an anniversary of death & birth

the Lord is gracious & merciful, & his timing is perfect.  the four-year anniversary of my dad's death is now the anniversary of my daughter's birth in jesus.  

all day long, april 19, heron had been asking me to tell her the parables of jesus, as we'd just listened to some songs where the concept of using parable stories (or song, rhyme, poetry), as jesus did, to communicate deeper truths about God's kingdom, was first introduced to her.  she was fascinated by this, & the parable-telling & parable-reading after we put shepherd to bed led to further conversations about sin that we'd been having for weeks.  she'd been telling me all day that she wanted to invite jesus into her heart that night.  & so she did!  after we prayed, we read & talked about ezekiel 36 : 26 & 27 which goes like this :

i will give you a new heart

and put a new spirit in you;

i will remove from you your heart of stone

and give you a heart of flesh.

and i will put my Spirit in you

and move you to follow my decrees

and be careful to keep my laws.

ever since, she has been telling everyone that she has a new heart now!  hallelujah!  congratulations, sweet little bird!