SURPRISES FROM HEAVEN

My husband and I always called special surprises God's kisses because they would give us the feeling that our Heavenly Father had reached from His home in heaven to create a "God-incident" for us.
Since my husband's death I have had daily surprises to let me know that he is doing great in heaven and to let me know that God wants me to know that He is sending special kisses to catapult me through the grieving period.
The endless paperwork has been a burden with the constant reading and rereading the documents to fully understand the legal language in all of it. I had received a letter soon after my husband's death that said that I owed Social Security ten thousand dollars because I had been overpaid for the past year. That took several hours of reading the long six single spaced pages, pouring over every word until I discovered that it said that since he had died last year they had paid me too much money. The truth is that he died a month ago. It took a long telephone call to the office in our town before I could convince the nice lady on the phone that it was a mistake on their part. She was so kind and she finally found the error and told me to disregard the letter.
I received another letter a few weeks later relating to the one time two hundred plus dollar payment paid to every family whose deceased relative was receiving Social Security. That letter had two consecutive paragraphs which completely contradicted each other. I had to take the death certificate to the SS office anyway, so I went with not only the death certificate but the confusing letter in hand.
When I went into the new SS building I took a ticket from the computer which said that my number was 25 and I would be called and instructed to go to a specific window where an employee would help me. The loud speaker announced that the person holding number 10 should go to window 15 for assistance. I took my seat in the back of the ocean of people waiting for their turn to be helped. I was confident that since there were 15 windows with helpers behind each window that I wouldn't be there all day, maybe just a large portion of the day.
I enjoyed watching the people waiting to be assisted and the ones who went to their appointed windows, which were anywhere from 1 to 15. Windows 7 through 14 were around the corner and down a long hallway.
Finally the announcement came that number 25 should go to window 4. I meandered over to the window, stretching out my legs because I had been sitting in an uncomfortable chair for a while. I sat down in the chair in front of the window and a lady's voice said, "Have you had a face lift? You look younger than you did 25 years ago."
I looked closer at the person behind the window and recognized it as Marla, a lady who had come to us for marriage counseling 25 years ago. She had become a good friend even though I hadn't seen her in 25 years. She had moved to another state but had learned about my writings on my blogs and had started reading them. I also started sending to her daily encouraging messages from God which I publish on the Dear One blog. She occasionally writes an email to me but we hadn't seen each other in 25 years. I thought she still lived in another state.
I was in awe again of God's surprise for me that day. Think of the trouble He went to getting me to the office on the right day, putting Marla behind a certain window, and then getting me in line to draw that particular window to find help relating to the letter. Out of 15 windows I got an old friend, Marla, who immediately rose from her desk, rushed out the door in the partitioned wall, ran up to me and gave me a heart warming bear hug. We hugged for several minutes.
Marla said, "I knew when I saw in the paper that Steve had died that when you came in to bring the death certificate that I would get you at my window."
That put me deeper into complete awe of God, that He had given Marla that prophesy, that she would get to help me, and here she was across the desk from me. We shared some God incidents and then knew we had to get to my problem. After all, she was working and on government time.
I showed her my letter, which she immediately read and remarked that I was right, that the two paragraphs completely contradicted each other. She had to take it to her supervisor to decipher it. She was gone a few minutes, came back and said the supervisor couldn't figure out why the second paragraph was in there, that she had never seen that admonition before.
Well, my imagination went wild for a few minutes thinking about did God cause that strange paragraph to be put in so that I would take it to the SS office and be helped by God's maiden, an old friend who was believing that she was going to see when when I came in the office? Could be.
The miracle of the whole thing is that out of 15 windows being used that day, I got the exact number of Marla's window. Now, that also fills me with awe of the abilities of God.
The problem was solved and I got to be personally hugged and personally loved by someone I hadn't seen in 25 years whom God had told she would get to help me.
God is truly amazing. I'm in awe every day of His goodness. His Instruction Book says that the awe of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I'm waiting for more of His wisdom relating to the incident. It will thrill me, too.

