Forever Friends

Larry and Ellen Forrester The girls - Cindy, Melinda, Luana, Peggy

The view from their back porch

On the boat

No this is not their lakehouse but a sampling of what is out there

"Hell's Gates"

Sunset on the lake

The past few weekends we have had the opportunity and privilege to spend time with old high school friends. A few weeks ago we were with my friends from Bellaire High School in Houston, Larry and Ellen Forrester. We had a blast and it was interesting in that this was the first time we had been down there and probably the first time we had gotten together with just the four of us - without any of the kids. We found that we still enjoy them even without kids.

Then this weekend we spent it with three of Luana's friends from W. T. White High School in Dallas and their husbands. We went to Possum Kingdom Lake where one of the couples has a lakehouse. It was a very nice time of relaxing and sharing and getting reaquainted - and doing a lot of eating. Unfortunately for me it was all foods that I am not supposed to eat, so I have a lot of repenting to do - but it sure tasted good. I had forgotten what a good charcoal grilled steak tasted like.

In all of this I was reminded that we maintain few of our college friendships and even fewer of our high school ones. But there is something special about getting together with people who knew you at that really awkward stage - and still like you. It is so different from a high school reunion in that we have maintained these relationships continually over the years. We have grown from immature kids to college grads to gettings married, and then have been able to watch each other's kids grow up, and them get married and now share grandkids stories. In addition and fortunately we not only have the past in common, but we have in common a relationship with Christ which adds another diminsion to our friendships.

I cry out to you o God!

Tomorrow morning will be a very emotional time as it always is. I am taking Luana to Dallas and Southwestern Medical School where the Memory Research Center is. This is the time for her yearly appointment. This is her third time as she had a baseline and now has finished her second year of dealing with Alzheimer's Disease. The first year she had a pretty good response to the medication and did well and we felt truly blessed. This past year has been a little more difficult and who knows what the ensuing years hold for us. It is so hard for Luana as it is a yearly reminder of what she cannot do and what lies in store. It is hard for me to watch her go through this.
Week in and week out I pray for her for healing and I will continue to do so until God says for me to stop. I know He is able and yet I am aware that the vast majority of people do not get healed from this, even those who are strong believers. Yes it does get discouraging at times, but I press on in prayer for the miraculous. My motto has been "the Lord gives, the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord".
What has really helped me has been how courageous Luana has been throughout this ordeal. She has a peace about her that can only come from God, and she does not try to hide it from people. She is open to talk about it with people, though she may shed a tear or two. Not only that but she has not been afraid to take on new things. She continues to serve people around her and the women in our lifegroup. She is doing a Precepts Bible study which requires a lot of study and preparation, is involved in a book club, does Meals On Wheels and well, you get the idea.
The hard part for me is to watch the person you love more than any other in the world to slowly lose her abilities to think and function. And then to realize that there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. My fear is that I would not treat her with the love and respect and dignity she deserves. So far God has given me the grace to do that and it is a constant prayer for me, and I would ask any of you who read this to join with me in that. I have a new appreciation for suffering and feel that God is going to be teaching me a lot over the next few years and hope that I learn well.
So tomorrow we go and there will be no answers, but I will be by her side. We will fight it kicking and screaming but we will walk through it together and in the end we will still give glory to God affirming that He is all powerful and He is Good.

Grandparenting

These past 10 days have been pretty full as we have been babysitting two of Christy's kids, Jayden (3 1/2) and Duncan (1 1/2) and also have Mary Beth here for a few weeks before she goes to Uganda. The boys have been great but they are busy and really wear us out. Fortunatelt their other grandparents also live in town and we have been sharing them every 2-3 days. I'm not sure we could ahve made it otherwise. God sure knew what He was doing when He gave kids to young parents. Nevertheless it has been a blast and we are so thankful for them.

Duncan loves ice cream. Grandparents can spoil them with the stuff.

Sweet kiss from Jayden to MB

Amy and her girls also came into town for a day and "hung" out.

Here is sweet little Mollie just one month old.

My three blonde haired, blue eyed girls.

Jayden at the park. He is getting braver to climb higher. I hope that is a good thing.

Little Duncan!!!

Duncan on a wooden horse that I made for Christy almost 30 years ago!

For some reason Jayden felt safer or more secure sleeping with his little brother in his crib rather than on his bed, but we did not hinder him since he was gone from his parents for so long.

We took a trip to the zoo and rode around on this wagon.

More

Mr Snowman - notice the Russian hat.
Jason gave that to me.

Doesn't Lu look cute?

We saw this hawk in the tree asross the street.

It was huge - 2 feet long and 10 inches wide.

Here are some more photos from yesterday that I thought you might like to see.

Snow in Waco

It was really beautiful to wake up and see this. A little artistic flair for Mary B.

