FLYING MESSAGES FROM HEAVEN

  FLYING MESSAGES FROM HEAVEN
                                          T. Wieland Allen

   Heavenly blessings manifest themselves in many different ways.  Several years ago My husband Steve was at MD Anderson Hospital being treated for a rare form of cancer.  He was in his second year of chemotherapy and while waiting for him to have some tests I visited a bookstore and saw a ledger that I felt would be perfect for him in which he could write his experiences about his treatments.  The title on the front of the ledger was "Just When the Caterpillar Thought Life was Over, It Became A Butterfly."  It was perfect for the situation.
   I bought the ledger and gave it to my husband.  The name on the front was meaningful to him.  Even though the ledger only had one entry in it at the time of his death, because my husband Steve was not a person who liked to read or write things, the importance of the name on the front of the ledger still lingers on.  Soon after I gave the ledger to him, a friend emailed to us a cartoon of a butterfly flying low while attempting to pull its heavy cocoon up some stone steps.  The butterfly was a blue morpho butterfly.  That particular butterfly with the name "morpho" was significant because Steve was struggling at the time with chemotherapy and he later changed from being a spiritual man in a physical body into a spirit in a new heavenly body.   He morphed from being merely a physical man into being a spirit in the presence of God in heaven. 
   The color of that particular butterfly became a symbol of my husband Steve after his body died and his spirit, the real Steve, went to heaven.  So you can see why the reason the blue morpho butterfly means so much to me, because Steve had actually morphed from a physical body into a spiritual body after getting rid of that old diseased body, which was represented by the cocoon in the cartoon.  There have been several miraculous instances where pictures of blue morpho butterflies have appeared out of nowhere on things as encouragement to members of my family and to me.  They were merely pictures, not a live butterfly.

    A few months ago when I was going to a doctor for some tests that were unfamiliar to me, I was a bit anxious.  I was not really worried, but just a little anxious because the tests were unfamiliar.  The morning of the tests, I just happened  to look out the kitchen window and there was a real, live blue morpho butterfly drinking pollen out of the many hundreds of red periwinkle flowers in a hanging basket that stretched at least three feet downward.  That butterfly went from flower to flower all the way up and down and all around the hanging basket taking its slow, easy time, as if waiting to be recognized.  I knew immediately that it was a message from God and Steve for me to relax, that the doctor's appointment was no big deal.  I went to the doctor's office very relaxed after seeing the live blue morpho butterfly for the first time after only seeing pictures of them for five years.  Sure enough, everything turned out fine in the tests.  It's been at least three months and no butterfly of any color has been back to that hanging basket since that event.  The appearance of the blue morpho butterfly  was especially for me as a cure for that anxious feeling that day.  Its appearance did what God intended.
   Several months later my granddaughter Lindsey told me that she, her boyfriend Major and Major's brother Kiefer were at the boys' grandpa's house in another city and while they were around the pool a blue butterfly landed on Kiefer's arm and stayed there.  It walked up and down his arm.  The butterfly was so sedate that Linz was easily able to get a great picture of it.  The blue butterfly stayed on Kiefer's arm a long time.  Lindsey put her hand close to Kiefer's arm and the butterfly walked right onto her hand and stayed there a few minutes, then flew back to Kiefer's arm, staying there a few minutes flittering its wings as if to say, "Notice me.  I'm sent to give you faith."  Lindsey texted to me a picture of the blue butterfly.  Yes, it was not just a blue butterfly, it was a blue morpho butterfly, a symbol to me that good supernatural changes are on the way.   
   Lindsey said that they could see the underside of its wings and they were orange and green.  It was definitely a supernatural experience for them.  It was God and her Grandpa Steve telling her and Major that Kiefer's future is going to be okay.  Kiefer is high on the autism spectrum and as an 18 year old he is having normal problems just like other 18 year old guys, but he also has the additional problems of having some limitations from being on the autism spectrum.  His hopes and their hopes for his future is that he will be able to live independently.  Decisions need to be made that will enable him to fulfill his dream of living independently, able to support himself, live alone and have a normal life with some supervision.
   Linz said that the blue morpho butterfly stayed around them a long time that day, flying around their heads and then landing on either Kiefer or Lindsey's shoulders for a while that afternoon.  There did not seem to be any sign that the blue morpho wanted to be anywhere else.  There is no doubt to me that the event was sent to encourage all three of them.  Major has guardianship of Kiefer so he is faced with a lot of decisions for both of their futures.
   Kiefer is a very spiritual young man.  He loves God and is a very loving person, even to people who bully him because of his limitations.  Some of his writings have wisdom and insights well beyond his years and abilities.  He has that extra faith and sensitivity that enables him to perceive spiritual things that other people his age and many of his elders don't perceive or understand.
    God told us to be on the watch to recognize when we are entertaining angels, that they are always around us even though we are not aware of them.  There is no doubt in my mind that in both instances, the blue morpho butterfly on my red periwinkles and also the blue morpho butterfly that visited Lindsey, Major and Kiefer, that they were sent from heaven to be an encouragement to us.  That is what the events produced, faith and encouragement when both were needed. 
   Both supernatural events are worthy of our praising God for sending messengers from heaven to bring good news to us and give us peace.
  That's what God does, always sends peace and love to us.  He uses what is important to us so that we recognize His presence.        
  We have a lot of faith now for Kiefer's future.  God's sending the special butterfly did what it was sent to do, give faith and encouragement to all of us.
  Both supernatural events resulted in My giving thanks and praise to God, who always meets our needs.  He knows our unique and special needs and He supplies what we need, even unusual butterflies to hang around until we recognize their presence as a supernatural visitation from heaven sent from a loving God to encourage us that He loves us and will meet our needs.  How fortunate we are to have eyes to recognize the special gifts.  Kiefer has always had had eyes to perceive and ears to understand spiritual things.  That's why he is so blessed.  He writes about them and spreads the good news.
  

