accepting that God says we are redeemable.

God, as our redeemer, is quick to forgive when we ask. He’s also good about not leaving us where we are. In fact, because of Jesus, you can count on God growing us by using the good and yes, even the bad in our lives for good.

Doesn’t make sense does it? I know! Here’s something else that doesn’t make sense, Romans 8:28 reminds us, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Key words to remember: all things. In God’s amazing love He can take everything that’s happened in our lives and turn it all for good.

Also, the latter part of the verse says, “called according to His purpose.”

Oh yeah! There’s another promise. He’s going to take my mistakes, my faults, my ups and downs, my entire life and turn it all for good because He has a plan and purpose for our lives!

That right there is some powerful stuff to drink into our souls.

So how do we get from where we are right this minute to redeemable?

Simply accept it.

Choose to listen to Truth instead of lies.

He loves us. He has a plan for you.

When you think no one else in this world loves you, God does.

When you think you are too far gone, made too many mistakes and ain’t fit for this world, think again! You are loved! You are redeemed! And God Almighty is your Redeemer!

Do you know what redeemer means?

Redeemer in Hebrew means, one charged with the duty of restoring the rights of another and avenging his wrongs.

Jesus offered His very life in order to restore us as God’s perfect children. Redeeming us from sin and making us whole.

Girl, you are precious in His eyes. You are His beloved child. Jesus died for you so that you could fulfill God’s perfect plan for your life.

Is that a little much to take in? I get it. There are days when you find yourself a little worse for the wear because of life.

But the bottom line doesn’t change.

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand”  ~ John10:28

God’s promises still stand. We are redeemable!

Friend, I am praying for you. If you struggle to rid yourself of old habits that keep tripping you up in life. If you find yourself repeating old behaviors and listening to those who would seek the worst for you, turn around and take one step towards Jesus.

You don’t have to have all the answers, save one. Jesus. Accept Him. Invite Him into your life and I promise, it will never be the same again. He is our Redeemer who promises us that we are redeemable. Place your heart in His hands and know that He will never let you go.

You’ve got this!

I’m praying for you always.

With love,

Last night during our weekly bible study of Hebrews with Pastor Derwin Gray, he shared John 19:29-30, ^“A jar full of sour wine was there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

The word wine caught my attention immediately. Which was weird because I’ve read this passage many times, but this time was different.

The Holy Spirit wanted me to sit up and pay attention.

Why? What was so important about wine in this passage?

My mind reeled with questions. The bible study quickly faded to the background as I grabbed my bible and cross referenced the word wine. Somewhere I remembered reading about beer and wine, but I couldn’t remember why or for what reason until I found Proverbs 31:6, “Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish;”

Wait a minute. What?!

Oh, my goodness! My heart skipped a beat.

Look at the verse again in the context of the crucifixion. Jesus’ body was perishing, yes, so they could’ve served Him beer to help anesthetize the pain, but…here’s the kicker, someone in the crowd realized that not only was Christ’s body perishing due to the brutality of his beating, but they recognized His pain was much deeper.

He was in anguish.

Merriam Webster defines anguish as “severe mental pain or distress preceded by a tragedy or event that has profound meaning to the being in question.”

This is where I was completely shook!

So, what was the tragedy causing Christ’s anguish?

Plain and simple…us choosing sin.

I believe Christ grieved for the loss of us who choose our sin instead of His love.

Oh! The heart ache, pain, loss and grief Christ suffered knowing some of His children would choose to walk away from the gift of His love to life everlasting.

How can we not be forever changed knowing that it wasn’t just a body dying on the cross, our Lord anguished in soul-crushing grief that many would be forever lost because of sin and a refusal of Him?

No wonder He was offered wine. Can’t you just feel His pain over the loss of even one child?  

Sisters, let us revisit the cross and accept the gift of love and forgiveness from our Lord. We are His daughters, beloved children of the Most High King and we are infinitely loved.

Romans 5:8-10 says, “⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹ Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.“

More than anything I pray God would open your heart and your understanding that you might accept the profound love the Father has for you, His precious, beloved daughter.

