Up the Sunbeam

-- When you become a mother (or a father), you can never anticipate all that you are saying yes to.  If you're wise you'll let the prayers fall from your lips like raindrops. Three times life has blossomed within, twice I have delivered beautiful, healthy babies into the world.  Three times I have known the rending of my heart to make room for the flood of love it would have to hold as a new life came to be; one of those times I had to release that too-brief little life to heaven in the sorrow of an early miscarriage , and twice I have been blessed to watch those new lives grow into the amazing children God chose me to mother. I was a few months pregnant with She So Sweet the first time I heard the song "Breath of Heaven" by Amy Grant.  I was nervous in those early months, especially when complications came that felt like a repeat of the miscarriage.  As I prepared to go home from a scary trip to the ER, relieved to get good news but still shaken, the male n...

Parakletos. Greek word meaning one called alongside another . It is translated comforter, counselor, advocate, helper, intercessor, strengthener, and standby. This is the word Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit whom He promised would be sent to be with His disciples and followers. "But the one who is coming to stand by you, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will be your teacher and will bring to your minds all that I have said to you." John 14:26 (Phi) The "alongside One." It is a much-taught, well-worn truth, but it seems the best known, most fundamental truths can be the easiest to brush past. Well, not today. Today He went on my walk with me . . . and I noticed. When I finish a blog post, I immediately begin looking toward the next one, asking God what He wants me to know--what He wants me to share with you. Usually I have a batch of ideas and thoughts scrambling over one another like unruly teenagers volunteering ...