Have you ever had one of your children get away from you? It happened to me once. I was walking from the car to an evening church service in a crowd of people with my five children. I may have been carrying the youngest, but I always had the children hold hands and stay right beside me. (It’s not easy being a single mother with five little ones!) When a fellow church member brought one of the children who had lagged behind to me, it was the first I realized one of my little ones wasn’t with me. I was horrified! It was only a matter of a minute or two but it scared me. Can you imagine what it was like for Joseph and Mary when their son was lost to them, not for minutes, but for more than a day and overnight? When they finally found Jesus at the Temple and questioned him about his actions, he couldn’t understand their concern. After all, though he was our Savior, he was also once a 12-year-old boy.

No matter what the calendar says, spring has already sprung in north Texas. The foals are beginning to show up at the horse ranches—a sure sign. And, yesterday morning when I drove out to pick up milk from the dairy, lots of new black-and-white Holstein calves had arrived since my last visit. At one farm I also saw twin goat kids about the size of small dogs. So cute! Most of the trees and shrubs, still shocked by the polar vortex suffered a few weeks ago, seem hesitant to show some green as yet. Who can blame them after what they’ve been through. Many of their neighbors, including some shrubs around my house, didn’t survive the below-zero temperatures. But the cold is gone and spring, with its daffodils and new life, gives us hope for the year. At this one-year anniversary of the official start of the pandemic, God knew we needed that.

Does your conscience (or the Holy Spirit) ever convict you that you might not be as generous as you should be? Have to admit, I’ve received those gentle reminders. So when that happens, I ask for guidance. I’ve written about Jesus tips before, where you give your waiter an extra-large tip. (I’ve received some interesting reactions when I’ve slipped a waiter a $20 and told him or her it was a Jesus Tip.) During this pandemic with so many depending on minimum wage and some having even less, I’ve upped my tip percentage and given tips where none were expected. It’s not as if it’s a great sacrifice as I’m driving less and eating at home more. The responses have been from I appreciate it so much to a surprised thank you. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for giving me those helpful nudges. Sharing what we have is another way to show Jesus’ loving generosity and concern for every one of his children.

The men needed a break. Hounded constantly with little time to rest or even eat, Jesus and his disciples traveled to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon to hide out. But his fame as a healer was so widespread, the Syrophoenician woman learned who he was and pleaded with him to heal her daughter (Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:24-30). He ignored her, but she persisted. You remember the story. She wouldn’t stop her annoying loud crying after him. The disciples were embarrassed. Finally, Jesus told her she had no claim on him. She was a pagan, a gentile, not a Jew. Even though he compared gentiles to household dogs, she wasn’t fazed. She saw through this man of God. She saw love and compassion and she answered his Jewish slur wisely and wittily. Tradition says her name was Justa. Whether her name or not, her story of faith is in the Gospels. Though Jesus told her his mission was to the Jews first, a gentile was healed that day. 

What is that crow picking at? It’s not a bug or worm, too big for that. Ugh! It’s a dead songbird! I’ve heard many birds, bats, snakes and other small critters were frozen during our polar vortex, but this was the first I’d seen of it. Not too concerned about the snakes, but I love the colorful birds and even appreciate the not-so-pretty bats that keep the mosquito population down. As I watched the crow fly off with its prey dangling from its beak, it made me wish I could have protected the bird some way. With below zero temperatures and hours of no heat, I was too busy trying to survive myself to worry about birds. But, you know what, God knew when that bird fell, just as he saw me working to keep my wood-burning fireplace going all night. He knows and cares about every detail of our lives. What a good and merciful God!

After my comments on kneeling for prayer several weeks ago, one of my friends said she has a hard time getting up and down off her knees, even after knee surgery. So what she has done is designate one of her chairs the Count My Blessings Chair. She explained when she needs to have a deeper, longer conversation with God about some issue, she sits in her special chair to talk to him. It reminded me we can’t always be in what we might think is the ideal position or place or circumstance to pray. God must smile at some of our attempts (I hope not excuses) to view our prayer time as so difficult. I hope Donna doesn’t mind, but I might steal that idea from her. Maybe borrow is a better word.

This Lenten season someone said Texans don’t have to do penance, because during this last week we’ve been deprived of enough already. That made me smile. Though I see no need to do penance (Jesus has taken care of my sins already), I see this season as a time for sin awareness. It’s good to be reminded sin is so awful in God’s sight that it cost the life of our Savior. So I’m reading through the Gospels again during the 40 days of Lent, this time from the Message version. This adds only two or three chapters a day to my regular Scripture reading and gives me a fresh look at Jesus’ birth, perfect life, baptism, death and resurrection, all for me. Our merciful Savior has gathered our imperfect lives into his absolutely perfect, sin-free life, as he once pictured, like a hen covering her chicks, ridding us of all shame and guilt. What could be more wonderful!

Though I’m still boiling my water, at least I have water! With electrical power off and on for days and no water except what I had saved in buckets, I’m grateful. So many in the Dallas area are still without power. This has been one of those humbling experiences when we are forced to realize how vulnerable we are. We think we’re so independent and in control when we certainly aren’t. It would help if we would heed the God-given warnings. Though this was record-breaking cold for Texas, we’ve had some cold spells that taxed our electric grids before. Will we remember this disaster by next winter? I’m not so sure. The sun is shining. The outside temperature here is 67 degrees today. Can it be we were shivering in minus zero degrees a few days ago? Was it all an illusion? Hmm…

We take so much for granted in this country—electricity, heat, water, food and shelter. This Texas Arctic blast has been a good reminder to appreciate what we have. It was minus 3 degrees here one morning. Our Texas houses weren’t built for this kind of cold! With my electrical power going off and on and several days with no water, reality strikes. We Texans are scurrying around every time our power comes on to shower (if we have water), to heat up something and to charge our phones and laptops. Whatever we can get done in a short amount of time. I’m thankful to have a wood-burning fireplace with plenty of wood. I’m not complaining. Some people have had no power for days, so I feel blessed. Now we wait for the thaw to see what damage has been done to our water lines. Pray for us!

Our pastor has encouraged us to have a personal testimony prepared, short and to the point, so we’re ready when the opportunity comes. I’m finding it difficult to explain why I believe in God, because I can’t not believe in him. God is more real to me than my next-door neighbor. I have a two-way relationship with him that goes back to childhood. God knows every mistake I’ve made and every sin I’ve committed and loves me anyway. He doesn’t judge me; he just loves me. I can live my life joyfully and peacefully because he loved me enough to die so I don’t have to suffer guilt and shame. He freed me! And that’s why I’m still working on my testimony. What can be more important than sharing that wonderful good news with others!