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Baby Maggie

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: My Life on a Cart

Polishing the Pulpit (https://polishingthepulpit.com) is a conference for Christians, held annually in Sevierville, TN and it’s become a 5500-person fellowship/teaching event that’s unlike any other; both in great potential for the gospel’s spread and in popularity with gospel-followers. As you can guess by its name, it began as a little workshop for preachers and has developed in 25 short years to be a power-house conference (because of His power) that has meaty and practical sessions for all of God’s people. As one of the audio and video technicians, who gave his life to Christ in baptism at the end of the week said “Where can you find this many people who are just this nice?” I love that assessment.

I know the devil would love to worm his way into this event, but God’s people there, both leadership (the elders of the Jacksonville church of Christ) and attendees, are determined to keep a sound and unified event. It’s become a family (both physical family and spiritual family) reunion for the Colleys, to which we look with great anticipation every year. 

As we left the convention center this year, I took a long look at our luggage cart, and there I saw a huge conglomeration that’s now still a big pile in my bedroom floor. But looking at that cart, I saw a small cross-section of my whole world.  I could look at that all-too-familiar hotel cart and see my life–the things that I love and the things I do–rolling across that parking lot.  Some of the things were meaningful in a long-term way. Some, like the number of pairs of shoes I’d brought along, were just extra and unneeded baggage. I looked at that cart and contemplated for a minute.  

I saw all the Digging Deep paraphernalia…my new DD bag that had carried handouts, books, baby entertainment items for worship, and bread to give away before my classes began; my Digging Deep t-shirt and the old “Authority” book from which I’d taught a couple of times through the week. And my brand new “Glory” book was also somewhere on the cart. There was even a shovel, a rake and a hoe, given to me by one of the Georgia diggers . Digging Deep was everywhere on the cart.

There was stuff from the Digging Deep Israel trip: a large group photo given to us by John and Carla Moore as they packed up the Bible Land Passages table in the Exhibit Hall. At the very top of the cart was the ram’s head with real ram’s horns, given to us by fellow Israel traveler, Caysi McDonald. Lindsay VanHook put them on the head she crafted and Linzee Stephenson mounted the ram’s head on a wooden spatula. It served us well, at the climax of the Mount Moriah scene, in Family Bible week at West Huntsville and then at Family Bible time in the Atrium with a hundred or so kids.

There were a lot of grandchildren things on that cart. There was my Bernina sewing bag, a big white laundry basket that had served to transport a bunch of birthday gifts and decorations for little Maggie’s first family birthday party, held just outside the atrium, after the crowds had exited on Thursday. There was a big black plastic garbage bag that had served to hide the 34-year-old red and white wooden scooter that Glenn had made for Caleb for his first birthday; now being passed along to Maggie (She loved it, repeating over and over “Brooom, brooom!” as she pushed it around by the wooden handle bars.)  The big bag was now full of laundry awaiting the wash.  There were leftover snack bags and boxes; surprises we’d brought to tape on the hotel room doors of the grandkids. The grands were fully represented on the cart.

My sisters were there, too. The little trinkets and treats and notes of encouragement that so many sweet friends had shared were rolling, too, in various bags and cases.

There was a computer printer, two large Bibles, a portfolio for organizing lessons, two lap-tops and an iPad, a large commentary and a big package of computer paper. It’s the way we roll when we are speaking in a total combined  number of sessions that exceeds thirty. There was even a coffee maker and a bag of Keurig cups to keep us burning the midnight oil. And there were dress clothes for all those speeches. And dress shoes and ties and scarves and there was a bag of brand new socks for Glenn because he has that propensity for leaving his at home. (He has that propensity in common with Don Blackwell. We went to Israel and washed the same pair of socks every.single.day.) 

