You can be a point of light. You can make the difference in someone else’s life.
Shine light into someone’s darkness. Be the “Someone” who helps another cross the street. Be the first person who really SEES someone!
Twenty-twenty – the year of 20/20 Vision
My New Year’s Resolution for 2020 was to “Walk the Talk.” Little did I know on January 1, 2020 how many opportunities I would have to do just that!
You, too, have the chance every day to be the Point of Light for someone. You have the chance to be what God made you to be, “A Point of Light.” Someone is just waiting and listening… knowing you’ll be there.
Some days I long for a day at the beach With loving hands within my reach I get impatient for this virus to end So I can dance on in the waves with a friend
Jeff Cook in These Days (Daily Devotions for Living by Faith)
“My impatience usually stems from my inability to simply fix everything. Lord, help me be patient with myself and others.”
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes With sighs too deep for words.”
So I sit by the water’s edge dreaming Of the ocean’s shore and scheming My next trip to listen to seagull’s cries And the chance to dance where sea foam flies.
I pray that you have a peace-filled day, my friends.
I am imagining myself dancing with you on this shore! Love dances with longing… See you tomorrow. Hugs, JanBeek
Angels are with us In every walk of our life Most have hidden wings
My angel friend, Terry, sent me this Jana Stanfield video. She said I am her angel. Truth is: she is mine!
Can it be that we serve one another As angels here on earth? Can it be that you are one, too?
Look at these darling children. Each of them is an angel here on earth. They just keep their wings hidden! (Except for the cymbalist… I think I see his wings peeking out!)
“Somewhere amongst them, or betwixt them, or gazing adoringly up at them just like you, here I am.”
That was a sentence I captured on a blog yesterday, but didn’t get the author’s name. I apologize. If you know who wrote this, please tell me in the comments below and I’ll add it. It is angelic writing, don’t you agree?
Sending God’s love to you, my friends.
I have a host of angels here on earth who bring God’s love to me on a daily basis. I bet you do, too. Think about them today. Reach out and thank them today for the joy they bring to you.
Some of my Angels
My daughter, De
Our #2 daughter Laina, and my hubby, Bob
This is Bob’s older brother, Bill, with his wife, Margie. Bob’s family members are angels in our lives.
With them is our son, Ty, and daughter-in-love, Monika. We are so blessed to have Tyroneee and Moni as angels among us.
Here is Terry (the friend who sent me Jana Stanfield’s angel song) with her husband, our friend, Jim. Can you just see what angels they are? We call Terry “SPARKLES!” She sparkles with love and compassion.
When I came home from the hospital after my recent hernia surgery, Terry sent Bob to get me at the hospital with this angel blanket that’s now draped over my bedroom chair. That’s what angel friends do: they wrap you warmly in their loving arms… and send you kisses!
This collage of photos from my sister, Sally, has several angels pictured on it. My dad to start with – bottom center – what an angel! My sis and my niece, Jodie with her son, Liam and husband, Bill. They are angels in my life, too.
And if you look closely, you can see Sally with TazE… our Boston Terrier. She was going to be named “Angel.” I had that name all picked out for her – until we met her!! TazE was a Tasmanian Devil (Taz) with E for Ears to match her bouncy personality and oversized ears. No, she was not an angel at all. But she has quieted down in her old age (she’s nine now) and maybe she qualifies as an angel in my life at this time. You think?
Chris is one of my three Swiss grandsons. He lived with us for a while last year … and was such an angel in our lives. Our seven grandchildren continue to be angels. Here is my youngest granddaughter, Faith (now 24) … Of course, she’s an angel in our lives!
I hope you have a BFF – (Best Friend Forever) – a long term angel friend – someone you can count on in all circumstances – someone like my friend, Marcie:
She just called me while I was creating this blog… just to express condolences about my cousin, Cliff. What a thoughtful, sweet, angel friend Marcie is!!
We all have angels in our lives. People we will love until the end of time… people who exude God’s love. They are compassionate and considerate. They seem to know when we need them and they are there at the most important times. God bless the angels among us!
Each of you who comes to JanBeek and bothers to read and comment is An Angel of Mine!
What you mean to me, you’ll never know…. You came at just the right time into my life- and I want to share it with you… I appreciate you so much!
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”
Come on in! I can have a meal ready for you in minutes. Our home is a place where we welcome all who welcome all! We want you to feel at home here!
Come sit on the porch and enjoy the view to the north!
Turn your head to the east and enjoy the Madison Range.
Come to the front door and knock!
Or just walk right in – because we don’t have a solid wood door where I can put a beautiful knocker. Our front doors are glass. The entry welcomes you with words on the wall that say “The greatest of these is love.” The word art was a Mother’s Day gift from our son & his wife, that first May after we moved here.
