Before and After: 40's vanity, baby changing table

Only 6 weeks to go till our baby arrives, and my to-do list now has another check-mark. 

This list is really "Honey-do," but I don't like to sound that bossy.  

There is absolutely nothing on here that I could do.  

My job is to be patient (and meditate on the verse above the list).

On a beautiful day in April, my husband finished rebuilding an iffy old vanity 

so that it would work as a changing table/dresser.  As usual, he worked harder on it and made it more wonderful than it needed to be.  

 

Here it is, shoe-horned into the corner of our bedroom.  

The new top gives height and some storage.

This is the part that makes me smile.  Necklaces as baby-mobile......maybe not.  

They need to be hung higher anyway.  

The peg they're on came out of the first piano that Nate took apart.

Expecting another baby at my age has been quite a journey.  Most days I am tired and emotional.  I have found that meditating on certain songs (especially old hymns and Dan and Sandy Adler's "Songs of Courage") as well as filling my mind with the Word, has kept me stayed on Him.  He does promise His peace.  What could be better that that?

"I rise before dawn and cry for help;

I have put my hope in your word.

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night,

that I may meditate on your promises."

Ps. 119:147-148

You Created All Things

(written April 2013)

In memory of MJA

From Revelation Chapter 4
At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightening, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a living eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

Holy, holy, holy

is the Lord God Almighty,

who was, and is, and is to come.

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him to sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

You are worthy, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they were created

and have their being.

It has taken me a year to be able to write about this. While Liz was pregnant with Matthew, I was pregnant with Malachi. I was full of fears (the doctors said there was a one-in-eleven possibility of a chromosomal problem).  I worked with Liz (a teacher) on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Those days became my favorite hours of the week.  I love her trusting, obedient heart. You can read her beautiful story here.

How many times have I woken in the night, pulled the blanket from Liz up to my chin, and cried out to the Lord on her behalf? Maybe hundreds of times. She reminds me of the beauty of heaven, of the hope we have there, but she also reminds me that this little old earth matters. It matters for all eternity.

Thank you Jesus, for creating precious Matthew, and for choosing such a one to be his mommy.

Longings

 Bleeding Heart, about to bloom.

The Inner Voice of Love

by Henri Nouwen

"Work Around Your Abyss"

There is a deep hole in your being, like an abyss.  You will never succeed in filling that hole, because your needs are inexhaustible. You have to work around it so that gradually the abyss closes.

Since the hole is so enormous and your anguish so deep, you will always be tempted to flee from it.  There are two extremes to avoid: being completely absorbed in your pain, and being distracted by so many things that you stay far away from the wound you want to heal.

 

Pansy seedlings, struggling through the soil.

"All my longings lie open before you, Lord;

my sighing is not hidden from you."  Psalm 38:9

Happy Easter.  May you feel the Presence of the One who sees you.

(Thanks to Emily for sharing this quote with me.)