Sunday, January 15, 2012

my favourite things/new beginnings

Danielle
her beauty shines
from within

it always did

a young girl
with enough life and joy
to keep one smiling
long after she's flitted
off to dance
or play

a young wife
a young mom
the beauty
ever  present
and when her  world
would seem to fall
away...

His beauty holds her up
The One who always did
and always will...
still...holds her up

He remains the same
and in His love
He promises He will be there

so the beauty remains
and always
will

and I marvel
and weep

for
all
this
beauty

Danielle
her beauty
by God's grace

my favourite things

-------------------------------------------------------
Here is a part of her story... be blessed
We also ask your prayers



Bigger than me!

The day before we were to receive the results of the biopsy, my Dad, heavy-hearted, drove to work, to share Christ's love with the men locked away in the Kamloops Correctional Centre. About 18 men filled the chapel that day. And Dad says, "they sang their guts out!".
After a time of singing, they usually take time for prayer requests. Dad, stood in front of these men, their lives full of hurt. Dad's life was hurting too. He began by asking them if they might pray for him that day, and pray for me.
A man stood up... and Dad's heart sank. This was not the sort of man Dad would've chosen to bring the name of his little girl before the Throne of God. He was hard and scarred and mean.
They all bowed their heads and waited to hear what this man could possibly have to say.
"Dear God, I know I don't talk to you very often...", he began. And then, Dad said, he could not believe the prayer that proceeded to come out of his mouth! This man who could be described a lot like this: "despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not", this man, began to plead with God... for me!
As he cried out to God to remove this disease from my body, my Dad looked up to see tears streaming down his tattooed face. He glanced around the room to the other inmates, rough, wounded men, weeping with heads bowed... for my Dad... for me!
The man sat down, and Dad, looking into the faces of each one there, told them, "the world out there thinks you guys are nothing, worthless, the scum of the earth, but you have shown me today that you have hearts of compassion and love!"
A prisoner came up to my Dad, following chapel, put his hand on Dad's shoulder and said, "He's gonna heal her, Rev. Cause we need a miracle in here."

... This is so much bigger than me!

What a miracle it would be that, through my Dad, my life, MY life, my LIFE could somehow touch a prisoner's soul and let him know that he is LOVED, that he is FORGIVEN, that he is WORTHY OF LOVE regardless of what he has done... and maybe that knowledge could actually set him FREE!