Coming up, out of the valley

I have made it a few steps out of the valley, dear ones.
The valley of Baca that is.
Remember, it means “bitterness”.
And I had camped out there for a few days.
I was tired and was disappointed.
I had expectations of grandeur on our arrival.
Those expectations were cruely smited with reality;)
Expectations of ease, air conditioning, sleep, and happy babies.
When in reality, 2 little guys traveling internationally is hard.
Making adjustments to life in a different place takes time.
Sleeping in zones of time worlds across from what we have known for 13 months is challenging.
For these bodies are composed of finite matter.
Tis true.
And my expectations needed to be redirected. 

Redirected from world comforts to a God of ALL comfort.

Journeying with our Abba Father can at times be wrought with anxiety, dear ones. 
But do not grow weary or discouraged.
For they will come, anxieties that is.
But I believe those moments can draw us to His scarred side more than anything.
He did tell us “in this world you WILL HAVE TROUBLE.”
He acknowledged that troubles will come.

But He followed that with a “BUT”.
A conjunction.
Remember that from grade school grammar class?
A conjunction comes along and indicates there is something to come.
There is something yet to be said that is an important connection to what was just stated.
“take HEART, I HAVE OVERCOME the world”

in full:
“in this world you will have trouble, BUT, take heart I have overcome the world”

He is telling this to His closest ones, before He is cruelly killed and buried.
He is telling this to those men before that event that they knew about
He had been foreshadowing it in conversation
They knew the prophecies of old.
But they made expectations
Expectations of worldly comforts
All the while, forgetting that the God of all comfort
Had to walk thru pain and suffering in order to comfort us.
That comfort did not come out of ease and convenience for this Abba Father 
Who desired sonship for His children
It cost the God-man His LIFE
He did not walk expectantly towards worldly comfort
No
The conjunction is there because He doesnt want us to lose Hope
He speaks truthfully that troubles will come
But the conjunction divides the hopelessness from the Hope

He is the conjunction.

God-man gave Himself to cross the divide between hopelessness and Hope
He is the “but”

We will have trouble 
But.
HE HAS OVERCOME

Overcome what?
Death, adversity, pain, suffering, depression, anxieties
Therefore, we can TAKE HEART

These words of Clive Staples speak deeply, do they not?
“Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith but they are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the passion of Christ.”

Dear ones, there is fellowship in these difficulties.
Fellowship in suffering.
Fellowship in anxieties.
For He meets us there in our anxieties and troubles.
For He has been there.
That is why we have hope.
Because He has been there and He is there.
Now.
With us.

“Do not be anxious about anything BUT”
The conjunction again.
“in EVERYthing by prayer and petition GIVE THANKS to God”

“Do not be anxious about anything BUT in everything by prayer and petition give thanks to God”

So, as I exit this valley, bitter.
I turn and I see how each crevice of that arid, thirsty valley had purpose.
And I give thanks for that valley.
I give thanks that Adam recovered.
I give thanks that sin in my little heart was exposed.
I give thanks that He has overcome.
I give thanks that He is in the conjunction.
That He does not leave us with the hopeless news.
But stands in the gap and connects us to Hope.

He is there dear ones.
Take heart, He has overcome the world.

So these have been some thoughts on my heart this morning.
Here are some glimpses into these past few weeks.
They have been full of so much beauty and joy and rest after that valley bitter.
Thanks for your love and encouragement along the way.

thankful for time with relatives on holiday days

thankful for hats and laughs

love

sweet aunt hope loves on the boys so well.

thankful for aunts and cousins who babysit boys so we can have date nights;)

thankful for this boys faces

for there are so many of them!

thankful for Abba love and a boy’s first swim;)

thankful for dad’s with Father’s heart

thankful for book shops and antique colors

thankful for gifts of strollers and first swing rides

Well dear ones,
We head to NC for doctor checkups for Adam on the 14th.
The 14th and 18th are jam packed with appointments all day long.
Prayers appreciated;)
Surgeries will be scheduled from then.
Tempted to say we are strong and armored up and ready for whatever may come.
But, alas, day by day I am pressing into Him.
Because, truth is, I am a bit nervous for what doctors will say and how recovery will look.
But I remember that conjunction of Him.
So I take heart.
For He has overcome.
The world.
Difficult diagnoses.
And every fear we can conjure up.

Take heart, dear one.