El Shaddai, El Elyon, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nissi.... and so much more

Well, we made it home. A four and a half hour journey that took six and a half.... because of weather like this...

But it's okay, because we made it. One more testimony to the Lord's goodness and protection.

Now, as for the title:  El Shaddai is a name of God in Hebrew meaning "Lord God Almighty".  El Elyon is a name of God meaning "Most High God". Jehovah Rapha is a name of God meaning "The Lord who heals" and Jehovah Nissi is a name of God meaning "The Lord my banner".  Our God has shown Himself mighty in all these ways to us, specifically over the last 3 months.  He has shown that He is indeed ALMIGHTY and SOVEREIGN.  He has proven that He is most high and over all things and greatly to be praised.  He has shown that He heals in amazing ways... physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally.  And He has indeed shown that He is our banner, that is our source of hope, encouragement and victory! How can we not love Him more today than we ever have, given His proving of Himself to us in such tangible ways? Is that not what deepens our love for those we have our closest relationships with?  It is when we get to know them better and more closely than ever before that we see who they are and our love is anchored more deeply. We certainly have known and treasured that experience of our God, wrought by the deepest and strongest waters we have know so far in our short lives. Oh, how we pray that you could say the same only without the waters. 

I said in my post on Tuesday that we did not want to make any worthless trades.  What I meant was from Psalm 106.  No matter what news we received, we didn't want to trade our honoring of the Lord in faith, for something worthless like worry, anxiety, fear or faithlessness.  We prayed for that many times on our trip our to Cleveland and I believe our hearts were ready for whatever the Lord had for us.

Thankfully God had great news in store.  Dr. Roselli, who is amazing by the way, said everything looked great and he very much liked the way all of the test looked.  He said everything healed nicely and he released me to return to work, full duty and no restrictions, on Monday January 9th! Just as we had hoped! Thank you Dr. Roselli, thank you to all of you who have followed along and prayed and Thank you to our faithful God!

I started this blog because so many of you out there were interested in following our story and had asked for updates and a way to keep up.  I said in the beginning I wasn't a blogger and I still contend that is true.... it feels strange to say otherwise.  That said, some of you have asked me to keep writing.  I'm not sure about that but I will think about it.  At very least, I'll give things a little more time of being back at work and see if anyone still holds interest in what might be said here. 

So, for now, I'll leave it at that and plan for at least one more summary and/or conclusion post. 

Praise God for what He has done.... and for some of you, I'll see you Monday!