Kissed by the Spirit

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Proverbs 19:21 (NIV)

I had an experience that revealed how the Holy Spirit leads us, while we are not even aware that it is Him, assuming that people are redirecting our plans. The Spirit subtly changes our direction, yet not in a dramatic way. There’s no pillar of cloud or pillar of fire that leads us on the path He wants for us, as when He led the Israelites in the wilderness. Sometimes He turns us in the right direction, by what appears to be outside interference.

I was doing my usual volunteer routine last Sunday at the hospital. 

I followed the routine of putting on the dark blue lab coat, wearing the name tag identifying me as a volunteer from the hospital Chaplain department. All of us volunteers choose the day or days that we can come to the hospital, and I chose every Sunday morning. I routinely arrive at the office, sign in and then choose the 8th floor unit to visit.

For over twenty years, my routine has been to first visit the oncology unit on the 8th floor. Last Sunday I started out to do my routine but the Holy Spirit had a different plan. I picked up the list of patients, and signed in, but saw that a newer volunteer arrived before me, and was already on the 8th floor. 

So, I figured I would go to the 7th floor, but when I got there, I found that most of the patients were not available, for various reasons. I still wanted to do something, so I went to the 4th floor. Apparently, that was the exact floor that the Holy Spirit was trying to lead me to, at least for three people in particular.

The first patient was a burly, rugged looking man. After praying for him and saying goodbye, I noticed that he was completely choked up and in tears. I don’t know his story, but God does, and I was just thankful to be able to pray for him that day.

The next patient was a woman who was legally blind. When I introduced myself, she excitedly said that she was praying all morning for someone to visit her. We talked and I prayed for her, and was thankful that God used me to answer her prayer that day. 

The third person was a lady in her early 80’s, who was at her dying husband’s bedside. She told me he had just been placed on hospice that morning. He was unresponsive, asleep but breathing on his own. Then she shared her story with me. Fifty years ago, she was a divorced single mother of three, and met him at their workplace. They married and he was a loving husband and stepfather to her three children for fifty years. 

She shared how they routinely prayed together every night before going to bed, even if they had a disagreement earlier that day. I was touched by their devotion to God and to each other. She was now heartbroken that he is unresponsive, and may never wake up again, even though she continues to calmly speak to him.

I assured her that he hears her, even though he cannot respond. I know this from doing so many EEGs on patients just like him over the years. I told her how the brain waves change even in an unresponsive patient, whenever a loved one speaks to them, and she felt better, having peace knowing he still hears her.

Then she shared her guilt of being unsure if she made the right decision to place him on hospice. I shared a saying taught by a wise counselor of my Grief support classes after my husband passed away: 

“You did the best you could with what you knew at the time.” 

She liked that saying so much, she grabbed paper and a pen to write it down. I ended up spending an hour with her, which is the longest I’ve ever spent with anyone during that ministry over the years. I prayed for her husband, we hugged each other and then I left. 

That day started out as if someone interrupted my routine plan to visit the 8th floor, but interruptions are not always due to people. The Holy Spirit had a purpose and sent me to the 4th floor, instead. 

The Lord saw the tender heart inside a burly, tough exterior of a certain man, knowing his whole story and surrounding him with God’s love. He heard the prayers of a lonely blind woman lying in the darkness of her hospital bed and sent her a visitor. He knew the faith of a lady grieving for her dying husband, and consoled her, by giving her peace and the assurance that everything is okay, because He is there with them both. 

Lord, we praise you for being an all knowing God, who is abounding with lovingkindness for us. Thank you for your divine purpose that wisely prevails over our own plans. Amen

“For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”

2 Corinthians 1:5 (NIV)

The New Testament makes it very clear how the Christian life works. Whatever we receive from God, we are to share with others. That also goes for the comfort He gives us. Once we experience God’s comfort during a difficult time, we are meant to share it with someone else. 

Every person has a unique gift and calling, which is placed in them at birth. We are not expected to be like someone else, but to discover who we are meant to be. I cannot expect to be like my two older brothers, a Physics professor and an Aerospace engineer, since science was not my greatest interest, as it was for them.