Two roads diverged in the woods (snow) that day, And I took the one less travelled.

We can now join in with the rest of the country being under a layer of snow. While it has been bitterly cold here for 4 days we had for the most part been spared the white stuff - until last night. One more front pushed through and some moisture from the gulf came up to join forces and drop 3 inches of very dry fluffy snow. In fact we actually closed our office - the first time in over 25 years since I have been in practice. It is really beautiful and has covered everything and is so pure looking that it got me to thinking about the spiritual analogies.

First of all it is so pure and spotless when it first falls that it reminds us of the purity of God. Secondly, it is how we are cleansed from our sin by the blood of Jesus. Do you remember the song "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus" where the line goes "How precious is the flow, That washes white as snow"? In that same vein the snow covers over every bad place and bump so that it looks perfectly smooth, much like Jesus' death covers over all of our sin.

Enough of that. Enjoy the pics and maybe later I will add a snowman!!!!!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and what a night it was. The day started like any other though because Christmas was on Saturday we had the whole day off. We had a few last minute shopping and a few more packages to wrap, then I took off for a good long run. We loaded up the car and headed off to Austin to be with my sister-in-law and her family. Arriving without incident at about 6:00 PM, we came upon an empty house. A little perplexed, we texted them and found out there was a little communication error. It seems that when Luana talked with her sister she told her we were coming on Saturday and they had arranged time with their friends from Colorado. Here is where the adventure began.

We decided to get a bite to eat and thanks to the I Phone we found a nice place not too far away. After a leisurely meal we decided to take in a movie and again thanks to the I Phone we found a show and located the place, turning on the GPS and headed out. We were a little short on time but were right there when we realized that the movie theater was not where the little red dot on the GPS said it was. By then it was too late, so we settled on a new movie and a new theater. We had an hour to get there so off we went. Unfortunately the red dot on the GPS was off again and we finally had to go old school and stop at a gas station to get directions. We finally got there with 5 minutes to spare. We got out of the movie at 11:45 and then had to try to find a hotel. No one at the theater knew where one was and so back to the I Phone and we finally found a La Quinta. We just knew there would be no place in the inn. But there our luck changed - we had a room, unlike the first Christmas.

It was certainly not the Christmas Eve we expected and not like any other one we had ever experienced. Thankfully two good things happened. We really had a good time and laughed a lot at our mistakes and made a bad situation good. The other thing was that God in His grace kept me from getting mad and losing my temper. That would not have happened just a few years ago.

Holiness

As I was meditating the other morning I started thinking about the holiness of God and what exactly that meant or looked like. We read in Revelations where the four living creatures and the elders are always singing over and over "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty". So here are my thoughts. The English word means to be free from sin; pure; sacred. The greek word is hagios which literally means to be set apart. It is to be seen in apposition to the word koine which means common. So how does all of this relate to God?

As I thought I wondered what it is that sets God apart. And I kept coming back to the two most important aspects of who God is - namely that He is powerful and He is good. No created being can boast that he is all powerful. Many have power (though all of their power is given by God) and in our eyes that can look almost limitless, but held up next to God it is pathetic. But God's power is unlimited and that sets Him apart from anyone or anything else in the universe. Related to that is His majesty and splendor and when one looks at Him in all of His glory, he cannot help but cry out that there is no one like You - You are holy, set apart from everything else. Here on earth we do not see Him that way most of the time, though at times we get a glimpse. Therefore we do not really appreciate His holiness. Isaiah got a chance to see Him and saw the true holiness of God, and what did he do? He fell on his knees and face thinking that he was doomed because he saw his own sin in comparison to God's purity. It is a lot different than when we compare ourelves to each other.

That brings me to the other characteristic of God - His goodness. Power is one thing and it is expected for after all God should be all powerful or He would not be God. But what is so unexpected in an all powerful God is His total goodness. That just blows us away when we really think about it. We have never seen absolute goodness, though once again we occasionally get glimpses of it. That also sets Him apart from any other being in the universe. It is impossible for us to even comprehend all that it means and all that it looks like. His goodness is manifested to us in many ways including His love, mercy, grace, forgiveness and compassion. When we get to heaven and see the absolute goodness of God, we will fall down before Him like the living creatures and proclaim His holiness.

Then of course there is the aspect of His purity. We cannot really comprehend what absolute sinlessness and purity looks like. Once again it brings us to our knees and in a lot of ways terrifies us because we see our own sinfulness in comparison. Even the angels are in awe of the purity of God. It is not clear if they are capable of sin (certainly at one time they were, hence the fall of Lucifer), but I think, and this is my opinion only, that they recognize a difference in their purity and that of God's. In summary, all of this separates God from the rest of the created universe and leads the creation to bow in awe and sing holy, holy holy.