   

FORGIVING AND FORGETTING

THE STRATEGIES OF FORGIVING AND FORGETTING
     The first time that I met Kiefer, who is my granddaughter's fiance's youngest brother, he had a spiral notebook in his hand ready to share with me some of his writings.  He is high on the autism scale but at 16 he was able to communicate at his age level with a few restrictions.  One of the restrictions is that he is impulsive and if a thought comes into his head that he thinks needs to be shared, he interrupts the conversation and insists on speaking his mind or give his opinion.  Sometimes his interruptions have nothing to do with the topic of conversation, but suffice it to say that he has a lot to comment, no matter who is present.
   At our first meeting Kiefer asked me if I would read some of his writings.  I was astounded by the first writing in the notebook.  It was about forgiveness, which to me was a subject that I thought would be the last one that he would have any insight into.  The subject was about bullying and how he learned to deal with forgiving bullies, which to a person of limited mental and physical abilities is a daily occurrence.  He did not tell about any specific instance of being bullied in his writings but the important subject matter was how he learned to forget an incident after forgiving someone for hateful words, demeaning words, physical abuse, mental abuse, fear after being shoved into lockers at school and other horrible instances that he had suffered every day of his school career. 
    The writing related to a particular day in which he had suffered a cruel event from a boy at school that not only hurt him emotionally and physically but also caused him much embarrassment in front of a gymnasium full of male and female students.  He wrote that people were always telling him that he just needs to forgive the bullies and then forget it. With his limited knowledge relating to psychological strategies, he wrote that he was confused about the forgetting part because it was impossible to erase from his mind the events that injured him so deeply.  After several people again told him to forgive and then forget, he needed some insight into the action of forgetting when the event was indelibly imprinted upon his mind, along with the mental pain and the physical pain.  He was determined to find out how to forget, which adults insinuated to him was so easy to do.
   He wrote that in his prayers that night he told God that he didn't understand why he was supposed to forgive and then forget when he had been so hurt.  Suddenly these words came to him, FORGIVE, ASSESS, LEARN and then FORGETt.  His insight into the strategy astounded me.  He wrote that it came to his mind that first he must as an act of his will decide to forgive a bully.  He said that it is a decision that he needed to make, just make up his mind to forgive the bully without feeling forgiveness.
   Then it came to his mind that after he decides to forgive a bully that he must assess the situation, think about the bully's objective, the bully's intelligence level, the bully's personality and anything else that comes to his mind relating to getting inside of the bully so as to understand him and his motivations, such as maybe the bully is just plain mean and bullies other people, people with disabilities and people without disabilities.  He wrote that assessing the situation brings understanding and will cause Kiefer to learn from the situation, learn not to get around the bully, learn how to react in a kind way to the bully so that Kiefer will win in the situation. 
   Kiefer wrote that then after forgiving, assessing and learning, the next step is that he would have the ability to forget the bullying because what he will remember is the lesson that he learned. 
  Kiefer's final paragraph in the essay proclaimed that the way to forgive and to forget is to first forgive merely by choosing to forgive as a decision, then assess the situation, learn the lesson that comes from the assessment, and then forget the incident but remember the lesson learned.  So the process is really to forgive, assess, learn and forget, not just merely to forgive and forget. 
   I learned a lesson from reading his heartfelt essay.  When I read about the assessing part, I was reminded of the scripture that says to reason together with God about everything in order to gain wisdom and insight which brings knowledge.  Combine that with the scripture that says people perish without knowledge.  Kiefer was perishing without knowledge of the real way to forgive and forget.  God explained to him that there are two other steps on the way to forgetting a hurtful incident after forgiving the bully.  Those two steps are assessing and learning.
    It's said that a little child will lead us. The simple little child inside of Kiefer allowed  him to do what he instinctively knew would help him, first go to God for His explanation.  When you hear truth from God, then you are free because truth makes you free.            
    Remember Kiefer's formula:  FORGIVE, ASSESS, LEARN AND FORGET.
    It works.

