Memorial Box Monday – Ezra

It’s Monday again! Time to remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness….His constant care….His complete protection…..His perfect timing…..His deep and abiding love……His mercy…..His sweet surprises!!

This week I am going to our Memorial Box and pulling out the very first story I ever posted. It is another favorite….a sure sign of why I call Almighty God my Miracle-working, Mountain-moving, Awe-inspiring, Gasp-giving God. If you’ve never read it, you’ll love it. In fact, when you’re done reading it you will say, “NO.WAY.!” If you have read it before, be reminded that God’s got your back and He’s working behind the scenes on your behalf.

Now, for my first official Memorial Box Monday, from October 26, 2008: The Ezra Story

From the time I was a little girl I dreamed of having a rooster. Living in the city that wasn’t reality….but one day.

And then one Christmas, while pastoring in Virginia and living on 26 acres, Abigail shocked me by presenting me with a huge, huge box…and inside the box were two little roosters! I was beside myself. Seriously, I giggled and smiled for months!

I named them after Old Testament prophets. I told Dw that I did that because every morning they proclaimed the favorable year of the Lord. Ezra was a bit time-challenged. I told Dw that he probably had ancestors in England….cause he would start his cock-a-doodle-dooing at about 2:00am. It woke us up each time and Dw would mutter, “I’m gonna’ kill that thing” and I would say, “Oh, isn’t that the most beautiful sound in the world?” My poor husband just didn’t and still doesn’t appreciate the finesse of my feathery friends.

A couple of years passed and one dreadful Sunday morning, after Dw had left for church, the neighbor’s dog attacked and killed one of them. I was heartbroken. Thankfully Ezra was safe.

Eventually my Multiple Sclerosis was so bad that we put our home up for sale. Our plan was to sell our existing home, move to a rental and then build a handicap accessible home so it would be easier for me to maneuver with my cane. Even my wheelchair, Charlie, would be able to get around with ease.

But this presented a potential concern. If we had to go to a rental, what in the world were we going to do with Ezra? A friend had offered his home as our rental once our home sold, but the rental was on a super busy road and the house was right up near the road. There was no way that Ezra would survive in that rental house.

I loved little Ezra bunches! He would come up to the porch and just sit there as if to say, “the family hangs out on the porch, I’m family, so I ought to be here too.” He wasn’t mean ever {time challenged, yes}, but just a sweet, sweet guy. While pondering this Ezra dilemma, I also reasoned that it would be traumatic to move Ezra and try to get him to understand the whole moving thing and dangerous road thing.

So I started to pray. After all, if the Lord tells us to cast every single care we have on Him….then even Ezra would fit the “every, single care” criteria. I began to regularly ask the Lord, specifically, if He would make a way for Ezra to just remain with the house. I even asked the Lord to allow whomever the people were that would come to buy our home to fall in love with our Ezra and that they would want him to stay.

I am aware that not everyone has such a fascination with my feathery rooster friends. BUT God does care. He loves me enough to even care about my little feathery friend, Ezra. So months passed while we waited for the house to sell and we had a kajillion showings too….BUT one day my cell phone rang while I was checking out in WalMart. I will never forget where I was standing when Almighty God cared enough to show up about my Ezra. The phone call went like this:

Our realtor: Linn, this is Diana, we have an offer!!!

Me: Really? Oh Yippee Jesus!!! Is it a good offer??!

Diana: Yeah, but it’s really weird, Linn. The buyer’s agent said he had to ask me something before he presented the offer. They are out of town buyer but before they even will present the offer they want to know if you would be willing to leave the rooster. The rooster came up to them on the front porch and they just fell in love him and they don’t even want to talk about the offer until they know that you are willing to leave your rooster. Linn, that is the weirdest request I have EVER had…In all my years of real estate I have never had anyone want a rooster….blah, blah, blah…

Me (through shrieks of joy standing in the middle of WalMart): Oh YIPPEEE YIPPPEEE JESUS! Diana, God’s answered my prayers – I’ve been asking the Lord to allow the buyer to love and want Ezra and He did it Diana – He did it! (and then I went on to tell her the whole story since only Dw and the kids knew what my prayer had been)!

Oh yes, dear friends, there is a sweet little rooster sitting in our Memorial Box. It is a constant reminder that God even cares about the “little things” in our lives and He totally is the God of what would seem impossible (or even silly to some)!! I mean, seriously, what are the “odds” that someone would come to buy our home and want Ezra first off? Only the God of the universe could stir a couple’s heart whom we had never met before to love my little Ezra from the get-go and have such a direct and special request upfront, before they even presented the offer!!!! What an amazing God we serve!

Which brings me to the question: If God cares so much about providing a home for a little feathery friend of mine – how much more does He care and provide for the super, huge, gigantic, enormous, seemingly impossible things in your life? Exactly my point!! Yipppeee Jesus!!

So what has God done for you? How has He shown up? How has He reminded you that He’s got your back? Please share.

How do I enter a link to Memorial Box Monday?

Post the permalink from your blog below. A permalink is the URL to a specific blog post. In other words, each blog post has an address and the permalink is the street number and the avenue. For example, my blog address is http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/

But the permalink to this post is: http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/2010/06/memorial-box-monday-ezra.htm

To get the permalink, I simply clicked on the post title and it popped up in the address bar. On your blog you must link back here to this blog and that your post is part of Memorial Box Monday at A Place Called Simplicity…….

If you forget to link a permalink to your exact Memorial Box Monday post or forget to link your post back to A Place Called Simplicity, I will be forced to delete your Memorial Box Monday post, and I really, really would hate to have to do that.

And finally…..here is the scripture Memorial Box Monday is based on:

Joshua 4: 1-9
When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.” So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Isrealites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Isrealites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

 

3 thoughts on “Memorial Box Monday – Ezra

  1. that is awesome, you have made me fall in love with Ezra just from your words in this post! I love how God even cares for the small things in our lives, thanks for this reminder! :0)

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