A Sacrifice of Praise
Hebrews 13:15   “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess His name.”

Recently, as I was sitting with my little two-year-old granddaughter, she gingerly held in her little hands the cross with angel wings that hung around my neck holding the ashes of my child, when she looked at me and said, “I like this Grandma; what is it?”  I begin to tell her what it was and she looked at me and said, “Who is Elisha?”  I took out my phone and showed her the video that my other son had made for me, a collage of pictures of Elisha set to a beautiful song, “Dancing in the Sky,” that was played at his celebration of life.  When it finished playing, she looked at me and said, “Oh that’s Elisha; let’s watch it again!”  Oh how my heart soared with gratitude as I sat with this beautiful child on my lap watching the video over and over again with tears rolling down my face, singing the song and looking at the pictures of my son. I was with someone who was interested in seeing him, someone who said his name, someone who was content with just listening to the music that was on my phone and in my heart, and when it was over, she would look at me and say, “Again, Grandma, again.”  I studied her little expressions as she gazed carefully and intently at each of the photos, trying very hard to learn the words to the song, her little mouth beginning to sing along with the chorus.

Psalm 145:21 says, “My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD.  Let every creature praise His holy name for ever and ever.”  My little granddaughter spoke words of life into my soul the very moment she said, “I like this.”  She touched my heart with thankfulness as her interest in spending time with me, just lingering with me, cuddling with me, tuning out everyone else in the busy living room, meant that she was content and satisfied just focusing on the little boy I loved and lost.  As we sat there for over an hour, each time we watched the video, as I sung the words to the song out loud with her, praise flowed off my lips. I closed my eyes and worshipped the Lord with a grateful heart and the heaviness started to lift, the flow of tears decreased and the happy and goofy pictures that I had long since memorized flowed through my mind and for just a moment, I could see Elisha dancing in heaven with our Savior. At the end of the evening, when I laid my head down on my pillow, there was a joy in my heart that not been there before, and as I began to pray to my Heavenly Father, I realized something had changed. I thanked Him and praised Him for that sweet moment with my beautiful grandchild and as I was lingering there with the Lord, I saw a portrait of myself sitting on His lap, just enjoying being with Him each morning, excited to start my day with Him, worshiping and praising Him and I knew that I was turning a corner in my grief.

In her book “Choosing Gratitude,” Nancy Leigh DeMoss says, “Gratitude is not the quiet game. It begs to be expressed, both to God and to others. Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone. Spoken words of praise and thanks have power to dissipate the spirit of heaviness that sometimes weighs us down and clings to us like a wet blanket.”  When I sing worship to my Heavenly Father, when I verbalize thanksgiving to my Lord, when I speak the Holy name of Jesus, the fruit of my lips permeates power and strength to my soul. When I offer up a sacrifice of praise in the midst of heartaches, He infuses me with a protective shield about me and as I shift my focus on Him, He holds me in the palm of His hand and there is no place I’d rather be.

                                                                                       – Melody

Master Artist

While visiting in Oakland with our son Jon, he and his girlfriend Kelly decided on a drive away from the city for all of us, through rolling green hills to Santa Rosa and then to explore the area around Tomales Bay because both Jon and Kelly had an appetite for oysters.  My husband and I didn’t participate in the oyster tasting, although Jon and Kelly both indulged. What captured us most though was the stop in Santa Rosa to visit the Charles M. Schulz Museum.  In so much of what was displayed, it was like taking a walk back through my own lifetime, and yet seeing much through a different lens.  Schulz had a friendship with Tom Everhart though and each had a mutual respect for the artistic talents of the other.  Everhart became the only person in the world authorized to create original paintings of Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and all their friends.  Visiting the museum, I saw some of Everhart’s work and I was immediately fascinated.  I turned a corner into a large open room, and the wall to my right was ablaze with rich, vibrant colors splashed on a canvas that was taller than I was and its width was more than  twice its height.  The immediate reaction was that a kindergartner had been palm painting or maybe foot painting and had just run helter-skelter around the canvas.  And then I began to slowly walk backwardsstaying attentive to what seemed to dramatically evolve before my eyes.  The splashes and streaks of paint began to take on a form that was neither fully realistic nor fully abstract, and a dejected Snoopy was sitting at the table, his meal before him.  

