A good friend of mine, Cathy, had a near brush with death a few months ago. Here is her story.

On October 25, 2011 I had a heart attack.

The problem was, I didn’t know it was a heart attack.  Women, pay attention!  It’s true that our symptoms can be VERY different.  I woke up somewhere around 2:00 AM with ‘discomfort’ in the middle of my chest.  It was so minor that I told myself to go back to sleep.  I couldn’t.  So I got up and went to the living room wondering what it could be.  It was not pain, pressure, indigestion – just an uncomfortable ‘sensation’.

Here is the Angel part.  I decided to call a good friend who lives close to me.  I dialed her number and it rang twice and I got a fast busy signal.  Hmmm – I tried again, paying particular attention to the digits I was dialing.  I got a busy signal.  I thought about it a bit more and decided to dial 911.  I didn’t even know what I was going to say but when the dispatcher answered I told him I THOUGHT I MIGHT be having a heart attack.  Where did those words come from?  They were not in my consciousness before I said them.  When I got to the hospital I asked them to call my friend and they got right through.  She looked later and I didn’t even show up on her caller id!

IF I had gotten her on the phone, we would have talked about it some, then she would have gotten up, put on some clothes and came here.  By the time that would have taken, I was in the ambulance (they took 5 minutes to get here from the time I was talking to the dispatcher) and I already had an EKG, nitro, aspirin and an IV and we were flying, lights and sirens, to the hospital.  I was furious that I could not get her but later realized that it might have saved my life that I could NOT get her on the phone.  Thank you God!

Be encouraged; the heavenly Father and his angels are not only watching over Cathy, but you as well.

If you have a story of God’s care or a miracle, feel free to share it below or send it to diane at abundant-gifts.com.

God’s reaction took me by surprise. Very distinctly in my spirit, I sensed him say, nonplussed, “Of course you failed.”

He added, “I don’t expect anything else. That’s why I died. And remember, I rose, and it’s all okay, because I’M the one who makes it okay.

“You are forgiven….”

So I know we’ll survive, and it’s my own perfectionism (and pride) that thinks I can be anything but a failure. It’s not that I’m beating myself up about it; quite the opposite.

I’m free to fail, as a parent or in any other way, because I am a sinner and Jesus is the one who took care of sin, once and for all. So now I’m forgiven and can stand in the truth that he can redeem anything.

If only I believe … but even then, if I don’t believe “enough,” that’s okay, because I can’t do that either, and Jesus believes for me.

Isn’t Jesus wonderful?

That was my personal Good Friday sermon.

?????

This was, of course, a crisis because we were dealing with a 15-year-old daughter who absolutely needed her boots RIGHT THEN because at the football game, they were supposed to dress as “cowboys or Indians.” And of course her ride was about to pick her up any minute.

I told her where the boots should be in the basement. She couldn’t find them, of course.

I looked where I thought they should be, on the shelf in the “boiler room” as we call it.

There was a small box there, which I passed over. Surely that couldn’t contain boots, since I knew mine were with hers. That much I remembered.

I ended up clearing out a lot of junk in the basement trying to find those boots. (God’s grace and sense of humor. I did need to clear out all that junk months ago. Guess God knew I needed a little nudge. Averting another teenage crisis was enough incentive to at least do a little.)

I found the boots.

They were in the small box that I’d overlooked. I went back and opened it up after all, because I KNEW I had put those boots on that shelf.

I just didn’t see it at first because . . .

Because I didn’t expect them to be there.

Just so I’d get the point, the very next morning–not 12 hours later–I was about to wash a sweater. I looked at the tag for directions on how to wash the garment. I squinted at it, and finally asked my husband to verify: “Gene, do you see any instructions in English here?”

He did not. We tried to figure out the “universal symbols” (which I never can decipher) and I washed the garment using my best guesses from the Spanish and French and those symbols.

When I took the garment out of the dryer, I noticed another tag that DID have instructions in English.

How had I missed it?

