the Redemptive factor

One time my Journalist Friend, Cheri, featured "Six Words that Define Your Life" on her blog.  I think there's a book along that vein.
My 6:  Always looking for the redemptive factor.

Redemption - restoring that which has been lost (6 words!) - is really the thrust of Christ's message.  "Behold, I make all things new." (that's 6 words too; such a coincidence)

New, fresh, restored, redeemed!  Could there possibly be a more inspiring Promise?  If that doesn't get one out of bed with a bounce, we better find the fibulator; the pulse is MIA.

Redemption:  the crocus in the crack

the Cross in the crossfire

Redemption on display:
1)  The dysFUNctional family featured in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape."  Goodwill and charity triumph through every fiber of the family quilt.  Lots of Bad Boy stains in that quilt but, nevertheless, God is among them.


2)  My forever friend, Laura Jean, is running her 2nd marathon in Boulder, CO, this LaborLess Weekend.  She runs in memory of her daughter, Pearl Jean, who died shortly after arrival at birth.  Laura and Josh opted to trust God with their  9-month gestation and run the full course of the pregnancy knowing that moments after Pearl arrived, she would leave this earth and be present with the Lord.  Laura and Josh launched a ministry non-profit for families that experience the heartbreaking devastation of entrusting a newborn to the Everlasting Arms when their arms are bereft of their child.
"To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord."  These courageously righteous families know they will hold their child again.  But not here.  They wait for Redemption!

Laura finding God in the midst.
As always, the Lamb wins!

3) Three redemptive memoirs:  Clarence Thomas, "My Grandfather's Son."  Condoleezza Rice's "Extraordinary, Ordinary People."  Thomas Sowell, "A Personal Odyssey."  Redemption on steroids!