Missing!

Well, it's been over two weeks now...Miracle's puppy blanket is missing.This puppy blanket was like no other...this is probably the best picture we have of it...it was a blanket with a puppy head and a puppy tail and legs.

She got it for a gift when she was born. She grew attached to it like nothing else when she was about 1 year old and if you knew Miracle at all you probably saw this special puppy blanket attached to her.

My mother's heart has been pierced a few times lately at bedtime as Miracle and I have been praying and she quietly chimes in with a sadness to her voice and says, "and pray that Jesus finds my puppy". I'm pretty sure that the puppy blanket was thrown away when Miracle and daddy took out the garbages...

The one thing that I will probably always regret about this situation is the fact that I never completely rummaged through the garbage to be sure it wasn't in there...so it goes on missing and we are sad.

Here a few more pictures of Miracle and her puppy blanket.


It was with her when she played...



It was with her when she was hospitalized...



It went with her to daycare for naptime...

 

She brought it in the car...

 

She used it to hide...

It was with her when she slept with her mom and dad...

She brought it to Church...

So, I've been feeling materialist. How could I be so sad over a blanket?
I'm sad because I wanted her to have her puppy blanket forever, just like I have my baby blanket ...
But when I continue to think about it, I'm most bothered because Miracle had security in her puppy blanket and there was only one puppy blanket like this...it cannot be replaced with a new one...
Really when I reflect on the pictures of what this puppy blanket was to her, I realized that Jesus can be all that her puppy blanket was to her and more. I may not be able to give her back her puppy blanket, but I can teach her about Jesus and live my life as an example of how Jesus changes my life and the lives of others. If there is anything that she carries with her forever, I hope and pray that it is Jesus Christ her Savior and Lord.
Jesus Christ ... he walks with me and talks with me and He tells me I am his own. Truly. He is my security. The best of all is that Jesus can't go missing.
I know I can't physically hold Jesus like Miracle held and carried her puppy but Jesus does hold me and my life and fills me with a security of peace that passes understanding, and an ecstatic joy that wells up inside of me.
So what is it that you are holding on to that is replacing Jesus Christ in your life? That was the question that came into my head when I literally was talking to the Lord about how dramatic and ridiculous I felt about the deep sadness over this missing puppy blanket. Oh how I just love how Almighty God can use all things for the good of those who love Him. So the Lord is reminding me more about who He is and wants to become in my life. So, it led me to study once again who Jesus is and can be in my life.
So here's the start of the list...
JESUS IS
*The Son of Man
*Bread of Life
*Light of the World
*Hiding Place
*The resurrection and the life
*The way, the truth, and the life
*The vine
*The Alpha & Omega
*Lord God
*The Almighty
*The First and the Last
*Creator
*Faithful & True
*The King of Kings
*The Lord of Lords

AND THE BEST NAME AND DESCRIPTION FOR JESUS TO REPLACE MIRACLE'S PUPPY BLANKET
....drum roll please....

JESUS IS

*THE LION AND THE LAMB

Revalation 5:5-6,9,12-13 (paraphrase mine) "Do not weep! See, the Lion has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll...victory in the battle of this life is His. He wins every spiritual battle, every attack that the enemy will pursue upon our earthly lives. 6 Then I saw the Lamb, looking as if he had been slain, standing at the center of the throne...yes, he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and he did not go missing...He's alive and worthy. 9 So we sing a new song: "You (Jesus) are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God. 12 In a loud voice we will sing: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and priase!" 13 Then every creature in heaven and on earth will be singing: "To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever! AMEN.

And that, my friends is so much greater than any puppy blanket could be. 

That is security eternally!



Being Refined with a Detangler Spray Still Hurts

In all honesty, this earthly life hasn't been what I expected it to be. Marriage hasn't been what my mind had perceived. And parenting is not what I thought it to be...And Almighty God hasn't been what I imagined Him to be in my life...No, He is becoming so much more.
More of a neccessity in this life
          More real
                 Just more than I thought I deserved
                                   And each day, He is becoming more of my ONLY HOPE
                                               More because I do not know and cannot understand
                                                                       He is my ROCK and REFUGE
                                                                                       He provides me Words to Live By
AND most of all lately, as Deuteronomy 4:24 says, "For the Lord my God is a CONSUMING FIRE, a jealous God."

