NO FEAR....

I'm still in the hospital. I think I'm out of immediate danger now, but my lungs are taking their sweet time in recovering... The doctor says I will not be able to go home until next week...so it means another long weekend here. I am hopeful that tomorrow I will be able to see my daughter if my plans to get her here go smoothly, so that should help some of the time go by...and she will come armed with a folder of last year's medical receipts for me to add up and prepare for the accountant prior to our tax appointment next week...so for what more fun could a girl ask!

I was visited by a woman who is becoming a good friend here at "my" hospital. She is a volunteer on the chaplein staff and because I mark down "Christian" as my faith preference, it is always my pleasure to receive her visits on thursdays when she makes her rounds. We now know each other by first name and have had some very sweet times of prayer together. I was disappointed today because our time was cut short by the arrival of the respiratory therapist and we did not get to pray today....but it was good to see her nonetheless. She left me with a verse, handwritten in her beautiful handwriting, "Exodus 14:13, Do not be afraid, Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring to you today."

Stand Firm .
No fear.
Deliverance will be VISIBLE
TODAY.

The thing is that deliverance does not always wear the clothes that we expect it to wear. It can mean a burst of endurance, rather than healing from pain; It can come in the form of an encouraging word or visit from a friend in a moment of loneliness; It can just be found in the sweetness of Christ's whisper to us in our blackest moments....like it was for me last Saturday and Sunday as I trod the fine line between death and life and I found such joy in knowing he was also on both sides of that line for me.

The trick is to keep our eyes and ears and heart open to seek out the deliverance in our times of need and to recognize it however it comes. But to live EXPECTING IT and to go forth FEARLESSLY because He has PROMISED that it WILL BE THERE WHEN WE NEED IT.