Hah! You can’t read it… it’s backward for some reason… and it’s blurry… but trust me, it says, “The Greatest of These is Love” right above the windows.
Those are the stairs that lead up to my sanctuary – my “Angel Room.”
A few years later I asked my friend, Lexi, to paint a red rose next to those words.
So, that is what you see when you enter our home here in Ennis, Montana.
Our Dream House
But, this house has not always been my “dream home.” I don’t have a photo of my original dream house. It was in Heber City, Utah. I lived with that house on my screensaver in California for a year. We were ready to retire, looking for a place away from the growing congestion of California. We saw it near Salt Lake City, Utah. We toured it, fell in love with it, put a bid on it, and I dreamed of living there. But, the Lord had other ideas, I guess. The owner never responded to our perfectly generous offer, even after we went back a year later and put another bid on it.
The house was made of logs from the 1988 Yellowstone fire. Many of the logs still had the scorch marks on them. The front door was a massive wood entry with no handle. It had a lovely knocker like the one pictured at the top of this blog.
When you knocked on the door and someone came to let you in, a painting of Jesus (clearer and more beautiful than the one below) was on the wall just inside. The scripture from Revelations 3:20 was written beneath the painting.
The house seemed God-inspired – and I longed to live there.
However, it seems that Utah was not the place God had in mind for us.
This house, in this Pintail Ridge neighborhood, with lovely neighbors, this church in Ennis with these friends… this was (is) God’s dream house for us. When we put in a bid here, everything went like clockwork. (By the way, the trees were much smaller 15 years ago, and you could see the house from Mallards Roost Road clearly. Now we have a lovely forest!)
You can even see the sanctuary windows and that back porch where I invite you to sit with me.
In God’s Will
Have you ever noticed that when you are walking in God’s will, the path seems smoother?
When you are walking in God’s will, deals ultimately work out better than you could have dreamed.
When you tune in to God’s will for your life, you end up in a better spot than any place you could have imagined for yourself!!
So, come on in, my friends! Mi casa es su casa!
Thanks for visiting JanBeek today.
Sending Love <3
Thank you – so many of you- who sent your love following yesterday’s blog when I told you about my heavy heart following the death of my cousin, Cliff. Your outreach warmed my heart.
My heart is heavy. God answered my fervent prayer. So why am I sad?
My cousin, Cliff, died. I received the news today: God answered my prayer.
I prayed for freedom – Freedom from this earthy pain. Our God is faithful.
His family gathered; All his loved ones surrounded, And God took him home.
God of Great Mercy, Thank you for answering prayer. Now, heal my heart’s hole!
Cliff & Janine with their two daughters and sons-in-law, two sons, daughter-in-law, and three grandsons
Cliff and Janine are two of my favorite people in the world! And now Cliff has left this world… but he lives on in the hearts of all of us who will always love him.
Janine’s mom is my second cousin, Betty. Her mom was my mom’s oldest sister’s oldest daughter.
That sounds rather confusing and maybe like a “distant relative”… but there is nothing distant about my relationship with Janine. I was twelve when my family drove from California to Washington to visit mom’s family near Seattle in Issaquah… and to meet Aunt Evelyn’s first grandchild.
Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Hans were my first connection to the land of Switzerland which claimed our daughter DeAna about two dozen years later! Uncle Hans immigrated from the German part of Switzerland to the state of Washington. Their daughter, my cousin, Betty, with her husband, Nick, lived right across the alleyway from her parents. Knowing we were there, she came over with her new baby, Janine. You know my name in JAN – and so I immediately claimed JANine as my own!!
I was there for Cliff and Janine’s wedding. I claim Cliff as my cousin, too!
Cliff was “Opa” to his three grandsons. A more doting and loving grandfather never graced this earth! I am so sad that those three boys will not have the presence of the Opa as they grow into adulthood. And the youngest one is too little to have lasting memories of him. It makes me cry!
Cliff was a robust man – a former University of Washington champion rower – weighing over 200 pounds most of his adult life. Cancer and the chemo treatments wasted away his body and took away his strength – and eventually his life. But his spirit lives on.
He’ll remain strong and robust forever in all of us who knew and loved him.
We are a vast array of Cliff-Dwellers!
Love and condolences to Hans, Stefan, Janine, Heidi, and Erika
God bless you, my Word Press family. Thank you for praying for my cousin, JANine, and her family. See ya tomorrow. JanBeek
Thank you for all the sweet responses and inspiring messages that helped make my 81st birthday so memorable. I love my WordPress community!
