Memorials

On this Memorial Day...

remembering those loved ones who have passed on before us...

family members--

Grandpa and Grandma Smith

Granddad Duranske

Uncle Merlyn

baby "Grace"

and Alethia Joy.

Thinking of many sweet friends who are enduring painful and terrible losses [many of which were young children] -- some recent and some years ago.

Remembering those who died in the fight for freedom for our country.

"O Love that Will Not Let Me Go" (written by George Matheson on the eve of his sister's wedding; years before he had experienced great adversity when he learned he was going blind and soon after this his fiance left him, saying she couldn't go through life with a blind man. The words to this hymn came to him in only 5 minutes.)

[3rd verse]"O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not
vain,
That morn shall tearless be."

"How Firm a Foundation"
[5th verse]
"When thru fiery trials they pathway shall lie;
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine."

Philippians 3:10
"that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death..."

Missing my Alethia Joy even more today...
Feeling the hole in my heart of grief.
Clinging to His promises...
Knowing that He fills my emptiness with Himself.
Blessed to wear this necklace [Mother's Day present] thinking of my baby girls.

Thankful for the reminder in Sunday's sermon how God uses adversity...to bring endurance, to bring glory to Himself, to draw us closer to Him...

My prayer...May my fellowship in His sufferings bring me closer and closer daily to His Son, Jesus Christ. Glory to Him alone.