Divine Endurance

Year 6 - Day 261: Today, I am grateful for divine endurance.

Have you ever been broken? If you live long enough, it happens. Everyone has a season, a moment, a year... or even years of trials and struggles. Some, in that season, question how a loving God can allow suffering and trials. 

Man's (that includes us women) choices set the serpent free and evil became a daily presence. Choice was the very gift he gave us that other created creatures did not possess. Heaven and nature have to believe, praise and worship their creator. Still, God longed for a creation that would choose him with free will and not by design. 

God breathed into Adam.How cool is that? I forget to ponder the wonder of that breath. 

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. -Genesis 2:7

I've come to think of that moment as our soul breath. It paints a picture of the the moment the weak, dead and lifeless creation came to life. The only creation that cost God his breath...again and again. As long as we have his breath, we aren't finished. 

"He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless." -Isaiah 40:29

When we reach the end of our human strength... there is  divine endurance. 

I see this in my Mama every day. Huntington's is an ugly disease. Her joy has been her witness. During one hospitalization for an infection, her disease related movements pulled her IV out three times one day. She was helpless to control it. The last time she it came out, blood was everywhere. Mama loves to sing through her troubles, so we sang. 

"Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?

Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?

Are you washed in the blood
In the soul-cleansing blood of the lamb?
Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?

Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?" 

The old hymns are etched in her memory. It was a perfect song, as she was covered in blood. Truthfully, to her...  it was no big deal. Her God is bigger than any disease. 

At Mama's discharge, the doctor noted her unusual spirit and joy in the face of such adversity. It was in print, on the discharge papers. I think Mama is pretty wonderful, but she is mine and I am biased. What the Doctor saw was more than her own strength... it was divine endurance. 

She humbles me with her faithfulness. 

Today, I am grateful for divine endurance.