LIFE IS DIFFERENT AFTER YOU LOOK DEATH IN THE EYE

It’s all been different since the accident a few days ago that nearly took our lives.
Jean and I face each day and event knowing that we would have missed these days and events if God had not saved our lives.
The green mountains have never been more beautiful.
Jean’s arms have never been more thrilling to me.
The Sunday morning service in an African church was glorious.
Sunday dinner with good friends, Ben and Susan and our grandkids was so perfect, and the setting in a rustic mountain inn was idyllic.
Computer messaging with our staff back in America is so immediate and helpful.
Real-time pictures of son Dan’s children on computer chats almost cancel the distance between us.
We have never been more vividly aware of God’s goodness to us.
It could have all been taken away in just a blink of the eye as our car and another smashed together at a highway intersection.
But God!
Jean and I are looking back over nearly four decades of serving Jesus overseas as missionaries. What awesome things God has let us see and do and be part of. We often ask each other, “Who do we know that has such a blessed life as we?”
What grandparents do we know that get to spend half their time in beautiful, challenging Africa hugging their grandkids and watching them grow up in Swaziland?
And then we get to be in America the rest of the time, hugging our grandkids in Louisiana and Iowa—and fellowshipping with the awesome, generous donors who share their financial strength with us enabling Children’s Cup to honestly change thousands of little lives.
Our children are all serving Jesus—and they are raising our grandkids to know Him and serve Him, too.
When I was 10 or 11 years old I had a part in our church’s Christmas play written by our pastor’s wife, Juanita Meyer. My lines included Mathew 6:33. “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”
It’s been part of my life ever since.
Right now I’m very aware of how often I did not “seek first” yet for every time I did He has filled these days of my life with joy beyond belief.
Who would not want this kind of life? Only the ones who had never been told about it and that it could be theirs, too.
“Lord, Jesus, Jean and I pledge you a new intensity and unfailing effort to tell all we can how great it is to live for You!