" THE NOTE in the SANDWICH "

Many years ago when my husband and I were little more than newlyweds, I would make his lunch and pack it so he would have a fit meal to carry him through the day. I had the bright idea one day to include a little note inside of his sandwich. The note said simply: "I love you."

He reminded me this morning, some 46 years later, of that day when he bit into his sandwich and tugged on the note within. We laughed for the humor it evoked and then how much more through these long years our love has continued to grow and still grows.

I asked him what the people who saw him biting into his sandwich thought when they saw him pull out the note?. He said they were somewhat taken aback and just looked. However, I seem to remember their ribbing the dickens out of him saying in sing-song fashion that his 'wife sent him a love note in a sandwich.'

Do you receive love notes everyday? What am I getting at? Well, we all receive love notes everyday in the form of prayers others pray for us and in the love notes we send praying for others. Whether they are actually on paper or email or within our hearts, we send and receive many love notes everyday. Look at the love coming through our prayer groups.

We can receive huge windfalls of love notes everyday in the form of the books of the Bible. The Word of the Lord is the Love of the Lord for us. Every verse, every word is a love note inspired by the Holy Spirit from writers so disposed to hearing and writing down what God wanted them to do, every word, every phrase, every verse, every chapter, every book, all in the Holy Bible. All of it is a gargantuan love note from God.

If for some reason you are feeling unloved, take a step back as soon as you gain some equilibrium and make note of the many ways love does come to you through the designs of Almighty God who loves you beyond all telling.
Many people do not realize they are part of a bigger picture, thinking the world revolves around them and only them. They need our prayers, patience and love as they are children of the same Father who is Father to all of us. As mirror images of our Father we must radiate his love to others, treat them as our sisters and brothers, love them. As the Lord came to serve, so also we as Christians must serve. Let us serve love notes with kind words and kind actions. Let our love notes be in the form of prayers to our Father for them, for their salvation.

Your love notes might not be in a sandwich, like mine, so long ago, but consider the love you can send, literally, to someone in a note,
or in prayers you can pray for them.


© Mel Patterson, 3-17-08


" THE WINGS OF PRAYER "


Do you feel as though you are being tossed about,
As if in high seas with the storm's pounding clout?
Do you feel battle weary, fatigued beyond all reason?
Do you wonder if you'll ever reach a peaceful season?

As the rolling waves of the ocean ebb and flow
And the fierce winds blast your life to and fro
Know you're in a temporary and not permanent place
And ask the Lord to fill your heart with His Grace.

The storms of life are many; this we know as fact.
We've tried every conceivable thought, word and act
When all has been said and done seemingly for naught,
We pause finally and listen to God's renewing thought.

At times we wonder why no one comes to our rescue
Feeling defeated and deserted, our lives all askew.
We come to the realization that God truly does care
And we can see a new horizon on the wings of Prayer.

© Mel Patterson, 3-16-08

THE SCARRED HAND

In an attempt to remove caked-on wax from 3 brass candle holders,
I had placed the three of them in the freezer to harden the wax,
hoping and expecting the wax removal to be made easier. One candle holder had a big piece of white candle stubbornly locked in place.

We light the candles every week during a meeting in our Church Hall. Our meetings last one and one half hours. Being so wrapped up in our meetings we don't pay strict attention to the condition of the candle holders but simply relight them week after week until those large white candles need to be replaced. We also use clear 1 inch wide disks to collect the melting wax. Some people call them bobages or babages. They help to save the table linens nicely.

This week I decided to take all of the candle paraphernalia home to clean it and have it ready for the meeting next week. I pulled out of the freezer the 3 brass candle holders and easily cleaned two, polished them and set them aside. The third brass candle holder needed much work because the white candle was wedged above and beneath the holder.

Intellectual brain that I am, I took a knife and worked and worked, probed and probed and I could see a break in the offing. There was just the hardened piece in the middle that was the most stubborn. I took the point of the knife and neglected to move my left hand from the point of the knife. After seeing a little hole in the candle I kept working until I pierced my left palm. Boy, did that hurt. It bled only a little. I cleaned it with alcohol swabs to ward off infection.

That wound throbbed and throbbed for quite a while. I thought how dumb I was to do that and just as quickly was reminded of Jesus' wounds, that of being nailed by the hands, both of them, and His feet, to the Cross. I offered up the mild pain in reparation for my own sins and united it with Jesus on the Cross.

I still have a discolored area of dried blood healing over without any signs of infection but it reminds me that Jesus suffered tremendously for me, for us. If my wounding myself hurt me as much as it did, I can only imagine the intolerable pain He suffered even though He did, in fact, suffer that same intolerable pain a thousand times over for an immeasurable amount of God's children from from Adam to the very last person conceived in the future, in this earthly life. Incomprehensible Lord Jesus, thank You. Thank You for taking our sins to the Cross. Mercy Incomprehensible, by Your dying You have restored our life.

When I look at the wounds of Jesus, I am filled with sorrow, with remorse and with love for Him. When I look at His death, alone on the Cross, with all the bystanders watching, I see myself as a bystander as well. I stand with His poor afflicted Mother and wonder at her own pain and sorrow. I see Jesus taken down from the Cross and see a living Pieta. I see Jesus being taken to the place of His Burial and the stone rolled over with soldiers standing guard.

I see His loved ones walking away bearing their own sorrow pondering the meaning of Jesus' life and death. Do they know what will happen in three days? Do they believe all He promised? Are they bereft of hope, or deep down inside is there the flicker of a Holy Spirit spark welling up, as yet, unbeknownst to them? Three days of heart and gut wrenching pain they all endured, especially Mary, His Mother. She had to have been reminiscing shared moments from His infancy to His childhood to His manhood, His cruel torture and His ultimate death. She surely must have pondered within her heart all of these things.

Then comes the Morning and now ends the mourning. JESUS has RISEN from the dead !!! There is excitement and wonder. The LORD has RISEN !
The news spread among His loved ones, among His Apostles. His Mother was relieved, overjoyed, excited and longed to see Him. They all longed to see Him. One by one eventually they came to believe all He taught them was coming to pass. The only one had a problem in believing Jesus had risen was Thomas. The others and His Mother, of course, knew Jesus Christ was Lord and the Son of God. Thomas placed his hand into Jesus side and prostrated himself, "My LORD and my GOD!" "Thomas, because you have seen, you believe. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."

That is you and I, friends. We are blessed because the Lord tells us so. Being blessed we thank Him for His Life, His Death, and His Resurrection. He says "I AM THE RESURRECTION." Because He lives, we live. He has opened the Gates of Heaven to us. THIS is what it is all about. As Jesus rose from the dead, when we die, we shall also rise from the dead to life, eternal life in heaven if we believe and love as Jesus loves. His whole life pointed to eternal life. Something beyond now awaits us. For some it is a distant shore. For others it is closer. When our ship comes in we will be greeted and embraced by the Lord, each one of us, at the appointed hour. We look forward to the day we will enjoy the fruits of the Lord's Resurrection, that Heavenly Shore where we shall see Jesus face to face and be reunited with loved ones who have risen with Him already.

Be of good cheer, the Lord draws near. HAIL to the KING of GLORY! Heaven awaits those who follow His ways.





© Mel Patterson, 3-22-08