The Ties that Bind

PRAISE THE Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God, for He is gracious and lovely; praise is becoming and appropriate…He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds [curing their pains and their sorrows]. ~Psalm 147:1,3

He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds…God showed me something really amazing in prayer one day at our church concerning this passage. I saw this picture of myself standing at the keyboard during worship, with this gigantic rope tied around me- it had an oversized knot (like a clever Navy-knot) and it was keeping me from falling over. He then took me to a picture of a few people in my life who were broken, and there was yet again, that same huge rope tying them all so tight they couldn’t fall over if they tried. There was a sense of security in the ropes, they didn’t seem restrictive, but instead, were security and safety and refuge.

Some may know the path God has taken me on this past year, others may not. It wasn’t an easy way, and there were many times I felt broken, or like breaking down. Through every step, however, He kept me from falling to the left or the right. I look back and am so overwhelmed by His goodness to His broken, imperfect children.

I feel that Billy was a God-send to me. My heart was finally turned soley toward the Lord...and only He knew at what point that really happened (no matter how many times I said it was)....and then...He gave me the most perfect fit-for-a-life-partner. One day we will truly be bound spiritually-physically-emotionally in marriage.

And though a man might prevail against him who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. ~Ecclesiastes 4:12

I really feel like another tool God uses to bind us is with family ties. There are family ties that do not tear apart! I was able to see this very evidently about 2 weeks ago.

Billy was in town, and had a family wedding in Dallas. We were going to make the trip, and meet his folks and younger brother there (they had to fly in from Cali). My parents decided to drive up as well, and meet the Burciaga fam. for themselves.

I’ll have to admit, I was anxious for this to finally take place, This was a VERY BIG DEAL that would affect our future lives-to see how my future family (in laws) would function and mesh with mine.

We got there, and almost immediately he and I both realized this was going to be a very easy trip. We were so blessed, they loved each other and they had much to talk about! He and I sat off to the side, in our own little la-la land, all googly eyed, without a care or need to know how everyone was feeling- or reacting to one another. What a peace of God there was with us all.

As Billy and I drove home, we agreed this trip solidified our ties as well. We already knew we loved each other, and each other’s family, but now, this was for real. His family was MY family, and vice versa. Oh how good our God is to know us! To know what we need- who we need- and when we need it!

God ties us- to Himself- to one another- and just plain ties us up when we feel too broken to stand on our own. He does all of this with His cords of love! Sweet Jesus lovin’.

“The Woman Who Brought Us Thanksgiving”

by Harold Ivan Smith


Most Americans associate Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims. Fifty-one survivors of the Mayflower gathered to celebrate after their first fall harvest. Governor William Bradford proclaimed it a day of thanksgiving.But during the next century and a half, thanksgiving was an irregular celebration, varying from community to community, dependent at times upon the religious and political climates and the attitudes of individual governors.

Then the victory of the Americans over the British at Saratoga in October, 1777 prompted the Continental Congress to set aside December 18 as a day of thanksgiving and praise to be observed by all the colonies.

On September 28, 1863, Sarah Josepha Buell Hale wrote President Abraham Lincoln urging him to make the annual Thanksgiving “a national and fixed Union Festival.” By this time, she had built the circulation of her magazine, Godey’s Ladies Book to 150,000. Hale’s letter could not be ignored. Nor her editorials. Her annual Thanksgiving editorial in Godey’s opened with Nehemiah 8:10: “Then he said unto them, ‘Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy unto our Lord; neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’”

Hale argued, from her strong Episcopal faith, that if Nehemiah set aside a time of thanksgiving in a time of national stress, “in a time of national darkness and sore troubles, shall we not recognize the goodness of God never faileth, and that to our Father in heaven we should always bring the Thanksgiving offering at the ingathering of the harvest?”

Lincoln weighed the matter and decided that the timing was right for something that would promote national unity. He ordered Seward to draft the proclamation.

Early on October 3, Lincoln read the proclamation: “The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and helpful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.”

Seward wrote, “No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gift of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”

Lincoln commended Seward for a project “well done” and then focused on the last paragraph: “I do, therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Brown Sugar

We were doing our morning devotional this morning, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the translation they used on a well-known verse, Luke 6:38… it said,
“Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

…for with the measure you use… I couldn’t help but envision my left hand holding a tablespoon, and my right holding a 2 cup measuring glass (or better yet the Pampered Chef 4-cup’er one). If someone was offering me something good and tasty, would I prefer to have just a pinch? Or a handful! The answer is obvious.

Then we continued to search out the same scripture…and we came across the New Living Translation, saying,
“If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving large or small it will be used to measure what is given back to you."

…pressed down…to make room for more…this time, I thought of a recipe calling for brown sugar. How do we measure brown sugar? It’s lumpy, and soft, and it doesn’t measure evenly. We have to PRESS IT DOWN, and MAKE ROOM FOR MORE.

Am I liberal enough in my thoughts/words/actions toward others that my generosity has to be pressed down, continually making room for more generosity? I want to love others abundantly, to give substantially, and to using the biggest possible measuring glass.