Overwhelmed

Absurd...

that someone could actually

forget one's own birthday

or fail to remember the anniversary

of the death of one's child.

I did.

I was completely and entirely
overwhelmed...

...once by unspeakable joy

...once by unbearable sorrow.

Just days after the birth

of our first child,

my mother-in-law presented

a bouquet of flowers

and a small gift tied with a pink bow...

... not for our baby girl...

... for me! 

It was my birthday.

I could not have been more surprised!

"So Peter was kept in the prison,

but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God...

And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared...

and his chains fell off his hands...

"When he knocked at the door of the gate,

a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 

When she recognized Peter's voice,

because of her great joy she did not open the gate,

but ran in and announced

that Peter was standing in front of the gate. 

They said to her, 'You are out of your mind!'" 

~Acts 12:5-15

After a week

of vigilance day and night

by my Dad's bedside,

my body went through the motions

of traveling homeward

while my heart remained there with him.

He breathed his last...

... on the very same day,

only six years ago,

that our baby boy's heart

stopped...

...an entire week went by

before I recalled

that tender memory.

"Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come

for you to be scattered, each to his own home,

and to leave Me alone;

and yet I am not alone,

because the Father is with Me. 

"These things I have spoken to you,

so that in Me

you may [be overwhelmed by] peace. 

"In the world

you have tribulation,

but take courage;

I have overcome the world." 

~John 16:32,33

"When my spirit was overwhelmed within me,

You knew my path." ~Psalm 142:3

"Now to Him

who is able to keep you from stumbling,

and to make you stand

in the presence of His glory

blameless with great joy."

~Jude vs.24