The Wonders of Mary, by Sally

I would like to take the four letters in the name of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and have them represent the wonders of Mary.

The M of course must be for the fact that Mary was the Mother of Jesus. Motherhood. What a wonderful time in a woman’s life. I wonder if it held all of the beauty and joy for Mary that it does for all mothers.

Some day we will be able to sit down and chat with Mary. We will be able to find out what her life had been like and how she dealt with the joys of motherhood and the agony of the crucifixion. We will be able to hear her own story of the wonder of being the mother of Jesus.

A must be for Mary’s Arms. Not long ago I was holding my little grandson and it brought back many memories of the special feeling of my own sons in my arms.

There are those wonderful times when our children are babies and we can hold them in our arms. Then during the toddler years, even though they sometimes are hard to catch, there is a special feeling of our own children in our arms. I wonder how Mary felt holding Jesus. I wonder if she knew all that lay before Him in His short life.

R is for Resolve. One only has to read the wonderful Scripture in Luke 1:46-56 to see the resolve that Mary had to carry her child and be a mother to her son. While she knew of her son’s position and importance to God the Father, others didn’t.

I wonder how she maintained that resolve to raise Jesus and continually discipline Him. I wonder how she handled her resolve to be loyal and faithful to Jesus, especially during those three years of His public ministry.

I wonder how she handled those awful days of His crucifixion.

And Y represents that fact that Mary was a Youth. She was quite young when Gabriel himself appeared to her. She was quite young when she accepted the responsibility of being the mother of God’s Son. I wonder how she was able to handle all of the stress and possible humiliation of carrying a child while still engaged. I wonder if possibly her youth was a blessing during those years of raising Jesus.

Motherhood. Arms. Resolve. Youth. Mary. At this Christmas time we can all wonder how very delightful it must have been on that Christmas night when the Son of God, Jesus was born into our world to live and then die for each of us so we can become part of God’s family.

A Story About Rejecton, by Sally

I would like to tell you a story about a very dear friend of mine. She is a lovely woman who had earlier been divorced, and is a Velvet Box. Those of you who are not aware of just what a Velvet Box is, need to get your hands on a copy of "Vessels & Flowers" and read about these complicated women.

One morning during Praise and Worship at her church, she was silently crying out to the Lord. Besides the rejection of her divorce, she had of late been rejected in a few relationships. She was trying to sing and participate, but her heart was heavy. All of a sudden, the Lord spoke to her and said, "What you see as rejection, is my protection."

Wow!!! What a lesson from the Lord. So many times, especially we Velvet Boxes, feel so rejected. It is hard for us to see beyond what we are going through and put it into a reasonable perspective. What she was sensing as rejection from others, God was allowing in order to protect this beautiful woman. I am sure that many times we look at what is happening and see it with our natural eyes. But God sees and understands the whole picture.

The lovely part of this story is that while she was going through this, behind her was standing a tall, handsome young man. God worked His perfect will in both of these young people . Awhile later they were married.

And what is so special, is that tall, handsome young man, is my son Keith. This lovely woman, Diana, has become my lovely daughter-in-law. I thank God that He protected her and brought her lovingly into our family. What a blessing.

Crawl Up In His Lap, by Sally

What an adventure I have been through. In my last blog, "All Is Well", I wrote about finding out I had uterine cancer and needing surgery. And I wrote about getting that "Good Report."
I was confident that after surgery it would all be over. It wasn't. Then I went through another very strange adventure. At the last visit to the gynecologist I was told that I still had type 1b cancer. To me that meant I have cancer. The doctor made appointments for a colonoscopy, a mammogram, and a visit to an oncologist. I was so shocked. I still had cancer.

Our Christmas letter was first about some wonderful gals that were wanting to get involved with our beloved Vessels and Flowers ministry, and it was about asking my friends and family to pray for me because I had to go through 5 weeks of radiation therapy for cancer. It wasn't until after a few visits to the oncology clinic that it began to get through to me that I had misunderstood the facts. I did not still have cancer. The facts were that the cancer had been removed with the body part, but it had been more pervasive than the doctors had thought and they were concerned that it might now be in lymph nodes and other places. I had not gotten that. Perhaps all of this is does not make much sense. It didn't to me either.

When I realized the truth, I didn't know whether to be relieved or embarrassed. Actually, I was both. I was so relieved that I did not now have active cancer. And I was rather embarrassed that I had so messed it all up. I now know that it is going to take longer than I thought to get that "Good Report."

So now Sally Lou goes to the oncology clinic five times a week for her treatments. And God has done some wonderful things to get me through this. To have these treatments I had to put on a lovely hospital gown on the regular backward way, (Ugh!) and then another on frontward as kind of a robe. Because of my sore right arm this was very hard to do. On one of these days, Brenda had been visiting and the weather was bad, so she took me down to the clinic and she helped me into this contraption. God bless Brenda.

When I went in for the therapy, I mentioned to the technician that something had to give. Either I had to have friends come every time to help me, or someone there just had to come and give the lady a hand. But the technician told me that really they had other ways, and I would not have to put on the gowns at all!! When I joyously told Brenda about this, she just looked at me and reminded me that My Heavenly Father was just looking out for me and making this as easy as it could be for me. What a blessing that was!

Also, during all of this, a wonderful, sweet friend called to pray for me. She reminded me that once when I was ministering to her, I encouraged her to crawl up on the lap of Jesus. She said that it had meant so much to her. Then she told me that it was what I needed to do now. The next time I went for therapy, I could picture myself crawling up into that warm, wonderful place on Jesus's lap. Now during therapy I pray, praise the Lord, sing and enjoy His protection and love.

During this season of my life I can greatly sense many friends and family praying for me. It is so comforting. That prayer support is so essential, especially right now. I do appreciate that prayer so much. Thank you all for praying for me.

What a wonderful place to be, in His lap. I encourage you to crawl up in His love and in His care when those times come when you need Him.

Blessings