I guess I could go on listing blessings on that cart. But the thing that struck me is  this: Your stuff represents your heart. Obviously, the stuff on the cart is the stuff I didn’t want to do without for a week-and-a-half.  Jesus said something in the same vein over in Luke 6:34

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

By the time we left, I noticed the world was refilling the empty hotel. Carts were coming in with vastly different loads; carts pushed by people who were almost naked—carts that held luggage and beer and swimsuits and water shoes and tickets to the pleasures of the world around us. My husband commented that after watching Christians crowd those hotel hallways for a week, it was very shocking to see the world. We probably need to keep on being a little shocked. 

It’s also very motivating. Think about the diffusion of those 5500 people into a world that pushes the wrong load. Think about what we can do if every one of us invites one person to study the Bible with us monthly between now and our next gathering in Sevierville. Think about what we can do if each family has Family Bible Time daily for all 355 days between now and the next PTP. Think about how much stronger our families will be if every mother at PTP studies the Word deeply every day between now and next August 12th. Think about how much of an effectual working will occur if every woman who left that place is fervently in daily prayer for this entire year. Think about the power of a diffusion. How many carts could we load for heaven? 

How many? How many could I help load, given my opportunities in my little circle of influence? I’m going to try to have at least one more packed and loaded for heaven before that gathering on the mountain next year. Will you try, too? 

  

                                                 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Six Pounds, Fifteen Ounces Fresh from God! (and Congrats to Courtney Clark Grice!)

 She is here and she is precious. She is perfect.

There I was, after being in and out of that hospital for the past 33 hours, in the gift shop. We’d put Ezra and Colleyanna, the excited, but very tired little cousins down for a nap in the lobby of that birthing center. I’d promised them if they closed their eyes and took a nap, I’d have a surprise for them when they woke up. We’d moved the chairs and benches around. We’d read a Little Critter story. We’d even turned on a sound machine so they could hear the ocean and they had complied.  So, while they slept, I went around the corner and down the hall to the gift shop.(Little did I know they really would have a HUGE surprise by the time they awakened and I did not even need to go to the gift shop!) You know how gift shops in hospitals are. So I opted for two rolls of Life Savers for $1.09 each rather than the plastic pink flamingos for $12.99 each or the ceramic basket of cookies shaped like feet with the “Get back on your feet” card that bore the $39.99 sticker. The little credit card reader said “approved” and I was waiting for the receipt that I needed to sign. The “pink ladies” behind the counter were chatting about the weather when it happened. The lullaby on the hospital speaker system played. In clear tones, the bells pealed the first three bars of “Lullaby and Good-night.” The sweet ladies both exclaimed “Another baby has been born.”

“That’s not just another baby! That’s MY baby!” I shouted. Grabbing my card and my little bag I ran out of that store and down that hall.

“But you need to sign…” shouted one of the ladies

“Aww, let her go!”…I heard the other one say.

And then I ran smack into Hannah who was literally running to find me. “Mom, That was OUR lullaby!”

And it was. Maggie waited a couple of weeks past her due date to come. That’s the part of her that she comes by honestly. She’s running behind from the get-go, just like her paternal mammy. Then she waited a considerable time after her mama was admitted for her birth. But good things come to those who wait. (And can I say right here that her mom was a CHAMP of a “waiter”?!…I mean “waiting” all that time without anesthesia?! She never ceases to amaze her mother-in-law.)

After driving 12 hours or so without my license (still have not found that thing), cajoling the security authorities to let me in to see my baby without a photo ID (that’s the moment I found that I had no license), having two different house guests here in Huntsville while I was in Florida, helping my husband to get to the Nashville area for a seminar where he was to speak that, in the end, turns out to be NEXT weekend (…yes, he missed the birth, yes, he was crushed– devastated, even, and yes, with the heroic help of our son-in-law, Ben, he DROVE from Jacksonville, Florida to Murfreesboro via Columbus, Georgia and Huntsville, Alabama, so they could both get their suits and sermons for their respective speaking engagements, just so Glenn could get up at 5 am and drive a couple of hours more to an empty parking lot)…after all this and so much more, I am home. But this mammy is wishing she could kiss those newborn cheeks one more time.

