Gifts

Gifts

by Barbara Chadwick

I was standing at the jewelry counter looking at watches. Kenneth said, "I'll be back. You just get whichever one you want." The clerk, a tiny young lady, smiled, then chuckled and repeated, "You just get whichever one you want!" That's wonderful! I wish my guy would say that!"

I tried on one and then another and made comments. I like this about one and that about another and she repeated "You just get whichever one you want!" and she chuckled again and said, "You are very lucky." and I smiled and said, "Yes, I am. He likes to give me good gifts and tomorrow is my birthday. He said I could pick it out"

You know the Lord wants to give us good gifts too. He offers Joy and Peace, Love and Salvation and He says to us, "You just take whichever one you want. I love you and want to bless your life."

Sometimes we want to choose just "stuff". Have you seen the movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic?" Becky Bloomwood, the protagonist, can't walk past a store without being drawn in by the things advertised in the shop window. Her apartment is crammed with "stuff." There is hardly room to move around. She has even forgotten she had some of this "stuff".

Now, this "stuff" wasn't blessing her life. In fact, it was messing with her life. There was no joy, peace, love Or salvation in any of it. There was no room in her home for another thing and yet she couldn't stop herself from going into another store when her eye caught something she thought would make her life complete.

If our eyes could catch the vision of being in harmony with God and letting Him fill our hearts then our lives would be complete. Jesus says in John 15:9-11:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

What My Father Did

What my father did for me is probably something that I will never fully grasp. The things he denied himself in order to provide for me and my brothers; The quiet restful evenings he could have had if he hadn’t engaged me in conversations based largely on the never-ending questions of a pre-schooler and in later years the endless haggling and gripping known fully well to parents of a teenage girl.

My Dad also gave me some things that I came to appreciate eventually, like long hikes in the mountains, and all the “drug” habits he forced on me. (Like the song-writer, my parents started me early on “drugs”. They drug me to Sunday morning and evening services. And they drug me to Wednesday night prayer meetings. And they drug me to funerals and weddings. They drug me to school.)

When I was eleven we moved to Las Cruces, NM. My father was a new catalytic missionary and he wanted to help Hermano Ernesto Prieto with the church he had started in La Mesa. We were the only two families attending this church … like forever! I cannot begin to describe to you how incredibly boring that was for a young girl with adventure on the brain. My life certainly didn’t read like the novels in the school library. (Although I’ll bet the novels were significantly tamer than they are nowadays.)

Fast forward to 2007 - my husband felt like God wanted us to move to New Mexico and here I am once again living in the Rio Grande valley under the shadow of the Organ Mountains which guard the city of Las Cruces.

A dear friend called me the other day to tell me that Ernesto Prieto had passed away. My mind flooded with all the sweet things that man did for me and my family. And I realized if it weren’t for my Dad, I never would have met Hermano Prieto. I never would’ve known an angel in real life. He was an angel along the lines of Gabriel or Michael. He was huge and powerful and passionately devoted to God. Even though at that young age, I thought he was a boring speaker, I was inspired by his life and his love for others and wanted to learn more about God and to have that same kind of passion for myself.

I called my Dad and thanked him for introducing me to the Giant, Ernesto Prieto. I believe that God uses our Dads to show us things about life, seemingly insignificant things, boring things, things we never would’ve looked for, but things that reveal God to us and open our eyes to the Giants among us. That's what our Father God does for us.

The Giant Named Ernesto Prieto

I was eleven years old
when my father introduced me to his friend
the Giant named Ernesto Prieto.

He was towering over me with that great big smile
and as I lifted my hand
two buckets of steel reached down and
held my hand tight.

His hand descended onto my shoulder
Eyes burned deep holes into my head
“Cristo te ama …
Jesus loves you!
… Me too!” he said,

His laughter rumbled
His voice rolled like thunder
The sky split open when he smiled

I can still hear that voice praying for me
Talking to his God like one friend to another
They carried on long conversations
… while I waited and listened
… trapped under the weight
of his hand on my head.

He spoke with confidence
Like he really knew
Someone was listening
and would answer him too.