                  A SYMPHONY PLAYED IN PERFECT TUNE
                                                         T. Wieland Allen
    God's orchestrations continue to amaze and thrill His children with surprises and harmonious events.  He never ceases in His ability to orchestrate situations for His children which work to answer their needs and solve their problems.  For the participants in all of His harmonious works that He performs, it often takes their breath away because the events are so supernatural in their perfectly designed schemes which are performed with such love and specificity.
    Such an orchestration happened recently in the lives of a group of ladies who meet weekly for prayers and studying God's Instruction Book.  We are used to magnificent happenings from Our Father which cause delight and joy.  Each event produces emotional results like it was the first time that we have seen His supernatural help appear so effortlessly in our behalf.  All that we do is believe that he is the designer of all good things and that He proves Himself as the great orchestra leader. 
    We were asked by a friend to meet at her house and bless her new house.  The husband of our friend is a minister and we were complimented to be asked to lead the house blessing.  The first thing we did was go on line and search for house blessings.  There are hundreds of them, Catholic ones, Protestant ones and  ones from other religious organizations.  All of them had the same type of blessings and prayers but they just didn't seem to fit this particular couple.  The ones that were on line seemed kind of cold and impersonal.  It kept coming to my mind that we should only depend upon the Holy Spirit to provide His words of blessing for the beautiful home.  While waiting for the appointed day to arrive, we occasionally would consult the printed blessings but there was still no feeling that they were right for this occasion.  It began to be exciting to see what the Holy Spirit was going to do when we arrived at the home on the specific day.
    A week before the event, I was in Hobby Lobby buying yarn to send to my granddaughter and while there I saw a large gray satin throw pillow upon which the words "Bless This House" was printed in white lettering.  The pillow had white satin piping around it and the lettering was encircled by a wreath of white cotton bolls.  It was provided by God for sure.  The only thing that concerned me was the presence of the cotton bolls, but the pillow was so beautiful and it had the right message on it, so I overrode my concern about the cotton bolls and bought it for the hostess of the home.    
    The night before we were to gather and drive to their home in another city, as I was going to bed I was talking to God about the blessings of the house, telling Him that I was excited to see what He was going to do to bless the particular new house.  As I laid down to sleep, words began coming to my mind relating to each room of the house, the husband's study, the wife's study, the den, the entry hall, the kitchen, the laundry room, the garage, the yard and even the front door.  I began to write on paper with a pencil the blessings that came to mind.  Even though I knew that God would provide the right words the next day, I surmised that maybe those blessings for each room that came to mind were the guidelines for the blessing.
     I slept like a baby that night, knowing that the guidelines were provided.  Waking early the next morning was no problem for me, it's my waking time in order to write a God blog, as I call it, every morning.  Instead of writing the blog, it came to my mind to type the blessings on the computer, the ones that had come to mind the night before, and I felt that I was to print out enough copies for the ladies and the homeowners.  I did it, typed them and printed copies to be used as a guide that day in blessing the house since it was a new experience for us to be asked to participate in blessing a house.
    About an hour after printing the copies, a gastrointestinal flu hit me, one which had been making its rounds in our town.  I began to have horrible symptoms, running back and forth to the bathroom as the symptoms progressed.  I knew it would be impossible for me to go with the ladies to bless the house.  They are spiritually astute ladies and are well able to carry on the work to which we were called.  I put the special pillow in a large gift bag, added the copies of the blessing for each room of the house and put them in a place for some of the ladies to pick up before leaving for the home of the friend who was anxiously waiting for us to help her bless her new house. 
    The orchestration continued with a little confusion because of the change in my plans, but several of the ladies were able to join with the hostess at noon.  Later the report came back to me that the individual room blessings that the Holy Spirit had given to me the night before were perfect in every way as the group of ladies entered each room and read God's blessing for that room.  As an act of celebration and generosity, the hostess had provided a banquet of delicious food for the ladies. 
    When the hostess opened our housewarming gift for her, she was overwhelmed with the light gray satin throw pillow.  Her couch is dark gray and the pillow enhanced the beauty of the couch.   The biggest surprise for me of God's perfect orchestration was that the hostess had been raised on a cotton farm and so the cotton bolls on the pillow were God's signature that the hostess needed, her sign from God that her house is definitely abundantly blessed.  Only God could design the perfect pillow and then send it to her with His signature on it that only she would recognize.  That's the way Our Heavenly Father does things.  He puts his signature on each personal symphony that He creates for the  harmonious and miraculous events in our lives.