I was a day dreamer, and an artistic creative kind of child. I used to spend hours making little books and drawing pictures on each page, adding words to tell a story and then stapling it together so that someone could turn the pages and read it through.

I never imagined that sixty five years later, I’d be writing daily meditations, but God knew. He patiently waits for years until we discover the gift He wants to use in us. It wasn’t until after becoming a widow, that I discovered my love for writing.  

During that time, God comforted me in many ways, through my faith and I started to write about it. In time, a tragic event can lead us to discover a new purpose. As someone once said, “The eye must shed tears in order to find its focus.”

The comfort we find in hardship, through our faith, leads us to comfort others through some gift that God uses in us. We are all on a mission of finding our gift in every stage of life. There is a gift of offering friendship to a person during a critical time. There is a gift of teaching and sharing wisdom that stays with a person for a lifetime. Some have a gift of discernment that gives insight into the sadness of others. There are those who have musical gifts, a talent to create, sing or play an instrument, which touches many hearts. All gifts were placed in us at birth, even the gifts that lied dormant for years.

Those little books that I stapled together as a child, were like an early hint of what God wanted me to do later. The love of writing must have lied dormant until I became a widow in 2019. Now I plan to take 50 of my favorite meditations and publish them in a book in 2027.

We’re all here to share the comfort and compassion that we ourselves received from God. I once shared it with a resident at the Nursing home who had a history of substance abuse. Her two adult daughters have alienated her, as a result of her past addiction. Her only desire now is to hear or speak to her daughters again, before she dies. I’m calling her Jan for privacy reasons.

After Jan made many attempts to reach out and call her daughters, they kept declining her calls. She shared with me that when she was young, she used to pray and believe in God, long before her addiction to heroin destroyed her life. She now thinks God has rejected her, just as her family has. 

I told her God wants her back, and He is not finished with her yet. I tried to encourage her to pray simple prayers like,  “Jesus help me.” Then I told her I would pray that her daughters have a change of heart and one day reach out to her. 

That was three years ago, and Jan has recently been placed on hospice, since she is declining physically and mentally, but God has not forgotten Jan. A few weeks ago, her two daughters flew in from Florida together, to visit her for the first time in many years. They came with gifts of blankets, clothing and snacks, while they spent a couple days visiting her in the Nursing home. 

Jan was thrilled to finally introduce me to them, and I know that God answered her prayer. I can imagine God looking at Jan with His heart full of mercy, then touching her daughters’ hearts, by bringing them back into her life. It was the greatest gift of comfort that she needed most, especially now.

God is patient and no matter how long it takes, He answers prayer and softens hard hearts as He did with Jan’s daughters. He longs to comfort us, and once we receive His comfort, He hopes we will help someone else receive the same comfort. 

Lord, help us to comfort others as you have comforted us, and use the gifts that are unused within us, to encourage others. Amen 

“Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.”

Acts 20:9-12 (NIV)

This is an unusual story, with a bizarre sequence of events. Paul was preaching to a church full of people on the third floor level of a building. A young man named Eutychus, was sitting in the window, falling asleep during Paul’s sermon. As the young man fell asleep, he fell out of the window, three stories down and died.

Paul quickly ran downstairs and held the dead boy in his arms, assuring everyone that the boy will live. He prayed for him, and the boy came back to life, which amazed everyone and they praised God for the miracle. 

Then Paul returned to that third floor congregation and resumed serving communion to them. He remained teaching and preaching through the night, until daylight the next morning.

The boy’s name was Eutychus, which is pronounced Uticus, in English. It means ‘fortunate’ in Greek. Eutychus was very fortunate, since he was brought back to life after a deadly fall, and just in time for communion. 

Scripture says that Eutychus fell into a sound sleep as Paul talked ‘on and on.’ The young boy was obviously drowsy, but there is another kind of drowsiness that Peter wrote about. He warns about spiritual drowsiness, telling the church to keep alert and stay sober minded. We are easily distracted by things that shift our focus away from God, gradually dulling our spiritual senses. 

