Compassion? What's that?

I received an email from an old friend the other day. Her daughters husband had a stroke. I know, we all know someone who has had some kind of major medical thing happen over the years. You just don't expect it will be someone you either know, or hold in such high esteem. Why is it that things like this almost always seem to take us by surprise? I think it's because we just get so into what we're doing, or the love that we share with others, that we just know things will be the way they are forever, right?
Well, I think that's how it is with me. I know, I can't speak for you, just saying.

I'd like to tell you a little about my friend and her family.
It's been so long since I've seen her, but the memories of her wonderful family will echo in my spirit forever. There might be one or two I'd would like to forget, but I wasn't following my Lord yet. And from what I know about life and cooking now, even tho all the stuff in the pot doesn't smell to good on it's own, somehow after they simmer altogether for awhile, it all starts to be pretty good. That's just how life goes, huh?
Anyway, a great memory I have of this precious lady's daughter is how she was when she got introduced to the King of Kings. You see, I was a no account, know it all, 20 something,( if that ), she was so excited to tell not just the whole family, but everyone she met about this Jesus. Wow. What a freak! I thought. I can't remember how many times she must have heard that. Or did we just say that behind her back? Don't know.
Her brother was a school chum of mine, and I would hang with the family often. What a family. I learned a lot there. Guess that's how I got to be privileged to see what I saw. How the seeds of the Gospel got planted in me with every smile and testimony we had to listen to from either her or her friend. I even remember his name, wow.

There was this one time, talk about crazy, her brother got hit by a car out on the road in front of their house. Bad, bad break. a compound fracture, I think they call it. The bone was broken right through the skin, as I remember it. We all go running down there and here she goes, she just laid her hands on him and began to pray out for a healing. right in the middle of the highway. Normal folks just don't do that, do they? Yeah they do. Well  that sure left an impression, I tell you. She knows about the love of the Father, and the compassion He has for His little ones. She knows.

I'm hanging out in Psalms 103 lately. and boy howdy, is there a whole bunch of love and compassion about our Father in here.
 ¹ Praise the LORD, my soul;
   all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the LORD, my soul,
   and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
   and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
   and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
   so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Here David is, what some might say, talking to himself. You know what I mean. You've been at it for days. Lots of windshield time and you've had enough of the c.b., the traffic, the problems from home that you just can't do anything about from 1000 miles away, you know, stuff.  He is encouraging himself in the knowledge that he has about the Father. Listen as the sheep tender turn king, speaks out loud, to and from his spirit, right to the Spirit and ear of God.  Read it again. The Psalm, I mean. Cool huh? Wait till you see this.
 ⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
   slow to anger, abounding in love.,
 ¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
   so great is his love for those who fear him;

I could put the whole Psalm here, but I would encourage you to read it all for yourself. Just Google Psalm 103 and you can read it right off the net.
 The bottom line is, no matter what your going through, no matter how bad you think it is, you have One that is closer than a brother. He so loves you and feels your pain. he understands you like nobody else and is always there when you turn towards Him.
The seeds this young one from the Jesus movement threw at me by her total abandoning love for Jesus then, I believe, was the same field that God would tear up once in a while to bring me closer to Him, until I finally got it. See for me there are other verses in here that move me. Things like;

⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
   slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse,
   nor will he harbor his anger forever;
¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve
   or repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
   so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
   so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
 ¹³ As a father has compassion on his children,
   so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed,
   he remembers that we are dust.

For me, if anyone deserved Gods wrath, it was me. If He was to treat me as my sins deserved, Oh God, I don't even want to dwell on that. Thank you Jesus! This is the God I serve and have come to know over the last few years.  I blow it on a daily basis. But regardless how bad, "He has compassion on those who fear Him".
My friend is going through some "stuff" right now. I've been through "stuff". You either have been, or you may even be going through it right now. He is right beside you.  Call upon His name and feel His compassionate love for you. You see, if I know anything, I know that as a believer in Jesus Christ, I want to be praying for others and doing all I can to serve them, ( Hope my dispatcher doesn't read that ), so that even if those around me are so not ready to come to Jesus, they might start remembering a few years from now. The goofy sayings. The smile. The laughter. The very fragrance of God that they encountered from time to time. If your a believer, are you leaving that kind of an impression? If your a brother trucker or pilgrim just out here trying to make ends meet and don't hardly know up from down. Know this, I am praying for you. I really have been there, done that and I really am praying for you. And He really does love you more than you'll ever know.

Be strong, Be courageous,

"Shorthaul"