Just a couple thoughts

Really quickly, before I get on with the actual post, I just want to share a couple of pics of my latest sewing projects. I have a new love, by the way. It's a Janome Juno serger, and I just can't keep my hands off of it (thanks, Mom and Dad! Merry Christmas to me!). Anyway, I've been planning to visit my sister, Stephanie, just as soon as she is home from her surgery. I'll be taking Judah on the plane with me (and leaving Charlie and Paul at home :( ), so I'm trying to find the perfect little activities to take for Judah. Here are a couple of pics of a backpack that I made just for him and also a little crayon roll, not that he'll do much coloring. I'm thinking more along the lines of him taking the crayons out and putting them back in over and over again. Hopefully, that will kill at least a few minutes and then eventually (sometime in the next year?) he'll actually color with them.

These projects are helping to keep me focused on something, while I regret that I can't do much to help my sister right now. It sucks. Being so far away. I can't wait to get there and DO SOMETHING! It reminds me (once again) of one of my favorite poems.

John Milton
On His Blindness

WHEN I consider how my light is spent

E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,

And that one Talent which is death to hide,

Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest he returning chide,

Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,

I fondly ask; But patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts, who best

Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and waite.

(Milton is writing about the fact that he lost his sight before he had written anything that he would consider a masterpiece. He'd felt very strongly about the idea that God was calling him to write Paradise Lost, and when he became blind, he truly had no idea how he was going to accomplish his goal. So, the poem is about the period of time between losing his sight and being able to finish his greatest work.)

Oh, I love this poem. It speaks so beautifully of how God can use us, even when we feel useless. God doesn't need to use us--He can accomplish whatever he wants without us. But he allows us to be a part of the greater picture, the beauty of his ministry.

In heaven, the angels of the highest position are the angels that do nothing but "stand and wait" at the throne of the Almighty. Revelation 4:8 says, "Day and night without ceasing they sing, 'Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.'" It's remarkable to me that this is the entire task that God asks of these angels. Maybe they could be doing something more useful somewhere, no? But the point is, they are glorifying Him. This is where God wants them, and what an incredible duty!

Getting to my point, I'm having a hard time with being so helpless when it comes to Stephanie and her family. But God has me right where I should be, and what I should be doing is praying for her and all the rest of them and praising God for what He's done! By making use of my time this way, I'm trusting Him fully to have His will. After all, He's completely in control, isn't He?

Please follow Stephanie's progress with me here. We would all appreciate your prayers and warm thoughts. Thanks for reading.