(1 Peter 5:8)

The drowsiness of our spiritual awareness comes when we isolate ourselves and withdraw from others, while facing grief, illness or anxiety of some kind. There is something very therapeutic about telling God how we really feel, whether we are angry, sad, fearful or totally hopeless. Instead of trying to say all the proper words, reciting prayers that we think God wants to hear, true inner healing begins with honesty. It also helps to  share with a community that knows our burdens and prays for one another.

Even Jesus was honest enough to ask His Father to remove the cup of suffering from Him. David lost his focus several times, but his honest conversations with God, led him back to an intimacy with Him.

After bringing Eutychus back to life, Paul returned to serving communion. He kept the focus on Christ, the key element of our redemption, the body and blood of Jesus. It reminds us that whatever we go through, we are continuously renewed in Christ.

Like Eutychus, we will have times of spiritual drowsiness where we lose focus, but we will also have many spiritual resurrections in our lifetime, where we find ourselves awakened by the embrace of Christ, and renewed by His Spirit.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. ‘Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation.’ (Roman’s 8:38-39) 

Just like Eutychus, we are loved by God and will keep awakening in the arms of Christ. 

Lord, help us to stay alert and sober in spirit, so that we may know that your arms are around us and your blood has truly cleansed us. Amen

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

Acts 4:13 (NIV)

After Pentecost, Peter and John were transformed by the Holy Spirit. They are described as ordinary men who did astonishing things. Scripture is full of examples where God seems to enjoy using ordinary people to do extraordinary things. He did it with a shepherd boy, David, who became a king. He did it with every disciple, including Mary Magdalene, who were all ordinary people, some with questionable backgrounds, who were changed and did extraordinary things through the power of God. Here is a modern day story about turning ordinary into extraordinary.

In July of 1989 an off duty airline pilot, named Denny, boarded United airlines flight 232 to take a trip from Denver to Chicago. With 296 passengers on board, at an altitude of 37,000 feet, a very loud boom was suddenly heard, and the plane lost all three of its hydraulic systems. 

Denny, the off duty pilot passenger, immediately headed to the cockpit to offer his help to the flight crew. He ended up manning the throttles while the crew prepared for an emergency landing.

Without a hydraulic system in place there’s no possible way to steer a plane, but Denny, by managing the throttles, was able to keep the plane aloft, making a series of 360 degree turns to the right as it approached the airport in Sioux City, Iowa. There was no way to decrease the speed for a landing so the passengers were told to brace for a crash landing. First responders were on site and ready for a disaster.

The plane did crash and burst into flames, but 184 people somehow survived, including the flight crew. As they exited the plane after the crash, one survivor heard a baby crying and ran back into the smoke filled plane to discover an 11 month old baby girl lying under a pile of rubble. The crash threw her body from row 11 to row 26, but she was rescued without any injuries. Most survivors had minor injuries, but miraculously, 13 people walked away with none at all. 

Sadly, 112 people died in that crash but Aeronautic experts say that the plane should not have been able to land at all. The resulting outcome was a miracle, because a plane that loses its hydraulic system in mid flight, should have nose dived straight into the ground. 

This brings us back to Denny, the ordinary off duty pilot passenger, who was on that particular flight, only because he changed flights earlier that morning. He was the key player in a miraculous landing of a plane with no hydraulic system, saving 184 lives, including children and babies. 

Denny had no more flight hours or experience than the flight crew who were in the cockpit and yet he made an extraordinary landing. He told reporters that he believes God put him on that plane for a purpose. There’s always a ‘God factor’ to any story that turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. 

Pilots have since tried to duplicate with flight simulators, what Denny did that day, to keep a plane from nose diving, but no one has been able to replicate what he did. It is  considered to be one of the most impressive commercial airline landings in aviation history. 

