father

TILL THE CATS COME HOME

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CATS

Take delight in the Lord and He will give you
the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4

Our God is such an awesome God! I am ever amazed at how He cares about the smallest things in our lives. Sometimes I think to myself, “Lord, you must think I am so silly at times. I can obsess about the most trivial things!” But no, if it’s significant to us, it’s significant to Him. That’s how much He loves us.

Think about a small child. Many times, something very trivial to us is so important to them. When they start looking for their favorite blanket to sleep with, do you say, “You don’t have to have that! Just lay down and go to sleep.” Of course not! You tear the house apart if necessary to find it for them. That’s how much you love them. Why would our Heavenly Father be any different? Do you feel childish at times about the things you desire? You ARE a child! You are HIS child!

Now don’t get me wrong, Our Father is not going to do something just because we desire it if it would not be good for us or harm us in the end. But you know the difference and so do I. Let me give you the perfect example. (It’s another one of my cat stories! I have many.)

I have several feral cats who have grown up at my house. Their mother is wild and she either had them on my covered back porch or brought them there shortly thereafter. I have fed her and them since that time. On occasion they allow me to pet them very briefly, but are still very wary of any human presence. As they are now grown, I did not want to have an influx of wild kittens running around. So I figured the humane thing to do would be to take them to the Spay and Neuter Clinic. But the problem was, since they wouldn’t willingly go into a carrier, I had to catch them in a trap in order to take them. That in itself was not an easy task! But with much perseverance and patience I was able to trap the mother and two females and take them to the clinic. When I brought them home I kept them in my guest bathroom for about three days where I talked to them, petted them, fed them and provided bathroom facilities (a litter box). Now what cat, wild or tame, wouldn’t be completely grateful for such royal treatment! But as soon as I let them outside again, they were gone with the wind! Never mind that I had spent my hard earned money to try to give them a better life. Forget the fact that I had tried to bond with them and nurture them back to health. What ungrateful creatures! I was upset, frustrated and hurt at their indifference. (I know…weird, right?)

Several weeks after their disappearance, I was feeling particularly down one day about something totally unrelated that had transpired in my life. And when you’re down, you start pondering everything else sad that you can think about…for me, it was the cats. Where are they? Are they okay or has some wild animal eaten them? (I live in the country.) Do they absolutely hate me now? (Silly, silly…AND sillier.) At that point I was looking to the Lord for comfort and said, “Lord, please bring the cats back. I really miss them and I need to know if they are okay.”

I was driving home from work at the time. When I turned the corner of my house, I saw Fluffy standing on the steps waiting for me. When I went out to the back porch, there was Midnight too. But where was Cherise, my favorite? I don’t see Cherise! (My daughter-in-law thinks that’s a hilarious name for a cat!) At that moment, Cherise came crawling out of a nearby box. After several weeks of no-show, they were all there. We were united once again! (A little drama for effect!) A little thing…even a silly thing to most people, but not to My Father. He cares about me and everything that touches my life. He cares about you too! Never doubt it! Delight in Him and He WILL give you your heart’s desires, even if it’s just bringing your cats home.

MACRO GOD

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UNIVERSE

God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.

 Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
      toddlers shout the songs
   that drown out enemy talk,
      and silence atheist babble.

 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
      your handmade sky-jewelry,
   Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
      Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
   Why do you bother with us?
      Why take a second look our way?

  Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods,
      bright with Eden’s dawn light.
   You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
      repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
   Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
      even animals out in the wild,
   Birds flying and fish swimming,
      whales singing in the ocean deeps.

 God, brilliant Lord,
      your name echoes around the world.

Psalm 8:1-9
The Message Bible

When I read this passage of scripture, especially this poetic rendition from The Message Bible, my heart swells with excitement and awe! Why? The psalmist is talking about my Heavenly Father and His unprecedented, unequaled love for me. The brilliant God who made the macro vastness of the universe cares for micro me!  And in His eyes, I am not micro, but macro also. He loves me so much that He made me in His image and put me in charge of His glorious creation.

I know you’ve often heard stories of kids bragging on their dads. Each one thinks his dad is the greatest! What about the children of famous actors or football stars? Well, let me tell you, they have absolutely nothing on us! Our Father is not just world famous, He is universally famous. His power and influence extends to the far reaches of the earth, the universe and beyond. His exploits are renowned to every people group that inhabits the earth. Even creation itself proclaims His existence with voices loud and clear! And we have the awesome privilege of saying, “That’s my Father…that’s my Dad!”

ARE YOU LISTENING?

