Re-Entry

Update on Blake
9.19.19

I am old enough to remember the spaceships landing on the moon.  We watched it on black and white television.  The scariest part to me was the coming back. The understanding I had as a child was that it would simply fall into the ocean.  I wouldn't jump into a swimming pool, so falling from the sky to re-enter the realm of earth, plopping down into the ocean, well, that was a terrifying thought.

Blake will soon be doing his own re-entry. 

Last week, he and Kati moved from the hospital environment to a residence.  There are no nurses, no call buttons, nobody checking on him.  He travels the short distance to the therapy center for a long session, then is taken back to the residence, he and Kati, alone for meals and bedtime. 

Soon, they will make a move back to Arkansas.  They will re-enter life in their house, with their children.  There will be meals to cook, children to bathe, homework to do, children's activities to attend. 

There will also be the continuation of the paperwork, the legal matters still to come, the paperwork to fill out, financial matters to tend to.

Pray they will not be overwhelmed, that no detail is overlooked that will present future problems.

Pray for wisdom in making the decisions ahead concerning legal and financial matters. 

Pray that all the paperwork left to be done will be easily managed, all information easily obtained, and submitted in timely manner.

Pray nothing gets overlooked and slips thru the cracks as they resume life that is not as ordinary as it once was.



Praise God that needs have been met thus far.  Praise Him for people who share the burdens.  Praise Him for friends and family who have worked so diligently, often behind the scenes. 



My sister dealt with mountains of paperwork when our mother was in the nursing home.  She has dealt with even more with our daddy's affairs. 

She stood defiantly in the face of a doctor who said Blake would not be better, ever.  She stood over his bed, prayerfully, until his every breath was no longer threatened.  She and Jason prayerfully made decisions about doctors and hospitals. 

Then she began the paperwork.


Getting disability checks started, Cobra insurance in effect, insurance claims filed, working to find every benefit, and GET it. Morgage relief. Insurance for the children.

If you have never had to do any of this kind of thing, you can't imagine how complicated it gets even when it is for yourself and all information readily available.  This has been a very difficult task, especially for a mother who would love to sit and stare at a son who has been given back from death's door.  But doing all she has done was practical and necessary.

One of the many challenges of this re-entry to life will be taking care of this very important and complicated business.  I hate stuff like that.  Most of us do.  Elizabeth does! 

 Kati most likely will too, and Blake sure will!! 



Elizabeth has filled out a lot of paperwork for other people's benefit. There have been many benefits received because she spent the time and energy seeking them out and jumping thru hoops to qualify for them.  The benefits may last a few weeks, or even a few years.  And she didn't gain a penny.  Someone else did. 

So much of it seems senseless.  Repetitive.

In a perfect world, we would not need insurance.  We wouldn't have to maneuver thru mounds of paperwork.  People would do what they are supposed to do, and not do things they shouldn't.

People wouldn't use their phone driving down the road. 

This world was created like that.  Perfect. But humans made bad choices in the garden and it's been the same story ever since.  Praise God He has put into place a plan to allow us to re-enter that perfect place.  Where people don't do wrong things, where there are no hurts to heal, and no paperwork to fill out. 

 In the coming perfect world, there will only be one place a name needs to be submitted and recorded.  The Lamb's Book of Life is the only paperwork on God's desk. 

I don't know about you, but Jesus has filled out mine. 

"...The courtroom was called to order, and the books were opened."(Daniel 7:10 from The Message)

 "Nothing dirty or defiled will get into the City, and no one who defiles or deceives. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life will get in."(Revelation 21:27 from The Message)

I don't know about you, but Jesus has met the qualifications for me, and written my name on His book. 

In red.

Hallelujah. 

Obstacles

I sat in a Bible study  class recently that used Mark 16 as a way to start a discussion.  We were asked to read the passage, talk to the ones near us about what it said, then we were to have a class discussion.

It was a great ice breaker to begin meshing a room of women from all walks of life, backgrounds, ages, and lifestyles.  We were very diverse, having one thing in common....a searching for Jesus and studying the Bible to better know Him and what He has said to us.  

I encourage you to read that chapter too.  Maybe read it right now, before you read anything I have to say.....

Did you?  If not...why?

As I read this passage that morning, scripture recorded in our Bible once again pointed out something personal to me.  Obstacles.  Reasons I don’t....reasons I quit...

Reasons? Or excuses? 

In this passage, it’s all been done.  Jesus was born, He lived, He taught, He showed by example, and He was dead. 

The women in the narrative had set out to do what women did.  A man they loved was in a tomb, and the customary thing to do was to tend to the body as culture directed.  But there were some circumstances that were out of the ordinary.  

Obstacles. 

To be connected to this Jesus, of whom the Romans had just executed at the Jewish religious leaders request, was risky.  What if the Jewish bigwigs saw them?  What if the Romans continued to kill Jesus’ followers?  They could be next!

Only these three women braved it, the other followers stayed behind, mourning and weeping. (Mark 16:10 NIV)

The first obstacle they pushed past was their fear.  Yet on the walk to the tomb, they thought of another obstacle. The stone.  “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mark 16:3)

I’m sure the enemy was in overdrive, he thought he was  victorious when Jesus was dead.  Certainly he wanted Jesus’ dead body to rot in that grave.   But that devil was defeated, and the world would see the evidence of it. 

But if he could just convince these women that the obstacles were too great......

I’m afraid the fear of the Romans would have kept me with the others, crying into my tea glass.  And even if I had started out toward the tomb, remembering that big stone would have just reminded me it was no use walking all that way. Go back and have another glass of self-pity tea and weep a little louder. 

Obstacles. 

I wonder how many times I have assumed there to be an unsurmountable obstacle, when God would have moved it.   Maybe He already had, and I just didn’t know it. 

These women had an incredible experience at that empty tomb.  I have no doubt that in hindsight, they were so glad they didn’t let obstacles hinder them from the experience!  

I haven’t seen the empty tomb. But I’ve seen what can happen because He was not contained in the grave. Death is no longer the final word.  

Hallelujah.