El Shaddai

        Names and how they are given, are fascinating.  This not only applies to people but places. In the earliest days of urban development in what's now the United States, streets were often named for landmarks, like Church, Market, Monument, Canal, Wall, Court, Dock, etc. or obvious topographic or hydrological features like Hill or Water; or references to the street's position like East or Middle. Often major streets were named for symbols of power and authority, like State, King or Queen.  After the American Revolution, the names of heroes and leaders like Washington and Jefferson also served this role.  Martin Luther King Blvd is in many cities while Dolly Parton Blvd is found in TN and Jeff Gordon Blvd is in IN.

           Often, seeing a monument immediately causes observers to recall knowledge about the event or person.  The Crazy Horse memorial is just one example.  Many know who the Indian, Crazy Horse was, because of his history.  The same holds true for Mount Rushmore and others.

            It fascinates me how some Native Americans chose to wait to name a child until the child “developed” their name. Often the name had a personal or possibly a “sacred” meaning.  Nature was often used in naming, as were descriptions of the child or even birth position.  As a child grew, sometimes his name changed, even several times, as names were altered to commemorate a significant life event.

            In our modern world, as parents, we often choose to name our children with traditional family names, or from a TV show we’ve seen, after a particular person who has impacted our lives, or even Biblical names.  One family I know well, chose Azariah and Malachi for their son’s names.  How special!

Even our animals sometimes take a while to name.  We recently ‘adopted’ a white German Shepherd puppy.  Our former dog, of the same breed was named ‘Tatanka’ —because of the white Buffalo from stories…and photos of years past.  The dog was huge and aptly named after his namesakes!  While liking that name, I didn’t want to name our new one the same, so we opted for just ’T’ and that worked for a while, but didn’t seem long enough!  We tried several ’T’ names like Tornado or Tecumseh, but ultimately, he is dubbed, ‘Thunder’.  It fits!  He has these huge bursts of energy, like the roar of thunder!  It’s perfect!

            Have you ever wondered if your name reflects who you are?  When someone speaks your name might they recognize a particular characteristic that matches the name?  I suggest most would not, but it happens when considering the many names of God.  Each name shows a different characteristic of Him.  El Shaddai, a name used seven times in the Bible, is first used in Genesis 17:1 describing God as being “All Sufficient” and “Lord God Almighty.”  When used together we are seeing a God who takes care of all our needs with great strength and power.  He is a God who looks after His children with tenderness, yet with intensity and authority, just as we would see to the needs of our own children.

            As a human parent, however, we do not have the ability of working out all the problems our children have, or often, even our own problems.  We are not mind readers, don’t have a clue how things are going to end up and often don’t have a solution, to make everything we would like to accomplish, work!  We can only make decisions based on what we know, (or think we know), from life experiences and what we have been taught. 

God however, has a way of “showing up” just when we need Him! He seems to work out the details of a problem or issue in the most peculiar way that is ‘just perfect’….and in ways we would never expect.  This is possible because He does know the beginning from the end.  He knows our hearts, minds and motives.  And he loves us more than we, as parents, can love our own children.  He is God, and treasures each of us in our differences, our strengths and weaknesses, our likes and dislikes, abilities or the lack thereof.  He loves and accepts us just the way we are…..  and right where we are.   He is Lord God Almighty who is “All Sufficient.”

Photo Credit: El Shaddai

God's Awesome Power

  Some years back, my daughter was in a horrific car accident.  The damage to the car was incredible!  As the rescue team cut her out, I was terrified we may lose her.  Her major injury, however, was a broken arm.  I’ve repeatedly said God was in that car with her!  I express this view to Christians and non-Christians alike when I share the story.

The awesomeness of God is breathtaking.  The Centurion and guards near Jesus that Resurrection Day those 2,000 years ago were terrified and knew they’d witnessed the Messiah’s death.  But God’s power superseded all that was natural.  He caused the earth to shake violently, the curtain in the temple to tear in two, from top to bottom, and caused rocks to split.  The power of God is no small thing!

God’s power isn’t just demonstrated in big, supernatural events.  Sometimes they are as delicate as the opening of a flower or soft as butterfly wings or the tiny, beautiful snowflakes that fall from the sky.  He causes the sun to shine, food to grow from a tiny seed, and a gentle rain to fall.  Yet, this same God can heal cancer within a body, cause the blind to see, deaf to hear and the lame to walk.  

His awesome power has the ability to change the course of plans we humans make, for his purpose.  A friend of mine, as a young person, wanted to be a missionary.  While in college, in preparation for this field, she developed an autoimmune disorder that nearly took her life, but ultimately stole most of her sight.  She found herself asking “why?”  Her dream was noble, but God had other plans.  Her loss of sight put her in the center of the “disability people group” and she now ministers (and is missionary) to these special people.  God used her for his purpose and she is overwhelmed with gratitude, even though she can barely see. 

I’m a writer.  I wanted to write articles and stories and yes, even books.  His power, however, was displayed when he took my writing abilities and turned it toward the special needs people group.  

It is here where “Paxton the Prairie Dog and friends” share and learn about special needs and disabilities for children.  This was not my plan, yet God has used me to make a difference in a genre I knew little or nothing about, but where I have the opportunity, to make a positive difference.

