Katie McGrew: Seeing Jesus

William and I have been reading through the Daily Chronological Bible since school began in August.  Our dates don't match the reading and we have picked up the pace as we realized it is not likely that we will finish before we go our separate ways.  It has been so good to spend our mornings together this way, especially during his last year of high school.  I find myself thinking on the scripture we read all through the day and the lessons we are learning.  God's Word is not an easy word.  It is filled with blessing and loss... the loss is so great, but God, over and over again redeems what was lost.  The Bible is truly the story of redemption over and over.  He is our hope and salvation. The other day William was reading John 6:56, it says, "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him" .  I heard the scripture differently that day.  Maybe because this version said "feeds on my flesh" and I had mostly heard "...

Ten years ago, April of 2010 we were busy cleaning our house and selling everything we didn't think we would want in a year when we returned from Nicaragua.  Our plan was to spend a year in Nicaragua, actually, Dwight's plan was 6 months.  Our plan was for such a short time because if the kids were struggling or if it wasn't a good fit for us, then we could change plans and return to the U.S..  We rented our house furnished.  We all packed two suitcases and were ready to leave for Nicaragua on June 28.  The evening of the 27th we got a call from American Airlines saying our flight had been cancelled.  Wait a minute I thought; we are moving to Nicaragua, our bags are packed, we have left our house, you can't cancel our flight.  But they did and rescheduled us to fly out two days later. That is how our life has been over the last 10 years.  We make a plan, and our plan, for the most part, has not gone at all as we expected.  I think we are...

About a month ago, during a small group meeting, my friend Kelly began to cry as she was realizing that maybe our boy's graduation wouldn't happen as we had hoped and imagined it would.  Inside I thought, "well that is fine, they'll still finish high school and move onto college, what's the big deal?"  Then Amanda, our usual voice of reason, wisdom, no-nonsense and not a lot of emotion says, "all losses are loss Kelly, of course you are sad".   I considered again my response. My beautiful small group We talked about lament and praise, and that when we are healthy they will go hand in hand.  Being a faith-filled person does not mean, that we will not experience sadness and disappointment; it means, that when we experience sadness and disappointment we can still praise the Lord. The thing I am most confident of in all of my life, is that God is always good.  Even when things are falling apart, when life is painful and it is not how I hoped it w...