Attachments

Posted on November 17, 2019 by

There is one question I am repeatedly asked at church and other places,

“It’s been five years since you have adopted. Are things easier now?”

Many times I give the short answer and nod my head.

The fact is that many things have gotten easier. However, many more things have gotten much harder.

In the beginning, when we tried mushing a family of five together with a family of three, we were so much more graceful with each other. We knew we needed space and tried to put on a good show. While we knew in our minds we were family, our hearts were not attached and bonds needed to grow. We kept our tempers in check and instinctively knew this was going to be hard. But then, slowly over time, as we were trying to figure out the new “us”, and almost unnoticeable, something terrifying happened: We started to attach and care for each other!

Loving relationships are dangerous business. They have the potential to hurt, a lot. Through them people attach to our hearts and can cause havoc. At times they may cause us to build walls. However, without this audacious endeavor of truly attaching we may forfeit the reward of real and proven love.

I am reminded of the Lord who attached Himself to a cross and died a cruel death. He did this because He had no greater joy than to attach us to the Father’s love. His death made the greatest provision for us: He paid for our sins to take down the wall that had built between the Father’s heart and ours. In His resurrection He proved that nothing could keep us separated, not even the power of death.

In Christ and in His love we can grow in a loving relationships toward God and one another – and may even take a risk or two … or three.

Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Posted in Christian Poetry, church, Devotional, Ponderings, Revival | Tagged , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

UNKNOWN (Five Minute Friday)

Posted on November 15, 2019 by

My husband and I sat in the large meeting room. There was a incredible tension in the room, an anticipation, a fear of the unknown. In a few minutes we were to meet three kids that would change our lives forever.

Home studies were finished, interviews done, many hours of talking and contemplating had passed. We were armed with little photo books of our lives, snippets of who we were, trying to convince three lives that it might be a good idea to take a leap into a forever family, into yet another unknown for them.

We heard foot steps and the first day of the rest of the greatest unknown unfolded.

I am linked up with Five Minute Friday. You can check it out here.

FMF Writing Prompt Link-up :: Unknown

Posted in Christian Poetry | 17 Comments

Dying toward Life

Posted on November 12, 2019 by

The maple seed it twirls around
On wings of snowy gusts
Up over roofs it spins about
Goes where the wind it thrusts.

Its journey-end I cannot see
Nor grasp where it will lie.
It knows that new life comes to be
Through willing seeds that die.

“Oh, Lord, that I would always know 
That you’re the wind beneath 
That I would gladly die and go 
Toward where you’re planting me. 

May it not be that I should live 
To make death my great goal  
But die toward life that you will give –
 Serve there and rest my soul.”

Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. 
John 12:24-26 (Jesus)
~
(Poetry and pictures, Heidi Viars, 2019)

Posted in Christian Poetry, church, poetry, Ponderings, Prayer, Revival, Song | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Hitting a Wall

Posted on November 10, 2019 by

(Some of you have asked for an up-date on our house situation … Here it goes!)

Since April this year, we have been dealing with (according to our insurance) a “catastrophic claim”. Last year’s ice and snow caused our roof to partially collapse and a wall in our living room to push out. In late summer our house turned into a construction site with workers coming and going. The end result is here: a complete new roof structure is in place and our living room wall is secure.

A few weeks ago, when the workers were hitting the wall in the living room and hammering away at the structure, I overheard a conversation between the main contractor and the workers.

The contractor said, “Looks like the studs that are supporting this wall have permanently bent under the pressure of the roof.”

I suddenly felt a deep emotional response. It was as if the Lord had me listen into the conversation to make His point.

Many of us have to deal with things in our lives that cause great pressure. The weight of the problems we face can press into our souls, even to the point of leaving us permanently bent. What used to be a strong structure is now only a bowed frame. Lacking finances, fractured relationships, weak health, broken marriages, all have the potential of pressing into the very core of our being. We feel weary under the burden.

If you are hitting a wall today, keep in mind that it might be God’s way of building a stronger structure. It might be the Lord trying to tell you that He is in the business of restoring broken things. We can trust Him in the process of restructuring, rebuilding, and providing. He uses the weak things of this world to show Himself strong. Hitting the wall might not be a bad thing after all.

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-11 

Posted in Christian Poetry, church, Devotional, Revival | Tagged , , , , , | 27 Comments

At the End of the Day

Posted on October 27, 2019 by

What do I own at the end of the day,
When the sun goes down on my old, pale frame?
What do I own in this world so vast?
My house? My car? The wealth I amassed?

What do I own when I sit on my bed,
When visits are few and my vigor has fled?
What do I own when I’m there at the end?
My kids? My husband? My wife? My friend?

No! All these things they were never mine.
Had them a while, brief moments in time.
What do I own at the end of the day,
When the sun goes down on my old, pale frame?

I own the gifts that the Lord gave to me,
The lasting ones – the ones that were free.
I own my joy and the love of the Lord,
The hope and peace which no money affords.

Mark 8:36
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

 

(Pictures, Heidi Viars, 2019, Poem by Heidi Viars – revisited from 2013)

Posted in Christian Poetry, church, poetry, Ponderings, Revival, Song, Sunrises - Pictures | Tagged , , , , | 26 Comments

Friday Freedom-Find

Posted on October 25, 2019 by

One of my sons came home for a long weekend from college. We headed into the woods for a walk with the dog. When we came around a corner we saw this tree which I had never seen before.

It made us stop and marvel.

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Don’t let the world take hold of you
Nor Satan bind you with his lies
Do not believe, “You won’t break through!”
Nor let your soul be bound with ties.

The view is small from where you stand-
Where sadness is a trusted friend.
But come and raise your holy hands
Lift eyes to Him whom Heaven Sent.

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For freedom Christ has set us free;
stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
~
(Poem and picture, Heidi Viars, 2019)

Posted in Christian Poetry, church, Devotional, poetry, Ponderings, Revival | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Friday Freedom-Find

Posted on October 18, 2019 by

A Friday Freedom-Find is a post about something I found in nature during the week which showed me God’s goodness. I want to encourage anyone who reads to keep eyes and ears open to God’s hidden (and not so hidden) messages all around us in nature.

As Christians, staying connected to Christ is essential to providing every vessel in our body with what is needed most, namely light and nourishment. Only in connection are we able to reflect the beauty we have been created to exhibit.

In the Christian community we are indispensable. When we do our part, we point the world to a beautiful message:

God uses faulty and broken vessels to show the World His love.

I am the vine; you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him,
he it is that bears much fruit,
for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5 

Posted in Christian Poetry, church, Devotional, poetry, Ponderings, Revival | 8 Comments