Notwithstanding the chaos, every birthing room prayer has been answered and in perfect ways that we could not have imagined and could never deserve. He is so good. We are blessed beyond what those who are without the Lord in moments like these can even approach. We praise Him for she is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).

Now, for the contest drum roll! Three ladies guessed the exact weight, six pounds and 15 ounces.… Courtney Clark Grice, Michelle Giselbach Nicholas, and Heather Bear Yarbrough! But Courtney broke the tie by guessing her length as 21 inches. Her actual length was 20.5 inches. (Heather and Michelle both guessed 19 inches) So congratulations to Courtney! Send your wish list, Courtney, for $50.00 worth of free merchandise from www.thecolleyhouse.org to byhcontest@gmail.com. Please remember to put your address there. Heather and Michelle, you both will receive one free book, dvd, or cd from The Colley House. Just email the same address. Include your postal address and what you would like! Congrats to 3 great guessers!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

For Maggie

Written a couple of years ago, to Caleb, when we first knew who would be the wise and godly mother of our Colley grandchildren, I run this again today in honor of Maggie, who is healthy and strong (and stubborn!). Come on, Maggie. I love you and can’t wait to put a kiss on your sweet face, fresh from God. He is still writing this story.

The Answer

God is so good to your parents tonight

He’s  answered the details of prayer.

It wasn’t our wisdom, but Providence

Not our work, but His steady care.

 

He gave you the songs you’ve been singing

He gave you the voice that you raise

He gave you the music that’s deep in your soul

And the skill to lead Christians in praise.

.

You’ve excelled in conviction and conscience.

You’re courageous, yet kind and forbearing.

Confident in truth, introspective,

Consistent, hard-working, and caring.

 

He’s answered our prayer for His daughter, too.

More completely than parents could plead.

Immeasurably more than we ask or think.

She’s everything He knows you need.

 

So we thank our Father each night for her;

For the path that brought her to your life.

For her honor, her humor, her love for our Lord

And that she said, “yes”…she’d be your wife.

 

So you both can go ahead and start praying now

For the sons who will fill up your lives.

For their safety in coming, their bruises and scrapes

For the ones who will raise up their wives.

 

And, Son, pray for daughters, for you know how to teach

A little boy to be the best kind of brother.

She’ll be holy and His and so pretty, to boot…

She’ll grow up to be just like her mother.

 

When the years and the tasks loomed so large, Son,

We prayed for this hour in your life.

We prayed that your heart and your hands would be strong

When they first held the heart of your wife.

 

And all through the years, Son, you’ve taught us.

But the greatest thing you helped us see

Was the extreme sacrifice of the Father

To give His one Son on a tree.

 

We know that He brought you together

That the Father is writing your story.

So glad for this moment when you’ll vow to give

Him a lifetime…as one…for His glory.

cc

PS. Your cousins, Ezra, Colleyanna and James are pretty excited, too, Maggie!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Lights of Glory

How sweet to hold a newborn baby

And feel the pride and the joy he gives

But greater still the calm assurance

This child can face uncertain days because He Lives.

As we sang these words last night at our service of praise, I just had a huge “catch” in my heart and voice. Realizing the depth  of the uncertainty that lies in our tolerant, morally unfettered world, I know that the newborn I will prayerfully hold this week, will face uncertain days. I immediately thought about how that my sweet father, who left this uncertain world last December, would have loved to have held the firstborn child of his firstborn grandson. (That’s my dad in the picture with Caleb all those years ago.) Their lives on this earth almost intersected. In truth, the lives did intersect. For a few days at the end of Dad’s life, both the brand new heart and the 95-year-old one were beating. Dad just never got to know about this intersection of life. Singing those words—any words, really—about the great hope we share with most of you who are reading, just arrests my emotions, of late. I had to stop singing and cry for a moment.

But then, there’s this last empowering verse and chorus. It’s the chorus that dries tears, replaces fears, and lets me sing again: 

And then one day, I’ll cross that river

I’ll fight life’s final war with pain

And then, as death gives way to vict’ry

I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He reigns.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow

Because He lives, all fear is gone

Because I know He holds the future

And life is worth the living

Just because He lives.

