As a young wife and mother, I thought I had the perfect blueprint for our family. My intention was to have two children. No more. Within a few years we had two wonderful little boys. When I learned that I was expecting baby number three, I was extremely upset.
In the days before HGTV revealed the intricacies of home decorating, I naively decided to redo the wallpaper in our bathroom myself. Why hire a professional when I could do it, right? Little did I know how tricky it would be to remove the existing paper or how tired I would become before finishing the project.
I sat down to read and turned on the table lamp beside me. As light spread across the table, I saw a fine white powder coated its surface and even the books resting there.
The annual Easter egg hunt for our seven young grandchildren had just ended. In the kitchen I was busy preparing our big, midday meal.
When I looked up I found myself on the wrong side of the road, in the wrong lane. It scared me half to death.
After teaching all day, I would come home famished. I would snack and snack to try and find just the right food to ease my hunger and tiredness. Moving from one food to the next, nothing seemed to help.
“Are you sure that you’re sure?” My oldest daughter had been to her first city-wide Youth Revival. After hearing the preacher ask several times if they would go to heaven when they died, she came home with questions.
“Do you make decisions easily?” That question stared me in the face and caused me to pause. I had not stumbled over any of the other questions on the personality assessment. The rest just seemed so easy and the answers quite obvious. So why this one?
My eyes teared up as the special needs young man stepped to the podium and began to pray. His eloquence and passion shone through the simple words he used.
It had been one of those weeks where several things in our home were breaking down all at the same time. The dryer quit working, our sink drain was overflowing due to blockage and our garage ceiling was showing signs of a leak in our attic. It was a week of problems and stresses on top of a full schedule.
It had been raining and gloomy for days. The girls and I played with every doll, conquered many board games and watched Doc McStuffins episodes too many times. We needed a break!
Watching my daughter climb up the stairs making her way to the zipline, I could feel my palms starting to sweat and my nerves becoming anxious. She would glance over at me as she made her way up each landing and I would wave and shout how proud I was of her. I could tell she was just as nervous, but unlike her Mother, she chose to face her fears.
One of my night time routines is to read stories to my youngest daughter and sing to her until she falls asleep. I try to set a soothing mood with soft lullabies.
My youngest daughter woke up full of excitement to tell me about her dream. She was beaming as she explained to me in detail about this rainbow mermaid that she had in her dream and she had to have it. I listened with enthusiasm but told her lovingly that we were not going to buy her the rainbow mermaid.
Tucked in the middle of the book of Jeremiah is a marvelous story of faith. Jeremiah repeatedly preached God’s word: Judah’s rejection of God would lead to their defeat by the nation of Babylon. He proclaimed Zedekiah, Judah’s king, would be taken captive, and Jerusalem would be destroyed.
My friend came to me asking for help. Her son’s illness and resulting difficulty had continued for years. She prayed repeatedly for his healing, but his condition remained the same. She was looking for answers to her questions and words of encouragement.
God calls people in every generation to proclaim His truth. Noah preached righteousness. Moses proclaimed God’s laws. Paul carried the gospel to the Gentiles. Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, and Billy Graham have boldly proclaimed the truth of Jesus to recent generations.
When God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, Jeremiah quickly reminded God of his inadequacies. God gently rebuked Jeremiah and said, I am with you and will rescue you (Jeremiah 1:8). Jeremiah’s arguing ceased. He accepted his mission and moved forward.
God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, a voice of truth to a nation who desperately needed to listen to God. God’s call to Jeremiah was clear. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).
As I write this, people all over the world are preparing to say a final farewell to Billy Graham who died this week. In his long life, he preached to over 215 million people, presenting the gospel in 185 countries. Those who have studied his life, report that Billy Graham only had one message.
