More Gifts

Safety throughout another long drive--what a gift.
Clear weather in Indiana, and strength for Chuck and friend to finish the painting--more gifts!
And friends! We'll forever be indebted to these friends who made the long trip with us, and invested long hours and sore muscles in finishing the job. (I think there are few men half the ages of these guys who could work so hard and "unquittingly" to get it done before the weather turns cold.) My job was to feed them well. And run a few errands to spare Karin. Thanks for praying; she insists she's a lot better. But oh, I think pneumonia fatigue lingers long after the lungs clear.

I finished reading the book of Jeremiah, and I felt that we need a new definition of him. He's too often dismissed with the description "weeping prophet." True, he did express intense emotions (I like that), but they weren't all negative. No other prophet was more emphatic or hopeful about God's eventual intention to bring his people back from their exile in Babylon, and then to do GOOD for them. He was also a poet. Near the end of the book, he wrote a beautiful hymn of praise, which reaffirms our confidence in our Creator (Jeremiah 51:15-19). Personally, I'm not defensive about how God did the creating or about how long he took to do it. But I agree that it is essential to affirm, as we do in our creeds and in our prayers, that he is "Maker of heaven and earth." Here's part of Jeremiah's hymn:

He made the earth by his power,
and he preserves it by his wisdom.
He has stretched out the heavens by his understanding. . . .
He is the Creator of everything that exists,
including his people, his own special possession.
The Lord Almighty is his name!

Power, wisdom, and understanding--we can Fully Rely on God.

Chemo is scheduled for 9:45 this morning. May God use it to weaken and destroy the remaining cancer cells. The next tumor marker test will be October 4.

It's good to be back.

Carol