How Do You Really Get Warm?

I wake. 

The fog not so thick anymore.

It is cold.

Gary leaves at 3 and I miss his warmth. 

I quickly step out of the bedroom. 

It is warm.

So very warm. 

I am struck by the grace it took for me to be warm. 

The community that came alongside. 

Matthew 25:40

Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these 

brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me

The equipment, time and effort.

A gift I am so thankful for. 

And this shed is overflowing now. 

And so is the one at the barn.

And I am warm. 

I am thankful. 

I am thankful for the farmer that fills that boiler with wood; morning and night. 

I am thankful for a brother in law, that keeps our house warm while we run to Maine to see new life. 

I am thankful for the redhead that used to fill that boiler. 

I loved the woodsy smell he would have when he came in. 

Or the grin, when the heat from the boiler had singed his eyebrows and front of his hair. 

So much like his father. 

We would not have been able to get up any wood this year. 

Between the floods, still haying, doctors appointments, pending surgery and new life. 

There would not have been time. 

This morning when I walked out of the bedroom; 

I would still have been cold. 

Warmth. 

It is a privilege. 

One I do not take lightly. 

I know the magnitude of the gift we have been given. 

I thank God for this earthly display of love and grace. 

Thank you God for this beautiful community where we know we are held. 

For pumpkins and mums at the pole where he met Jesus.

For mums at the graveside. 

For the basic necessity of heat. 

I am grateful. 

And I am warm.

Not only because of the heat, but because God fills that aching spot. 

He gathers us and He holds us when everything else is falling apart around us.

He is the quiet center. 

The calm in the midst of the raging storm.

 "And to know that the promise was, when everything fell, we'd be held."

I Thessalonians 5:18

give thanks in all circumstances; 

for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.