Release and Receive

by Macy Johnson

“He answered, ‘While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.’”

(2 Samuel 12:22-23 NIV)

David released his son to God so he could one day receive him again in heaven.

Through my window the last of the summer leaves precariously hang on our black oak trees. The wind furiously batters and shakes them in the sun, while the sturdy oak tries to hold on to its vegetation longer than other trees. I wonder when new growth will eventually shove off its lingering leaves.

The Curse of Blessings

by Macy Johnson

“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth;

for I am God, and there is no other.”

(Isaiah 45:22 NIV)

Blessings can pull me away from God. Struggles can push me closer to Him.

It is a constant tug-of-war. Oswald Chambers wrote, “Troubles nearly always make us look to God; His blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere.”

Pioneers

by Macy Johnson

“In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.’”

(Hebrews 2:10 NIV)

Jesus was the perfect pioneer, sent by God to suffer for us, to help in our failing humanity, and to lead us from ashes to glory.

My husband is an avid reader of pioneers who brought much-needed change into American society. One of his favorite biographies is about Booker Taliaferro Washington, who was born in 1856, to a black, slave woman and free white man from a nearby Virginia plantation. Mr. Washington was an educator, author, orator, and advisor to multiple US Presidents. He died in Alabama in 1915.

Postcards

by Macy Johnson

“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him,

but to suffer for Him.’”

(Philippians 1:29 NIV)

A friend recently gave me a copy of his deceased wife’s book, Postcards from the Precipice – Reflections of a Christian Facing Death. The author filled this treasured collection with emails from friends and musings journaled in her last months of life on earth.