Update 1/3/10 8 weeks since crash

Dear friends,

I love Sundays. All the darkness of Sunday, November 8 can't steal my love of the first day of the week, the day the ancient Christians celebrated the resurrection in the excellent company of one another. For all the ways we've changed, we still gain the mysterious power that comes from worshipping God all together on Sundays. Where one has weak faith, he is built up by the other. Raising our voices to the Great One in song, (whether we can sing or not!), under one roof, creates a fellowship we share with those on the other side of the world doing the same thing in grass huts and open air fields and even underground hide outs. Real life is about living with our Father every day of the week. But Sundays are special. Like a mini holiday.

Today Psalm 139 landed in my lap to remind me there is no where I can go where God isn't. "If I go up to the the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast..." In 8 weeks, 8 years or 8 hundred years, there is nowhere any of us can go where the love of God can't find us. No depression, no health crisis, no financial ruin, no relationship nightmare where He is absent. In all my emotional ups and downs since my dear ones were hit head on (and, I'm beginning to see, so was I), I can tell you with certainty that calamity and destruction are no match for the faithfulness of God. I have not walked this stretch of the road perfectly. But He has. And I can trust Him to take us all the way.

The house smelled so good this afternoon while I boiled the bones from yesterday's chicken dinner for a lovely soup! I put the broth on the back porch, and tomorrow that cold weather will have sucked up all the fat to the top of the pot for skimming. Then I'll add carrots, potatoes, rice, onions and whatever other stuff I have leftover in the fridge. Homemade soup is right up there with long walks on the beach and an afternoon with a pile of Jeeves and Wooster stories. I find the simple things in life to be the sweetest, don't you? Seeing my dear husband enjoy some football this afternoon, watching David and Robbie laugh when they didn't know I was looking, admiring the cat stretched out over the radiator - these are the meat and potatoes of everyday life. God is good to give us these pleasures along the way. I'm sure He enjoyed them too when He put His own fully human feet on the ground in Zion. Kinda blows the mind.

Time for us to watch our latest Netflix selection (thank you Tracy!), "Drums Along the Mohawk. We got through half of it last night. Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert star as a young married couple settling in the Upstate New York "frontier" during the Revolutionary War. So far it's a pretty sad story. It was made in 1939, the greatest year in movie history according to my husband. John Ford directed this one, and he's no slouch.

Tomorrow school starts. As you know, this is a big day for Miss Rejoice, who hasn't been to Columbia in 2 months. Please pray for my baby girl. The Great One also walks the halls of Columbia High School, and there's nowhere she can be where He isn't. Momma is trying not to be anxious.

Bless your hearts for sticking with this blog. I'm surprised so many of you still want to walk the wire with me, but I'm so glad you do! Tonite I'm praying for a blessing to fall down on your heads in 2010. No doubt about it, there's nowhere you can be this year where He isn't.

Your friend on the pilgrim road,

Loriann