Today I remember that God is the great I AM. All around me people struggle…all of us feel pain from time to time. I hardly know anyone who hasn’t experienced pain. Today the TJN staff rallied and gave me a reprieve from the pulpit. I sat as a congregant and was blown away at how God used them. YOU HAVE TO HEAR IT (posted on Mondays).

I have never met anyone who hasn’t had to navigate pain. We all walk through the difficulties in our lives that complicate things and fill it with unexpected twists and turns. I have been surprised at the way the prayers from friends around the world have sustained us and given us the courage Joshua when he said, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” And so once again, I give to God this day!Baby’s Box

A little over a year ago, I bought this beautiful hand carved box in Honduras for my son Caleb. Today, he offered it up as a gift for the little baby that died this past week. We gathered around a very special tree where I had dug a deep whole. Scripture was recited, thoughts and prayers were shared then I knelt, stretching my arm as deeply as it would go. Holding the box from the very ends of my finger tips, I gently set it to rest in the dirt. My oldest three children shoveled dirt, and then Elizabeth placed a flower on the earth…our eyes were all filled with tears as it rained softly from heaven. No one will enjoy the beauty of that hand carved box or the child who died in its mother’s womb. The Bible says we were created from the earth and to the earth we will return…ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Genesis 3:19