A Promise Kept

Today is a day of celebration. It’s a day to remember a wonderful woman–my grandma: Mabel H. Owen. She was 95 and went on to be with the Lord, January 18, 2010.

Though she is not in her body anymore, I believe she is not far off. Hebrews 12:1 says:

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

In Revelations 11: 11-12, it talks about the two prophets that were raised from the dead and taken up to heaven in a cloud.

11But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them.       

12Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

I am forever grateful for the opportunity and privilege I had to live with Grandma over the last nineteen months. After she broke her hip a couple of years ago, she couldn’t walk again and needed full-time care. We had to put an addition on to our house, but we moved her in as soon as it was done. 

Although the Alzheimer’s disease caused her to not be herself, I kept a promise I made to her many years ago. I promised I would never put her in a nursing home. Even though it was hard to see her whither away these past months, that promise was kept and she was as comfortable as she could have been, and died in the night on January 18, 2010, peacefully in her sleep at home with me. Praise God for allowing me to keep my promise.

I have many great memories of doing things with my Grandma. She was the most active senior citizen I have ever met (up until the time of her broken hip). While we lived in California at the same time in the 80s, we would fish together off the dock in Antioch, we’d pick fruit in Brentwood and bring it home to can it, and we’d do things with our hands. We both loved crafts.

Grandma was feisty and comical. She used to love to be with Danny, my now deceased son. (I am sure they are playing and having fun together in heaven!) Danny went to Christian school while we lived in California. We had to drop him off at Grandma’s in the mornings before work, so she could take him to school, and then she had to pick him up from school in the afternoons. She’d often tell Danny not to tell anyone what they did together to pass the time before and after school! Danny forgot and told me once that she and he played cards before and after school, and the game they played was fish! She wanted it to be a secret because she thought people at the school wouldn’t understand. I thought it was adorable!

I feel so blessed and at peace to know where Grandma is at. When we both lived in California, I asked her if she knew she was going to heaven. She told me, “Now Paula, you have to hope you get there. You do things the best you can and then when you die, you see if you were good enough to get there.” I told her that the Bible says we can know we are going to heaven. She thought that odd, but she listened. I told her about John 3: 16

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Then I told her about Paul and Silas when they were in jail and the jailer asked them what he needed to do to get saved.

Acts 16:29-31

29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

30He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 

I told her that when you ask God to come in to your heart and you accept Jesus as your Savior, you know you are going to heaven. Your heart and spirit inside you changes and you just know. It just happens! 

Romans 10:9 says 

9That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:13 says that

13everyone that calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

I shared all that with her.

Days went by and Grandma and I didn’t bring up the subject of salvation. I didn’t want to force it on her, but I was believing God for what He said in His Word that we and our household will be saved. By that, He meant that we and our family will be saved and Grandma was a very special family member to me.

One day, we started talking about God again and I asked Grandma if she was saved. She said yes! She said she’d always believed from her Catholic faith, that Jesus died for our sins, but she didn’t know about the personal relationship He wanted us to have. She said she asked Jesus in her heart and then believed she was saved! It is because of that “yes” that gives me the peace today that I know she is happy. She is with my best friend and Lord, Jesus Christ. He will take better care of her than anyone or anything here on earth. 

Though my heart has been aching and I miss her very very much, I know she was ready. Watching her these last nineteen months was hard. I knew she was getting older and wouldn’t be with us forever, but she still had a lot of spunk until about November, 2009. Throughout the past couple of months as she was going down, she would have days that seemed like were good for her. We prayed for her everyday as a family and told the Lord that although we didn’t want her to leave us, she wasn’t enjoying life anymore. For a lady with the spunk she had, just existing wasn’t living.

I am so blessed that I got to spend the end of Grandma’s life with her.  Most of the time she was with us, I don’t think she realized she was living with me. At first, when we moved her in, she may have known, but the part of the house she lived in was new, and not how she remembered my house being. When we are together again, I hope she is as happy as I am that we had these past nineteen months together. She was nothing like herself most of the time because of Alzheimers, but in eternity, we will have a blast together! God worked it out so that I got to keep my promise.

Abortion

Last week, my blog talked about the Manhattan Declaration. Abortion is one of the main issues in the Declaration. I want to spend another moment thinking about Mary, the baby Jesus and the issue of life before birth. This subject is very near and dear to my heart.

First of all, according to today’s standards, Mary had every reason to seek an abortion. Did abortion exist then? Probably. Before abortion was legalized in this country, people were quite creative in their quest to rid themselves of pregnancy. 

