Dear ones,, my writings are a little disjointed these days.  I fell and broke my hip about a week ago since it this wasn't on my schedule, I was still on a blood thinner so they had to hold off the surgery to fix it until we got the Xarlto our of my system.   So after about 3 more days they did a total hip replacement.  It's been a roller coaster, but at the present time I'm at an Acute rehab hospital, having PT and OT to get my body going again.  I was transferred here on 9/2.  They're hoping to get me moving well enough to go either back to the assisted living place with Ron, or to our house, with Sue.  It's all emotionally disturbing, but God is here in my room - in my heart - in my darling Ron's situation.

Right now I'm writing snippets of thoughts,  which will probably go everywhere considering the day or hour I've had.  if you're interested please feel free to follow.  The last one speaks about a lovely therapist.  I hope you enjoy it.  

 Pain and torture with a smile,

her heart speaks
warmth
kindness
interest and a desire to help.

But no matter there's still pain
sometimes you feel you can't stand from the chair even one more time, let alone the 20 times expected of you.

Her heart speaks again of
warmth
kindness
interest and a desire to help

and you stand not one more time, but 20 and if by chance you have any strength left you tell her you can do 3 more.

You try, because you know the this harbinger of pain and torture wants you to succeed, and not for her own satisfaction, but for you and so she works to think up ways to make it look less like a torture chamber, and more like a game.

Good people doing good for others.  Thank you God for them.

what lies behind the faces

What lies behind the tart retort

the angry stare

unmoving wall

dark sheltered soul, a stranger there?

a twisted tree

in desert hot

bone dry and bare

by choice, or not?

Is this the face his maker sees?

And do you really want to know

what brought him here

with hurts unhealed

with grief and pain

he cannot show?

If we walk in the sandals of that stranger 

and see his soul laid bare,

but then listen to his maker

we may find our brother there.

Can I assume a pain, 

a wounded heart

or just a person torn apart

by circumstance of birth or wealth

lest I then judge his inner heart.

Assume goodness

though hidden from sight

Assume the best of the man

and see if you are right.

A Quiet Resting Place

 

When this world resounds with noise and clamor
and deafens thoughts of peace and grace
and words run round in circles random, 
we seek a quiet resting  place. 

As turmoil triggers pain and sorrow
I long to touch our Savior’s face.
to run away and close the door
upon some solitary place. 

To shut the world and find Him waiting
in that solitary place.
Ready, willing, waiting always
reaching out with love and grace.
 
I found him waiting when I came.
I entered there and called His name.
With chaos gone I heard His voice
and now with gentle sweet release
I rest in His amazing peace.
 
The world can’t reach me when He holds me
The world can’t see His arms enfold me.
Or drown this sweet tranquility.

 

Diane Gruchow August 2026

Everyday Miracles

When you opened your eyes this morning, did you see it?  Did you see how God provided another miracle for you?  Did you see?

Or if you could not see, when you woke to the sounds of the morning – the alarm, or perhaps bird song, or traffic, or a loved one’s voice, did you hear it?  Did you hear how God provided another miracle for you?  Did you hear?

When I woke this morning, I smelled another miracle.  I smelled the miracle of coffee.  God provided that ability.  How does your morning smell today?

Are you amazed at how God provides the senses and blessings we enjoy each moment?  If we aren’t amazed, if we don’t marvel at every sunrise, sunset, shower, sound or sight, we’re sure missing out on the beauty of our creator’s imagination.  We’re missing out on reminders of God’s love for us, his children.

I started this with some everyday blessings, sight, sound, smell.  Most of us have at least some of those blessing show up daily in our lives, and if I don’t appreciate those miracles, well, I wonder if I really believe they come from the hand of our Father.  Everyday miracles don’t become less miraculous.  To me the every-day-ness of them makes them even more special because that reminds me that He is with me, providing for me, walking with me every day.

Today I woke to rain and cloud

I felt the thunder roll.

And the sound of God’s brass orchestra

brought drum beats to my soul.

I Remember days when morning brought

icy winds and snow

and the beauty of each tiny flake

brought splendor in my soul.

