Blessings

I was deeply touched when my cousin, Katie, gave me this orchid.  Let me explain…  I had given Katie this very plant about two years ago.  She gave it back to me last month.  It has a story and a message of hope and God’s goodness. 

 

   If you find Katie’s name on my little “prayer list” you’ll see a checkmark beside her name.  When I took this orchid to her she had just turned 21 years old, and was lying in bed or on the couch pretty much all the time.  She slept the days away.  Light hurt her eyes, noises were too much to take and her head hurt.   She was wasting away and no one knew why.  After trying to find out what was wrong for about four months, a doctor decided to go ahead and treat her for Malaria.  It turned out she had a different type of Malaria (Vivax) that she got from spending time in Central America.    After the treatments started Katie began to get better.  It was a miraculous turnaround! Two days after going on her meds she was talking and obviously improving.  God is good!      

 

   Katie kept the orchid I gave her and it rebloomed.  Now she’s given it back to me.  It speaks to me of God’s goodness and his faithfulness.  When I don’t understand I know He does.  And He doesn’t waste our pain.

   Here’s what I take in one day.  Except I forgot to put the green tea on the picture.  Looks like enough that I wouldn’t have to even eat, huh?J  I’m on four prescription meds (the four piles of powder are one of them) and the rest are herbs and nutritional supplements.  Nathan (bless his heart!) made me a chart of what to take when, because some things can’t be taken together.  It’s the only way I can keep track of what’s going on!    The sauerkraut is my probiotic.  Doc says the probiotic you buy has billions in each capsule, but homemade sauerkraut has trillions!  So I’ve tried my hand at making sauerkraut – it’s pretty good actually.

   I haven’t written a whole lot here about my Lyme disease.  But I am getting better!  There have been ups and downs in the last two months since I’ve found a “Lyme Doctor”, but gradually I’m getting there.  I hope with a few more months of treatment to be completely well again.  It will have been almost a year.  And I don’t ever want to experience this again.  But I wouldn’t trade that year if I could.  God’s blessings are often disguised.   

 

This song has touched me:

      BLESSINGS

           By Laura Story

 

We pray for blessings,
We pray for peace,
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep.
We pray for healing, for prosperity,
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering,
All the while, You hear each spoken need,
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things.

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops,
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear,
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near,
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough.
All the while, You hear each desperate plea,
And long that we have faith to believe.

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops,
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us,
When darkness seems to win,
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home.
It's not our home!

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops,
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?
What if my greatest disappointments,
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy?
And what if trials of this life,
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights,
Are Your mercies in disguise?

 

 

  "I will sing of the LORD's great love

 forever; with my mouth I will make your

 faithfulness known through all generations."

Psalm 89:1