The truth is, by faith, I already know He reigns. Because He has made death His last enemy (I Cor. 15:25,26)…because the angel announced truthfully “He is not here, but He is risen,” (Matthew 28:6)…little Maggie can face uncertain days. She will face them with a fearless devotion to the One who has the last word over every enemy. 

Because He lives, the verses of life that bring sorrow are followed by verses that bring courage and anticipation. Of course, the last verse is the best. After the days in an uncertain world, where persecution surely could be a part of the landscape for Christians, there will be a day when pain and death give way to victory. We will see the lights of glory and fear will be a thing of the past. 

There are actually a couple of families, to whom I am very closely connected in Him, that are almost sure to be holding newborn babies by the end of this week. We will count their fingers and toes and marvel at the softness of newborn skin and try to catch the gaze of eyes that can’t yet focus. Proud fathers and grandfathers will be amazed by features that are most certainly inherited from “our side of the family.” But the real marvel will be the unseen feature housed in those tiny little bodies; little souls entrusted to the care of determined parents, who by faith can already catch a glimmer of the lights of glory…just because He lives!

There’s nothing new in the power of those three words “because He lives.” But sometimes, when I think about the decisive eternal victory that happened when that stone was rolled away and linen grave clothes were folded and left behind, I wonder how people, who have not looked into the empty tomb, can make it through the uncertain days. How can they overcome days of hopelessness when there is no light at the end of the tunnel? How can they bury loved ones and then “get on with things”, when the reality of death, for them, holds such finality? How can they ever “come back” from reeling reversals in health or finances, when they see no larger purpose than remaining healthy and wealthy? How can they suffer through the woes of bad moral choices, when there is, for them, no system of redemption? 

I guess they just function out of “expected normalcy” and take temporary joy from the blessings that our God generously rains down on both the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). But I’m so glad there’s a whole different shower of blessings for obedient believers. I love standing in that rain!

One day, when we’ve been there ten thousand years (if time could even be measured there), the little intersections of life on this planet will seem so momentary. Our lives on earth will be the tiniest dot in an eternal sphere.  But the choices in this brief moment we call life—our reaction to His empty tomb— make the dot remarkable. That makes the week (on the dot) in front of you and me significant. May the transactions, blessings, meetings, gifts, jobs, accomplishments, friendships and family that fill our planners this week be appropriate reactions to the victory He heralded when he walked away from that borrowed tomb.  Some events of the week will seem more significant than others. But life matters, this week, for all of us. Because He lives.

(Because He Lives, lyrics by Bill Gaither, Songs of Faith and Praise)

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Dear Maggie…

Dear Baby Magdalene,

Last night I got the word from your daddy that I will probably get to hold you before this week is over. That’s not exactly how he said it, of course, but that’s the essence of what a grandmother hears. You will wrap a tiny hand around my finger and the next 30 years of your new life, if I should live that long, around my heart. 

You are my Maggie, already. You’re named after a woman about whom I have spoken to ladies groups many times—a woman who stayed with Jesus till the bitter end and was the first to witness the empty tomb. I want you to stay with Him till the end and I want us—you and me— to be together for eternity because we both, during our lives that will intersect and influence each other here for a short time, looked into the empty tomb for all the answers to life’s questions. We are still hearing the echo of those important words that Mary Magdalene first heard: “He is not here, but He is risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay.” Because of that reality our family is a forever family. 

You’re also named after my sweet mother-in-law, who will be your great-grandmother. I hope you will laugh with your whole body and being like she does. I hope you will welcome hundreds around your table, as she has. I hope you will  love the role of wife and mother and keeper at home, like she has. Most of all, I hope you’ll love God supremely, like that other sweet Maggie. 

