Happy Sunday

I just love Sundays, don't you? A day to start off by praising the Lord at Mass, gathering with family for brunch afterwards, and then doing absolutely nothing! Yesterday I finished reading a book that I highly recommend to anyone who wants to read a good non-fiction, life-affirming, Christ-centered story. It's called, "The God I Love", and it's a memoir written by Joni Eareckson Tada. Her name is pronounced, "Johnny", rather than "Joanie", because after her three older sisters were born, her parents resovled to try one final time for a boy, and that, "Whoever came out--and of whichever sex, boy or girl--would be named 'Johnny,' after my father", she wrote. And because she wanted her father to be proud of her, she decided to be as good a rider as any boy..."I would learn how to tighten my saddle girth, sling manure, lift hay bales, and spur a horse as well as my sisters. I would pretend-wrestle, hike, swim against the high waves at Rehoboth Beach, build campfires, sling an ax, do whatever it took to keep up. And I did. My rank, as we rode single file on the trail, was always immediately behind Daddy on Cherokee." But one day in July of 1967, Joni took a fateful dive off a raft anchored out off the shore of Maryland Beach, and became a quadriplegic. She was only 17, I believe. The book tells how she came to praise God for her injury, and how she used her handicap to minister to the world. It took me a long time to finish the book, because I just don't read much anymore. And as I was coming to the end of the book on Saturday, I came to the part where Joni's mother died, on August 21, 2001. And I asked Sarah, just to make sure, "What's the date today?" And she said, "August 21st". I got shivers! It was only 3 years ago to the day that her mother passed away. The telling of it made me cry, as I know what that feels like, having lost my own dear mother. Yet, her passing, as was my own mother's, was not only sad, but filled with joy, and hope. The messege of this book, is that "God is always faithful. Always faithful. He is the God worthy of your love". Happy Sunday!