Potter's Hands

"Beautiful Lord, Wonderful savior
I know for sure all of my days are held in your hands
Crafted into your perfect plans
You gently called me into your presence
Guiding me by Your Holy Spirit
Teach me dear Lord to live all of my life
Through your eyes
I'm captured by your holy calling
Set me apart. I know you're drawing me to yourself
lead me, Lord. I pray
Oh Take me, mold me, use me, fill me
I give my life to the potter's hand
Oh Call me, guide me, lead me, walk beside me
I give my life to the potter's hand
You gently call me into your presence
Guiding me by your holy spirit
Teach me dear lord to live all of my life through your eyes
I'm captured by your holy calling
Set me apart. I know you're drawing me to yourself
lead me, Lord. I pray
Oh Take me, mold me, use me, fill me
I give my life to the potter's hand
Oh Call me, guide me, lead me, walk beside me
I give my life to the potter's hand"(C) Hillsong United, Shout to the Lord 2000 [1999] 

This song came to mind this evening as a result of God Orchestrating dinner on my behalf.  You may be asking yourself how do the two events relate.  Let me explain.

Since the passing of my father, I have had cough, sore throat and head cold that will not go away despite taking medication, eating cough drops like candy and drinking cold bottles of water as if I were in the desert all to no avail.  All the while I have been asked by multiple friends if there is anything they can do for me during this time of grief.  I thank them politely and respond with "I can't think of anything."  

Then this afternoon as I was about to meet a friend for lunch another friend approached me and expressed her sympathy and asked if there was anything I needed.  I said probably but I have such a hard time asking for help.  Then she said, "You know where to find me."  This friend goes to my church and I realized the Lord was telling me I need Him.  And more than that, I know where to find Him and all I need to do is ask.  I needed to quit being so polite and acting as if I had it all together and be willing to ask for help, that is what the body of Christ is there for.  

Finally, I decided to call my church and express my need.  I was sick, I was tired and all of this on top of planning my father's funeral at the end of the day I was emotionally spent and would just look inside my refrigerator or pantry trying to find the desire to cook something.  I could use a meal or two during this time.  I didn't realize how hard it was for me to admit I needed help. While I was asking for the help, I even tried to take it back and say never mind I didn't want to put anyone out. But the person on the other end would hear of it and insisted on calling my Sunday School teacher to see about setting up a few meals.  This is where the Potter's Hands comes in.  God is so good. 

My Sunday School teacher called later that afternoon and could hear the hoarseness in my voice and asked what I felt like for dinner.  He said he wasn't a great cook so he was going to pick something up and did I have a preference.  I said no.  He asked if soup sounded good and I said YES!  I had been thinking about soup all day and had some for lunch even. He then asked if I would like Egg Drop Soup from a Chinese restaurant in town that just so happens to be my favorite place to get Egg Drop Soup when I am sick and the very thing my own father used to do for me when I was sick. I said I would love the soup.  It was perfect, exactly what I needed.  And it was.  He then asked if I'd like the crackers with it and maybe Crab Rangoons; all of the things my own father would bring to me when I was sick.

God is so good to orchestrate every detail of our lives if we will let Him.  He has good gifts He wants to give us.  He is waiting for us to ask Him.

"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" Matthew 7:11 (NKJV)

Today

"Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."

Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV)

I received a phone call last night from one of my father's oldest friends and one he had lost touch with. He had read my father's obituary in the newspaper in our home state.  He searched out my phone number and called to give his condolences.  We had met only one time before in a chance encounter when I had been working just out of college and he came to make a repair call on a piece of equipment at my place of employment.  As we talked, he recognized my last name and I recognized his name and he asked if I was the daughter of his old friend.  I assured him I was and we talked briefly then making connection with a face to the name of my father's boyhood friend.  They had grown up across the street from one another from the time they were about 4 years old until they both joined the military during Viet Nam.  They were true friends.  They played together and got in trouble together.

My father had told me stories of their growing up together but it was so nice to hear the stories from the other point of view and how similarly they synced up.  My father's friend told me how they were in cub scouts together and would ride their bicycles everywhere. He even told me how they joined the military together.

He remembered having backyard barbecues with his family and inviting my father and grandmother over, as she was a single parent by then, and she would make "Orange Chicken" a recipe he could never get quite right all these years.  I gave him the "secret" ingredient and it felt like my grandmother would approve.   I told him that my father had lung cancer with metastatic brain cancer and that near the end of his life he tried to reach out to his old friends he had lost touch with.  Friendship and leaving a legacy were all that seemed to matter to my father in the end.  He would have really enjoyed the conversation with his friend, but I know God Orchestrates everything for a reason and perhaps that conversation was for me or for his friend.  Only The Lord knows for sure.

While my father and his friend went to different churches growing up, it was evident in our conversation we both had a deep faith and he was so very happy to know our family had the blessed assurance that my father was with the Lord. We ended our conversation with him saying a prayer for me, my family and the knowledge that my father was now in heaven with Jesus where he suffered no more.

One thing I have learned through loving my father through his dying process is to not wait, Love Each Day Without Regrets.  Life is too short and you never know when you go to make that phone call if the person will be there to take it.  Make the call today.  Tell the person you love today. Take the time to go to lunch with the friend today.  Do the thing you have been putting off today.

"but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: 'Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'"  Hebrews 3:13-16