Where my pictures came from.

 In case you haven’t gotten your copy of my latest book, “Bones and Stones and Pain, Oh, My”, here is a little excerpt. It also tells you where the cover photo came from.

 “Be joyful in hope; patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12, NIV)

             We had been having a good time camping in the U.P., until around 4:30 Friday morning.

            I won't go into detail. I did avoid a trip to the ER, thanks to the fantastic people I work with at the clinic back home, who gave me a phone visit by eight a.m. and called in some drugs to the pharmacy near where we were camped. That makes it sound so simple.

            In reality, I was writhing in pain in our truck in the pharmacy's parking lot, waiting for those prescriptions to be filled. The curse of a previous vacation – dratted kidney stone. I feel like such a wimp. I know anyone who has had a kidney stone will tell you it is the worst pain they've ever had.

            But really, Chris? Writhing in pain? Acting crazy, pacing in the parking lot, squatting on the pavement, nearly throwing up (by the way, those doggy poop bags they have in park dispensers can double as puke bags).

            At one point, as I was sitting on the truck's running board, I turned to prayer. My usual – God, I know You have better things to do, but can You please make this pain go away.

            I looked down at the pavement and saw this heart-shaped pebble. Okay, God did not take away my pain. I don't know why; that's His decision, but He let me know that He was still with me.

            That's not the end of the story, though. After several trips into the pharmacy, Hubby came out again to report that they had the prescriptions, but it would take about 20 minutes for them to be ready. He asked if I wanted to ride around town.

            I answered sure.

            There was a picturesque church in town that I wanted to check out, so I asked him to drive there. I barely looked at the building, though, as I kept pacing and squatting and dry-heaving in the parking lot.

            Until I saw a bunch of loose pebbles on the blacktop. I scooped them up and told Hubby I would take them home and tell people they were my kidney stones. This was all before I even took a narcotic pain pill!

            I don't know. To me it is proof again that God answers our every prayer, maybe not how we would like. But He always has an answer. And if His answer is to bless me with a weird sense of humor, who am I to doubt Him.

This, however, is the picture on the back cover of the book. The heart in the pavement in the parking lot was too small and became too distorted when I zoomed in on it. This heart here is from one of the buildings at Kinstone in Fountain City, WI. A much nicer place than that parking lot. 

Click on this link to order your copy of this devotional.