Tom Everhart does it as an art form, but God does it all the time, and He does it especially with the things that don’t seem to make any sense.  They evoke the “Why, God, why???”  And up close,  the colors seem far from vibrant.   They are the grays and the blacks, stabs and slashes of paint disfigured on the canvas of your life.   Random.  Meaningless.  Confusing.  The hurtful.  The strained relationships.  Words of accusation.  Disappointments.  Failure.  Loss and emptiness.  Whatever color is momentarily seen is quickly muddied.  Any significant form seems to run off the page.  You strain to grab the brush and paint your own picture, but your strained attempts are futile.  And then, somehow, some way, you begin to step back.........  and you find the greatest artist of time and eternity has wrapped His arms around you, and He is drawing you still closer to Himself.  He is whispering gentle assurances and He places His healing hands on your blinded eyes and allows you to see what only He alone could see before.  The canvas suddenly has meaning and purpose and beauty.  Some of the canvas is still somewhat shadowed, but you have seen enough to know the Master Artist is at work.  Hope has been birthed.  Your nothingness, your barrenness, your heartache – they all begin to offer something unique you can give back to the Master.  God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.  By the grace of God I am what I am.  We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
And the dejected Snoopy?  In the unfolding of the masterpiece God longs to create in us and through us, He promises us a song, a song of praise, a song that will echo all He has done.  There is nodejection in that.
                                                                                          – Bev

(Related Bible reading: 1 Corinthians 12:6; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Ephesians 2:10; Psalm 40:1-3)

Thoughts Under the Umbrella

Jesus one day decided to take Peter, James and John on a hike high in the mountains. God often showed His full glory on these high places and that day would be no different. The Bible tells us that Jesus was transfigured. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as light. What a sight Jesus must have been. The full power and glory of God had to drop these three men to their knees. To be that close to seeing and feeling the presence of God had to give them a peace that is indescribable. These three men were up there for a purpose. They were there to understand the words Jesus had been preaching and to learn He was who He said He was. What if these three men would have decided to sit on that mountain and bask in this feeling? What if they chose to never come down off that mountaintop? They could have moved on in their life and kept what they had seen and heard and tucked it away. These men knew God had other plans for them. Jesus knew the people who were living down in the valley were hurting and in need of some hope. Peter, James and John fulfilled God’s purpose in their life and came down off that mountaintop and taught the Word of God and gave the valley residents hope.

I know a mother who was living in that valley and who was in desperate need of hope. Her name is Michele Paul. After I lost my seventeen-year-old daughter, Katie, to a brain aneurysm, I found myself living in a new place I was very unfamiliar with. I was as far from that mountaintop as I could be, even though now I see God was right there beside me. I was living in the shadow of the valley of death. I had the hope of salvation and I knew one day I would see my daughter again. My problem was how I live each day until that day when we would be reunited. How do I live another minute without seeing her beautiful eyes and her warm smile?  How do I exist without another conversation with my daughter?  This was all unchartered territory for me. I felt lost and alone even though I was surrounded by people who loved me. This unchartered territory was a place where everyday things that were so easy to navigate in my past, I now was unable to accomplish. I could not gather my thoughts to do simple things like grocery shopping or clean my house. I felt like I was going crazy. I remember the first time I was asked how many children I had. That had always been such an easy thing to answer. I had a pain in my heart and tears in my eyes as I struggled for what words were appropriate. If I said two, was I fibbing? If I said one, would I be denying my very child’s existence? This valley was almost impossible to navigate by myself, even though I know the Lord was holding me. I needed someone to come down from that mountaintop who had walked this journey before me.

God uses everyday people to do His work. He used His disciples to spread the gospel. Each one of us who has lost a child is just a mom. We are moms who have been through the valley of death. Some of us have been transformed and have found our way back to the mountaintop. We are ready for God to use us in whatever way He sees fit. Are you willing to come back into the valley and help those who are trying to find their way back to the mountaintop?  We have opened our hearts into the valley and are giving hope to the many moms who are still trying to navigate this difficult journey. It is probably the hardest journey we will ever take in our lifetime. We have so many more moms to reach. We have the arms to hold them, the strength to carry them, and the heart to listen to their pain. We are so thankful to each of you who have come down from the mountain alongside us and helped us because you have propped us up to do God’s purpose. 

                                                                                                                            – Michele  (I have two daughters, Katie in heaven and Sarah here on earth.)