Whilst We All Discover Great Grace As A Friend, God Welcomes Each Ouch To Birth Every Amen

When very young, kindergarten-young, the world for me, apart from school, was the interior of 2422 Calverton Heights Avenue, West Baltimore. It wasn't long before I was aware of a greater world. The back door of my world led to a porch and a fenced-in yard. An alley, on the backside, separated Calverton Heights from Lafayette Avenue's backside. The alley was where the children met and played, once they were old enough to leave their own backyard. Before I left to enter the world beyond the backyard, I discovered another world - the world of bugs. While my Mom adored the flowering bushes she raised up, I enjoyed the bugs. I'd capture smaller beetles and drop them onto a spider's web. Let the battle begin! I spent hours fooling around with bugs, pitting the red ants against the black ants, catching the fireflies in Summer, nudging the pill bugs, handling grasshoppers, swatting flies, marveling the moths and butterflies, and enjoying the sounds of bees and how they buzzed about the flowers, especially the bumblebees and the honeybees. It didn't take very long to discover they had stingers. That's when the love affair stopped! Past that experience, everything that flew became suspect for a while. To my regret I recognized that wasps and hornets were easier to offend. By accident I painfully learned to avoid their nests. My view of the world now changed a bit, as it became clear that not everything was friendly. Neither Mom or Dad was in charge of this world. It was not 'safe'. They seemed to be accepting of this unsafe world. I became more careful. Even with care, the beautiful rose bush had unavoidable thorns and the buzzing throughout the summer days carried a mixed message.

If I was a student of the Bible then I would've known that the pleasant paradise of the past had passed. Everything beyond the 'fall' changed for the worse, and nothing remained Edenic, not then or there, nor on Calverton Heights...not here and now. Jesus taught His disciples that "In the world you will have tribulation." That applies now, as then. He also taught how peace and good cheer should be expected, for the favor conferred in knowing Him. The world's troubles may be great, but He is greater. It may hurt to be here, but have faith. Faith is patience under pressure. Be patient. Come, and continue coming to Christ. In Him is light, and life, and love. In Him there is healing. In Christ we have the victory! [above every 'ouch']

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, with a grateful heart, I yield, this day. May Your will be done. Amen.
By Dea. McNeal Brockington