Kathy K. Norman
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God Provides: He is Reliable When Life is Not

3/20/2019

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Update March 18, 2020: I first posted this devotional to my website on March 20,2019. I never imagined that one short year later we would be living through a worldwide pandemic. And yet, here we are. The Covid-19 coronavirus spans the globe. During these unsettled times, it encourages me to remember my favorite name for God: Jehovah Jireh, the God Who Provides. In the midst of disease, death, confusion, and uncertainty, I get up each day and do my part to slow the spread of the virus and flatten the curve. We don't know how long we will need to self-quarantine. We don't know when the disease will peak, We don't even have enough testing capability to know how many of us are already infected. But, I do know this. Even now: Jehovah Jireh.

The first year Vic and I were married, getting by financially was a struggle. We lived in a tiny apartment located in a deteriorating area of Birmingham. It had a leaky gas hot water heater that forced us to leave the windows open 24/7, even in winter, so we wouldn’t suffocate from the fumes during the night. It was furnished in an eclectic mix of cast offs from relatives, flea market finds, and homemade treasures. Burglars broke into it three different times but never took anything because we didn't own a single thing valuable enough to steal. We were young, madly in love, and finally on our own, so obviously, we thought it was the most awesome apartment in the history of the world. 
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Vic was in medical school and I taught first grade at a small Christian school. We had a very limited income, a strict budget, and $10 per week to spend on groceries. I made a lot of "rice and" dishes: rice and a smidgen of meat, rice and beans, rice and a can of soup. I devised a creative bill-paying system. I kept the bills in a drawer in our secondhand desk arranged by due date and paid them in order every month until we ran out of money. There were always a couple left over that rotated to the top of the stack to be paid first the next month. It worked. No angry bill collectors pounded on our door and the utilities were never turned off. Life was good.
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Sometime during that year, we heard a sermon at our church on the different names for God. One intriguing name comes from a complicated narrative found in Genesis chapter 22. The short version is that Abraham trudged agonizingly up a mountain to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. On the way up, he spied a ram caught in a thicket to offer to God instead. Filled with gratitude that his son was spared, Abraham named that place Jehovah Jireh, which means The Lord Who Provides. It’s a strange story but it has a happy ending and it’s the source of one of our favorite names for God. Those two words became our secret faith code to each other. Every time we were backed into a financial corner, we just smiled and said, Jehovah Jireh.
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Vic made a rustic hand-carved plaque to hang on our apartment wall inscribed with that precious name for God to remind us to trust in the Lord when things get difficult. That little plaque has traveled with us everywhere we have lived. We moved 16 times in the first 14 years of our marriage, so it has been on quite a journey. It hung on walls in the homes we lived in during medical school, residency, and a stint at seminary. It wandered all over Alabama, went to North Carolina, and traveled with us to Bogota and Barranquilla, Colombia where we served as missionaries. Today it hangs on a wall by the back entryway of our home so we see it every day as we go in and out of the house 
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Back then, I thought of God’s provision only in the limited terms of our financial needs. Four decades later, I know that it goes far beyond that. We lived in Colombia during the dangerous drug war years. There was constant fighting and violence. An embassy was bombed a few blocks from the corner where we stood waiting for a bus. In a city of seven million people, God provided a friend who happened by and drove us to safety. Our car was stolen at gunpoint with our two small children in the backseat. God provided a way for us to get them safely out before the two armed robbers raced off with the car.
 
The Lord continued to provide for all our needs after we moved back to the states. When people I loved died, God provided comfort and strength to put one foot in front of the other. When relationships fractured, God provided either the grace for forgiveness or the strength to walk away. When I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, God helped me discover healthy living strategies that led to my recovery.

​In the darkest moments of life, God provides his great light to help me find my way. He fills me with his presence, grace, mercy, peace, and love. He opens my eyes to see that possibilities are everywhere. He cultivates in me a sense of gratitude that comes from him alone. He teaches me to bloom where I am planted, living a faith of hope and joy. 
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Jehovah Jireh. Yes, indeed!
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Bloom Devotionals for Women

3/6/2019

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​Even though it’s March and I live in the deep south, there’s a freeze warning for tonight. The forecast says it’s going down to 24. You’d never know it by looking out my windows. Daffodils are blooming all over the front yard. Red tulips are poking up through the dead leaves. The quince bush is a riot of fuchsia. Tiny white flowers are unfurling on the Bradford pear trees. The yellow bells rhododendron, and wildflowers are popping up everywhere. It may feel like winter, but it surely does look like spring. The contrast is startling. 
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I’ve been thinking for a while now about adding a devotional blog for women to my website. This morning, I shrugged into my jacket and went outside pondering about what form it should take.I crunched through the fallen leaves to touch the flowers. I watched chickadees race to the bird feeders dangling from the barren tree branches. Spring taunted winter and I wondered which would win.
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I thought about how often my life is like that. I’m a paradox trapped in winter when what I want to do is rush headlong into spring. Hope and despair, peace and chaos, faith and fear, sadness and joy struggle to gain a foothold in my life. Some days, I wonder which will win. I know the desire of my heart. I want to bloom and become and be all the beautiful things God intends for me to be. I want to live a faith full of hope and joy
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And just like that, there it was. I knew what kind of devotionals I want to share with my readers. Women have so much to give to the world. We are each as unique as the thousands of different flowers growing on this earth, Sometimes, we may feel lost in a season of lifeless cold and darkness. But, as women of faith, we have the hope that this season will pass, that the time of warmth and flowers will return.
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So, welcome to Bloom: Living a Faith of Hope and Joy. May we bloom and grow together in the incomparable grace of God the Father, the unconditional love of Jesus the Son, and the radiant light of the Holy Spirit. It may feel like winter. But spring is coming.
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    I love to read and write devotionals that focus on joy and practical faith. I'm a fan of camping, traveling, healthy living, and practical life hacks about everything. 

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