Day 4: God heals the rboken hearted

Day 4: He heals the brokenhearted

Readings: Psalm 147 (A song of Praise for God's care), 2 Kings 20:5-11 (The Lord heals King Hezekiah). Gospel of St. Mark 4:35-41 (Jesus stills the storm)

The Beautiful Flower In The Broken Pot
Author Unknown

Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out patients at the clinic.

One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man. "Why, he's hardly taller than my eight-year-old," I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw.

Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening. I've come to see if you've a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'til morning."

He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success, no one seemed to have a room. "I guess it's my face... I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments..."

For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: "I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning."

I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch. I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us. "No thank you. I have plenty." And he held up a brown paper bag.

When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes. It didn't take a long time to see that this old man had an over sized heart crowded into that tiny body. He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.

He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was preface with a thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going.

At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch.

He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won't put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair." He paused a moment and then added, "Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don't seem to mind." I told him he was welcome to come again.

And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning.

As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that they'd be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.

In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.

Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these, and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious.

When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning.

"Did you keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!"

Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear.

I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude to God.

Recently I was visiting a friend, who has a greenhouse, as she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself, "If this were my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest container I had!"

My friend changed my mind. "I ran short of pots," she explained, and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn't mind starting out in this old pail. It's just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden."

She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven. "Here's an especially beautiful one," God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old fisherman. "He won't mind starting in this small body."

All this happened long ago - and now, in God's garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand.

Author Anonymous

When I encounter inspirational stories where the Author is Anonymous -- and I have read many when I needed to have my spirit lifted, when in moments my heart felt like a ton of bricks just lying in the middle of my chest -- My spirit convinces me that I might just as well have faith that God is the one who wrote this magnificent story. They are such beautiful stories that just can't help but lift me up towards heaven.

God cares for us in the midst of the storm. God simply speaks to the wind and the wind responds to His call. Jesus said "Peace be Still" and there was peace. The Psalmist writes (verse 3): He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. From 2 Kings 5:8 King Hezekiah asks the Prophet for a sign that he will be healed and in verse 11 we learn that : The prophet Isaiah cried to the Lord; and he brought the shadow back the ten intervals, by which the sun had declined on the dial of Ahaz. God gave a very physical sign that Hezekiah would in fact be healed of his illness.

God gives to us 'signs of awe and wonder' that He will come and heal His people. He will come in ways that are so self evident that if we are intentionally looking for it, it will happen right before our eyes. The unmistakable presence of God's hand in our life - giving aid and comfort to His people. He will lay His hands upon us and bring healing and hope, peace and comfort, faith and belief. How many stories in the Gospel are there where Jesus come's alongside the Leper, the blind, the deaf, the disabled, even the dead. He placed His hands on them and they were physically healed. The God of us all will come along side us and will heal our broken hearts.

What is so special about these statements is that God's involvement with us is not so spiritual and heavenly that it has no earthly good. And this is significant. God is very present and very with us in our broken-heartedness , disillusionments, despair and wounded spirits. These painful moments; those that go deep into our hearts souls and spirits; the fact is there God will bend eternity itself just to get to your side. Pray for it, wait for it, and God will answer. God will come and create for you very real and visible difference in your life. God will take care of you. Oh how He Loves Us.

If God does not come the very moment we ask him, it is not because he is not concerned; it is because He intends to grow and mature us through such moments in our life. Jesus came late to Mary and Martha in the midst of their grief and wept and went to the tomb and commanded Lazarus to come out to reveal the true power and glory of God. God comes to reveal the power and glory of His love for us all.

Are there places in your heart and soul that feel so wounded that your prayer requests feels out of reach 'because of you'? Ask God to grant you a vision of His eternal perspective on your journey to coming to maturing or coming to faith.

Let us pray:

Redeeming God, hear my prayer,
And let my cry come to You.
Do not hide from me in the day of my distress
Heed not the desires of my broken heart to defeat me
From the depths of eternity, turn to me and speedily answer my prayer.
Eternal God, Source of healing, You who command the winds to be at peace,
Out of my distress I call upon You. Hear the longing desires of my heart for rest.
Show me, Help me sense Your presence At this difficult time.
Grant me patience when the hours become too many and the burden too heavy for me to bear for very long. Reveal to me Your heart that I may touch it and made well.
In the midst of my hurt or disappointment give me courage to endure; strength to persevere. Wisdom to keep my eyes ever on you.
When I am ready to give in, Keep me trustful in Your love. Forgive me when I seem to fail and falter in my faith and prayers to You.
Give me strength for today, and hope for tomorrow. Open my eyes to envision your eternity that I may see the whole picture.
To your loving hands I commit my spirit. I surrender myself to Your healing hands.
When asleep and when awake. I know You are with me; I shall not fear.

In the name of Jesus the Christ, the Great Physician we pray ... Amen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FxaUYjRtkc

How He Loves lyrics by David Crowder Band

www.youtube.com

One of my favorite songs of all time by the David Crowder Band! enjoy! I own nothing