I wasn’t looking for it.

Just as with the boots, I didn’t see what I didn’t expect to see. I assumed there was only ONE  location for a tag with washing instructions. In this case, there was one on the collar and one on the lower seam. You’d think I’d have thought to look, but I didn’t–at first.

I think God was trying to show me something, because the same basic thing happened twice within such a short period of time.

We only see what we expect to see.

And: We don’t see what we don’t expect to see.

What might God be trying to show you–about himself, about yourself, about how you’re viewing a situation or person–that you aren’t seeing because it’s not what you expect to see?

What surprises and delights–what abundant gifts– might you begin to see if you open your eyes and pray, “God, help me to see what you want me to see, and to expect to see marvelous things”?

“That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,

‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him.’” (1 Corinthians 2:9, NLT)

I didn’t.

Now I do, and if you can extrapolate that perhaps the central verse of the whole Bible might be the one thing God wants us to “get,” then it’s worth knowing, even memorizing.

Enjoy!

Let the images and song linger … and become a mental break after listening to the news.

Our roads are a mess here. Many cracks, many potholes. This snowy, icy winter has added even more damage.

As I walked, I suddenly stopped.  Something caught my eye.

The shape of a particular crack arrested me. It looked just like …  a heart!

Our newspaper recently did a photo story on heart shapes in nature. God’s hidden messages–hidden except for those with the eyes to see.

Here was another heart shape, symbol of love. But not in the natural world. In the world humans made, in the road made up of asphalt and dirt and salt.

It’s not so difficult to believe God’s love shows up in the natural realm. But in the world so marred by both human and natural affliction–can we expect to find God’s stamp of love?

Yet, here it is. Here in the broken road is a symbol of love.

It made me think of a verse in Jeremiah 18. “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ‘Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.’ So I went down to the potter’s hour, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him” (verses 1-4).

Here we are, going along the road of life, and cracks happen. Things get broken up. The clay was marred in his hands. And yet, sometimes there’s a message, in the very cracks themselves.

A message of love. A message of, “so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”

Can you see messages of love, even in the “cracks” on your road?

I challenge you to look for them.

Because you know what? The crack you see in this picture is not the only one I see anymore.

Now that I’m looking for them, I see them everywhere! I even saw one in an ice patch the other day! I didn’t have my camera with me, and it’s gone now, but here are some others:

Notice that some of the shapes are not  quite heart shapes … but neither are our own attempts to love. Neither is our perception of God’s love in the cracks of our road. Those cracks can feel like nothing more than stumbling blocks. Potential disasters.

Yet, if we really look, if we can perceive with understanding, perhaps we can see the actual shape, even if it is a crack. Or,  as with one of them, an actual pothole.

Symbols of love. In the cracks. In the cracks of the road you walk every day.

Try looking … and tell me what you see! (Comment below, or send me your pics!)

One of the highlights of Christmas this year also sheds a little light on what I think we can expect from God in the coming year.

It was my son’s gift to his sister.

David loves to give gifts. I’m sure it’s his “language of love.” For Mother’s Day, he bought me a wonderful digital camera. This Christmas, he bought Christine an ipod.

I think what he loves most of all is the look of surprised joy when the recipient opens the present: “You bought this for ME?!”

That’s probably why he wrapped Christine’s ipod in a very special way. Knowing she would immediately guess if he just wrapped the package it came in, he put it in a bigger box. Wrapped it. Then he put that into a very large box and wrapped it (all by himself, I might add).

Yes, she was surprised–and joyful.

I can’t help but think that God likes to do something very similar with us.

As I reflect back on the highlights of 2009, it’s been an amazing year of unexpected abundant gifts for me. God has taken me places I never dreamed I’d be, and I’ve met so many wonderful people I never expected to meet.

Healed in ways I never dreamed were possible….

With God, I’m discovering, we need to expect the unexpected!

And sometimes, the blessings come disguised in packages that look like anything but blessings. Unemployment. Loss of health. Struggles and heartaches of all kinds.

