The Kindness of God

"There is no end to grace because there is no bottom to the well from which it comes." John Piper

We shed a bath tub full of tears last night and hugged a lot. And Winston true to form had lots of kisses and licks for each of us as he sensed our sadness.

Throughout the day, I was reminded that God knew we would face this on this day, and that He also would supply us with all we needed to make it through. I was so grateful to hear both Ben and Olivia quietly sleeping shortly after they went to bed.

Thank you God for that gift.

Thank you for caring for me in such numerous ways. I know Winston was a gift that you sent to us. You created dogs (and yes cats). you didn't have to, it's a small blip in the radar of creation. Not only did you create them, you made all kinds of different breads with different temperaments and personalities, all to bring us joy and delight and companionship and comfort. SELAH.

God your kindness and extravegant love is beyond my comprehension.


I was reminded again this morning of God's kindness as I read John Piper's Future Grace.

God made us alive and secured us in Christ so that he could make us the beneficiaries of everlasting kindness from infinite riches of grace. This is not because we are worthy. Quite the contrary, it is to show the infinite measure of HIS worth.

Tonight

Winston has been loosing weight. Something we've been working on for sometime. The problem is he is loosing too fast. Last August Dr. Wendy was concerned. (Wendy walked through cancer with us when our sweet Eliot had lymphoma at 2.) Last week Winston went 4 days without touching his food, and so today we went to see Dr. Wendy again.

And again we heard the C word. Winston, at 10 has cancer in his stomach/splene (?) area. It's a blur right now. Wendy said the longest she's seen any dog live with this is three weeks.

So tonight we will begin to tell the kids.

I know God is extravagant in his love, because he made dogs for us to love and share companionship with, and because he brought us Winston at a time when we thought we could never love another dog. And we have for 8 glorious years!

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On the night before Thanksgiving...

I'm thankful that it's 10:40 p.m. and the table is set (thanks to my dear little helpers!), the wildrice ready to plug in, the stuffing parts ready to mix together, and the turkey THAWED!  I guess I might not have to get up until 7 tomorrow!  I love this holiday.  It's about food and family and a day of being together.Who could ask for anything more?  I challenged myself to list 45 things I was thankful for on my 45th bday this year.  I made it to about 38 and then found the list getting so obscure that I needed to explain things.  For example, I'm thankful for my older sister who put up with my fits of crying and clinging to her at school every time I discovered a substitute teacher at the start of a day.  After all this time, I finally realize it was perhaps as tramatic for her as for me!But seriously, like David, I find myself realizing that the lines for me and my life have fallen in good places.As I stumble into bed, here's some of my favorite photos from this year...