Heaven certainly sent help that day, but it was through an ordinary man who was a believer, with no more flight experience than the crew. God heard his prayers and used him to save more than half of the lives on board. Denny has since passed away in 2012 from brain cancer, but I have no doubt that heaven was waiting to greet him at his final landing. 

God wants to do extraordinary things through ordinary people. Sometimes He does it by sending angels to help. On that day, it began with an ordinary man who stepped into action by faith.

Lord, thank you for people like Denny who through your grace, become an instrument in your hands to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Amen

“And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing.”

Ezekiel 34:26 (RSV)

As I think about those graces that God sends us during stressful times, it’s a shower of blessing that simply comes to us in what He knows to be the ‘appointed season.’  I’ve received a few of these showers of blessing in my life, which came at the appointed season, which is better described as ‘God’s perfect timing.’

I am still touched by the blessing of a surprise retirement party back in 2023, when I retired. It could have only been a more perfect celebration if the one surgeon I worked with the most, was there, but he was out of town during the party. 

Shortly afterward, I offered to help a friend by bringing her to a doctor appointment in the office building attached to the hospital where I used to work. I prayed my favorite prayer that morning, before leaving the house, asking for God’s perfect timing in all things. I love that simple prayer because amazing things always happen when I start the day asking for perfect timing.

When my friend and I arrived, we found the last handicap parking space close to a door, which was a grace of God’s timing. As I pushed her wheelchair toward the main elevators, an elevator door opened, and there stood the one surgeon who didn’t make it to my retirement party. We were both so surprised to see each other, but the big hug and exchange of words with well wishes in the elevator, was a true shower of blessing, at the perfect time.

That single moment brought a special closure to the many hours I enjoyed working with him. I was able to say goodbye to someone I spent countless hours in surgery with, for 25 years. It was no coincidence that he was in the elevator that day, at that exact moment, because it was all part of God’s perfect timing. 

Showers of blessing and perfect timing doesn’t mean everything will  always go our way with perfection. God knows the perfect time to bring a shower of blessing, at a moment when our refreshing is most needed. 

There is a blessing of perfect timing that will come through the kindness and knowledge of a stranger on the phone, who helps us with a task we are not familiar with. God sent a lady named Katherine, in His perfect timing, who was the Illinois disability  agent assigned to my son’s case. She went the extra mile to get all the information needed, when Jon’s Nursing home gave her only vague and incomplete information. In God’s perfect timing, the right people were sent to help me and Jon through the steps of my legal guardianship. 

Some tasks are mentally and emotionally exhausting, but asking God for perfect timing will result in Him sending us the most helpful and knowledgeable people along the way, which lightens our burden. God knows the perfect time and season to send a shower of blessing when we need it most.

The Lord is attentive to every detail that concerns us. He knows all of our worries and anxieties, but sends a blessing our way, at the perfect time. He not only meets our practical needs but He knows the unspoken desires of our heart. He blessed me at the perfect time, on the day I met the surgeon in the elevator, so we could finally say goodbye to each other.

Lord, thank you for helping us with every task, for knowing the desires of our heart, and for the showers of blessing you send us in your perfect timing. Amen

“Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

Matthew 17:27 (NIV)

Not many sermons are preached on this strange but interesting story in Matthew’s gospel. If God can have a specific fish ready at the right time, with the exact amount of money in its mouth, to meet a monetary need, the message must be that God will  help us meet our financial obligations.

Peter, James and John had just witnessed the transfiguration. Their hearts were stirred in awe at hearing the voice of God on that mountain top. Right after that, their faith was increased even more by seeing Jesus cast a demon out of a young boy.

While still enjoying all these spiritual highs, Peter was approached by the temple tax collectors who came to tell him that taxes were due from Peter and Jesus. Every Hebrew adult male was obligated to pay an annual temple tax for upkeep of the temple. 

Hearing that money was due had to be a spiritual damper while they were still filled with the awe of what they had just experienced. It’s a reminder for us that mountain top experiences are inspiring but we still have to return to real life obligations.

