Well, I do believe this will be my last entry for Brodie on Caring Bridge. As the Lord's timing would have it, Brodie has been released from care at Gillette Children's as of today. YIPEE!!!!!
About a month ago, Brodie had taken an impact test that allowed him to increase activity slowly over a 4 week process. Today was the follow up visit after having been back to full, including sports/running activity, for a week.
The timing of this is quite profound, as Brodie turned 14 last Friday. This coming weekend, he will be having a sleep over with a couple of friends. One of them will have been at a funeral the night before for a friend around their age who just died in a car accident along with his mom. It couldn't be any more clear that for us to be anything less than overwhelmingly thankful to the Lord would be a complete tragedy.
We want to leave the way we began this journey. With a simple declaration that God is good, He's always good, He never changes. We have had a year that has been highlighted by a few unsettling things. We are by far not the only ones. I'd have to say that pretty much everyone we know has had shaking in their life in 2008. I mean EVERYONE we know. It has been a crazy year. Many people have lost so much. Including many things that the world would tell us to hold onto as our securities. What our family has found, is that nothing this world has to offer could have even begun to hold our weak knees in this past year. There are no government programs that exist that could have held our hearts or bottled our tears during our past trials. Our roots in Christ have gone deep, and we can't even begin to verbalize how fantastic this journey has been. Yeah, I know that sounds weird. Hard? Yes. However, when God does a work in our lives and hearts, it's for real, it's profound, and it oozes with joy even when everything around us crumbles.
Brodie is not our only, but certainly would have to be our greatest testimony in the past year of how the Lord walked us through something really hard, and in turn revealed to us parts of His character we now have first hand experience with. Brodie's recovery has been nothing less than phenomenal. Praise be to the one who does exceedingly, abundantly, above all we could ever think or imagine. Jesus is the one and final answer to any question, any trouble, any hurt, any loss of money, or loss of life.
We can only pass on to others what we know to be true. If your life is shaking a little or a lot, if what you're doing is not bringing you peace in the storm, seriously consider diving in and asking Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to walk you through. Begin to live an intentional life of searching Him out through His Word. In John 1:1, the Bible says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". When we read the Word of God, we are reading a person. He IS the Word. Begin to "eat" the Word of God, and instead of total destruction and a feeling of loss, He'll do what He does best. He'll work in you a plan to bring you closer to His heart so you can see things and experience things you never knew were possible.
We move forward as a family with deep gratitude to everyone who has played such a pivotal role in our lives over the last, well, really going on two years now. Crazy ride, but amazing family, friends, and Lord. We're thankful for this venue to have the opportunity to just say thanks. Words could NEVER express what truly lies in our hearts for each and every person.
