Dear Reader:

This is a drawing of a seahorse that Rutledge did recently in kindergarten…I love it! He has a web page on Artsonia...a site that offers children and grandchildren’s art work at school open for positive comments and encouraging remarks from family and friends.

The site also turns paintings into Christmas cards, trinkets, and tree decorations for sell. It is a cute way to let your little one know his/her family thinks their art work is fabulous!

So a couple of days ago …when I came across the following devotion that talked of ‘Awe and Wonder‘…(devotions aimed at children and faith) I turned to the story of the seahorse (with Rutledge’s drawing on my mind.)

What we learn from all the animal story devotions is that God provides every living creature with the three basic needs to survive…food, clothing, and shelter. No living creature is created without a way to instinctively survive….from one-celled amoebas to human beings.

Excerpt from See the Seahorse -Louie Gigilio

The seahorse (or Hippocampus, if you want to be scientific!) is a tiny fish that lives in the oceans.

It’s called a seahorse because its head looks like the head of — you guessed it — a tiny horse. This unusual creature often swims with another seahorse, and they link their tails to stay together. It also swims “standing up” and tries to blend in with nearby plants so it doesn’t get eaten.

Because of its body shape, the seahorse isn’t a very good swimmer. So rather than go out hunting for food, seahorses use their tails like anchors, holding on to a piece of sea grass or coral. They then wait for food — plankton and tiny crustaceans — to drift by so they can suck it up with their long snouts.

With its poor swimming and its tendency to stay in one spot, the seahorse isn’t going to win any races. But God has given it everything it needs: a way to get food, someone to swim through life with, and something to hold on to. God promises the same to you. The Bible says,

God will use His wonderful riches in Christ Jesus to give you everything you need. — Philippians 4:19

God provides you with food and shelter, Jesus to swim through life with, and the promises of His Word to hold on to. Like the seahorse, you may sometimes have to hold on and wait for God to deliver His promises — but He always will, and at just the perfect time.

Help me, Lord, to wait for Your perfect timing. And while I wait, teach me to live the way You want me to. I will follow You!

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Wow… What a God Wink…I need to plaster that verse on my forehead….”Help me, Lord, to wait for Your perfect timing.”

Walsh took me, again, to my Comprehensive Wound treatment yesterday…another foggy, dreary day but we managed to arrive and depart dry…missing the rain showers.

Dr. Edwards really cleaned out the wound thoroughly…so I knew it was going to be a rough afternoon of pain…and it was…still I finally got a better grasp of the time-line and expectations I had been waiting to hear. He thinks we might be ready to build the bridge or cover over the wound within the next week or two.

A synthetic skin material will cover the wound allowing the real skin to use it as a base to re-cover it with my real blood cells forming new skin. Like the tortoise…slowly but surely we are getting there…and I remind myself to be patient…there is a reason for the wait and God has the time down to the second.

So until tomorrow…Somehow I feel that my latest medical challenge will make for a very magical, special Christmas…but I must be patient and wait.

In the meantime…I have shelter, clothes on my back, and plenty to eat. In fact as Walsh and I arrived back home (after Walsh picked up groceries for me)….my friends Scotty and her husband Skip had sent a beautiful basket filled with fruit and chocolates….I will certainly not starve during this on-going healing process.  Thank you both!!!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Little Red now is Big Red”….Look how it came ‘charging’ out of the soil for the first time….building a long, long stem to hold the first red bloom…Little Red is a  “chip off the old block.” Good genes!

*Hopefully it is a metaphor for my own healing…it might take time to grow a long stem to hold the bloom of a well foot again…but it is worth the time to build the stem.

Another beautiful picture from my neighbor Vickie