TRUTH DISGUISED AS MAXINE

                           TRUTH DISGUISED AS MAXINE

"Open my eyes that I might see visions of truth thou hast for me."

     There she sat again in the doctor's office, a vision of truth sent for me. The interesting thing was that she was a replica of the greeting card character Maxine, an extraordinary looking woman with white frizzy hair, small in stature, wrinkled face and arms, and she was sitting in the most unladylike pose reading a red leather New Testament. She was a picture straight off of a greeting card or straight off of an internet email message.

     I had noticed her two weeks before, on another occasion, when she and her husband entered the same doctor's waiting room. She had on a bright red blouse with red and white seersucker pants and bright red shoes. The colors were unusually vibrant for a woman her age, which was probably late eighties, but my eyes were drawn to her because of the bright colors which contrasted with her white medium length frizzy hair. The combination just seemed to attract my admiring gaze. Maybe the attraction was because I love bright colors, too, and the older I get the brighter my choice of colors seems to get, so I felt a kinship with her.

     On the second occasion I saw her when she entered the waiting room. She was adorned in more demure colors, varying shades of beige. However, I recognized her immediately because she wasn't easy to overlook. She and her husband returned to the same seats they had previously occupied on the first occasion, as if the seats were permanently reserved for them.
     I began reading the morning paper, occasionally glancing at the woman out of the corner of my eye. She seemed to be worth watching.

     I became completely consumed with reading a particular editorial in the newspaper and for a full fifteen minutes didn't even glance at the real life replica of "Maxine". When I finished reading the article my attention immediately went to the woman. She was sitting in the most awkward position, skinny legs wide apart, purse nestled on the floor between her legs, and she was reading the New Testament with concentrated intent.

     Suddenly I heard the real life "Maxine" profess these words to her husband, "We are so blessed." To which he replied, "Yes, we truly are."

     As an observer of the pair and an eavesdropper to their conversation, I became blessed as a result. It was as if God had sent the woman to remind me that my husband and I are also blessed. We were eagerly waiting for a conference with the doctor to discuss the results of pathological tests which might require serious procedures.

     My eyes were clearly opened to see the miracle of the situation, that God had orchestrated the chance meeting again so that I could see and admire the lady in her unusual sitting position reading the New Testament where God promises healing to his children, and then to verbally hear the proclamation of, "We are so blessed," to remind me of my own blessings.
    Blinders fell from my eyes and I was again filled with faith because of the vision of truth that He had for me. He used an unusual vessel, one who certainly got my attention. She was the cutest thing I ever saw, wrinkles, frizzy hair and all. Maybe she was an angel in disguise. If so, that angel chose the right disguise, the one of a greeting card character that I love. She quickly opened my eyes and ears to the message that God wanted me to hear, reminding me that I'm blessed beyond belief.
     Whomever you are and whatever your name is, you are "Maxine" to me, an angel in disguise sending a greeting to me.
     Yes, I am blessed. I got the message loud and clear, the message which confirmed a truth I already knew, but it reaffirmed the reality of my many, many blessings.

MORE HAND PRINTS OF GOD

MORE HAND PRINTS OF GOD

     Don't you just love to see the footprints and hand prints of God in a situation! You know He's there, you know He's working hard to perfect a situation, and then He sends some confirming visual prints and we are so very, very grateful. We become even more solidly filled with faith because His prints are His visual evidence that the matter is firmly in His hands and He is able to perform His wonderful works in the circumstance.

     My husband had a serious operation that resulted in a report that was shocking to us. We know our Heavenly Father is well able to do what He has promised to do, which is restore completely, but the report sent our minds reeling for a few hours.

     I began quoting a scripture, "The Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings," which is found in Malachi 4:2. The rest of that verse promises that we will go forth and grow up as calves in the stall, and we will tread down the wicked and they will be ashes under the soles of our feet in the day that God rises with healing in His wings.

     On the second day after we went home from the hospital a dear friend named Dorothy, a faithful member of the Praying Posse prayer group, brought a rare begonia plant to us and a card for Steve. When Steve opened the card it was like the pain medicine he had been taking for his body, only this was pain medicine for our minds.