     The blessings for each room of her house and the personally designed pillow are Our Father's confirmation to our dear friend and to us that He cares about every little detail in our lives.   His personally written blessings provided God's "amen," His "so be it" to the day, one which was very, very special for the hostess, for her husband, for the ladies who were in attendance, and for me.  I received the good news later about the success of the personal house blessings written by the Holy Spirit and the love of the hostess for the unique and special pillow which was personally designed for her without my knowledge of it.  It is a loving Father who creates that kind of harmonious orchestration.
     He wants to orchestrate every decision that we make, every step that we take and every word that we speak.  When we allow Him to do his designing and his orchestration, He creates heaven on earth for us.   Now, that is a loving, spiritually artistic Heavenly Father who is well tuned to our needs.
     Let Him lead and orchestrate your life.  He does a superior job!

AMAZING ORCHESTRATIONS

                                            AMAZING ORCHESTRATIONS
                                                          T. Wieland Allen
    How does God do the things that He does?  It's just too much for the human mind to even explore.  I don't doubt that He is powerful and loving.  He has proved that to us over and over.  My problem is that I don't know how He gets humans to cooperate with Him in being at the right place at the right time.  We can't even arrive someplace when we need to be punctual, so my amazement is in the fact that He can get six women to be someplace at the same time so He can work one of His magnificent miracles in a time of need.
    The Prayer Posse, as we were labeled by a friend, meets every Tuesday for lunch, testimonies, praying and studying about our favorite subject, which is Our Heavenly Father.  We have experienced miracles after miracles too numerous to name here, and some are so supernatural that they have "blown our minds", as we often say.   We often just sit in awe of His magnificent works because words are inadequate to express our thankfulness and amazement at His wonderful ways.  Tears fall from our eyes because our hearts are too full to speak our gratitude but the awe that we feel has to be expressed some way, so tears of joy fall from our eyes as we reflect on His love and kindness.
      His latest divine orchestration is fresh on our minds so the story needs to be written before the next one occurs and we forget to give value to His mercy and love in the present one.  The actual first act of the heavenly appointment began a week before the situation arose in which God manifested His ability to gather six ladies together in order to be part of a divine appointment.  At the previous meeting the week before the divinely appointed gathering, we were discussing where we would meet the following week. The lady whose turn it was to host us at her house was recuperating from a bad fall, so we asked her if she would like to host us next week at Jim and Em's Coffee House where we meet every fourth Tuesday of the month.  It had only been a week since we had met at Jim and Em's Coffee House, but we knew that we would be welcome again at that wonderful establishment.  Jim and Emily, the father and daughter owners, graciously let us meet in a special room so that we can be alone to pray.  That loving act of kindness on their part has resulted in a harvest of blessings from God for them and for us.