His prayer was simple
Straight from his heart
“Cristo bendiga esta niña
y déja que su vida
estará dedicada a Tí.
… Jesus, … bless her,
make her life Yours!”

Although there was a gap
in my understanding … and his
He was a man who loved God with a passion
that could only be explained by
a Giant whose God was even greater than he!

He became my friend too,
The Giant Named Ernesto Prieto

by Audrey Wauson

Grant Us Wisdom

Grant Us Wisdom

by Barbara Chadwick

Last year at this time Kenneth had served for nine months as interim pastor Canyon Ridge Baptist Church in Bellvue, Colorado. The church called a pastor and he had just arrived. The following is my journal entry for that day:

Last night I was disgruntled and anxious after Praise Team practice. My fingers just wouldn't follow the music!

My thoughts:
- Maybe somebody else should be playing the piano
- We should go somewhere else and give the new pastor (here one week) a chance to get settled
- And what IS God going to do with us now?
- What IS our future going to be?

I fretted all the way home from Bellvue to Crystal Lakes - an hour and 15 minutes

When we got home we had our evening devotion before tumbling into bed. Our devotional book for that time was a book on hymns. Kenneth began to read:

Joshua 1:9
Be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt! For remember the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

God of grace and God of glory
On Thy people pour Thy power
Crown Thine ancient church's story
Bring her bud to glorious flower
Grant us wisdom
Grant us courage
For the facing of this hour

Set our feet on lofty places
Gird our lives that they may be
Armored with all Christlike graces
In the fight to set men free
Grant us wisom
Grant us courage
That we fail not man nor Thee
by Harry Emerson Fosdick 1873-1969

Lord, I pray that as I remember Your creation, Your mighty acts of deliverance and Your awesome being I will remember that You have the power and desire to grant us wisdom and courage for facing life in retirement.

Soon after that day we got a call from Glacier Valley Baptist Church in Juneau to come and serve as interim pastor. I praise God for His faithfulness.

Help her … You ARE her only hope!

My recently moved neighbor/friend dropped by today right in the middle of my messy cooking. We’d been busy all morning digging holes for planting trees and rose bushes and then planting them and then watering them, so everyone was hungry and I was cooking an early lunch … or brunch. When I finished, she and I went out to the back porch to talk.

That’s when all hell split open, and in my backyard unbelievable ugliness reared its horrific head. She told me that she’d discovered that her husband was having an affair … again (this is the third one in 25 years of marriage). And it’s been going on for almost three years!

How do you get over that? How do you recover? Where do you go from here? Tears spilled over and splashed on my cheeks. It’s never happened to me but it’s so horrible that what I see and hear breaks my heart.

I’m thinking, "Revenge! Or just simply kill him and put us both out of our misery. Oh that the ground would just open up and swallow me and deliver me from this agony!"

The problem is … there’s no getting away from the pain. Even if you could exact pain and retribution, you still have a crushed heart … the petals of your crushed heart leaving stains on the sidewalk … you still have ashes for dreams … you’re still broken and no one can fix that.

Or maybe there is only just One who can. But how do you let Him? How do you let go of the pain long enough to ask for help? How do you trust anyone after that? Even God … I mean the anger … the rage … … the hopelessness … the utter aloneness. Because even if you share with someone else what’s going on … when you leave them you’re still left with those raw infected emotions and the fever of pain burns through every pore of your body.

Oh dear sweet Jesus … please have mercy on my friend!

Like Jeremiah, I hear my friend saying things like, "Cursed be the day I was born! ... cursed be the man who brought my father the news ... May that man ...hear wailing in the morning and battle cry at noon. For he did not kill me in the womb ... Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?"

Jeremiah 20:14-18

Someone asked, “Where was God when this horrible thing happened?” and the reply given was, “The same place He was when His own precious Son was nailed to a tree.”

Please Lord Jesus, help my friend to know ... really know that, "You long to be gracious to her, that You rise to show her compassion. For You are a God of justice. And she will be blessed if she waits for You!" Isaiah 30:18

Dear God please have mercy on my friend. God give her courage to face this situation, give her strength to carry on. Surround her with the knowledge of Your love, comfort, and protection. Help her … You ARE her only hope!