9-28am
Today I am staying home as ‘security guard’ mainly. Last night, a strong gust of wind ripped the inner frame of our balcony door away from the outer frame. Mike did a temporary fix but it meant we couldn’t open the door, so this morning, he did a more permanent job, but it has to stay open to dry for 8 hours…
God willing, Mike retires in 740 days time (not that we are counting or anything! 😉 ) and that’s when the woodwork will get the proper makeover!
Far more serious -there wasn’t only wind causing problems yesterday. Karen posted this dramatic picture, from a neighbourhood watch FB page – it’s the house that caught fire in Capri yesterday…
She says the word on the street is that the owners are in Singapore and that the house was rented. It’s speculated that the cause of the fire was a gas bottle explosion. The tenants were not home, so there were no injuries. A neighbour rescued the dogs. But the devastating loss is visible for all to see. It’s hard to imagine what it must be like to come home to find you have lost everything. The magnitude of loss in this instance appears enormous, yet an equal sense of loss and emptiness also occurs in the many times a year we hear of shack fires in the Western Cape….(photo from SABC news archives)
To try and pick up the pieces and start life again is traumatic to the extreme and takes years to achieve. If anyone knows anything about the tenants and how we can help, let me know.
To maximise the hour and a half that Mike is at church, I made myself a To Do list…
Part of my Bible reading was from Mark 2 and I was struck by the story of the paralytic being lowered into the home where Jesus was staying. (It’s verses 1-12). The verse that jumped out and me and made a bit of a light bulb go on in my mind is verse 5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
I imagined those suffering with dreaded diseases – terminal illnesses, going to Jesus for healing and in reply Him saying, “Your sins are forgiven.” My conclusion is that I consider it more important to have sins forgiven than be healed. When your sins are forgiven, you can rest assured that the life you lead beyond death is one that is vibrant, exciting, fulfilling, blessed, peaceful, painfree and filled with joy. Seek God’s forgiveness sooner than healing. Healing is temporary. Forgiveness is permanent. It was a ‘wowser’ moment for me.
God bless you today!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂
Gratitude/Happiness Pic…that yesterday I was able to do this…A 12km walk over Boyes Drive to Lakeside and back along the coast!
Grateful.