God Hugs

God Hugs

The 4/2 verse of the day is Dan 4:2, “I want you all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me.” (NLT)

There was an abundance of great scriptures to choose from today, but I was drawn back to this one because God brings back to my mind so many illustrations of miraculous signs and wonders in Bill’s and my own life. Like Daniel, I want you all to know what the Most High God has done for me!

God is so good! Every time I think of his goodness, I cannot help but be filled with gratitude and emotion. I don’t deserve this kind of faithfulness from God, yet he remains ever diligent about making his presence known to me. You may not be one who believes God moves in miraculous ways today; you may think that, if that ever happened, it only happened for those people who lived back in the days of Moses, or Abraham, or Jesus, when he was on this earth.

Well, I’m not worthy to even walk in the shadows of the aforementioned people, but I can tell you most emphatically that the same God who performed all those miracles in the bible, cares about our small needs and large needs, our small dreams and large dreams and he still shows up in our lives if we but look for him. Before you dismiss my claims as sensational (which are, by the way, because our Lord happens to be so sensational in the greatest sense of that word!), please let me share with you only a fraction of the times and ways he has and continues to show up Bill’s and my life today. I will probably cry as I write this (and I’m on a plane, so that will be lovely). But, like I said before, God’s goodness overwhelms me and I hope you will begin to see why and begin to believe, if you don’t already do so, that he is still on the scene today, ready to respond to the 911’s in our lives.

Before I go into some of the stories that make Bill and I so thankful, I want to say something important. There will always be trials in this life and we will not always get the miracles we wish or hope for, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be opportunities to see the hand of God move more often than not. I’m glad I’m not God, because I don’t know the answer to his timing or wisdom in the way he moves or answers prayers. But I do know that he is God, his word is true, he is who he says he is, and he will do what he says he will do. I just believe that and trust him to act upon his Godly wisdom and not my human understanding. Besides, being God is way above my pay grade and I’d be letting a lot of people down, if I were doling out the wisdom, gifts and miracles. We’d be one hot mess, for sure! Again, that’s why he’s God and I’m not.

I consider the way God gave me wisdom to accept salvation through Jesus Christ a true blessing and miracle in my life. I might consider it an even bigger miracle in Bill’s life (he was just more hard-headed than me). I know the way he saved our marriage and has given us a relationship to be surpassed by few to be a whopping miracle. I know the way he allowed the cancer to be removed from my body, and the way my radiation treatments went so well, and the fact that I did not have to have chemotherapy, was all from his hand; another series of miracles. These are only a few of the ways, albeit major ways, God has made me an irrevocable believer in the validity of miracles, but it only scratches the surface of the number and depth of things he continues to do for us (and I’d daresay you, as well) daily. I feel like God is full of surprises and blessings that he wants to pour out on us. I like to call them hugs and I especially like to feel them when he gives them. I don’t want to ever miss out on a God hug.

Bill cracks me up. It gives me great joy to watch him walk with God. It gives me even greater joy to hear him tell stories of how he moves in his life. It may be small to some people, but, to him, it’s the greatest thing ever! That’s what God wants from us I think; faith like a child, faith that doesn’t measure or qualify events in our lives based on a culture that will think we’re off our rocker for believing in a supernatural God. Bill could care less…and shows it quiet often! I love that he could give two hoots about being politically correct, or even that culturally sophisticated, but would give his life for the cause of Christ and a boatload of people that don’t believe he died for us and wants to redeem us of our sins. He lives to tell people the stories God writes for us every single day. And many of us anticipate his telling us. In his own New York kind of way, he adds a lot of animation to a story. Yes, it’s a joy!

He (Bill) has been traveling a bit and has some great stories about his air travel. I can’t even give it justice on here, but I will try to give a much less animated version than he would, in my Kentucky kind of way. Recently he flew to Florida and the lady at the airline counter asked him, “Are you somebody important, Sir?” Jokester with a purpose, that he is, he cunningly says, “Well I am a King’s kid”. She said, “Well, you must be because I have you in the computer as a VIP and it won’t let me charge you for the extra bag you want to check. You must be a King’s kid!” He continued on to the gate, after calling me to tell me that the first miracle of the trip had already happened. He later called back to elaborate. He got to the counter to see if he could change his seat for leg room. They said, “Oh Mr. Rieser, we’ve been paging you. We’re holding a plane for you a few gates down.” Turns out, they had booked him on a flight going to Detroit and connecting to Orlando. All other Orlando connections had not gotten out that day for some reason, but he had been treated as a VIP and they had even held a plane for him. They told him that he would have a few hours layover in Detroit, but at least he would get to Florida and his seat would be in First Class….like royalty, I tell you…yep, a King’s kid! I just believe that God wanted a lot of people to hear Bill’s stories down in Florida and made sure he got there to share his God appointments and gave him extra material to boot; just like God! I’m so grateful Bill has a heart, eyes, and ears to recognize God when he becomes our holy travel agent, among other things. I’m even more grateful that he has the audacity to tell people.

By the way, we are going to Arizona right now and we just flew over snow-capped mountains. It gets me every time…sniff, sniff. I consider his creation, especially the mountains out west, another miracle. They are majestic and awesome, just like their creator. But as we were preparing to leave from the airport, Bill went up to see if we could get a seat with legroom, like he always attempts to do. Nowadays, there is a significant up-charge for these premium seats on United, and Bill knows this, but the lady at the counter said, “We usually charge for this, but I’m going to give it to you at no charge.” That’s all she had to say. Bill looked at me and said, “First miracle!”

Yes, we’re believers in the miraculous. Think what you want and say what you will, but we’re quite happy living in our own little world with our own stories of God’s miracles. Some are small; others are Huge, but they are all God hugs to us and we’ll take them and say, “Thank you, Lord!”