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I was struck by this man’s quote crafted from his own experience of pain and brokenness, revealing a journey through his valley of death, while uncovering a resurrection and ascension into his higher calling that was waiting for him in the wings. A realization that he was made for something larger than he could have imagined.

The higher the calling, the greater the preparation!

Your life has not been full of setbacks and injustices; but rather, a training ground for integration, regulation, empathy, and grace. You are more like Jesus because of it!

Your purpose is established on a foundation of struggle and failure. Your purpose is revealed when Jesus meets you in your story and exposes His healing Grace in your mind, heart, and relationships. You are only enhanced and strengthened when Jesus uses your struggles as teaching aides – a reminder that when you are weak, then He makes you strong.

Enjoy your story today! It is leading you to your higher calling!

Rod Suydam, whose quote this is, holds a powerful story of God’s redemptive Love. He dares the reader to find Jesus within their own story. I am drawn to the parallel between Mr. Suydam’s challenge and the Words of the Sovereign God.

You see, your story has been written and published in the Heavenly realm by the God named Love.

Love looked upon your unformed body as He anointed your substance with His Divine seal. Anticipating your arrival, the Lord bookmarked the page that bears your name, identifying the moment you enter the scene according to your appointed days.

In the Father’s infinite Wisdom, He knew the plot between your wandering and the Accuser’s attempts to steal your innocence and bargain away your glory, but the Author of the Book holds the power to rewrite the false twists in the storyline that you have mistakenly claimed as yours. The Savior knows the great burdens that have been laid upon you in this world. He longs to restore your wounded heart and broken spirit, rearranging the building blocks of your story, in order to revive the original Divine Script.

Will you allow the Lord to forge Goodness out of the evil that has touched you in this fallen world; or will you choose to have the stolen version of your narrative engraved in rock forever?

Which version of your story will be your final cut?

Insight provided through Psalm 139:16, 56:8, 119:10; 2 Chronicles 24:27; Hebrews 12:2; Job 19:23; John 10:10; and Ephesians 1:13.

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Listen to The Bookmark – 

It was the two-year mark of my husband’s death as I sat in a room filled with pointless voices and clanking dishes, my eyes glancing toward the entrance watching for my stepson.

The tall, handsome man soon appeared coming around the corner carrying a black canvas case which was immediately recognizable to me. Sitting down at the table, my stepson pulled out his dad’s bible along with a small piece of paper that contained his father’s handwriting, revealing scripture references with one-word explanations tied to each scripture.

My stepson hesitated for only a moment, before handing me the small piece of yellowed paper. “I think I am supposed to give this to you.” he said. “It was stuck in dad’s bible like a bookmark.”

“Ok,” I replied, quickly glancing at the note hoping to connect with my husband’s heart. None of the scriptures applied to anything I was struggling with currently, so I tucked the note away in my purse knowing it could be for the future.

After breakfast, we went to visit the gravesite. Standing before my husband’s headstone, I asked, “What would you say to your dad if he were here?”

The question was answered but a profound inquiry followed. “Do you think people who have died watch over us and can hear our prayers?”

Touched by the longing in his heart, I answered, “I only know there is a cloud of witnesses who have gone before us in faith, who are praying for us to be successful in our own faith. Your dad is a part of the cloud of witnesses.”

The following morning as I sat in my quiet time asking the Lord for specific next steps in this new facet of life, my phone pinged with a text from my stepdaughter. She was also in her quiet time, multiple states away. Her text spoke of the brief conversation she had last night with her brother. He mentioned their dad’s bookmark and suggested she get a picture from me. Being a Daddy’s girl, she naturally wanted to see the cherished note that had been pressed between the pages of his bible. At the moment I was holding the bookmark in my hand, my stepdaughter sends a picture of her and one of their dogs with a caption, “Look how this dog butted her way into my quiet time with the Lord.”

Clicking an image of the bookmark, I was stunned by the timing of her picture now displayed on my screen. Fascinated, I said out loud to myself, “That’s funny…this bookmark cautions how meddling is like taking a dog by its ears. What a strange coincidence.”

I hit send. Thirty seconds might have passed when the response appeared. “Oh, my Lord! This answers the prayer I spoke to the Lord this morning. His answer is on the bookmark! It is right here on Dad’s bookmark! God & Dad are telling me not to meddle in the affairs of the world!”

Both of my children had their questions answered by the Lord of Hosts in a personal and unique way, loved dearly by both their earthly father and their Heavenly Father, who are watching and praying from within the cloud of witnesses.

And what about the question on my lips as I received that first text? I was asking the Lord what He wanted me to write. His answer? This story.

Some see a strange coincidence: while others see a Sovereign God, who heard each of us and answered us together by orchestrating earthly elements, showing Himself Majestic in the big things and the little things.

Which one do you see?

Referenced Scriptures: Hebrews 12:1; Proverbs 26:17