Commandments

Last night Jacob asked me if I knew what commandments were. I said I did and I asked him what he thought they were to which he said they were rules. He said he learned about them at school. I asked him where commandments came from and he said, “God.” I asked him why God gives commandments and he replied, “To keep the people safe in the land.” That wasn’t the answer I expected. I thought he would say that commandments were rules to make us good little girls and boys, but he replied with a better answer. An answer that is closer to the truth.
In the Old Testament, God gave the Ten Commandments along with the rest of the Law for a much bigger reason than to provide a moral code. Unfortunately, religious folks have tended to take moral codes and even God’s commandments and make them an end in and of themselves. But God didn’t give commandments to see who could follow them the best. He didn’t give commandments to see how miserable he could make life. He gave His commandments and truth to actually protect life. As Ravi Zacharias illustrated with the game of tennis in Recapture the Wonder, the rules protect the game but they are not the point of the game. The rules prevent exhaustion and when followed can prevent strife and confrontation. To say it another way, umpires know the rules better than most, but they never win the game; only the players do. God gave his laws to protect our lives and in fact prevent exhaustion. The people Jacob was referring to were the Israelites as they were going into the Promised Land that was occupied by people who did not know God or follow Him. God wanted to protect the people from the strife and exhaustion that occur when we go away from Him. The Author of life knows the best way to live life. The Israelites are like the rest of us and they could not keep the commandments. But that’s the most amazing part of God’s commandments. They point us to our ultimate need for Him and His grace. They point us to Christ. Only in Him can we find freedom from life lived apart from God or a life lived in a futile pursuit of moral codes. The “land” was a form of rest for the Israelites. They were resting in the purpose God has for their lives. When we belong to Christ we are at “rest” in Him. We are resting or trusting in Him and He transforms us into who we are meant to be. His grace empowers us to follow His commandments and those commandments protect our new life at “rest” in Him. Thank you Jacob for the reminder.

Yanked and Burned!

We took Macayla to the surgeon’s office this morning and they pulled (yanked) her tube out and looked at the channel in her stomach. This means that they looked at the actual hole in the flesh where the tube is inserted and it was full of granulation. For those of you without feeding tubes, this is tissue that forms around the tube that can be quite bloody, goopy and nasty (those are highly technical medical terms!) It’s something that can be controlled by cleaning and using a special cream around the sight, but Macayla’s was down in the actual hole so it was hard to control. The good news is that the surgeon was able to “burn” it off with silver nitrate and hopefully, it will seal up and begin to heal over the next couple of days. He said he was quite sure that this was the source of the blood in her stomach and that it should clear up very soon. If it isn’t clear in two weeks, then we will schedule a scope.
Another bit of good news is that we were fortunate enough to get a safety bed for Macayla’s room. This is like a huge crib with high side rails and padding. It will keep her from falling out of the bed and it has an articulating mattress so we can position her better for reflux problems. This will also be helpful later with pressure sores when she is vegetative. We are so blessed the way things have been provided. How fortunate we truly are to have so many caring folks who take care of Macayla and the “things” that help make her life more comfortable and functional!

Mountain Tops

I apologize to those of you who have been wondering about the latest on Macayla and us. It seems that things have been so hectic and all of a sudden a month has flown by. We have been trying so many different things to help Macayla’s stomach and GI problems, that it has been impossible to keep up with all of them. We have tried different feeding schedules and medications to get the bleeding in Macayla’s stomach under control and nothing has worked. We have at least seen less frequency than before of blood in her stomach contents, but we still see it at least every three days if not every day depending on the week. This week we are going into the surgeon’s office and they will remove the feeding tube and look inside with a high-tech device; a flashlight. Really. When they pull the tube out they will be able to observe the hole in her abdomen and see if the hole itself is irritated and unable to heal due to movement. It is painful, but will be done in the doctor’s office and only takes a couple of minutes. If this doesn’t shed any light (pardon the pun) on the problem then we will have to scope Macayla’s upper GI. This will require general anesthesia which makes us nervous but we have exhausted all other options at that point. On a more fun note, we got to go to the mountains near Pigeon Forge last week with Jennifer’s parents and my mom. Macayla had some fun but seemed more upset more often during the trip. She may have just been in discomfort or she may have been confused by her new surroundings. Overall, though she did well and enjoyed the hot tub on the back porch. The kids loved feeding the ducks and birds near the Old Mill and Jacob got to go swimming a bunch. The grandparents gave Jennifer and I time to have a couple of meals together away from kids and responsibility and that was great. Overall it was a great trip and we got some great pictures of the kids and I even found an opportunity to get a couple of shots of God’s magnificent creation.