Wednesday, December 13th -

A long time ago, 12 spies were sent on a very important mission from God to do recognizance work in a foreign land. They were supposed to scout the region and its inhabitants to decide whether or not they and their people could move in and settle; to make a life for themselves. Upon completing their mission, 10 of the 12 reported that there was no way that they could survive in this foreign land. The odds were stacked way too high against them. According to these ten, the land was tempting, the opportunities were inticing, but the inhabitants of the land were too big and powerful. These foreigners appeared shifty and seemingly could not be trusted. There was no way that these ten spies could reccommend that their own people could move in, establish themselves, and survive. The fear of the unknown paralyzed the ten spies with a debilitating mistrust that they passed on to their superiors who had initially sent them on the mission.

But what of the other two spies? What was their report? They had witnessed the same things that the other ten had seen. Their hearts had been gripped with the same fears that had gripped the hearts of the other ten.

However, where their other ten comrades viewed the glass as half empty, they saw the glass as half full. The other ten believed that their mission had yielded lemons; these two took the lemons and made lemonnade. The skepticism of the ten was challenged by the optimism of the two.

These two spies believed that God was on their side. These two spies believed that with God, anything was possible. These two spies had faith. They had faith in God. They had faith that God would see them and their people through seemingly impossible odds. They had the kind of faith that moves mountains. Eventually, the testimony of the two outweighed the testimony of the ten.

God used Joshua and Caleb to encourage the Israelites to persevere. God is using Tom and Margaret in a similar fashion. They have blindly moved into a foreign land where all odds have been stacked against them. They have moved away from a comfortable place where they knew that they were loved and cared for. They have moved to a place that is unfamiliar. They have moved because God told them to. This move required faith. It required a faith that was as strong as the faith of Joshua and Caleb. With reservations, they made the leap to Tennessee, but just like with the Israelites in the Old Testament, God has provided!

Margaret, for the time being, is cancer free. Blood work and CAT scans have confirmed this. Her new and highly respected oncologist has told her that she does not need to come back in to see him until March. No one really knows what this means exactly, but that is okay. Is it really gone, or is it just hiding? Is she cured or merely in remission? Who knows? All we know for sure is that God is good, and that she and Tom have the faith of Joshua and Caleb. May the rest of us grasp the same type of faith in our own lives so that God might work similarily with us. Giants are indeed frightening, but the will of God is suffecient!