On fundraising and the Valley of Vision

Dear ones,
Will you excuse me?
Pardon my delay in updating you all.
The fundraiser did go on.
Many people visited and heard Adam’s story as well as many other stories and creations from the community of Jacksonville.
We did not get the most votes.
But a beautiful organization, started by a sweet friend, did get most of the votes and won;)
And if I had to have chosen another group, they would have been it.
So, though I was a little discouraged that we did not win, I was overjoyed that they did;)

And though I was tempted to fret
In light of the $150,000 we need for my boy’s surgeries this summer
He steadied me
And He calmed me.
And He reminded me, what He begins, He finishes.

And then I was reading in the 22nd chapter
That the prophet Isaiah scribed
And it talks about an oracle regarding the “Valley of Vision”

First off, it is humbling that the Valley is where the Vision comes.
Is it not?
It is not the “mountaintop of vision” that Isaiah speaks of
For we often equate mountaintops with growth, understanding, closeness to the Divine, and vision
But it is here, in the depths of valleys, low, that the Vision was seen and spoken of
Just as it is from ashes, that the 61st chapter of the same book, says beauty is made
And it is foolish things that the Divine uses to shame the wise
And it is thru death, that He made LIFE possible
And it is thru mourning, that we are comforted
And it is thru being unknown, that we are known
And it is thru being sorrowful, that we always rejoice
It is thru being poor, that we make many rich
It is by having nothing, that we possess everything
It is thru death, that we live
It is thru going low, that He was exalted
And does He not call us to that same attitude?
He does.
Such a paradoxical shift
His life made
Such a paradoxical LOVE
He gave
Such a paradoxical life
He calls us to

Secondly, regarding that Valley and the Vision within
The people were warned
And they knew what was coming
And it made them a “town full of commotion”
“A city of tumult and revelry”
They knew that a battering down of walls was coming
And a crying out to the mountains
And they knew of the Holy One who in ages past, had helped them
Again and
Again and
Again
Yet what did they do?
They looked to the weapons “in the Palace of the Forest”
And they
considered the breaches in the City of David
And they “stored up water in the Lower Pool”
They “counted the buildings”
They tore down houses to make stronger walls
They did all they could, in the OWN strength
They considered the weight of what their feeble bodies and finite minds could offer
They knew the threat coming
And they planned with their OWN HANDS

But
They did not look up
They did not remember
They did not bow down low
They did not “look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago”
Before the foundations of the world, He knows

He knows, dear one, that disease paralyzing your body
He knows, fearful one, that you do not like being alone
He knows, mother of baby Adam;), that you fret about finances and surgeries

But let us not be like those in the valley
Let us have visions of Him in these valleys
Let us not put our hope in mankind
But let us consider the One who made us, and who planned ALL OF THIS…long, long ago
Let us consider Him
Let us look up
Let us trust

Let me not put my faith in an art festival
When the Holy One who sets planets in motion
Is the same One who became flesh, like me, to save me
And is the same One who now sits on High interceding for us
And is the same One who will one day have ever knee before Him, bowed

Let us remember, we stand on Holy Ground
Created by a Holy One
And we walk paths of difficulty
Permitted by Him
Look to Him dear one

Remember that it is in the Valley that He brought Vision