Have you ever experienced planning for a trip, only to have it cancelled in the last few hours right before your scheduled departure? Well that is what happened to me, as Janni has alluded to in a past blog entry. My small toddling son came down with a temp. in the middle of the night a few weeks back! I was scheduled to leave the next day to travel to Memphis with my dad! After making numerous phone calls to my doctor and Janni and Steve, we decided that for Kole's sake and all the kids at St. Jude, I would stay home. To risk carrying germs to all these children who have immunity issues would not be worth it! We want Kole home ASAP and that is part of our focus the biggest part of our focus is on the God who sees and heals. God is of course more than safe to be around--God is not cursed with germs or sin or any type of contamination. Anyway, Janni also has had some change in plans. She has had to move Kole to isolation.They now live in a different apartment do to Kole's exposure to shingles. He does not have the shingles, but he could carry the germ. God sometimes shuts the door and even moves us when we least expect it! That happened to Mary in the Bible if you think about it---here she was going about her day and, when she least expected it, an Angel appeared to her and told her she was to be the mother of our Deliverer, Jesus. Being that she was a virgin and not married this was certainly not expected and in fact God's message rearranged her entire life. I think of the fact that Mary had great faith in God and that was the biggest reason God chose her! I love Mary's response to God's new change in her life. She must have had a history of meeting and seeking God out on her own in order to believe that what she had been told was truly going to happen. In Luke 1:38 it says "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. " May it be to me as you have said." I picture a hand laid out flat, as a representation of a life given over to God and His plan. A life which God takes in His own marvelous hand and blesses it with an eternal purpose that explodes the imagination. God gives life meaning and joy untold. He gives a future! Now to trust in it! To offer our life over to our "unseen" God, who has bigger and better plans than we could possibly scheme or plan, that is faith!

Love,
Jodi