Let’s talk about this:

Let’s say that you’re not quite sure that God loves you or maybe you feel that a previous choice somehow excludes you from the love and forgiveness of Christ, what then?

My first recommendation is to go back to the truth of God. What does the bible say about His love for you? What does God say about sin and separation and restoration?

You see, the world will tell you it’s an all or nothing, end-all-be-all situation, that if you don’t know God or you make choices that don’t align with His word, then you’re an outcast. So…not…true! God is in this for eternity. He wants to restore a relationship with you, and He provided the way through His Son, Jesus. You simply need only to confess your sins, share your need of Him and invite Him into your life. That’s it. The relationship is restored, forever. Your mistakes don’t exist and to top it off, He is waiting for you!

Sister, as I close this post I pray God’s love washes over you in such a way that will allow your heart to accept Him as your Lord and Savior. He died for you and I. We are His precious, beloved daughters and there is absolutely nothing in this world that we could do to get Him to stop loving us.

You are loved by God and I am praying for you every step of the way!

Your sister in Christ,

For anyone who has not seen this movie, get yourself a copy, grab a cuppa tea, sit back and enjoy a delightful 2 hours!

Honestly, this is one of the loveliest movies I have watched in a long time. It was sweet, heartfelt and engaging right until the very end.

Well done Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, well done!

I stumbled upon Miss Potter through an email from PureFlix.com highlighting this week’s features. For those of you unfamiliar with Pureflix.com, think Nextflix without all the garbage; blood, guts, gore, nudity, etc. Pureflix.com is a movie membership channel that allow you to watch great clean movies, documentaries, VeggieTales and classic TV shows.

Back to Miss Potter, truth be told, I didn’t even know this movie existed, we’ll chalk it up to the fact that I don’t watch much cable!

However when the recommendation came through my email from PureFlix.com I jumped at the chance to watch it. I like both Renee and Ewan as actors so this was an easy one to say “yes” to but to honestly beyond who they are as actors I really had a very basic surface knowledge of who Beatrix Potter was and/or the children’s books she’d written. Maybe because I grew up reading Paddington Bear and Winnie the Poo, that I somehow missed Beatrix Potter’s stories, at any rate, I’m sorry I missed them in my younger years because truly Miss Potter had an excellent creative mind and artistic hand to create such lovely creatures as Peter Cottontail, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Jeremy Fisher and an entire host of delightful characters sure to delight children of all ages!

What captivated me about Miss Potter, was her life’s story. Born into an upper-middle class English family, Beatrix was afforded the great luxuries of traveling to Scotland, spending much time outdoors which only added to her love of animals, the countryside and fauna. This love of the outdoors not only spurred her imagination, allowing her to create an imaginary world filled with animal friends, it gave her the ability to transpose her thoughts into storylines and art.

Beatrix’s love for nature also carried on throughout her adult life where she created quite a name for herself through the study and artwork in mycology (the study of fungi) and through land preservation. Beatrix bought and later bequeathed over 4,000 acres of land to England’s National Trust for Places of Historic Interest.

What an amazingly creative brilliant woman! This movie depicts Beatrix’s talent, her love of nature, some of her heartaches and challenges and of course love.

I’ll watch this movie again and again because she inspired me. Beatrix, a woman in midst of the constraints of the English Victorian era found her voice, her talent and her skills and used them to not only better her own life but the lives of generations coming up behind her.

Well done Beatrix!

On a particularly enjoyable note were the tiny touches of her storybook characters, like Peter Rabbit coming to life through animation. They gave just enough of a visual to make us realize how real her characters were to her. It was as if in indeed they could jump off the pages of her books, wear delightfully smart looking jumpers and hats and engage with us, the audience as if they lived and breathed. These small touches endeared me to Beatrix as an artist and allowed me to see a glimmer of her heart as a naturalist and story teller.

This movie is an absolute keeper. A timeless story that each generation would do well to watch and learn from. The idea of following the passion set in your heart to pursue a career against societal norms, family approval and even tradition, to know that what you have to say is important and engaging to others is faultless. To further take your talent to better the world around you, is impeccable.

Until next time,

Best wishes,