Peter went from having a glimpse of heaven, hearing God’s voice, and witnessing miracles, to being asked to pay his temple tax bill that was due. He hurried to tell Jesus about it, knowing he had no money to pay it. Jesus calmly told Peter to go to the sea, drop in a hook and the first fish he catches will have the exact amount that is due, inside its mouth. Peter did it and found a four drachma coin in the fish’s mouth, just as Jesus predicted, and paid their taxes.

It’s a great story to inspire faith in God’s financial provision, but there has to be a meaning beyond trusting God to help us meet our financial obligations.

Peter, a fisherman, was told to go to the sea and catch a fish, a process which he was already familiar with as a fisherman. If Peter was a baker, Jesus might have told him to look inside the next loaf of bread he baked. God works His blessings through what is familiar to our daily routines.  We learn that God works through whatever we are most familiar with. 

Some blessings come through the mouth of those who are a part of our daily routine. It could be through the advice, words or conversations we have with the people we work with or meet throughout the day. 

The blessings we receive over time come out of our sea. It consists of our family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors, who are the fish that God placed in our sea, for a purpose. 

God’s blessings may not always be obvious at first, since they can come through the prayers, conversations, and friendships of others, over time. God also sends us to be the fish in other people’s sea, using us to bless them as well.

We cannot take much with us when we leave this present life, but every relationship remains in our hearts forever. Most blessings are apparent  but others are hidden, until we look into the mouth of the fish that God brought into our sea. Relationships in our lifetime are the fabrics woven into our souls, and will always be with us. It might be something that someone once said, taught, or the example they left with us, which helped to form who we are today. 

I have a first cousin, Barbara, who I lost touch with for four decades. As children we were close and our families spent a lot of time together. Barbara moved as a young adult to northern California where she has lived with her husband and two daughters in a San Francisco suburb. Our mothers both passed away many years ago, and neither of us kept in touch or traveled to see each other. 

When Barbara heard about Jon’s accident three years ago, she quickly reached out to me. We reconnected and revived our relationship so that we now text and communicate pretty regularly. We are both convinced that our mothers brought us back together. 

Whether it is people who we see on a daily basis, or those who live a long distance away, or loved ones who have passed away, they are all the fish that God brought into our sea. Their example, prayers, words, love and friendship is forever woven into the character of our own souls.

Lord, thank you for sending people as blessings into our lives, and for sending us into their lives, according to your timing and holy purpose. Amen

“Now to Him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.”

Ephesians 3:20 (RSV)

After my son’s brain surgery for a skull fracture and brain bleed in 2023, the neurosurgeon told me that however he is around 18 months after the accident, would be how he remains. At that time, Jon didn’t speak at all, wore a diaper, was fed through a stomach tube and was receiving physical therapy to learn to walk. 

It has been three years since his motorcycle accident and traumatic brain injury, which is far beyond the 18 months. Jon now walks on his own (with a limp), feeds himself, speaks clearly once in a while and recently started using the toilet. His right arm is still paralyzed but he puts slippers on his feet, and deodorant under his arm, using his left hand. Yesterday he walked over to a nurse assistant and asked, “Can you cut my nails?” The nurse assistant was shocked since Jon seldom says words that are understandable. So he granted his request and cut his nails. 

When I visited him the day after, I heard about this and said, “Jon, I heard you got your nails cut”, and he nodded and lifted his hand to show me. His speech and comprehension are still slow but progress is ongoing, which far surpasses his prognosis. 

A few years earlier, I met the mother of another resident in his early forties, nearly the same age as Jon. Her son had kidney failure which began as a child, and he was now in dire need of a kidney transplant. He was admitted to receive dialysis treatments, but he refused to stop smoking, so a transplant was not in the near future for him. At the time, my son was unable to walk at all, sitting in a chair, with a feeding tube in his stomach, and a breathing tube in his throat, unable to speak. 

As the two of us mothers were chatting during our visit that day, her son had an angry outburst towards another resident. She looked at me and I looked at her, and without a word, we communicated. She knew I felt her embarrassment and frustration about his behavior. We understood each other since we both had adult sons with serious medical problems, far beyond our control. It was as if we shared a bond of understanding which required no further words.