You will both be and bring “Joy”, too. Magdalene Joy. It’s a big challenge and blessing to get to wear the middle name of your maternal grandmother. Your dad’s parents are forever thankful to her and to your Grandpa for giving us your mom, the best wife to our Caleb and the best mother for you that we could ever have dreamed up! In fact, your mom is our hopes, all just happening right before our eyes. Joy is a little word, but I’m glad it is right in the middle of your name, because it’s all over the end of this July, for all of us. It’s what you will bring to every holiday, every family gathering, every prayer of thanksgiving for you and the faithful little family to which you are adding a whole dimension of reality—a big and new normal that they can’t imagine till the moment you explode all over again in their hearts and settle into that mountaintop adventure room that your mama has made for you. I can’t wait to see you living the verse on your nursery wall…”Be strong and courageous!” (Joshua 1:9).

In fact, I can’t wait for you! You’ve made your dad pretty nervous. You know they’ve bought that Honda Odyssey because of you. I didn’t think your daddy would ever buy another mini-van after he had to drive that “white egg”, as his friends called it, all over FHU for the first couple of years he was a student there. Your mom has been pretty sick while her little body just had a come-apart over you! But everybody—EVERYBODY—is completely happy to put life on the fast track and, at the same time, on hold…for you. You, Magdalene Joy, are the surprise we could not believe…

And the answered prayers we will keep thanking Him for all of our days….

Know there will be so much more I want to tell you when you have your hand wrapped around my finger….and my heart wrapped around your finger. I will make up songs and they will have clumsy rhymes and I will do all kinds of antics for a tiny smile. I will let you play in the flour when we make cookies and I will let you splash in all the muddy puddles at Serenity, with your cousins. Your Papa will make you doll houses and playhouses and, well…you can just have whatever you want, okay? But don’t tell anybody. 

I love you, Maggie, and I can’t wait!

Mammy

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Digging Deep Israel: Update Here! (and a special P.S.)

We have roughly two weeks until the trip will be opened up for registration to any members of the body. During these final “Digging Deep only” days, please be sure, if you’re a digger, that all of your paperwork is in and your place reserved. I’m getting very excited, mostly because everyone who has ever been on this tour tells me that the way he/she views Scripture is forever enhanced and heightened. So I can’t wait for that. Sometimes I think it would be hard for me to love the Bible more, but I know, for sure, I can study more and deeper and, in fact, that should be my life’s goal. I see daily flaws in faith and character, when I am introspective, and I know that all the answers for every inadequacy is in the Word. I believe this trip will be the trip of a lifetime for me–not because the land is holy, for it is not; but because the focus, as we view the Bible lands, will be the faith for which He gave His life. Unlike so many people I know, who have gone, we will have a New Testament Christian guide and co-worker. The lessons will be sound and biblical. What a blessing!

So here’s the updated link, including the new departure date. If you are going, please read carefully. We have upwards of 20 in the Digging Deep group who’ve already made deposits and secured their places. If you are a Digger, make your family’s reservation now. May God bless us in every way as we do this exciting thing next May!

https://www.biblelandpassagetours.com/biblelandpassagetoursdiggingdeep

 

P.S. On an unrelated topic: Tomorrow is the due date for Magdalene Joy Colley! Now, she may not be coming for several more days. She may, on the other hand, come today. Spontaneity is what makes our world fun!  But, at any rate, just get ready. I will be leaving for the Sunshine state when I get that call to see my “beach baby” and, when I do see her, YOU WILL TOO! (Just can’t help myself.) I hope I get there before she makes her debut. I’ve been looking at Travelocity a lot lately. Sometimes those ticket prices are lower if you want to leave right now. (Sometimes, not so much!)  Anticipation makes for a long road trip, but that may be the way we roll. Glenn and I are praying for her safe delivery and for a lifetime of “safe delivery” to His throne!

(I think hundreds of you have guessed her weight, so I’ll be sorting through all of that for prize delivery, too! Somebody is right on the   Colley House money! One day she will NOT want me to make a contest out of her weight. But, for now, she’s good!)