     On the front of the card was the word "WINGS" in large, bold letters followed by a message that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. Then the message on the inside of the card referred to faith being the wings that will lift us up.

     Dorothy had no knowledge that I had been quoting the scripture about the Wings of the Son of Righteousness, yet she chose the perfect card.
Any little hints of doubt and fear in our minds flew out the window as the Wings of the Son of Righteousness renewed our strength and lifted us up.

The card continued to do its mighty work, strengthening us while those same Wings of the Son of Righteousness completed God's work of healing.

     Another valuable hand print/footprint of God came the day before the operation. Marcia, another Praying Posse prayer warrior, brought to my house a banner she had purchased the prior weekend. The banner is by a new artist in town, a huge painting of two giant angels embracing each other. Their wings are prominent behind them. When I think about that banner it presents another visual representation of the Wings of the Son of Righteousness rising with healing in His wings to bring healing to God's children. Steve is a recipient of that powerful and loving healing.

     God continued to cover all bases in the situation, like He always does. He confirmed His promises and put us on the solid Rock again thanks to loving friends who willingly put the final seal of approval on what God has already guaranteed.

GOD'S FOOTPRINTS AND HANDPRINTS

                             HAND PRINTS AND FOOTPRINTS OF GOD

     When a doctor tells you his prognosis about a challenging medical problem that you're facing, his words stick in your mind, rolling over and over, even gaining more negativity every time they roll around. It's difficult to get your mind stopped from its spinning out of control, imagining every possible worse case scenario, even when the prognosis may have good possibilities. The negatives seems to take over, covering up the positives. Such it is with the human computer called a brain, one negative thing overrides all positive ones.

     My husband Steve had had surgery in which was found a tumor that has markings of being malignant. Even though the results of the final testing had not been revealed to us, our minds were running amuck with negative thoughts spinning out of control.

     I was reminded of the message that Jesus gave to people when he walked the earth. He told them to consider the lilies of the field, how they neither toil nor spin, yet their Heavenly Father adorns them with beauty. I knew that He was saying that we shouldn't let our minds spin out of control with negative thoughts. Yet, I was having trouble girding My mind down. I was not controlling negative thoughts the way I wanted. I couldn't get my mind quiet so I could finally get some sleep. It was definitely spinning out of control, controling me with thoughts of dread and doom.

      After laying in bed for an hour with no success in my effort to control the thoughts, I began to think a little prayer, okay, God, give me a scripture that I can play over and over again in my mind instead of dreadful thoughts playing over and over again. A scripture came to mind that I had only heard once, "Let God be true and every man a liar." That seemed remote from any relation to our situation, but the more I pondered it the more I saw that it related completely. It was telling me that I must let what God says about the situation be true and any negative prognosis we heard from humans be a lie. So the scripture really did relate to our situation because my husband and I both know that God said, "By His stripes you are healed," and no matter what any man says, what God says is the final word, the final proclamation.

      That scripture from our Instruction Book, called the Bible, rolled over and over and over in my mind, replacing the negative words of the doctors. It began to give me faith. It did what I wanted it to do, calmed my mind. In a few minutes I fell asleep and slept for three hours. That was just what I needed, rest for my mind and body.

     I woke with the scripture in my mind, "Let God be true and every man a liar."  It still brought me mental comfort beyond belief, just like it did during the night.

     After getting home from the hospital the next day, a card arrived from a friend who knew nothing about my experience the day before. It was addressed to my husband. Our friend Jane wanted to give my husband encouragement and faith that the final outcome of the medical situation would be positive and perfect.

     In her own handwriting on the card, Jane very lovingly told my husband how much she cares for us, and then she ended the note with this scripture, "Let God be true and every man a liar," Romans 3:4.

     We were filled with awe and wonder that God would give Jane the same scripture He gave to me about the situation, assuring us that God knows much more about it than any man or a team of men know. So we know what God says is true about it. And that truth is that the final outcome will be magnificent and perfect.

     Men don't know the inner workings and the final outcome of a situation. Only God knows them. So the limited knowledge of men, even doctors, make them liars because they haven't come to a complete knowledge of the truth about it.

     God confirmed though Jane that God's words are true and we can rely on them.