Francy's New Morning

Jordan’s bedroom and the living room are the                                  Teenagers can sleep anywhere! dumping grounds while other rooms get finished Our bedroom is next! The “after” pictures don’t mean much if I don’t see the “before and during.” I want to appreciate how much was done to improve our house, to remember everything Samaritan’s Purse did for our family and share this with others. We did nothing to deserve their help; we just had to be willing to accept their generous gift. This is such a picture of what God has done for the world. This ugly, messy, broken house from the storm that I never want to see again is like the sin in our past that God forgives and forgets after repentance. In Romans 3:23, He says: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But He doesn't leave us like this and walk away; like the good Samaritan—God stay...

  My view never changes. From my small room, B bed, I have a window to the outside world. One white birch tree hugs a chain link fence, and the top half of a tennis dome rises above it. I can’t see the ocean that lives only three blocks away; but on a quiet night when James isn’t snoring next to me, and most residents are sleeping, I listen to the rhythm of the waves, crashing against the shore. I smell the salty air from my open window, and imagine being a captain of a ship—sometimes a pirate ship to add adventure to my dreams.   Did I tell you I’m almost fifty? Thirty years a quadriplegic, more than half my life. The first half I was into extreme sports—anything most people thought I was crazy for trying.   Hang-gliding, freestyle snowboarding, and my last adventure in motorcycle racing. I can’t remember the accident, but I remember hearing someone say, “His chances are fifty/ fifty,” before I opened my eyes. I never knew the family in the car I hit; they remain...