Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures
The Hezekiah Plan
When I heard in my heart the date when I would die and be among the blessed, I felt deep gratitude. To be freed from earth will be an unimaginable pleasure. (Elizabeth) (January 1, 1965)
Today’s Reading: Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go, tell Hezekiah:
Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David:
I have heard your prayer and seen your tears.
I will heal you: in three days you shall go up to the LORD’s temple;
I will add fifteen years to your life.
I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria;
I will be a shield to this city.”
Prayer Meditation- O Lord, this one is deeply personal for me and I think many others so everyone hold on tight! Not many of us will be given the grace given to Elizabeth Kindelmann or King Hezekiah to know how much time we have been given. And it is interesting to hear the contrast, Elizabeth was ready to live with You in paradise free from the Earth right here right now. King Hezekiah pleaded for more time. Very few of us are in the first camp and most are in the latter with King Hezekiah. Everybody wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to go now! So where am I going with this, some of those reading and praying may know, some of you may not, that my husband was diagnosed with multiple myeloma three years ago. When I learned of his diagnosis, of course like any wife I prayed but it was in Adoration that I prayed something pretty bold and very specific. I wanted the “Hezekiah Plan” if it was His Holy and Divine Will. I actually used those words followed by Lord, please just more time. And we have had it, periods of intense treatment but so many blessings- trips to Florida, time with family and friends, but most importantly the realization that every day is a gift even if it is not guaranteed. We have grown closer to You Lord including praying the Family Rosary every night! We never did that together before. We have learned what matters most and what matters least. Lord I look at the responsorial psalm- “Those live whom the LORD protects;
yours is the life of my spirit. You have given me health and life.” Lord we have had Your protecting Hand every step of the way. Lord I know there are many who read these little devotionals each day who I do not know- who are walking through the valley right now of cancer or some other serious disease or any number of really hard things including depression, loneliness of old age, children off course, job and economic issues. And we cry and we plead and we wonder if we are heard. And yet Your Plan is always perfect and You hold all of our tears in Your Mighty Right Hand and collect them in a bottle (Psalm 56). You do not miss a thing! So let us look forward always not just to this life as beautiful as it is but come to You with empty hands and deep gratitude as we fly to You always in Your Time and not ours!
