Allow me to extend my hand to you, dear reader. Let me impart to you this gift of love that was given to me. It is the steady, daily, patient extended hand of love to you who do not know Yeshua HaMashiach, you who disdain the very mention of Jesus, you who can't even utter His powerful name, you who have not dared to consider that He is yours, as He is mine, a daughter of Abraham.

I love you, dear reader, as God loves you. I bless you, I pray for you, I extend my hand to you today and every day, that you might come to discover the love of Christ. I pass on to you by means of my prayers and appeals to God that very steady love that taught me what it means to be loved by Jesus, who loved me even when I rejected Him, as He loves you right now. May you come to step forward with courage and honest searching in our own scriptures, and in the New Testament, the B'rit Hadasha. You will find a book that was written for you, a seamless single book that runs from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus is present throughout. May your eyes be opened. May the seeds of joy be planted in you.

This is our joy, the redemption offered by the Almighty God who wept with his remnant in Egypt, at Babylon, at Masada, at Auschwitz. We who have grieved are offered joy. May it fall upon your head and spill over your whole being, until you are covered and glowing with the golden sweetness of redemption. May it be so today! In the name of Yeshua I ask this.

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth." (1 Cor 13:4-6)

Wedding Provision

So much prayer, fasting, submission to the will of God, practice of faith, as well as fretting, worry and doubt in the less admirable moments, went into the days and weeks leading up to Raechel's wedding.

A chain of events had to occur in order for everything to go smoothly. The roof had to be fixed so the rot damage in our new bedroom could be removed so the downstairs could be vacated so the kids could move in and a place could be made for my son and his wife so we could host them and have their help so we could make the wedding a reality so that so that so that...

We wondered, how will we ever be able to afford both the roof and the wedding costs, on top of all the usual massive expenses we deal with on a regular basis? I confess that most of the time I didn't believe it would happen. Oh ye of little faith, that was me.

As the blessings started to pour into our lives, it became clear that Father God was going to make it possible for us to graciously marry off our daughter, praise His Holy Name. I kept a list of how the Lord expressed His mighty creativity in provision for us through this challenging season. Here is a small sampling from a long list:

• The roofer quit halfway through the job, doing just enough work to make it possible for us to remove the rot and set the essential chain of events in motion, and we didn't have to pay him more than a small initial fee that covered the work he did.
• Mistaken IRS charges were removed to the tune of $1500.
• The wedding cake baker gave me a discount for paying in cash.
• My son and daughter-in-law graciously paid for all costs relating to the wedding invitations.
• AT&T sent me not one, not two, but three $50 gift cards for no good reason.
• And my favorite, the one that gave me such encouragement and soothed my worried mind:
I noticed that I had not received a bill for a long time for a payment plan for a hospital visit. I called the hospital billing office and the man told me gravely that my account had been sent to collections for non-payment. I protested, saying I've been paying this faithfully for 2 years. He asked me to hold while he went to investigate. While on hold a song came on the telephone. The lyrics went something like this: "We are angels. We've got roses, wings that fly, souls in flight. Everything's gonna be alright. Everything's gonna be alright." I began to cry, because it really seemed that God had gone out of His way to send His angels to assure me with the words of the song. When the man came back on the phone he apologized. My account had been mistakenly sent to collections, and to make things right he wanted to remove the balance due, which was $3.78.

So we succeeded, with the intervention of a most gracious and generous El Shaddai, who does care not just about important events in faraway places but about all the little details in our own front yard, in putting on a very wonderful wedding for our baby girl and our new son. I acknowledge You, honor You and thank You, Almighty God.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, will He not much more clothe you, you of little faith? (Matthew 6:28-30)