As for God, his way is perfect:
    The Lord’s word is flawless;
    he shields all who take refuge in him

Psalm 18:30 (NIV)

REFLECTIONS ON THE SUNDAY SERMON

February 16, 2025

Pastor Cliff Werline, Speaker

“Lord, be my shield,” I prayed as I started my car at 6:15 am on a cold Friday. Since my retirement from teaching in June, I hadn’t needed to be out in the winter’s morning hours, but today my daughter needed me. Living with a condition known as “iron-deficiency anemia”, Bonnie requires iron infusions every few months to bolster her red blood cells. Usually, her husband is able to take her to the series of five infusions over three weeks, but Jared was unable to get off today. I was happy to help.

But driving when it is still dark out is not something I do lightly. I have a visual disorder called keratoconus which causes double-vision and “halos” around lights. Still, a mom does what a mom has to do.

“Be my shield and my buckler!” I said as I drove the twenty minutes to her house. “I take refuge in you, Lord!”

God is perfect. As Pastor Cliff pointed out on Sunday, there are very few “perfect” things in the world. Among those scarce things are the Word of God and the Sacrifice of Jesus. Nothing else is truly flawless. While the pearl in John Steinbeck’s book, The Pearl, is said to be “perfect, reflecting light and refining it,” only God and his law are perfect.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
    refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
    making wise the simple.

Psalm 19:7

As any of my ninth-grade high school students could tell you, having the “perfect pearl” did not work out so well for Kino and Juana.

How much better to trust in the promises of God! God is always faithful to his promises.

God treated me to a beautiful view of the sunrise on my drive, and as I pulled up to Bonnie’s house, I thanked God for his protection and faithfulness. God, however, wasn’t finished. He had something else in mind to gladden my heart.

Bonnie and I were sitting in the waiting room at the hematologist and we started talking about her brother, Allen, an adult with autism spectrum disorder. Back in October, I’d done one of the hardest things a mother could ever have to do: I committed him to a psychiatric hospital because his autism mixed with traumatic grief had spiraled him out of control.

“He’s come a long way since the hospital,” my daughter commented. “When he calls me every day, he actually has a conversation with me.”

I nodded. People at church also mentioned that Allen was more engaged during and after services.  Finally agreeing to medication, my son was adjusting to a life in which he had more control. “He wants to learn to cook more things,” I told my daughter.

Just then, a woman sitting in a chair across from us broke in.”I don’t mean to interrupt,” she said. “But are you talking about someone with autism?”

I told her it was my son and she told me she had a niece on the spectrum. We conversed for the next few minutes as Bonnie went into get her infusion, and I reached into my purse and pulled out a card that had the link and QAR to my blog. “I write about autism, ” I told her, “among other things. Maybe you would be interested in reading it.”

She took the card. “I am signing up now!” she said. And she did. We talked for a few more minutes, sharing the knowns and the unknowns about the spectrum disorder,  until she, too, was called back.

Among the many reasons I retired–and I had a hundred!–was the desire to write more about autism and widowhood combined with faith. And I had just had the opportunity to reach one more person.

 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

II Corinthians 1:20

This world, Cliff reminded us, is just a shadow of what we will one day experience. Yet if we allow ourselves to, we can experience the glory of God wherever we are, even in a waiting room.

Where can you find God today?

Linda Cobourn also writes at  Quirky: Because we’re all a little different