Gathering Graces 8/19/2017

*Today was spent alone at home.  I needed today, to just be in a quiet house to think and pray and process.  But it wasn’t easy.  Zoe and Jason left around 11 or so, then I was here by myself.

*I guess I wasn’t totally alone.  I had Sadie, and Toby, and Benjamin, and Clark, and Dumblebunz, and Booker. 

*And I also had the Reagan family.  From the television show Blue Bloods.  I watched some episodes of this show on and off throughout the day.

*And my favorite author, Madeleine L’Engle also kept me company with the words from her memoir The Summer of the Great-Grandmother.  This is a memoir L’Engle wrote about caring for her 90 year old mother in the final months of her life.  Her words often hit a little too close to home, but also give me much comfort as she shares her struggles of caring for her mother in her final days.

*When her mother first arrived at their family home in Connecticut, her husband started having numbing in his feet.  She was worried it may be a brain tumor.  This is a passage she shared about this time, one I relate to as I ponder the recent loss of my mother, and the health issues my daughter is experiencing while in the hospital in Moscow.

“It’s a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally.  It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand.  It stops us from taking anything for granted.  It has also taught me a lot about living in the immediate moment.  I am somehow managing to live one day, one hour at a time.”

*Madeleine’s  husband ended up having diabetes, something they were easily able to treat.  And I believe Cosette will be okay.  It may just be a long road to complete recovery.  Keep praying!!  She has letters for her professors and her work saying she needs to take a week off to rest and recuperate before returning to school.  We all hope this helps. She is moving in with Molly and Travis as she recuperates.

After reading the passage from the book last night, this is the song that keeps going through my head:

"My Hope is Built on Nothing Less"
by Edward Mote, 1797-1874

1. My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

2. When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

3. His oath, His covenant, and blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

4. When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.