The Cahill's

Today is a very special day! One year ago God gave us a wonderful
little boy that has brought joy and laughter, love and blessings into
our lives.
Conner Andrew Jones (a.k.a. “the Nephew) had his first birthday today!

How he has grown since that first hospital visit a year ago.

                 
Some of his friends came to play.

           
           
        I think they had fun!

                       
There’s no time like the presents!

Connor loves Blue’s Clues and his party was themed on that show, so
Katie dressed up as Blue to entertain the children – much to Connor’s
delight.

Conner was a little unsure of this strange person…

…but soon he decided that Aunt Amy was okay. Another little girl took
a lot longer to warm up to me. I soon had her confidence and we had a
good time playing together however at the end of the party when I
thought everyone had left, I washed off my make up and came out only to
have her take one look and back away in wide eyed shock – it’s like
finding out that daddy is Santa Clause or Ronald McDonald has straight
hair!

I thank God for this wonderful little guy and the promise that his life
holds. His parents are committed to bringing him up in the way he
should go. They are a responsible, tightly knit family and this party
was thrown as evidence of the love and support that surrounds this guy.
As we anticipate the coming year, we cover the way in prayer that
Connor Andrew would follow in the footsteps of Jesus and grow in the
fear and admonition of the Lord.

This morning I went out to jog at the usual time: 6:00 am. I wear
contacts during the day but this early in the morning I just wear my
glasses. It was raining just a little when I started out, but not
enough to dissuade me. It did however cause me to see something in a
whole different way. When a car came towards me, the headlights were
magnified by all the raindrops on my glasses and nearly blinded me! The
two street lights out here and a few of the house lights were also
distracting and not useful, I was better off running in the dark. The
only time a light was helpful was when a car came up behind me.

This reminded me of the verse in Isaiah: And thine ears shall here a
word behind thee saying, this is the way, walk ye in it. Only in this
case it was a light from behind that showed me where to run. I thought
even further that we don’t run to the light of Jesus, he is right
there, telling us where to go; he is a lamp unto our feet and a light
unto our path. When walking toward the light you can’t see the path, I
could have swerved off of my course and fallen by the wayside or
gotten in the path of the oncoming car!

As I came to the halfway point something else came to mind; it seems
useless to run out to a point and then right back over all the ground
you just traveled, a circle would be so much better, I would feel more
accomplished. Sometimes it seems in our Christian life that we have to
go back over the same stuff we’ve already covered and we feel useless.
But why do I run? It’s for the benefits my body receives, not to
particularly go somewhere. God gives us a journey and cares not so much
where we go, but what work is being done in our life as the result.

Now, I run a long time so my mind has time to come up with lot’s of
stuff, so having started I kept looking for parallels.  The rain
was harder by now and  my wind pants  were sticking to my legs
and the rain was soaking through my sweatshirt. Boy, I couldn’t wait to
get back inside where it was warm and dry – aha! The life journey is
not always enjoyable, but it makes the destination much more
desirable. It also occurred to me that I didn’t run all day, just for a
little while out of each day and then I could rest and recuperate all
day long to be ready to go out again. We don’t always have to be
running and going through a really tough time, God gives us time to
recover and get ready to go again.

Finally, as I near the end of my run, I notice that the sky is getting
lighter. It’s almost as if I start out in total blind faith, hardly
able to see the next step in front of me. But the longer I run, the
more I am able to see because the light of God’s presence is there all
around me revealing more and more. The path doesn’t get easier –
there’s still hills and potholes – but I am more confident because of
what has been revealed to me through the light of His presence.