transformation

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I’ve Just Witnessed A Modern-Day Miracle

The other day, right in my kitchen, I witnessed a miracle take place.

witnessed a modern-day miracle

I can’t say that I saw the transformation happen before my eyes but, without a doubt, a complete recovery took place that no one could deny.

It was a tulip that had died. I didn’t check its vital signs, but you could tell. It had been drooping for a day. I had actually tried to prop it up a bit so it matched the other tulip in the vase that was standing up straight. 

But by the next morning, the petals were curled and the stem was bent over the vase like a dead cowboy slumped over the back of a horse. It was kind of like a scene you’d see in an old western movie. 

Some might say it still had life in it, but I could tell this tulip was a goner. 

At very best it was only “mostly dead” … I picked that up from the movie, “The Princess Bride” where the hero was killed by the villain. His friends took him to Miracle Max to see if there was anything that could revive him. Miracle Max said there was one thing in his favour, that he was only mostly dead. 

But even Miracle Max didn’t think there was much hope for the hero. He sent them off with a pill and, as they waved goodbye to the hero’s friends, his wife asked him if he though it would work. Miracle Max simply said, “It would take a miracle.”

Well, that is what I witnessed in this tulip this morning. 

You could call it “all the way dead” or just “mostly dead” but this poor little purple tulip did not have a chance to revive outside of a miracle.

It was mid-morning when we noticed that the flower had gone the way of the flowers in the field – it was blown away. 

… That sounds like another reference to the old western gunslinger movies. 

There was nothing more we could do for this delicate, limp tulip. 

But then my wife recalled something. She had heard that if you put a penny in the water, the flower would come back to life. 

I didn’t believe this for a minute. I would have bet more than a penny on it not working. And unlike most people, I still have pennies … in a big container I use to collect coins in. 

Pennies themselves have been wiped off the face of the Canadian landscape. I may be the last bastion for them.

I went to my stash and got two pennies … because I didn’t think there was enough healing power in just one of the cheaply made little coins that have been discontinued. 

To our surprise, by lunch time that tulip was standing up straight as an arrow, and the shape of its petals looked remarkably like it was smiling at us. 

There you have it – it’s a miracle! 

Here’s the thing: The real miracle happens when a person, who has lived his life for himself, discovers that God loves him and sent His son, Jesus, to die for his sins. For that person to receive Jesus as his Saviour and then see the change in how he thinks, how he treats others, what he put his energy into and what he holds as important is an absolute miracle. No one could do that – only God, the great miracle worker. God has a miracle for you if you want it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What miraculous thing have you witnessed? Leave your comments and questions below.

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We Just Got A Laundry Room Makeover

In a lot of homes, when you have guests over for a visit, one thing you are sure to do is close the door to the laundry room. … You don’t want to show off what’s happening in that part of the house because it just might scare people off.

It’s like if you ever worked in the kitchen of a restaurant, that’s one eatery you are not going to frequent in the future … you know what goes on back there!

I don’t know this first hand, but when my son was 15 he worked at a fast food place and, let’s just say, probably some customers’ life expectancies got lowered by a few years from eating there.

But back to our laundry room … I would almost consider taking the door off the room to let people see inside now.

This transformation happened because we needed to purchase a new washer and dryer.

It never ceases to amaze me how the need to do or get one thing has a ripple effect on so much more.

There was a lot of research that went into that decision and the new appliances are quiet and don’t leave black marks on the clothes like the old ones did.

The last straw for Lily was the black marks on the white towels. But for quite some time we had put up with the sound of a jet engine taking off when our washing machine was on the rinse cycle.

It was time.

In order to get these new machines in our house we had to do something with the laundry room, just to create some space to get the old ones out and the new ones in.

Lily had been thinking of keeping the laundry door closed to even the delivery guests. That was not going to work; we had to let them in.

There wasn’t much room to move around in there. There were boxes, files, and other equipment cluttering up the floor. You always felt like you had to get in and get out as fast a possible.

Not now. You could hold a small meeting in our laundry room. In the middle area, there’s a part of the floor that I haven’t seen for about 10 years!

It’s really great.

The downside is that we lived with a laundry room that collected things that didn’t have any place to go. It took a new purchase to motivate us to do something about all the stuff that had piled up in that room.

To be honest, there are several things that we still have to do something with. There will be a garbage run, and electronic waste run … and a run on old sentimental trunks that aren’t worth anything.

As a bonus to the neat and more spacious laundry room, I got a do-over of our exercise room. We reorganized the room, and made a space for another piece of equipment (treadmill) that had been lurking in the laundry room.

And it all happened because somebody from outside the home was going to see inside the laundry room.

Here’s the thing: There are parts of our lives that we don’t want anyone to see, so we keep them hidden. We are all good at hiding things from the people around us. But God sees it all; there is nothing that is hidden from Him. Keep that in mind and be quick to confess your sins. Don’t leave them to clutter up your life and your relationship with God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to spend some time cleaning up? Leave your comments below.