His angels keep watch

I got one of those dreaded calls moms get. The one with a huge sob on the other end and only 'Mom' would come out. The one that makes your heart stop, or at least jump into your throat. The one where you panic inside and try to keep calm and find out what happened. Yea. One of those. it was gretchen.

she was on her way to work.

she tried to tell me what had happened, but i couldn't make heads or tails out of it.  all i got was that the window was busted and she was ok.  i wanted to go get her, but she reassured me she was ok and she was headed to work.

later that night, she explained what had happened.  sounded like a near miss to me.  like a miracle.  like god was truly watching out for her. when i asked her about it, she felt like the near miss was a punishment of some sort.  i HATE that.  we talked about it and she came around to the fact that truly he was watching over her and protected her.

i felt compelled to go by the 'scene' to see what i could see.

i was shocked.

i could do nothing but pray and praise jesus for keeping my little girl safe.

the pictures will show how close she came to, probably, losing her life.  while i was there, the intersection was empty.  i prayed and asked god to put a car in the position gretchen was in at the time.  that is this:

an 18-wheeler came upon a red light and was, ahem, distracted, it seems.  there were cars lined up at the red light, so he swerved to miss them and went into the grass, hitting, knocking over and bending signs. the light was green (for what would have been this white truck) for gretchen.  she said she did not know what made her NOT move, but she didn't.  she looked over and saw this truck coming at her and said she literally thought she was gonna die.

the truck came, it looks like to me about 2-3 inches from hitting her straight on.

he never stopped.  he just hit the highway and kept on going.

i am amazed and oh. so. thankful i have my 17 year old precious daughter still here.  and i am so glad she is beginning to see how much he loves her to protect her like he did.  and!  i am so glad he is not done with her yet and she is beginning to see she has a purpose to be here.

this is your moment

2 Kings 5:1-3 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. 2 Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. 3 She said to her mistress, "If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."

In this passage, there are two very important, yet very different people.

Naaman....he was a great man, he had a great name...he had a great calling on his life.  he also had a great problem....He had leprosy. We don't have to deal with leprosy these days here in america....so it might be hard to understand just what he was going through...but we do deal with a different kind of leprosy...a kind we all know too much about and how debilitating  it can be....its the leprosy of a messy life...of things not going as others think they should....its things that happen to us that make people run the other way....and it can paralyze us to the point of not being able to do anything productive.  Naaman did his job, he was productive :)....while he was sick.  He answered God's call on his life even though he was sick...even though he was afflicted.  one of the things I have found is the greater the calling and annointing  you have on your life, the greater the trials and hardships will be..

The girl in this verse was a prisoner held in captivity.  she was a servant.  She is also nameless. No where is scripture is she mentioned before this, or after this nor was she given a name.  She was an {in}significant little mention in the Bible, just a moment in eternal history.....BUT she played a VERY important role . God used her. He used her as a tool for Naaman's healing. She also had a call on her life.....All she had to do to fulfill that call was to be available, trust God, trust that she could hear HIM and step out in faith with what she knew. I am thinking she was maybe just a little scared to go to her mistress  and tell her what her husband should  do.  I know I would have been.   She also had faith for Naaman, she did not shy away from her faith. She stood boldly and spoke boldly of her faith for him.  She accomplished what God created her for and if she had not been obedient to what her purpose was....well, she just was :)

You may be a prisoner of something or someone....in captivity of some sort, you may be a servant to some one...you are not named personally in the Bible.....BUT.....You have a call on your life. YOU  and I play a VERY important role in history....someone's history......all we have to do is be available, trust God, trust that you DO hear Him and step out in faith with what we know God is speaking to us. This is your moment in eternal history.....

linked up this morning with chatting at the sky, sweet shot tuesday and steady mom

2 weddings and a miracle

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when i first took this wedding, i had another one in the wings.  both were for friends, both i had given my 'friend deal' too :).  one, though had to fly us to him and provide our room and board.  so, that was the fee, basically.  i wanted to be at both and do both, but both were for the same day and 1,000 miles apart.  there were underlying commitments to the one that was long distance, so i needed to take that one and let the other one go....which meant no cash in hand.  I had been basically unemployed for 3 months now and the money would have been very much needed.  time to trust god.  he knew what we needed and it might just be some time away.  these were also very new friends to me.  so, on to Reno and lake tahoe i go.....

when i shoot a wedding (or ANYthing for that matter), my heart is ALL in.  I LOVE taking pictures and capturing those moments.  i know i am not the best out there and it is a constant struggle to not compare myself against all those who have more training or a different gifting than i~constant!!!  AND it is training for me to do what god has called me to do.

i went ready to shoot my heart out....the venue was beautiful--a river boat on the lake.  the food was yummy, the weather perfect...you could not ask for a better day....the family was excited and it was a fun time.

my plane left the next morning, so i had to be up and ready to go.  i got a call from the grooms mom (a precious, PRECIOUS woman of God) to come and have breakfast with her and her family.  i did.  And as i was leaving, she handed me a card~a thank you note (i assumed)....i got in the car, rushing to catch my flight and I opened the card to read.  inside was a check in the EXACT amount i would have made had i done the other wedding.  she had NO IDEA that is how much i charged my friends....none.....it was such a God thing and such a confirmation to me that i had made the right choice.  not that i would not want to be there for my other friend, but i had to walk in what god was saying and trust god to provide for that friend too.  to see some of the pictures from that wedding click here.

linked up with chatting at the sky and sweet shot tuesday