When I left that day, we happened to meet in the parking lot, even though she left a few minutes before me. She asked me if she could pray for Jon, and we held hands and prayed for each other’s sons. After saying goodbye, we never saw each other again, since her son was discharged, a few months later to live in his own. 

I’ll never forget that day and our brief connection with a moment of prayer in the parking lot. I pray for her son but never saw him or his mom again. God answered many prayers for Jon, since that day, and I hope He did for her son as well. 

God reveals His presence in our lives by bringing certain people together. Sometimes it’s only for a moment of prayer in a parking lot. Other times, He brings people together as friends for a longer time, like the parents of Andy, a man near the same age as Jon. Andy has been in the facility as long as Jon has, and he has also come a long way in the past three years. 

God works in mysterious ways, by networking people together, since He fully understands what we are going through. He works in ways, beyond what we could ever ask or imagine. 

As scripture tells us, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, and 

his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning.”

(Lamentations 3:22-23)

Lord, thank you for showing us your love us during the difficult times, by bringing special people into our lives. Amen

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Romans 8:18 (NIV)

I had a good friend for fifty years, and even though we didn’t agree in many ways, we were there for each other in the many seasons of life. Someone once said that ‘your best friend is your unpaid therapist.’

It’s so true and when you lose a good friend it leaves a void in your life. 

In 2019 I lost my husband, then in  2021 my friend of fifty years was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and two months later she passed away. In 2022, a much younger friend who I worked with for twelve years, passed away prematurely. Whether we lose a spouse, a sibling or a good friend, it is like losing a gift from God. When we lose a special gift, it leaves a vacuum inside, called grief.

I recently saw a meme that read “Grief is unspent love.” 

After any kind of loss, we need to find a new outlet, purpose, or direction to reinvest and spend our love on. I believe that Jesus is our truest friend who sticks closer to us than anyone. He can fill the vacuum of grief within us, bless us with His friendship and show us how to best spend our unspent love. 

For me, writing has become one way of reinvesting unspent love. Through writing, I’m able to pay tribute to old friends, honor loved ones who I’ve lost, and encourage the faith of all my current friends. It’s a blessing to build new friendships through writing these meditations. 

Paul’s advice to the Philippians is telling them to ‘press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’ There is an upward call to each of us and part of that upward call is to find a new way to spend our love in this world. It could be through charity work, or church volunteering in some way. When we give our time to someone, we are giving them a portion of our life, another way to spend our unspent love.

Rick Warren is known for his successful book, “The Purpose Driven Life.” He learned a lot about grief when his own son committed suicide in 2013.  Rick launched a ministry to help people with mental illness and gives 90% of the book’s proceeds to that ministry. He said that our number one purpose in life is to know how much we are loved by God. Until we truly grasp that, we can never love Him, ourself or anyone else. God wants us not to waste our pain, but rather to press on and find new ways to spend the unspent love He has placed in us. 

Lord, lift up all hearts today to know how much you love us, and inspire us to find new ways to spend the love you have placed in us. 

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”

Psalm 23:6 (RSV)

In this meditation, I put the picture first, instead of last, because the look on this lamb’s face is worth a thousand words. He seems to be saying, Where is everybody?  Which way is home? Help, I’m lost!

He doesn’t know that his shepherd is right behind him, running to catch him before he wanders deeper into the woods. Goodness and mercy are running behind him, but he just hasn’t realized it yet. 

Just like that lamb, sometimes we are unaware that goodness and mercy is running behind us. There may be times when we feel lost in the woods. Whatever type of woods we are in, the deeper we go, the more we tend to convince ourselves that we are alone, and no one else knows what we are going through, but in reality, Jesus is right behind us.

I remember being lost in the woods when I was four years old. My relatives had a cabin in a wooded area, somewhere in Michigan, and they invited my family to come visit. Somehow I wandered away from the family cabin, and got lost in the woods. Some very kind people in a nearby cabin found me and took me in, and they kept me safe until they found my worried parents. 