If we open our eyes and recognize Jesus, who indeed died on a cruel cross, we too, can witness this awesome power.  God's power was inside the car with my daughter that day, years ago.  God kept that car from collapsing in on her when she hydroplaned, lost control and flipped over while trying miss a deer.  He was with my friend when she became horrifically ill with an autoimmune disease and he’s with me daily as I write.  He's with you when you are following his call for your life, if you can't see the 'why'.

God’s power is awesome.  He demonstrated this when his Son died on Calvary and resurrected Him three days later.  He continues to demonstrate it in our lives every single day. All we need do is open our hearts with faith, open our eyes to see and open our ears to hear and then...be receptive to his voice.

Photo Credit:  God's Awesome Power

Giants In My Life

     It was out there, all around us, and everyone was borderline paranoid.  Some were even panicked.  Yet, there wasn't a lot we could do, except wait and use good common sense.  It’s amazing how a flu type virus could up-end an entire country, yet, here we were.  It had a huge grip on all our lives and it was squeezing.  Even now, these several years later, it still has 'it's a giant' stigma and people are still afraid of the word COVID.

The encounters of giants are all through the Bible.  In Deuteronomy, it was the descendants of Anak, and then there was Goliath, and Daniel in the Lion’s den, and even the enemies of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego when they refused to kneel before the statue. 

Giants don’t have to be big and mighty, like Goliath, lions or even the ‘giant’ descendants of Anak.  Our world today is, it seems, dealing with another 'new' virus--and the 'old' one isn't gone!  The germ is so small, the naked eye can’t even see it, yet the fierceness has many people in knots, filled with despair and dread.  It disrupts lives across the globe.  My daughter shared the story of a small boy who needed kidney surgery, yet because of this flu-like disease, the doctors waited because surgery would put the child at even greater risk of infection with all the germs from the virus.

Giants come in so many forms, although they seem to network together, making them seem even larger, and thus more threatening. There are monsters like loneliness, worry, doubt, failure, jealousy, anger and resentment, along with fear and discouragement just to name a few.  They link arms and twist themselves through our being so tight, we can barely breathe!

Our first instincts are to run and hide because the champions just seem too large for us to master.  The second might be to surrender, because no matter what precautions we take, the giant, whatever form it takes, is going to overtake us and win anyway.  These kinds of thoughts are exactly what Satan wants.  

The evil one loves it when we cave!  He jumps with glee when he sees our knees begin to weaken and knuckle under the stress.  Stress.  It keeps dumping on us until we don’t know which way to turn.  In some ways, the stress in our lives can be a giant unto itself!  And managing that beast can be difficult!  I know.  I’ve been there before and find myself tackling it even as I write this!

But God has other plans for our lives.  When we run and hide, or even cave to those ogres, we are saying God is not a conqueror!  We are not believing he has the capability of performing a miracle or working things out for our good, because the odds don’t look in our favor.  We are projecting a huge lack of faith!

Regardless of the giants we face, as Believers, we serve a Mighty God who will fight for us!  We need to stand tall and face the giant just as David did, even if all we have are small stones!  The challenge before us is great, but with God’s strength, we can be conquerors!  He is greater than any, and all, foes before us.  Let’s join together, and trust the God ‘who can!’

Photo Credit: Giants

Changing The Pattern

        I am a quilter, when time allows. It's a great time to sit quietly and commune with God, enjoy beautiful music, or even the outdoors.  I enjoy leafing through all my quilt books looking for the quilt pattern I’d like to make next.  I’m often amazed at how different a quilt can look when you change one shape in the block, change colors or when you rearrange the pieces.  With each change, you have the potential to make a whole new quilt!  The possibilities seem endless!

This change can even be seen on area barns in a variety of states across the nation.  In East Tennessee the Appalachian Quilt Trail, displays barns that have a beautiful quilt patch, painted in vibrant colors, adorning some part of the exterior barns along this trail.  These pieces, when displayed separately, offer a distinct pattern visible because of the colors.  If all the patches were put together, it would be an amazing array of colors, in a range of shapes that would be an incredibly beautiful quilt!

This same principle can be applied to our lives.  Each behavior we display can be a color.  When the colors complement each other, because God is in our lives, guiding and “growing” us into the person we are meant to be, others can easily see the defining lines.  

In a practical application, this switching of colors or shapes in our lives can be visible when we exchange a bad habit for a good one.  In this change, we could visualize we’ve changed a “shape.”  When we change a from sinful lifestyle to a Christian lifestyle, we can imagine it being a changed a “color.”   When we fellowship with Christians, instead of those who would lead us down a sinful road, we have “rearranged the pieces” in the block.  The total of all these changes has the potential to create a “new person” in Christ, when our heart is in tune with God.

We are told not to conform to the patterns of the world but to be transformed.  (See Romans 12:1-20  This transformation may take time.  With the “renewing of our minds” through reading God’s word, communing with The Father, listening to Gospel music, and studying with other Believers the transformation comes in each of us, just as the quilt changes when we change colors and rearrange pieces of the block.  Our potential for possibilities, like the quilt, becomes endless!  

I encourage you to look at your life as if it were a beautiful quilt block.  Do you like what you see? Imagine what your “colors” and “shapes” are telling those around you.  Are there colors or even “shades” that need changing?   Are people seeing a God filled human, who chooses to make right and good decisions, rather than conforming to all the varying “obsessions” the world provides or are there patterns that may need changing?