Life Happens

Life happens.  When you least expect it there is life with a new challenge.  Sometimes the pain of life is gut wrenching.  It gets intense.  So it goes here.  My beautiful grand daughter has begun to heal after 2 weeks home from the hospital for a tethered cord release.  The weeks leading up to her surgery were busy with meeting her daily needs.  Endless hours with little sleep.  She is blessed to have wonderful parents, who are completely devoted to her. 

Me,  well, I play a supportive role.  I assist.  Yes, I'm up at the wee hours with them.  But I'm the grandma and I can't help myself.  Love in action.  I think that's what I like to call it.

My blog took a back seat as I took this test in our family's walk of faith.  The Hebrew word for faith is emunah and it means both faith and faithfulness. 

Once again our family, both natural and spiritual came to our side to support us with prayers, good food and warm hearts.  Prayers went up from Texas, New York, Florida, Puerto Rico, and where ever else our spiritual family happens to be.  I can't tell you how much that has meant to us.  Words can't express it.  We know the power of prayer. 

We have seen HaShem turn things around in moments in response to prayer.  Each time we have been about to head back to the hospital with the baby, He has intervened on her behalf.  We have seen His hand at work as He calmed her retching stomach, soothed her back pain, helped her keep down fluids, abated a rising temperature, and more.  It has been a rough go, but He is faithful.

Rabbi Mark makes this analogy, faith is believing the vitamin will help you.  Faithfulness is taking the vitamin every day.   We trust/believe that our Heavenly Father listens to us and answers prayer.  We pray.  Faithfulness.  With each testing our faith is strengthened.  Because He is sovereign, it is His will we seek. 

We know, "It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.  Lamentations 3: 22-23.

The baby has begun to heal and slowly things are coming around to normal here.  We continue to trust in HaShem for all good things.  We trust in His Word.  We accept His sovereingty in all areas.  And we believe in His love for us.

In the midst of this testing, we celebrated Shavuot on May 27, 2012, which commemorates the giving of the Torah at Sinai.  Like thousands of others, I stayed up all night that Sabbath as the Torah was read at Sar Shalom.  Then on Sunday night we at Sar Shalom worshipped along with Ted Pearce as he led us into a highter place of praise. 

In the midst of our struggles there is refreshing in Yeshua.  There is Shalom in the Living Torah.