I had a “Selah Day” yesterday to pause and absorb all the many gifts of cards, calls, messages, cakes, cookies, and candles. Yes, I’m spoiled!
It’s Sunday, so of course, Bob & I went to church this morning. Our worship service was outside. It’s a beautiful day here in Ennis, Montana. Thank you, God, for the sunshine and mild temperatures in the 70s. Everyone wore masks and socially distanced. The sermon topic was based on two New Testament scriptures: Romans 8:26-30 (A Wonderful Future for God’s People) and Matthew 13: 31-33 (The mustard seed and the yeast).
Hope in Difficult Times (as usual I took my notes in poetry as I listened. Here they are:)
Bombarded daily with bad news, It’s hard to keep our spirits up. But reading the Bible is a fresh breath Of positivity and love that fills our cup.
The parables of the mustard seed and The yeast that magically rises the dough Are examples of Jesus’ storytelling. They are hard to easily explain, though.
Trying to explain the parables is like Describing photosynthesis to a four-year-old. You can say all you want to explain them, But we need simplicity in what we’re told!
See the mystery of God’s world. Don’t try to explain it away. Look at the wonders of creation And let the mystery come into play!
It’s okay to read and not understand How God makes the world work. It’s okay to wonder and say “I don’t know,” We can’t see it all – Some’s in the dirt!
Some of the greatest miracles Of Jesus are buried from our minds. We can’t see the way His mysteries Play out – but we see the love that binds!
Look at how the mountains skip, And the trees clap their hands, And know that these exaggerations Are part of the Power where God stands.
Read the Bible not with a microscope, But with a telescope so that you Can see the bigness of His Word. He’s bigger than our understanding – That’s so true!
The music that accompanied our worship service today was so appropriate to this world we currently are trying to navigate. Sing along … the words are here for you on this You.Tube:
Lord, show me the Way, one day at a time! Help me believe in what I could be – and all that I am. Just give me the strength to do every day what You want me to do. So for my sake, teach me to take – One Day at a Time. Show me the Way!
The other song that we had printed on song sheets so we could sing along was “Mansion Over the Hilltop.” I had not heard it before. Have you?
In our call to confession, we read in unison these words from our bulletins:
“Let us trust in the words of the Psalmist who said, ‘The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit,’ as we lay our burdens before our God.”
The biggest burden on my heart today is this big guy pictured on the left in the photo below. My cousin, Cliff, is shown here with three of his rowing buddies from the University of Washington. Cliff is losing his battle with cancer.
I lay my burdened heart before God as I asked for prayers for my cousin, Cliff Hurn. He is in his last days of trying to fight off cancer. He has fought the good fight and he is tired. Hospice has been called in and his family has gathered around. Please pray for his wife, Janine, his family, and all of us who love him so much.
I posted about Cliff early on in his battle. The link to one of those blogs is: https://janbeek.blog/2019/11/09/prayers-for-cliff/ You can see him there surrounded by his wonderful wife and two daughters. Please pray for Cliff today.
Every time Bob and I see someone who is driving like they don’t have a brain in their gray and wrinkled head, we comment to one another, “Too many birthdays!” We’ve been doing that for years. And guess what? Now we are they!!
Gray and wrinkled Bob with graying TazE… Hey, her butt didn’t used to be gray!!!
Well, at least HE is they! At 81 (he’ll be 82 in December), Bob is 5 months ahead of me. He’ll always be older! I can smile in the rear view mirror, wear a hat to cover the gray, and pretend I’m still a young chick! Heck, age is just a matter of how you feel, right? HEALTH is everything! Love is essential. God is good!
Yup, today is my birthday… and for the next 5 months, Bob & I are the same age. No way!!
The hair may be gray, and the face has a few added wrinkles with “too many birthdays,” but age is a matter of the MIND. Right? If you don’t mind, I don’t mind!
Just don’t call me old!!
Tell me I’m “bee-YOU-tiful” like this card I received yesterday from Bob’s sister! (Thank you, Bonnie)
And pick a few flowers from your garden to decorate your table… like my neighbor, Sue, did yesterday. (God bless her)
Keep singing and dancing (ya gotta keep movin’), writing and blogging your thoughts, dreaming and making those dreams come true, living your passions, and you’ll never have “Too Many Birthdays” – no matter how many years the calendar tells you!!
It’s time to open presents, sing the birthday song, blow out a few candles (don’t try to count them!) and praise God for the years he has given me “Too Many Birthdays!” I’ll take ’em all – gladly!
I’m happy to be in the passenger seat! I thank God every day for my health, and for my driver, Bob!
Have a Fabulous Friday! I’ll see you tomorrow and tell you all about my “Happy (not too many) Birthday!”