Have you ever seen those little plastic loaves of bread with an opening on top, filled with colorful strips of cardboard that have a Bible verse on each side? My grandparents, George and Elsie, had one of those on their dining room table for many, many years. Before the ate a meal, 3 times daily, at every single meal, they read a verse (or two!) and prayed over their family. Particularly for those who did not know Jesus as Lord and Savior.
You may be thinking, "Aww, how sweet," and you're right, it is a sweet memory of grandparents (both of whom have gone to be with the Lord). But you'll find it more inspiring when I tell you the size of the family: George and Elsie had 14 children, 75 grandchildren, 88 great-grandchildren, and 12 great-great-grandchildren at the time of my grandfather's death. They prayed long and hard for their descendants, and many times their meal had grown cold well before the praying ceased. Oh yes, they were true intercessors.
Out of all the family members who could have gotten that little loaf of bread filled with Bible verses, I was blessed to end up with it. My mother is the oldest child, and she was able to get the little loaf and passed it on to me. It sits on a window sill above my kitchen sink, and I am very careful with it because it is a reminder of my dearly loved grandparents.
Last night the little loaf fell into the kitchen sink...and some of the verses on colored cardboard got wet. I carefully sorted out all the cards, putting the dry ones back into the center of the little loaf and setting aside the damp ones. One by one, I dried the five little cards (one yellow card, two green, and two red). Then I placed them on the window sill to dry completely overnight, right next to the little loaf.
This morning, my husband looked at the verses on the sill and said, "These verses you chose to lay out are great!" I told him I hadn't chosen the verses, in fact I hadn't even read them when I dried them off last night. He smiled and said that God had chosen some wonderful verses for us, seemingly picked out for today.
Would you like to know what the verses were? Well, here they are:
"Fear not: for I am with thee." ~ Isaiah 43:5a
"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm." ~ Isaiah 40:11a,b
"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go." ~ Psalm 32:8a
"With God all things are possible." ~ Mark 10:27b
"For with God nothing shall be impossible." ~ Luke 1:37
To have five encouraging, loving verses simply land "by chance" in my sink seems to me to be, well, ridiculous. These words from God's Word were not laid there "by chance" but by His will alone. What a blessing to serve a God who loves us enough to speak to us in a plethora of ways each day.
In what ways has God spoken to you lately? Keep your eyes open, and be watching for the Bread of Life to drop you some crumbs from a little loaf!
Day 170 done :)
Jan L. Burt
www.HomeschoolingMothersBibleStudy.com
You may be thinking, "Aww, how sweet," and you're right, it is a sweet memory of grandparents (both of whom have gone to be with the Lord). But you'll find it more inspiring when I tell you the size of the family: George and Elsie had 14 children, 75 grandchildren, 88 great-grandchildren, and 12 great-great-grandchildren at the time of my grandfather's death. They prayed long and hard for their descendants, and many times their meal had grown cold well before the praying ceased. Oh yes, they were true intercessors.
Out of all the family members who could have gotten that little loaf of bread filled with Bible verses, I was blessed to end up with it. My mother is the oldest child, and she was able to get the little loaf and passed it on to me. It sits on a window sill above my kitchen sink, and I am very careful with it because it is a reminder of my dearly loved grandparents.
Last night the little loaf fell into the kitchen sink...and some of the verses on colored cardboard got wet. I carefully sorted out all the cards, putting the dry ones back into the center of the little loaf and setting aside the damp ones. One by one, I dried the five little cards (one yellow card, two green, and two red). Then I placed them on the window sill to dry completely overnight, right next to the little loaf.
This morning, my husband looked at the verses on the sill and said, "These verses you chose to lay out are great!" I told him I hadn't chosen the verses, in fact I hadn't even read them when I dried them off last night. He smiled and said that God had chosen some wonderful verses for us, seemingly picked out for today.
Would you like to know what the verses were? Well, here they are:
"Fear not: for I am with thee." ~ Isaiah 43:5a
"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm." ~ Isaiah 40:11a,b
"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go." ~ Psalm 32:8a
"With God all things are possible." ~ Mark 10:27b
"For with God nothing shall be impossible." ~ Luke 1:37
To have five encouraging, loving verses simply land "by chance" in my sink seems to me to be, well, ridiculous. These words from God's Word were not laid there "by chance" but by His will alone. What a blessing to serve a God who loves us enough to speak to us in a plethora of ways each day.
In what ways has God spoken to you lately? Keep your eyes open, and be watching for the Bread of Life to drop you some crumbs from a little loaf!
Day 170 done :)
Jan L. Burt
www.HomeschoolingMothersBibleStudy.com
Tears of joy for you! How beautiful is our Lord's great love for us. Such a blessed assurance in these not coincidental verses left for you.
ReplyDeleteThere's an old praise chorus I thought of, after reading this: "I KEEP FALLING IN LOVE WITH HIM OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, I KEEP FALLING IN LOVE WITH HIM, OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN,HE GETS SWEETER AND SWEETER AS THE DAYS GO BY OH WHAT A LOVE BETWEEN MY LORD AND I, I KEEP FALLING IN LOVE WITH HIM OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN."
I just can't imagine traversing this life without Him!
Thanks for sharing this story of His faithfulness, it is a deposit in my well, just as I wrote in this blog post ~ http://kneedeepingrace.com/2011/08/filling-the-well/
May His abundant blessings continue to you and yours,
PK
LOVE IT!!! Thanks for sharing...we had a similar CO-incident...when the Horizontal meets the VERTICAL...and it was an AMAZING and PERFECT sense of timing!!!
ReplyDeleteC~
When I was pg with lil R, a Chris Tomlin song would come on whenever I went to the diabetes doctor. It came on nearly every appointment on my way and soon became my theme song while pregnant. It would play like a broken record in my head, constantly encouraging me.
ReplyDeleteJust the other day I was feeling discouraged and a song came on Pandora (while running) and encouraged me. Now that I'm typing this - I find it fascinating because I don't listen to a ton of music nor am I music savvy. :) So the irony of what I'm typing here is really not lost on me.
(The Chris Tomlin song by the way was "Our God"...so very perfect for that period in my life!)