Tombstones and Flatscreens

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (II Kings 22-24)

Josiah was eight years old when he bcame king and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left." II Kings 22:1,2

Nine year old Rachel and her two year old brother have been staying with us for the last three weeks while their parents and two older siblings are in Africa on a ministry trip for the Navigators. Grandpa and Grandma's lives have picked up a bit of speed. Things have been slow on the blog but fast around our house.

Rachel and I have spent some time at the cemetery watering flowers and sprucing up family graves. One day we took our Bibles and sat by my mom and dad's gravestone and read I Cor. 15 - the resurrection chapter. We shared about the new bodies that we'd get in heaven and all the people that we would see who were already there. I said that we would have a lot of catching up to do.

"Oh, No, Grandma," Rachel reflected, "They will already know all about our lives. I think that when we get to heaven there will be flat screen TVs and we'll be able to look at them and see what the people on earth are doing."

"I don't know about that," I laughed a little. "You know the Bible says there will be no tears in heaven, so it might make us sad to see all the things that everyone is doing. But, I sure would like to see the awesome flat screens that God made!"

"We wouldn't be sad at all!" she replied positively. "God would have the remotes set so that every time somebody sinned, we would switch channels."

I thought, "We might be switching channels a lot!" but I didn't say that because I was thinking about her nine year old mind and how sweet it is.

We walked around the cemetery reading the tombstones and discussing the brevity of some of the lives. Rachel remarked that she wished she knew more about the people who rested in each grave.

"Yes," I said to my young kindred spirit, "Every tombstone has a story."

Rachel was quiet as we drove home. Then she turned to me and said. "When I grow up, I am going to write about people in a book and illustrate it. Guess what the title is going to be?"

"What?" I said with great interest.

"Why," she responded, "Every Tombstone Has A Story" of course!"

Josiah became king of Judah at the young age of eight. His heart was turned toward the Lord and he "did not turn aside to the right hand or the left." What a neat guy! I wonder if he was watching us from heaven on a flat screen as Rachel and I strolled past the flower filled stones. Someday we'll meet him and ask him, won't we?

An African "Boodle!"

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (II Kings 18-20)

“In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord; ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’

Then he (Hezekiah) turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying,

“Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” II Kings 20: 1-3

The voice at the other end of the line was unintelligible. The man that I had reached knew what he was saying but I didn’t have a clue. He was speaking Zambian and I was communicating in English. He shouted something that sounded like “Boodle! Boodle!” When I asked for my daughter again, he raised his voice louder and shouted – “Boodle!!!!”

Have you ever tried to call someone in Africa? On their cell phone? It is a challenge that is almost unexplainable.

When Katie and Norman left for Zambia a week ago, they left us house numbers and cell phone numbers. Of course there are cell phones in Africa. Anyone knows that. (Actually I didn’t. When I thought of Africa, I thought of David Livingston talking about the smoke of a thousand fires.) The cell phones work – sometimes. The challenge is getting the bazillion numbers that you have to dial to go thousands of miles and reach the right person. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

The next day I tried again. To my surprise I heard my daughter’s voice on the other end of the line. “Mom,” she said sounding incredulous. “It is a miracle that you got me! We’re in a Jeep traveling on a dirt road in the bush!”

“Yesterday,” I said, “I got an African man who kept saying “Boodle” louder and louder!”

“Yes,” she answered from the jungle, “they speak very emphatically here. In the US we would think they are having an argument, but they’re not.”

Then the line clicked off. But I had spoken to my daughter in Zambia on her cell phone in Africa! A miracle of communication in today’s world.

King Hezekiah was dying. The prophet, Isaiah, had come to tell him that he should set his house in order because he was about to die. But the king wasn’t ready to die and so he turned his face toward the wall and prayed. He said, “’Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” (II Kings 20:1-3)

That’s all he did. He turned his face toward the wall and prayed and cried. He didn’t dial any numbers or wait for a ring or get the wrong person shouting “Boodle.” He turned over in his bed and cried out to the Lord and immediately got an answer.

“Then it happened before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

“Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people. ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you.” II Kings 20:4-5)

Katie said it was a miracle that I reached her in the bush. It was. But the greatest miracle of all is prayer. I can wake up in the night and turn my face to the wall and pray for my daughter and family in Africa and know that God is saying to me, “I have heard your prayer!”

Wow! No boodles about that.