Always Home

July 23, 2014

“I will lift up my eyes to the mountains-from where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Who made Heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your Keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand…The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever. “Psalm 121:1-5, 8 (NASB)

“For thus says the High and Lofty One-He Who inhabits eternity. Whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, but with him also who is of a thoroughly penitent and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the thoroughly penitent (bruised with sorrow for sin).” Isaiah 57:15

Always Home

Everyone needs a place to rest, a place to rest the soul…

A place to dwell in safety, calm, a place to be made whole…

A place to revive the heart and a place of peace…Shalom,

The Keeper’s Holy dwelling place…Eternity, our home.

Most of us have had the exhilaration of an experience, well planned and anticipated, only to have the results and the outcomes be absolutely opposite of what we hoped for…what we planned for. In fact, I find that my plans are quite often reconfigured…and, the truth is that life just has a way of blind-siding even the best and the most well-devised, or elaborate of plans…and as I mentioned…it is called life which takes us by surprise…life…activity, breath, growth, change…change…unforeseen change. And the absolutes of this life become even more valuable and more treasured as we collide with life.

Always Home

I have mentioned in previous blogs that my mother suffered from multiple sclerosis and was bedridden for many years and our children had the responsibility and the privilege of helping Bill and me to care for her after my father passed away. We lived down the road from her in a small suburban neighborhood and would often ride bicycles to her house during our home-school lunch breaks. The outing was just enough motivation to keep our son, Adam, focused on his school work and Christie was always ready for adventure! It was an activity we could always count on because their Grammy was always home unless we transported her somewhere. Otherwise, she was always home! We often talked about the extremely different life that their grandmother lived. No one else they knew was confined to a wheelchair, or to a bed. They were quite familiar with emergency phone calls during the day or the night…One day in particular, I received a call from the lady sitting with her, “Mrs. Deborah, you better get over here quick cause Miss Sylvie is stuck under her wheelchair!” I asked her to repeat her words and she reported exactly the same thing, only much more dramatically! The kids and I dropped our school work and drove over immediately and found my mother literally wedged underneath her wheelchair. She was giggling uncontrollably! We immediately began to attempt to free her from her captor, but to no avail. She was stuck. I picked up the phone and called the faithful rural EMT’s and they arrived to stand in shock. My mother giggling…our kids giggling…They stared at the lady stuck under the wheelchair! It took three of them to untangle her limbs from the chair and get her safely back into her bed. No harm done…just a little humiliating! Needless to say, they knew us well!

Interruptions such as this one were fairly common for many years. And that was just part of our life…that was just part of love…But, I cannot imagine how she felt knowing that her falls, her ailments, her calamities, and her dilemmas created interruptions in our family life…There were so many times when I would look at the pain in her face and in her eyes, not from her injuries…but from what she perceived as being a burden…as being an interruption…as being a nuisance. Our greatest challenge was not so much in caring for her physically, but in displaying love and respect and conveying the value and worth that we placed on her life…so that she felt it…so that she believed it. We all knew that many plans were changed from time to time…And I would look at the pain in the face of a woman who was not old…who was not immune to disappointment…but who was resigned to life as it came to her. And that was the tremendous blessing for me and for our children as we had the opportunity and the privilege to love…and then to be the recipients of her total unconditional love.

Always Home

Most of us have experienced the exhilaration of an experience, well planned and anticipated, only to have the results and the outcomes be absolutely opposite of what we hoped for…what we planned for. In fact, I find that my plans are quite often reconfigured…and, the truth is that life just has a way of blind-siding even the best and the most well-devised, or elaborate of plans…and as I mentioned…it is called life which takes us by surprise…life…activity, breath, growth, change…change…unforeseen change. And the absolutes of this life become even more valuable and more treasured as we collide with life.

Always Home

One week-end, Bill was home and we planned a Saturday adventure. We were going to drive our four-wheelers over to the corn field behind my mom’s house and just have some family fun. Bill and I rode the big-four wheeler, and Adam and Christie had their own appropriately sized vehicles. We packed some snacks and took off for what we anticipated to be a great day!

We rode safely to the destination and began to ride in the fields but soon became engulfed in extremely tall corn plants, in fact so tall, that we could see absolutely nothing except the stalks of the healthy crop. Just rows and rows of corn! We stopped to rest. Bill wanted to look around before we all began to ride again, “to check out the terrain.” He gave Adam and Christie very clear instructions to wait there…and he added, “Adam, stay with your sister and your mom and I will ride up ahead and come right back.” Bill reiterated, “Wait right here!” They both repeated “Yes, sir!” with every intention of obeying…I think…

We had not been gone but seconds, and we heard a small four-wheeler behind us and looked around to see Adam, throttle down, behind us. “I thought I better check on you guys,” our son muttered with his head down, knowing full-well that he had intentionally disobeyed.

