TREASURE HUNT

By now it is abundantly apparent that this broadcast tumbled completely out of the air just as it got off the ground!With several posts lined up like planes on a runway awaiting takeoff, we encountered a rather traumatic interruption, a sudden illness that landed David (and me at his side, of course) in critical care and then home on extended round-the-clock bed rest and recovery.  It was an intense and exhausting experience that we are extremely thankful to have behind us (as of today we have had four good days in a row!), and in time I know that we will have gained a fuller perspective of it in its entirety than we have now.  Yet even in the middle of it, and especially now coming out on the other side of this ordeal, there are so many more treasures added to our life-collection than I can do justice to at this present posting.  I hope to attempt to write more about this in the near future.

At the moment, however, instead of writing about the “missing month”, I would love to resume the “flow” that was interrupted at the point where it was dropped, picking up a sequel to “Eagerly Expecting” with my Easter basket in hand.

I decided to enumerate the findings of that day’s treasure hunt just because I like to translate vague generalities like “blessings” and “grace” into practical everyday definitions.  And so, would you like to hear what was in my basket by the end of the day I last posted?

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An unexpected phone call from someone very dear to me;

Our first two teeny eggs from the chickens David raised from hatchlings;

A scripture illumined and bringing rich nourishment to me;

A refreshing drenching rain, sustaining all the green of summer;

Two goldfinches “hanging out”, bouncing and playing for the longest time on the springy ends of our feathery willow branches like the most brilliantly happy blossoms!—something I’ve never seen in all my years of looking out my kitchen window as I cooked;

(My kitchen window over my sink and stove);

A crispy juicy watermelon, grown by someone’s labors a few hundred miles away, harvested by someone who probably worked hours in the summer heat, brought to my grocery store by drivers from other states, powered by fuel prepared by hundreds of people along the way on oil rigs and oil fields and oil refineries;

Forgiveness requested and granted from someone I love who I was guilty of misunderstanding;

A clean email Inbox;

The (re)discovery, in going through my way-way-backlogged inbox, of the many works of justice and righteousness being accomplished on the earth by faithful men and women—this added HEAPS to my basket: 

-reports  from a number of places in Israel of the growing community of friendship between Arab Christians and Messianic Israeli’s;

-another friend whose dream of a guest house in northern Israel has been fully realized;

-the unswerving unwavering purpose and zeal of a dear friend who lost his wife to cancer and is fighting his own battle with the disease, but is not missing a step in the outpouring of his life’s passion for the advancement of the kingdom of God;

-other individuals who could so easily choose bitterness but instead have taken hold of grace and intentional love and are living triumphant victorious lives;

 -a young mom who carries a heavy load as a mother, whose dear husband’s personality and career makes him other-focused; gaining strength, creative genius, and courage to overcome the division that her situation could create in her heart;

-a friend who has always wanted to be a dad but at fifty-something has not found a wife, so is living in an African orphanage rocking babies struggling for their lives;

-a young couple recently out of school who decided to launch a nonprofit for Iraqi families stranded in Syria, who started from scratch and are now actually accomplishing their dream of getting fresh fruits and vegetables to children and expectant mothers;

The stillness that comes with the end of the day;

And last but far from least, moonlight filtering through the canopy of leaves as I reviewed the treasures in my basket . . .

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Even as I write this I am so aware that I am failing to list at least a few hundred other things that constitute the miracle that is every day living, including the amazing refreshment of peaceful sleep. 

Good Night!