Welcome to Memorial Day and the memories of the many who have given their lives in order for us to enjoy our many freedom‘s.
My Uncle John was so damaged by his service in the military that he never really lived in the way he had before going to war and he lived in the shadow of his sadness for taking the lives of our national enemies.
I can still remember sitting on the porch swing with him and something reminding him of that conflict. Then him breaking into howling cry’s and me trying to in my child like way attempting to comfort him.
Now I know that He was struggling with receiving Our Father’s love & forgiveness.
Then I remember times that his best release from his bout with sadness was to take me out in the front yard & swing me on the big swing on the tall sycamore tree.
I remember my sigh of joy at flying through the air and me laughing at that feeling of weightlessness at the end of the swing just before returning in the reverse direction.
Then his sorrow would soon turn to happiness. When he would lift me out of the swing, he would say to me, “ Thank you Bennie”, as a child I didn’t understand but as an adult now when swinging my grandchildren I am reminded of the joy that that same experience is when bringing joy to them.
As a child he was the only adult who I knew who suffered from the hurt of war.
But I today am reminded of the gift many other people have given to me through their sacrifice.
Now to change the subject. Hey, Did you know that there are more than 350 different species of turtles? The leatherback sea turtle can grow to 6 feet around and weigh as much as 2,000 lbs. (500lbs. more than a cow) and can swim as fast as 22mph. and travel more than 10,000 miles in a year.
So much for thinking they are slow. Ha ha!!! By the way, they feed on mostly jelly fish.
Todays meditation is found in Prov. 19:3 “People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord.”
This reminds us of how many times we make decisions disregarding God’s instructions and then we have the nerve to blame Him for our consequences.
Worse yet; This failure to take responsibility for our actions only results in us repeating the harmful conduct.
Can you remember a time when you ignored your parents warnings and then became angry at them for the hardship it brought to you? Or worse yet, Can you remember the same kind of incident in one of your children‘s lives?
Remember the sadness that you felt for their resulting struggles after they ignored your warnings?
Can you imagine how deeply distressed our Father is when we refuse to listen to Him, or even for that matter listen to His warning or guidance. Then we end up in some sort of troubles and then worse, have the audacity to turn around and become angry at Him or worse yet blame Him for our problems.
Then to top it all off, after experiencing those times, then we turn and cry out to Him for help portraying the attitude that He owes us.
Wow, How gracious, loving, and most important patient He is to us, more real; He is to me.
As one of my favorite songs says it, “Oh How He loves you and me” and to top it all off the song writer repeats that over & over in the song to remind himself and us as we sing or hum it, just how loving He is to you & me.
Oh how blest we are my dear friend.
So Go With God and bask in His love, compassion, forgiveness, and favor for you, for Let me remind you, “Oh how He loves you.”