SOLID FOUNDATIONS

Dear One,

Treasure the good things that people do for you and say to you. They all go toward your foundation of stability, your solidarity, the shoring up of your good ego which is necessary for a happy life. You relish the compliments and welcome them with joy.
Since those actions of kind words and deeds are so important to you, you must see that you give the same kind words which solidify the foundations of others. They are their building blocks to a good and beneficial ego which is necessary for their happy lives.
You should give compliments and other words of love to others willingly and joyfully, knowing that those words are My words, spreading love around the earth. When you willingly spread love, you also spread peace because a solid foundation in the mind of a person also gives peace to the person.
Spreading My love and peace in a tumultuous world is doing exactly what Jesus did. After all, He is the Prince of Peace. You are His ambassador of love and peace now. Spread them willingly and joyfully. Then watch your world change as a result.
Ambassadors are not only representatives of one nation to another, but they exemplify the character of their own nation. Since My character is love and peace, you are called to be ambassadors of My family, showing My love and My peace to everyone. It all starts with kind words and kind actions. Those are your proper witnesses for Me.
The song I gave to one of My children says, "Spread a little love." I say it again to you, determine to spread a little love every day and then you will find that you can spread a lot of love every day.

Love, God
I Corinthians 15:33-34; Ephesians 4:29-32; James 3:1-18. Romans 12:10; II Corinthians 5:20-21.

THE DEATH OF A HERO

It's hard enough to have a stranger who's a hero die, but my granddaughter Lindsey's grandpa, who was her hero, died.
Lindsey came to see her grandpa often when he was sick, mostly after school.
When the time came that he could no longer talk because of a malignant tumor on his vocal cords which joined the other tumors in his body to destroy his life, she would just come and sit with Grandpa, just sit in the infirmary room on the love seat. Hospice had turned the den adjoining our bedroom into an infirmary room with a hospital bed, a trapeze bar for use when He was strong enough to help pull himself higher in the bed, an oxygen machine and all the other wonderful things that Hospice provides to ease the last days of the terminally ill.
A day or two before Grandpa died, after just sitting in the room with him, when she decided to leave she told him she loved him, which was her usual parting words. He waved a slight wave of his hand in goodbye to her.
It was a horrible day when Lindsey's dad had to tell her that Grandpa had died that day. She grieved and grieved, even more than she, her brother Jesse and I had grieved together a week before, after both of them had sat with Grandpa in silence for thirty minutes. He was their athletic hero as well as their adoring Grandpa. When they came out of the room shaking with sobs, I also lost my usual composure and sobbed right along with them. It was a sad, sad time for all of us.
Lindsey didn't come to the house for a couple of days after Grandpa died. It was impossible for her to come to the house where she knew he had drawn his last breath.
A few day after his death I got a phone call. It was Lindsey. She had a lilt in her usually sunshiny voice which I had not heard in a while. She said, "MeMe, can I come over? I have something to tell you."
"Of course," I told her, "you can come over." I needed to have her "always walking on the sunny side of the street," demeanor around me. I was intrigued because I knew how grieved she was at the death of her hero.
I watched for her silver pickup to drive into the driveway. Then I watched to see what her gait was like when she exited her truck. It was light and jolly-like, almost skipping.
She rushed in the door and said, "MeMe, I had a dream about Grandpa last night. In the dream I came to your house and you weren't here but Grandpa was here. He looked just like he did when he was healthy. He said to me, 'I'm fine, Lindsey. I'm so happy.'"
She continued her joyful rendition of her dream by telling me that the dream took all of the grief away from her. She said that she sees him in her mind now as the tall, handsome, athletic gramps that he always was.
I cried tears of joy and she cried tears of joy. Then we rejoiced together that God is so loving to give her that wonderful dream, one that chased away grief and gave her the hope of Grandpa being healthy and happy in heaven. God knew that she needed that vision of her hero being healthy and whole again.
God said he would comfort the broken hearted. He did it for Lindsey like He has done for me.
Thank you, My Heavenly Hero, for giving my granddaughter Lindsey a happy dream about her hero, her Grandpa Steve. It changed her grief into gladness.
That's the promise God gave, that he would turn our mourning into gladness. Lindsey's dream is proof that He keeps His promises and that He cares about a granddaughter who has lost her hero.
My Heavenly Hero is taking care of Lindsey and Jesse's hero who lives with Him now. That's a good Father.