In the coming year, I will be sharing some of what I’m learning particularly about “disguised gifts.” These lessons have been some of the greatest blessings of the past year for me. (You might want to make sure you’re subscribed to this blog.)

Another source of the richest blessings for me has been simply getting into God’s Word, for myself and for others as I write the Encouraging Words and Abundant Gifts from the Word free email devotionals. The Bible daily astonishes me by its relevance; it truly is a living Word, as the Holy Spirit applies it to our personal situations in amazing ways.

It’s also been an abundant gift to receive emails from people who say that God’s Word, or my word, spoke to their hearts on a particular day. That is God at work!

If you have not signed up yet for Abundant Gifts from the Word (no cost, you can unsubscribe any time), I encourage you to do so:
http:/www.abundantgiftsfromtheword.com

And if you had signed up but have somehow stopped getting them, please sign up again. I discovered a glitch that made these daily devotional stop after a couple of months. I have plenty to share, so sign up again and keep it coming!

One thing I know for sure: His blessings will come, if we’re open to them. And they often come in unexpected packages.

May 2010 be full of abundant, mind-bending blessings!

I love this season, with all the celebrations that lend meaning to our lives!

So here’s a quick note to wish you a most blessed holiday season:

• A Hanukkah full of new light that continues to illuminate your world …
• A Christmas overflowing with the gifts only the Savior can give …
• A new year blessed with all the things that make your heart sing …

And I invite you to sit back and listen to one of my favorite Christmas stories from my book,  Abundant Gifts. It’s called “The Lord’s Presence Passing By” and I think you’ll like it.

I’ve been told that the proper translation for “cheerful” in this verse is “hilarious.”

I thought of that today as I was paying bills.

It was a task I’d been putting off a couple of days because right now, there seem to be a LOT of expenses. Seems like “education” even for public schools is a bigger and bigger piece of the budget. Not to mention, I now have a child in college (who thankfully did get a major scholarship–provision!).

When I finally knuckled down and wrote the checks, I also wrote one for our church and the ministries we support. I thought about “hilarious giving.”

It seemed to fit.

As in:

“Get ahold of this. I wrote a check for my church, which brought my bank account to zero. So I said,

‘Lord, I’m trusting you to provide for the rest of my bills, because you’re the one person I don’t want to short change.’

“I checked the mailbox, half hoping there would be a surprise check.

“Nope.

“Ah, but I’d forgotten about that other kind of mail we have nowadays. Within two hours, I got an email saying a payment (totally unexpected) was ready in my Paypal account. Isn’t that hilarious?”

Yes, God loves a “hilarious” giver. He likes to make us laugh with delight at how he provides.

Oh, and not too long ago, as I was shelling out money for school clothes, I tried to remember the last time I’d bought new clothes.

Shortly after, on my walk, I came across a garage sale in my neighborhood. I got a like-new winter jacket, dress, dress pants, and 5 pairs of jeans for, I think, $11.

(To get the full impact of the 5 pairs of jeans, click her to read an earlier post.)

God loves a hilarious giver because … that’s how he himself likes to give.

So lighten up! A joke is just around the corner (if you trigger it by “hilarious” giving).

P. S. In the  few hours since I posted this, I talked to someone who told me he owes me money (through some sales I didn’t know that I made).  Hilarious!

It’s only 4 minutes long. Click, sit back and watch, and I hope it will give you new eyes to see the gifts of today. (I’m not scowling, really–just squinting in the sun. Next time I’ll be more aware of the sun! Still getting this video thing down….)

(Little side note: This was shot 2 days ago, and when I tried to get it on this blog, something happened to the blog. In the process of trying to fix that problem, I contacted a friend. The results of that contact blessed us both, reigniting and deepening our friendship. So the “problem” of my blog being messed up was really a “disguised gift,” resulting in blessing for both of us. Remember: God is good, and at work even in our problems.)