We may not get lost in the physical woods, but we can feel the same isolation or loneliness, by being in a place that is far away from all that has been familiar to us. It might be a situation that removes every sense of stability, security or peace. It could be the woods of a deteriorating relationship or a financial burden, or maybe a health scare that leaves us in a dark place, filled with fear. 

We have all been in the woods of some kind, and we all fit the image of that bewildered lamb in the picture, who unknowingly has his good Shepherd running behind him. 

Goodness and mercy are more than a shift in our destiny, or the answers to our prayers. It’s more than a thing, it’s a person-it’s Jesus, our shepherd, who is good and merciful, and follows us all the days of our life. We have all been taught to follow Jesus, and we should, but there are times when He follows us, because that’s what Shepherds do for their sheep.

The Lord manifests His goodness and mercy in our lives, in different ways at different times. Sometimes, that goodness and mercy is revealed through others, like the kind people who took me into their cabin, when I was a helpless and lost four year old. 

Even when our faith weakens and we give up hope in moments of crisis, His goodness and mercy still follows us in the dark, wooded trials of our lives, assuring us that He is right there. Jesus is also with us, following us all of our days, if we only look behind.

Lord, whatever we go through, help us to trust that you are always running behind us with goodness and mercy, all the days of our lives. 

“Provide for those who grieve in Zion-to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

Isaiah 61:3 (NIV)

My mother passed away in 2006 at the age of 92, but her good friend, Elsa, lived to the age of 102, passing away in 2021. I learned of her death, too late to attend her funeral service, but her family recorded the entire funeral on YouTube. Each of her relatives gave a touching eulogy, and it was obvious that Elsa lived a very love and faith filled life for the majority of her 102 years. I say the “majority” of her years, because her childhood was cruelly interrupted by the holocaust.

What I remember most about Elsa were the numbers tattooed on her forearm. She grew up in Hungary, during WWII. When the Nazis took over Hungary, her family was taken from their home, and Elsa was separated from them. At the age of twelve, she was in a concentration camp, and became a number instead of a person, never to see her family again. 

I cannot recall the details of how Elsa survived and made it safely to America, but she later married and raised a family, settling in the Chicago area. She lived a good long life, even with numbers tattooed on her arm. It’s a reminder that beauty can still come from ashes, as she overcame the sorrowful time in a Nazi camp. 

I found it interesting that not one of her family’s eulogies made mention of Elsa’s time spent in the Nazi camp. At first I was perplexed by their neglect of such a sorrowful phase in her life. Each eulogy described who Elsa was and what she meant to the family. Her children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and great grandchildren all gave eulogies describing how much love and joy she brought into their lives.

Then it occurred to me that her early period of suffering was not disregarded, but the person she became had overshadowed the tragedy she overcame. During the years of her long life, her family celebrated who Elsa was and what she meant to them, which was greater than the tragedy of her early life. As I listened to the last and final eulogy, I felt hope that all people can become the person God intended them to be, which overshadows all sorrow.

In that moment I imagined Elsa and my mother together in heaven, joyfully reunited in a warm embrace.

The numbers on Elsa’s arm represent the ashes of despair in today’s scripture, which God can turn into the oil of gladness. Sorrow and injustice can keep us too focused on the ashes, but God gives us grace to overcome the most unimaginable sorrows. We have the potential, like Elsa, to rise above our ashes and become a beacon of hope, love and strength for others. 

The cross of Christ reminds us of the ashes of mourning, symbolic of His suffering, like numbers tattooed on Elsa’s arm reminded her of a time of great sorrow. Everything Jesus suffered for us, was later turned into a crown of beauty and a garment of praise through His glorious resurrection. 

Jesus is now our beacon of faith, hope, and love, who gives us strength to rise above the ashes. His cross is a reminder of the grace and mercy that forever exchanged our ashes for a crown of beauty and a garment of praise. 

Lord, give us the wisdom to know we are much more than the sum of our suffering, but made to reflect your love into the lives of others.