    Yes, we decided to meet the next week at the coffee house instead of in the home of one of the members.  On the day of the next meeting, there were six ladies in attendance, one from far away in another city.  We ate our delicious quiches for lunch and enjoyed flavored coffees and teas to our hearts' content which were served to us by Jim.  We had given testimonies of answered prayers and were ready to pray when the door to the kitchen opened and Jim entered the room with tears streaming down his face.  He said, "I need you ladies.  Mary was just found dead."
    Mary was Jim's wife and Em's mom.  A more loving and kind family cannot be found in the earth, and Mary's passing was much too early for her 58 years.  As Jim stood there sobbing after just learning about the death of his dear wife, we sat in shock for a few seconds, but then as if being called by Our Father to the ministry of consoling a brother in the Lord, we all rushed to surround Jim with love, hugs, prayers and our own floods of tears.  All seven of us stood there in the room as a unified cluster of heartbreak and unbelief at the news of the passing of a beautiful and loving wife, mother and friend. 
   Prayers flowed from our mouths for God's peace to minister to this wonderful man whose wife of many years had been snatched out of his life.  After a few minutes, Jim broke free from our embrace and went into another room to tell Emily that her mom was no longer a part of their earthly lives.  It was a beautiful, yet horrible, sight to see the two of them locked in a loving embrace with each other, grieving from the depths of their beings.  It will be a long time before we stop hearing in our minds the heart wrenching, "No.  No.  No," that came from Emily's mouth which broke our hearts.  I know the words of agony reached into the ears of God, breaking his heart also. 
   There were things to do, and so their embrace released as Jim paced for a minute deciding what to do first.  Emily was immediately surrounded by the praying ladies and she was covered with God's love in the midst of the prayers for Our Father's wonderful mercy to comfort her. 
    We told the two of them to leave and we would clean the establishment and lock up.  They took our advice and left to go on to their unpleasant, sad, but necessary duties ahead of them.  We stood for a few minutes in awe of God that we had been there when we were so badly needed, even though we weren't supposed to be there in the normal course of events.  We could hardly move because we were in such awe of God, knowing that we had been afforded the pleasure of representing Our Loving Father God in the lives of people who love Him also and who had been so good to us for so long.
    Eventually we attacked the work at hand, washing the dishes, cleaning the premises, emptying the trash and leaving our blessings there for a wonderful family who has incorporated us into their own family and has always given us special treatment by allowing us to meet and pray at their business.  Nobody else would have done that for us. 
    We have needed Jim, Mary, Emily and Jimmy in the past, and they have graciously supplied our needs.  God arranged it so that we would be available to be with them when they needed solace, encouragement, prayers and, yes, communal tears when they received the horrible news that their beloved Mary had passed on from this world.  It seemed too soon to us, but the fact that He called us to be with Jim and Em when they needed special love was enough to comfort us.  We knew that Mary was in God's beautiful garden of love, but we also knew the burden was heavy for the family at the time. 
    Being part of God's perfect orchestration and divine appointment put us in such awe of Him that we were almost speechless.   That's unusual for our group, being speechless, but God's awesomeness makes a person void of words because no human words are adequate.  In those wonderful times, our spirits worship Him in spirit and in the truth of His majesty.  Yet, no human words suffice at those times.                               
    We will all miss Mary but our loss is nothing compared to the family's loss.  We hope that Jim and Em are comforted in the realization that God supplied six ladies to love and comfort them when they were so much in need of His comfort.  We merely supplied the hugs, kisses and loving words on a day when we weren't even supposed to be there.  It was the least we could do.  They have done so much for us.   
    God sees that everyone is reciprocated.  Love seeds produce love plants.  We can attest to that.   Mary is present in God's garden where the love plants grow.  We will see that her family is loved abundantly, maybe not as much as she was able to love them, but we will do our best.
    How does He do it?  How does He get six ladies who are never punctual to be at an appointed place at His appointed time to be part of His divine plan?   I don't know how He does it, but we are so fortunate to have been included in it so that we can continue to be in awe of Him.  It's the awe of Him that is the beginning of wisdom.  We should be the most wise women in the world because we stay in awe of God and His love continuously,  He is an awesome Father.