Mary was very young, engaged to Joseph, and a vibrant member of her community. When she conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit, people didn’t easily understand and/or believe the virgin conception! We know Joseph sure didn’t understand at first.  

Abortion would at least cross the mind of a young girl in today’s times who experienced a little of what Mary must have, during those months of her pregnancy. 

Women who seek abortion are told that it is just tissue in their womb, not a baby human being. The Bible is my choice for factual information.

Isaiah 44:2

This is what the LORD says—he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you…

Luke 1:41-42, 44

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” .

The Bible establishes that the fetus is a child, a baby human. So–then is abortion murder? YES! It is the killing of a defenseless, most innocent form of life. 

God’s grace has allowed us to live life, status quo in this country because He is merciful. There are consequences for all we do and/or allow, however. 

For the woman that made the decision to abort–she has the memory of what she’s done, if nothing else, for the rest of her life. She has the loss of one of the most precious gifts and relationships available in her lifetime: her child. 

For society that allows this heinous crime against humanity–judgement is coming. We may even be seeing the onset of it now. 

God will be merciful and gracious when we make a mistake. I think it’s because He’s giving us a chance to make the wrong right. If we don’t correct our mistake, He allows things to happen to bring us to our knees. Could it be that America has gone “unjudged” because of God’s mercy and grace? Could it be that now America is facing judgement with the collapse of our economy, laws in the making that are trying to relieve us of our freedoms, etc.? It’s something to think about.

Abortion has to be one of the most heart-wrenching sins God deals with with us. We are His children. He cares for us and wants a relationship with every single one of us! Each of those babies had a purpose. One of them may have had the answer to cure AIDS. Another’s purpose may have been able to keep us out of the financial crisis we are in now…and on and on. 

Each one of my four children have a purpose. They are all seeking their education.  One is going for a nursing degree, another is going for commercial art, and another is going for business. But, I did say I have four children, didn’t I? The fourth child, my only son and oldest child wanted to go in to graphic arts to eventually design cars. He never got that chance because he was killed by a drunk driver when he was only seventeen. His purpose was crushed by someone’s selfish sin.

You see, I know what it means to lose a child. I know God must be heartbroken when He sees the millions of unborn slaughtered. I still deal with the loss of my son daily even though he died fourteen years ago. God has dealt with the results of abortion for decades.

We have cheated ourselves out of the purpose of the aborted ones!

God is a good God. Even though we don’t “get away” with bad decisions and choices, He is merciful and will forgive us of ALL iniquity. One sin is no greater than another. In our eyes, murder is horrendous. In His eyes, sin is sin. When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, He didn’t say that breaking one commandment was more offensive than breaking another. 

The consequences of breaking a commandment, or sin, is always going to be there. One way or the other, we pay for what we do. The beauty of forgiveness of sin, however is the assurance we gain knowing that we have an advocate with the Father, so we can live with Him for eternity. That doesn’t mean that we have a “get out of jail free” card! God said it best when He said, 

John 14:15

If you love me, keep my commandments.

Pebbles

 

 

 

 

Black spots, brown and grey speckles, smooth coated, loyal and lovable. That’s my Pebbles! She looks like she is part Blue Heeler and maybe even part German Shepherd. No matter what, she is the most adorable, and overall best dog we’ve ever had! 

 

God knew what He was doing when He brought Pebbles to our household. 

 

About five years ago, Angela, one of my daughters brought a puppy home. I took one look and said, “That’s a face only a mother could love.” Although she was charming, and cute, I didn’t want one more animal in the house. At the time, we had a multitude of cats and three dogs. One more pet was over the top.

 

Angela explained that she saw a picture of the puppy at a local dive and called the number on the picture. When she went to see the puppy, the woman told Angela she had rescued the little pooch from the side of the road. 

 

That’s all it took. My heart was broken and I decided to give the little thing a chance with the condition that Angela would house break her. 

 

With Angela’s young, late teens, busy life… house breaking soon became my job. I was not a happy camper, so one day, after Pebbles did one of her dastardly deeds, she and I had a talk. I held her muzzle in my hand and looked straight in her eyes and told her that she was to do her business outside only. Outside she went. After that heart to heart, we never had another accident in the house again! 

 

This is the only dog I have ever had that seems to know what you are talking about. She is the most intelligent animal we have had and she has chosen me as her favorite human! We have ended up having a very close relationship… going on as many outings together as possible, sleeping next to each other, always in the same room, etc.  Pebbles is truly a wonderful gift.

 

God knew once again what He was doing in my life.