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Complete Trust in God

March 22, 2020

On August 29, 2005, my life in New Orleans came to a halt.  Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans that morning.  Fortunately, my mother and I had evacuated 24 hours before the storm hit.  We were in an American Red Cross Shelter in a Batesville, MS, Baptist church.  The Red Cross staff was wonderful.  Besides giving us bedding, the nurse even offered to have us sleep in her empty house.  We decided to stay there.  After finding two cots, we laid down as we were exhausted.  My mother told me later that a lady knelt beside her and asked if she could say a prayer.  That helped my mother calm down because we had never been in that kind of situation.  We had never evacuated before.

In the morning, we first heard that New Orleans had dodged the bullet.  But we all know what actually happened.  So we continued on to Michigan.  At the end of September, I drove down to New Orleans to clean out our apartment which, thankfully, had not been damaged.  When I arrived at the apartment, I found two flowers blooming near our front door.  The first photo shows what the garden looked like before the storm.  The two flowers were a butterfly iris and a rose.  The funny thing was that there were no roses in the garden before we left.  This was a sign to me that New Orleans was on her way back.  

New Orleans had hope.  New Orleans would survive.  We were hopeful.

 

My mother loved the Psalms.  I have her Good News bible which has a lot of hand-written notations.  One of her favorite psalms was Psalm 146.  By coincidence, this psalm was the basis for the March 23rd Christ in Our Home devotion booklet.  Here are a few verses (taken from the Good News:

5 Happy is the man who has the God of Jacob to help him and depends on the Lord his God, 6 the Creator of heaven, earth, and sea, and all that is in them.  He always keeps his promises; 7 he judges in favor of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.  The Lord sets prisoners free 8 and gives sight to the blind.  He lifts those who have fallen; he loves his righteous people. 9 He protects the strangers who live in our land; he helps widows and orphans but takes the wicked to their ruin.  10 The Lord is king forever.  Your God, O Zion, will reign for all time.  Praise the Lord!

The word “depends” was underlined by my mother – she wrote in the margin “complete trust.”  This is so appropriate for us now.  To quote the March 23rd devotion “…our God is faithful and will not leave our side.  Psalm 146 promises that God shoulders the load of the burdened, keeps watch with the wakeful, and fills the empty with strength for what is to come.  God who created the universe also created you.  God will lift you to your feet to stand tall and face the coming day.”

 

My prayer for you is that you continue to “depend” on God.  He is by your side watching over you to keep you safe. 

 

Barbara Oster

Posted by Barbara Oster at 12:00 am
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Bethlehem Lutheran Church
1050 Peninsula Drive
Traverse City, MI 49686-2799
Phone: 231.947.9880