Send in the Marines

Recently a wicked winter storm of snow, sleet and freezing rain pummeled the South.

Ordinarily, this part of Virginia receives a few inches of snow several times a year followed by rising temperatures above 40 degrees melting it from streets and driveways. Not this time.

The streets and driveways in our neighborhood morphed into a gigantic ice rink. No mail or Amazon deliveries. No trash pickup. As seniors, we were homebound with below freezing temperatures forecasted for the next 10 days. Even the snowplows encountered problems removing the ice and never arrived in most neighborhoods.

After four days of being iced in, my senior next-door neighbor, Kim, texted me looking to hire someone to clear 100 feet of her sloped driveway, similar to ours.

“I don’t know of anyone,” I responded.

She soon noticed the driveway of a young couple across the street was cleared. She texted them to see who cleared it and found out it was the husband, Mark. He offered to help her later that day but refused payment. Kim texted me the good news.

In the meantime, my husband and I were just outside the back door to our garage with hot water and a shovel to break up a small area of ice so he could get the dog out without falling. As we were hammering away, I saw Mark in Kim’s driveway.

“Are you going to do that whole driveway yourself?” I asked. It seemed like a herculean task. He said he was, and that he could do ours after he finished Kim’s if we wanted.

“We sure do!” I said.

That afternoon he broke up the thick ice in large chunks with a shovel and pushed or tossed them aside. Kim’s driveway was cleared in less than two hours, and she slipped an envelope with cash into his pocket. That evening he shoveled ours with some help from my husband. Afterwards we decided to reward Mark with a gift certificate to a nice restaurant.

“I learned a little about Mark,” my husband said. “He served in the Marines for eight years.”

“No wonder he could shovel our driveways,” I responded.

I knew about the rigorous basic training for the Marines. It made sense that this young man was prepared to take on such a grueling task, all with a smile on his face. The next afternoon I saw Mark shoveling another senior neighbor’s driveway who had attempted to do it himself.

Galatians 6:9-10 (“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people….)” reminds me of the Marine Corps motto, Semper Fidelis, which means “always faithful to those on our left and right, from the fellow Marines we fight alongside, to those in our communities for which we fight.”

I know at least three neighbors who are extremely grateful for the ‘more than good’ acts of this faithful former Marine. Semper Fi!

Every few months I drop off some items at one of my favorite thrift stores. It’s one of the nicest ones around, run by a local church.

On my last visit I was headed out of the store when I noticed some Christmas decorations that appeared to be in good condition. I hadn’t purchased any in years, and decided we could use an additional piece or two. Among the items that caught my attention was a beautiful fruit/floral arrangement in an antiqued gold pot. It had deep burgundy apples and berries, and large green and burgundy leaves with gold brushed throughout.

I picked up the piece to locate the price. It was surprisingly lightweight as if it was made of foam. Three dollars! I couldn’t resist taking it home.

“Wally, look what I just got for $3.00 at Hope Thrift,” I told him as soon as I got home. “We could use this for Christmas or even after Christmas,” I said as I placed it on the center kitchen countertop.

“Oh no! It’s damaged,” I exclaimed when I noticed one of the four corners of the gold base was chipped, exposing a white substance.

“Had I seen that in the store, I wouldn’t have purchased it,” I said with disappointment. I knew all sales were final.

“Why don’t you just touch it up with some paint,” Wally suggested.

“That’s a great idea.”

Shortly thereafter I went up to my craft room and found some gold matte paint and a sponge brush. In less than five minutes, I brushed the white damaged corner with gold paint. Not bad.

After it dried I showed it to Wally. “You have to really look at it to notice it’s missing a chunk out of the corner,” I told him.

“You can’t even tell,” he replied.

I assume the previous owners donated the arrangement because it was damaged. To me, it’s a lovely piece now displayed on a small chest in our foyer.

Repairing the pot made me think about my relationship with God. Before I was a Christian, I had many wounds because of my childhood. In spite of my imperfections, God pursued me. He saw potential in me and knew that he could heal those wounds and make me whole again.

After I surrendered my life to Christ and became a Christian on Christmas night 1980, my life dramatically changed. My interests changed. My thoughts changed. My habits changed. It was as if I gradually became brand spanking new!

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; all things become new.

I’m so glad that God doesn’t overlook us or toss us aside when we’re wounded in any way. Instead, He sees our potential. With a little, or maybe a lot, of His repair work, anyone can be made new again!

(Below is a “before” photo of the arrangement in our kitchen with the chip in the lower left corner.)

The second is the “after” photo of the arrangement in our foyer with the painted area in the lower right corner.)

God Sees You!

Do you know that God sees you? With 8.2 billion people on this earth, God sees you! That means you, individually, not collectively. But you, personally, with all of your feelings, thoughts and experiences. I know this to be true because of what happened to me.

I once was a young woman without hope. No hope of escaping the pain of my childhood traumas. No hope of feeling normal or living a normal life. No hope of being happy.

Because of those traumas I wasn’t sure what to believe about God. I surmised that either He didn’t exist, or if He did, He had forgotten about me. So I forgot about him.

That is until I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ and became a Christian on Christmas night 1980. After that evening, God began to transform my heart, my life, and everything about me.

In a very short period of time, God healed me of the negative impact of those childhood traumas. I was no longer the walking wounded trying to get by, one day at a time, and trying to escape the darkness that hung over me for years. I was and still am me. But I became a better version of me.

Maybe you’ve had childhood traumas like I did, or multiple negative experiences as an adult where you feel all alone. Maybe you believe that God isn’t real. Or, if He is real, He has forgotten about you. Or maybe you feel your life has no meaning or purpose. You believe there is no hope for your life to change. I know that feeling.

I can assure you, He does see you. He knows. He cares. Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” And Isaiah 49:16 says, “I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”

God also has a plan and purpose for your life. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

So, if you think God has forgotten about you, rest assured. He knows you. And He knows what you’re going through. But, it’s up to us to seek Him.

As I lay in bed on Christmas night many years ago wishing I was never born, I thought about becoming a Christian. Having resisted the advice of my friend to do so for months, I asked myself, “What have I got to lose?” And I was right. I lost nothing and gained everything.

So if you’re down and out this Christmas season, feeling hopeless, why not give Jesus a chance? What on earth have you got to lose? Absolutely nothing.

Here’s the link to my recent interview by Farnaz on her Stories of Hope, Help and Healing Youtube channel.