“Where is your sister?” Bill growled through his teeth. (Now, as I reflect on this event, I am reminded of God’s question to Adam and Eve in the garden when he asked Eve what she had done?)

“Where is your sister?”

“UHHHH…HMMMMM…she’s waiting back there while I checked on ya’ll.”

“Back where?”

“Back where ya’ll left us,” he struggled as he confessed. Then added, “Daddy, I was scared.”

“And how do you think that your six-year-old sister feels at this moment?”

Bill whipped our four-wheeler around to back-track to the few feet behind where Christie had been left. The place where we had left our two children was bare except for the stalks of the corn plants…and the dry brown dirt…and the quiet. As the reality settled in each one of us, we looked up to see a man whom we did not know riding a dirt-bike through the rows, close beside us. We began to frantically call to Christie…Panic began to rise in me, a panic that I had never known before…Adam, riding behind tried to call his sister’s name between his sobs…and Bill, who never panics, was screaming Christie’s name as he drove from spot to spot, to stop and stand on the handle bars to strain to see over the tops of the crop of corn…

Silence…Silence…We began to pray out loud…begging God to help us find our little girl…to find her safe…The moments seemed like an eternity…we were terrified…we were desperate…

I am not sure how we decided to leave the fields, but the three of us rode from the maze, through my mother’s back yard, and into her driveway, hoping and praying that there we would find our precious daughter. As we drove into the driveway and came closer to the garage, we spotted the little red four-wheeler parked…but no Christie. And then, the lady who was there that day, helping my mom, walked out of the garage holding a very scared little blonde-hair girl…We were speechless…how could this child have found her way? How did she know to…

“Mommy, Daddy, when Adam left, I was really scared…and I saw the man on the dirt-bike…and then I remembered, Grammy is always at home…always. So, I drove here, to her.”

I will never forget those moments of relief…of total miraculous relief…

We got Christie, and we all got back on our four-wheelers and we drove to a beautiful open field and had a “family meeting.” There were so many issues to talk about. Bill began by all of us praying and thanking God for the life of our daughter…for keeping her safe…for the safe place in Grammy’s home…for Christie being smart to go where she knew she was safe, because she felt very unsafe where she was after seeing the strange man. And we thanked God for Adam…even though he had disobeyed…we thanked Him for the lesson that Adam had learned about disobedience…about forgiveness…we thanked Him for the lesson we all had learned…we thanked God for our family…we thanked God that we had a Grammy, who was always at home…Amen…

And then, we talked, and talked, and talked, and cried, and laughed…and then we had our refreshments…we were a family.

Lessons Learned…

I still marvel at the lessons that God taught each one of us through that experience. Obviously, Adam learned an incredibly important lesson about disobedience and the consequences. He learned that disobedience has far greater ramifications than a parent’s momentary “discipline”. Good intentions are powerless in the face of obedience…Obedience and the follow-through that comes from a deep conviction to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, because it is God-honoring. Adam was broken-hearted and contrite…and he had been afraid; our son has never forgotten those moments.

Christie learned that had she stayed in her spot, we might not have had the scare…but she also, felt threatened by being left alone and seeing a stranger (although the poor man seemed to have been a harmless guy doing the same thing we were…but only God knows that one…) Christie remembered that her Grammy was always at home…there she found safety, refuge, protection, security, and we able to use the example to teach how God is always with His children…even in the fear…even in the silence.

Bill and I experienced moments of a nightmare…and we were blessed beyond expectation as we not only found Christie, safe and sound, but God redeemed a Saturday afternoon for our family and we felt bathed in His presence…in His strength…in His love…in contrast to our absolute despair and weakness…

And my mother never forgot the story of her home being the fortress for her grand-daughter, because, in the face of a dreadful disease, she was always at home. She found tremendous purpose and fulfillment, worth and value… And we never let her forget it… for the rest of her life.

HE IS ALWAYS HOME

The greatest lesson that came from this day, from these terrifying moments, is that just as my mother was always at her home…our Loving, Heavenly, Almighty God is always present and that is His character…that is who He is…He is always our Keeper, Our Protector, Our Shield. He is the One who never sleeps or slumbers…And although He dwells in the High and Holy place, He revives the spirit of the humble, and the penitent heart…the heart that is bruised with sorrow for sin…for disobedience…He is ALWAYS…ALWAYS at Home…He takes every call…He answers every cry…He’s never too busy, too tired, too frustrated, too distracted…No…He is our Help…He is our Lord…He is our Keeper…He inhabits eternity…He is our forever…He is our King…He is our Messiah…He is our Shalom…

Everyone needs a place to rest, a place to rest the soul…

A place to dwell in safety, calm, a place to be made whole…

A place to revive the heart and a place of peace…Shalom,

The Keeper’s Holy dwelling place…He makes our hearts His home.

“Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him” Ephesians 3:17 NLT

The Absolute Truth…

The God of Peace…

The God of Love…

The God of Rest…

The God of Redemption…

The Everlasting God…

The Forever God…