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JOSEPH AND MARY 

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home
as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”

 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel” —which means, “God with us.”

 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
Matthew 1:18-24

Think about this scenario: You are a man who is engaged to be married. You are happily awaiting the wedding night when your mutual love will be consummated. You will no longer be two separate entities, but as the Bible says, you will become “one flesh” united with God’s blessing. But all of a sudden, the joyful anticipation is shattered by news unfathomable…the one in whom you have put your trust has seemingly been unfaithful. You know it’s not your child, for you have not yet known her intimately. What are you going to do? You still love her and don’t want to cause her public shame. “Okay, think this over calmly”, you say to yourself. “You can just break off the engagement privately without anyone’s name being dragged through the mud.” You go to bed that night still pondering the situation. Your fretful sleep is further interrupted by…“What is this?…an angel!” He is telling you not to be afraid to take your sweetheart as your wife because the child she is carrying is non-other than the long awaited Messiah and she has conceived by the Holy Spirit, not a mortal man. Your bride-to-be is to be the mother of our Lord! Do you dare believe it? You know what the angel said and you know the message was from God. Then excitement begins to arise as you realize that you also have been chosen…chosen to care for the mother of the very Son of God!

This is the story of Joseph and his part in the birth of Jesus. The Bible says he did exactly as the angel commanded him. He took Mary as his wife, but did not have a marital relationship with her until after Jesus was born. What dedication this man had to the things of God! Think about it. Would you have obeyed the voice of the angel in blind faith? Or would you have attributed the whole dream to a bad case of indigestion? We can still hear the voice of the Lord today if we are listening. He probably won’t send an angel, but He still speaks in that still, small voice deep inside. Will you be like Joseph and believe and obey without question? It’s something to think about.

THIS ONE’S FOR YOU, MY FRIEND

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BOOTSTRAPS

God is our refuge and strength,
    always ready to help in times of trouble.
Psalm 46:1

A friend of mine said to me this morning, “Nancy, every time I think I have myself pulled up by my bootstraps, someone comes along and unties them!” I started thinking about what she said and thought, “Now that would make a great theme for a devotional! (You know the Lord gives me ideas in the most unusual ways.)

First I looked online to see if I could find the origin of the saying…perhaps some old proverb or witty Southern quip. But the dictionary of phrases said that it had no specific origin. However, the meaning is quite clear. It means “to improve one’s position by one’s own efforts.” It refers, of course, to boots and their straps (laces or pull tabs on Cowboy Boots) and to the imagined feat of lifting oneself off the ground by pulling on one’s own bootstraps. This impossible task is supposed to exemplify the achievement in getting out of a difficult situation by one’s own efforts. It is a great source of pride in this country to say that someone pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps. It usually means that they came from a very humble background and made a place for themselves in the world.

My father was such a man. He grew up very poor. He told of going to school with ragged clothes and no shoes and getting in many a fight because his classmates made fun of him. He told about his mom cooking green apples because there was no food in the house. His father was very irresponsible and to put it mildly had no work ethic. My father quit school at the age of fourteen to work in the coal mines to help provide for his mom and siblings. But because he had such a difficult start in life, he determined that when he had a family of his own, he would never allow them to want for any necessary thing. He kept that promise. He literally worked day and night to provide for our family. I am a third child and by the time I came along, we lived in a nice brick home on 130 acres of land. We were not rich, but we were definitely not poor. I never knew any of the want he suffered. He truly “pulled himself up by his own bootstraps.”

But sometimes because of the circumstances that life affords us, we are not able to do it alone. I have always been a self-sufficient person. I think it was ingrained in me by my father. But there have been times in my life when I just couldn’t make it on my own. As a matter of fact there have been times when I couldn’t even make it with the help of others. I needed supernatural help! I needed the help of my Heavenly Father! The chorus in a song I wrote in one of those difficult times says:

“Lord, nothing less than a miracle will do.
I can’t depend on others, I must depend on You!
I’ve tried to work it out…It’s not enough to see me through;
Lord, nothing less than a miracle will do!”

And thank the Lord…He IS a God of miracles! The Bible is full of people who tried every means known to man to solve a problem to no avail. Then they called on Jesus! One man brought his son who had seizures to the disciples for help, but they couldn’t help him. Then he called on Jesus. Jesus said, “Only believe. All things are possible to those who believe.”  The man replied, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!” Even when we don’t think we have enough faith, we can depend on His faith. And He is always faithful to help us in our time of need. If someone has untied your bootstraps, call on Him. He can help when no one else can!