And the Kisses Keep Coming!

The other day I went to my support group meeting. It's for those women who are currently undergoing stressful situations in their lives. Some have family members with Parkinsons Disease or some kind of dementia, or other health issues, and for whom these women are the carers at some level. Others are grappling with different personal problems - most have a history of some kind of trauma and heartache. We usually have a visiting speaker, someone who gives her story of how she has gone through difficult times and how the LORD has helped her. Afterwards, time is given to prayer.
Last week, a lady named Mae told us of how she and her daughter cared for her husband, as he was dying at home. We sensed the heartache she had endured during those painful days, the support her daughter was to her, the times they could even find something to laugh at through their tears.
After she spoke, Mae wanted to pray for us. She prayed over each one individually, and some of the other women also joined in the prayer. When it came to my turn, I sat on the "hot seat", i.e. the coffee table, and Mae took my hands and began to pray. I was blown away by what happened. Talk about kisses from the LORD! I got a whole bunch!
In her prayer for me, Mae said, (and I'm paraphrasing - can't remember exact words): The mountains surround Jerusalem and so the LORD's love surrounds you. Point: Mae doesn't know of my love for and connection to Jerusalem.
She said: I see you as a bride under the chuppah - so beloved - the LORD delights in you.
(Again, the link with Israel).
Next, from what I remember, she said: "The LORD is your husband." She knows nothing of my life, nor could she know that this is the second time I've had this message from Him.
She said many other things I can't remember now. But at the end of her prayer, one of the other women spoke up and said that when Mae mentioned the bride under the chuppah, this lady had a picture of Jesus lifting up the veil and kissing me on my mouth. She didn't know that just the day before, I had been thinking about the subject of kissing on the mouth and how much I disliked it, because of the men friends of my father who had insisted on inappropriately kissing a little girl, leaving me feeling dirty and fearful. So now the LORD was bringing healing to me by His own gentle, loving kiss.
She also said that as He kissed me, Jesus breathed into me and I was now living by His life! Again, she had no knowledge of my experience in the hospital ICU, when He told me that "the breath of the Almighty gives me life".
It was amazing to have the LORD's confirmation, through people who had no knowledge of my situation, of things He had already told me. It was such a reassurance of His care of and interest in me.
Then, yesterday, there was a women's meeting, taking the place of our usual Bible study. After the talk, people were called up for prayer and others were called up to pray for them. I just sat in my seat, praying quietly, trying not to feel rejected because I hadn't been asked to pray for anyone. Suddenly I knew He was there! He reached out His arms and after a moment or two I realised He was wearing His tallith - His prayer shawl. He enfolded me in the tallith and held me to His chest. I could feel my face glowing with His presence - though I doubt anyone noticed it. It was a sublime few moments of being held within His wings, experiencing His love, until it faded and my face cooled down.
I don't know why He has been giving me these foretastes of Heaven, but I'm just so happy to have them. And to know I'm loved - really loved!
 

A Study in Contrasts

In the book of Isaiah, chapter 40, there is the most amazing study in contrasts.
The LORD God is giving a discription of Himself through the prophet. So we have some fantastic word pictures:

"See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power
And His arm rules for Him....
With the breadth of His hand (He has) marked off the heavens...
Before Him, all the nations are as nothing...
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth...
The LORD is the everlasting God,
Creator of the ends of the earth...
He will not grow tired or weary."

But in the midst of all this might and power, there is another description
of this awe-inspiring God - and it's so different:

"He tends His flock like a shepherd,
He gathers the lambs in His arms
And carries them close to His heart;
He gently leads those with young."


What a contrast! So gentle, so tender.

The LORD of the spinning constellations, and the dark depths of the oceans, to Whom the nations are a drop in a bucket, stoops to the weakest ones of His creation as a Shepherd and cradles those ones to His chest.

A picture comes to my mind:
A little child runs towards her Daddy on unsteady feet.. Oops! She trips and falls, flat on the ground, where she lies with sobs and tears. Her Daddy, this tall man in the prime of his years, with powerful arms and legs and rippling muscles, strides to his child. Bending down, he lifts her up  with big, gentle hands and folds her against his strong chest.  He rocks her tenderly, whispering comforting words to her until the sobs subside and she's calm once more.

What an awesome God we have!

Kisses from the LORD.

Did you know that the LORD drops a kiss on your cheek every so often? Have you ever had one?
I had two on a recent birthday.
About a year ago I was in hospital ICU. For 3 days after surgery I had been unconscious and unable to breathe on my own. I woke up with a lot of hardware and tubes down my throat and into my chest. And every hour or two the nurse would come and check the machines to see if I could breathe on my own. But no. After a day and night of this, I began to be worried that I might not ever be able to breathe normally again. I was praying in a kind of panic. Then, at a certain point in the midst of a  "Help LORD", very clearly I heard Him say: "The breath of the Almighty gives you life." I knew it was from Scripture, and remembered later that it was from Job. Immediately the fear left, and I turned the corner. Two days later I was home.

On my birthday a few days ago, I woke up and lay listening to a local radio station. I had been becoming concerned about the state of my lung, with all the coughing I was doing lately.  Suddenly my ear caught the announcer's voice, reading a Scripture, Yes, it was THAT one.
"The breath of the Almighty gives me life."
He was reminding me that He is still the One Who enables me to breathe and I need have no concern about it.

Later that same day, I was feeling mega tired. Needing to prepare supper, I was leaning against the fridge, asking the LORD to give me His strength. Just then the phone went, A voice I didn't recognise told me she was someone I'd met some time ago at a support group. She was calling to say Happy Birthday, Then she said "... and the LORD is giving you the strength you need to do whatever you have to do."
Wow!
Two kisses on one day.
How's that?