Lydia is HOME!

My niece Lydia is home as of yesterday!  We are so happy that our "Golden family" is all back together!

Lydia is doing well.  She will be on medications for at least a year, and several doctors following her.  But she is just acting like a regular little newborn!  This is a big change from even just a week ago when I was her nurse!

As we learned in Vacation Bible School last night, nothing is too difficult for our God!  We taught the kids (third and fourth graders) the story in Joshua 3 and 4, when the river stood still.  Of course, as always, I learned so much through the Bible story as well (maybe even more than the kids)!  In this Scripture, Joshua selected 12 men, one man from each tribe of Israel.  He told the men: "The priests will carry the ark of the covenant to lead the people.  When the feet of the priests touch the Jordan River, the waters will stop flowing and stand up to make a path through the river."

The Israelites followed the priests to the bank of the Jordan River.  As the priests walked into the river, the water stopped flowing.  The water piled up, making a dry path to the other shore.  The priests stood in the same spot until all the Israelites were safely on the other side of the river.  Joshua told the 12 men whom he had selected to each take a stone from the middle of the river.  He instructed the men to carry the stones on their shoulders to the place where they would camp for the night.  Joshua also set up 12 stones where the priests had stood.  Once the priests had crossed and stepped onto the shore, the river began to flow again.

The Israelites camped near Jericho that night.  They made a memorial with the 12 stones from the river.  Joshua told the people that the stone memorial would serve as a reminder to the people and future generations of God's power.

Joshua 4: 24 "He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God."

I love that the waters stopped flowing when the feet of the priests touched the Jordan River.  God tested their faith.  I can't imagine what they were thinking.  I know I what I would be thinking.  Couldn't the waters have stopped flowing when they got close to the river?!  Our God knew they needed to experience His power in this way...their feet had to touch it.

I also love that their path was dry!  They didn't cross at ankle height.  They didn't cross by wading.  The path wasn't even damp!  It was dry!  Our God is POWERFUL!

Our God is STILL powerful TODAY!  He has taught me this over and over again, but of course the best example in my life came on March 4, 2011 in a 7 pound, 1 ounce bundle of baby. 

Every life is a miracle.  Every life is precious and helps us to know and experience God's power.

Here's another example of God's power!  This is a picture of Lydia at HOME!  Praise God!