I guess it might be true to say that to many looking in, life for me almost resembles the American dream (a good looking faithful husband, one girl, one boy, a 4-bedroom house, 2 cars, and 2 jobs). But what I am realizing is that Pete and I are not wanting the American dream. We are wanting God's dream for our life and He is a jealous God so if God doesn't have all of me then the fire might just get hotter. If you weren't on the outside looking in, you really wouldn't see the American dream in motion. We have our vast array of problems, fiery trials, and rocky ways that cause much disarray. But don't we all? I'm sure you can list the negative fire in your life right now. I've heard so many different people talk about depression, job loss / unemployment, illness, anxiety, worry, stress from parenting, marriage, financial insecurity...I have been through many on the list, if not still walking through them. Yet, Almighty God is more and I am clinging to Him. He promises: "When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord you God." (Isaiah 43:2b)
My mentor recently painted a picture in my head about being refined, and walking through the fire. She said that the fire is never too hot for God and He never takes His hand off of you.Why? Because God is more. Because God is and can be my consuming fire and I'm relying on Him to consume the human fires that have started and seem to be becoming so ablazed that I'm not sure I will walk out unharmed and unbound. Some of the fires of life, I fear I brought myself into, and some of the fires I know I was thrown into with no fault of my own. As I was thinking about this I had to recall the story of the fiery furnace in Daniel 3 where King Nebuchadnezzar is furious with three God-serving men and he orders the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual and throws them in, it goes on to say in verse 24 "Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his adviers, "Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire? The replied, "Certainly, O king." He said, "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods." Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here! So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

Isn't that amazing? God doesn't leave us in the fire alone. He has sent His son, Jesus, who never leaves us or forsakes us if we call on Him in a personal way. He withstands the heat for us and provides the healing touch before we even know we were or could have been burned. His divine power has give us everything we need for this life and for godliness.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
But God wants more from me these days than just belief, He is wanting to be the CONSUMING FIRE in my life to burn my desires and refine me as pure gold. This is painful!
In the life of my almost 3 year old daughter, refinement might be like combing her hair. She rarely lets me comb her hair and it is very long and beautiful. As I comb it though, I do use detangler to ease the pain but sometimes it is so knotted and ratted together I have to keep "gently" combing until I get the knots out. She cries and screams in agony, but I just keep combing because I know that soon the pain will be over and her hair will be knot-free, silky and free flowing. Oh it's such a plight analogy yet I know that God does the same with me in my life. He sees the knots in my life and is holding on to me with the detangler spray in His hand just working to refine my life to make it smoother and more beautiful as he created me to be. God's word speaks of this refinement:
Jeremiah 9:7 Therefore this is the the Lord Almighty says: "See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people?"

1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth then gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
I am realizing that in order to be God's daughter, the wife that Pete needs, the mommy that Miracle and Matthias need, and the person in all my other relationships that I need to be, I need so much more of God. I can't live with my ideas, my pride, my selfishness, my disappointment and frustration of how life is. So God says he will refine me - he will wash away my impurities so that he can more clearly see His reflection in me and he just might try to ease the pain a lil' by using some detangler spray! After all we were created in His image so I pray that we start to look more like Him.

So Lord God Almighty, I pray that you would refine me. I'll never be ready for the hot hot heat it takes to refine me and scrape off the dross and impurities but I am asking for you to continue your work because you are with me and you can become the greater consuming fire in my life. I'm hopeless without you in the midst of the problems of this life. Please forgive me of my own attempts at life. Will you burn away my desire and refine me so that the faith that you have so graciously filled my heart, soul, and mind with will be genuine and result in praise, glory and honor to Jesus Christ my Savior.
Amen and Amen