{Thirty Days of Thanks~Day 10}

Isaiah 55

“Come, everyone who thirsts,

come to the waters;

and he who has no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without price.

2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

and delight yourselves in rich food.

3 Incline your ear, and come to me;

hear, that your soul may live;

hand I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

my steadfast, sure love for David.

4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,

a leader and commander for the peoples.

5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,

and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,

because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,

for he has glorified you.

6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;

call upon him while he is near;

7 let the wicked forsake his way,

and the unrighteous man his thoughts;

let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,

and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

12 “For you shall go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and the hills before you

shall break forth into singing,

and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;

instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;

and it shall make a name for the Lord,

an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

This passage has come to me several times over the last months as I pondered what was going on in my life. The thought that keeps coming back to me as I think of the changes in my life is that God knew we'd need this boy:

I had no way of knowing even a year ago that I'd be in this place---that we all would. Carson has provided quiet stability to all three of my children. It's amazing that God saw, God knew, God provided. Joshua LOVES Carson, Hannah does too. (oh, and Caitlin likes him OK, too!)  When they came to us and wanted to marry so young, I had no idea what the Father knew----but He did. 

And God knew we'd need HER:

A dear friend of mine and I often talk about how holding a baby is just free therapy---(in a good way!!) especially for those who don't have "a baby" anymore. There's just nothing better than snuggling up with a little one....and when that little one belongs to one of YOUR babies----oh my! THE BEST! WHO KNEW that this precious gift would grace the world last February 28th? Our loving Father did. I often think I owe Caitlin and Carson an apology that they didn't have long to be married without kids because the Lord knew I'd need a baby to bring such JOY into my life!!! (Yeah, it's all about me!) 

I had planned for this post to be this beautiful treatise on the way of the LORD----yeah, that hasn't happened. It's bedtime and my brain isn't really awake. BUT, today I'm thankful that the LORD SEES! He KNOWS. He loves. He KNEW what my life would be like during these days and  that these two (among MANY OTHERS) would make me smile just to think about them. For THIS I am grateful~I hope you have a lovely day today.