37 days until Christmas and Isaacs 25th birthday! So proud of who he is, how loves Jesus, how he treats his wife, and values anyone and everyone. I wrote the following devo about his miraculous birth and about the amazing sons both he and Jacob have been. Of course in the end its all Jesus, He was with us then and Hes with us now... Happy Birthday son, this ones for you. The Grace to Laugh Today is our son, Isaac’s, birthday. I sure do love that guy! His name really fits him too. Isaac is a Hebrew name and it means laugh-ter. Karen had already miscarried once and struggled profoundly in her pregnancy with Isaac. In fact, he ended up being born at 27 weeks (3 months early). Even though he only weighed in at an underwhelm-ing 1 pound 14 ounces at birth, our baby boy was born with a smile. There wasn’t much going well at first, but his heart and his smile have always been strong. Ok, his smile was probably more of a fish face at first, but we knew what he was going for. It might have been easy for him to smile, though he endured all sorts of pokes and prods, and even lived the first 9 weeks of his life in an incubator. However, it wasn’t as easy or natural for mom and dad to smile. We did learn to do so, even in those early and difficult days of uncertainty. In the first moments after his birth Isaac was taken away in a helicopter to a Neonatal ICU, leaving Karen and I praying in a hospital hallway, her still on a gurney. Still, Immanuel was defi-nitely with us. We’ve had hard days since then as well, but in them all we’ve been graced to smile and even laugh. That grace is there even when life isn’t living well. Check out the truth recorded in Job 8. Bildad the Shuhite certainly didn’t give the greatest encouragement or counsel in most of what he had to say, but he was spot on here: Job 8:20-21 MSG “There’s no way that God will reject a good person... God will let you laugh again; you’ll raise the roof with shouts of joy.” We love both our boys. Jacob was also born early and has been an unbelievable blessing. Both he and Isaac have an amazing sense of humor and honor. They cause us to smile with both. I think that’s how it is with God as well. We make Him smile with both our honor and our humor. He’s the one who inspired the writer of Proverbs 17:22 to declare, “A joyful heart is good medicine.” It’s ok to cry too. We’ve done plenty of that together as well. Even when we do, we usually end up laughing, or at least smiling through our tears. That’s all about Immanuel and His being with us. He’s the one who has graced us to laugh in the first place. Paperback: lulu/shop/ron-barnard/immanuel-god-with-us/paperback/product-21761017.html Hardcover: lulu/shop/ron-barnard/immanuel-god-with-us-hardcover/hardcover/product-21761002.html
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 23:42:27 +0000
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