And if I wake on sunny morns

those days too, help me know

that my Creator, God most kind

loves me with heart and soul.

Diane

A Word Softly Spoken

 

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

This morning at breakfast I became convinced that, when I get upset at people for upsetting other people it doesn't do God’s will to grumble about it.

Now, I’d better start from the beginning.  Or maybe I should start with a question.  Have you ever gone into a situation with a positive, upbeat attitude only to confront a person, or people who find fault with everything they encountered?

"The food was cold! The tea never came!  The service was slow!  The egg casserole didn’t have any sausage in it, as promised!"

Do you get the picture?  It gets worse.  Spread the word.  Spread the discontent and tell everyone within earshot of the entitlement  you didn’t receive.  In fact get up and go to the next table and help them understand your disappointment. 

Ok.  What did you do about that?  I hope you wouldn’t  have done what I did?  Yes, I confess, I loudly explained  to the person next to me that “some people just can’t be happy with anything” just loudly enough to make sure the offender heard me.

I believe that the Holy Spirit spoke to me softly after that statement and said, “Diane, you really aren’t helping the situation and that’s not demonstrating Jesus’ way.”

Wow!  Now what?  Afterward, I got to thinking that I don’t only do God’s will when I speak of Him to others, or when I explain salvation, or forgiveness, or heaven to those around me.  I believe the Spirit was telling me that I do God’s will when I pass on his peace and joy to others.  And I must do that by encouraging the hurting people with a smile, a kind word, or an offer to help, rather than condemnation of those who try to spread that strife and unhappiness. 

Ok, so much for my lesson from the Spirit this morning.  How was your day?

 

 

Tonight

 

I’m up tonight, it’s 3 AM.  I Couldn’t sleep – my cough kept me awake.  So I sit here on the couch in the tiny living area of our apartment at The Bickford.

I try to orient my mind.  Since the cough keeps me from slumber, what do I really need right now?  Maybe a cup of hot water, to help me breathe a little better, a soft blanket, quiet and rest.

But no - The order is all wrong, those things are not what I truly need.  I need to know that my God is near.  I need to feel a closeness with my Father.  He is my true need in the night and He is my greatest help in times of sickness, trouble and uncertainty.

Yes, a soft blanket is nice and the hot water helps, but they can’t supply the warmth and comfort of knowing that the creator of the universe is right here beside me.  That’s what is helping me in the night, right now. 

The other day someone gave me a quote by Tim Keller.  Tim said “you don't realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have,”

I know that is true, but what is really true is that Jesus is really all that any of us have.  Jesus, instead of our cup of hot water, our soft blanket or our peace and quiet, is all we have and need.  This - Jesus will provide the ultimate comfort, control and then He will caress our hearts.  That’s just what Jesus does.

He is here!
Halleluiah!
He is here, I sing Amen!
He is here, listen closely, as He whispers yet again. 

I am with you in your nighttime.
I am with you when you cry
I am here, little daughter, when you feel your spirit sigh.
When I whisper, Child I love you,
there’s no need to wonder why.

Since

I’m the God of great compassion.
You’re my child and my creation
and the apple of my eye. 

He is here, Halleluiah!
He is right here in my night.
He is here, and He’s my comfort,
as I wait for morning light. 

It’s after 4 AM – I feel better now and I’m going back to bed.  Thanks for listening.  Diane

 

Scars and Bends and Burnings

If you’ve been to the Colorado mountains, you’ve seen what my husband and I fell in love with during our 30 years of living there.  And I expect you, like Ron and I,  were absolutely amazed at the beauty our God put into this world. 

The mountains are majestic, the rivers and lakes are beautiful, but the trees tell me a story - and that’s what I’d like to talk about. 

As I looked at the trees surrounding our house, sometimes I would imagine them standing on the hillside where they were born years before I came to be there, I imagined them whispering to me the story of their lives.

There’s a tree on the west side of the lot that is lying completely on its side, but the branches have reached upwards to become three large trees growing out of the one set of roots.  That tree couldn’t stand up straight, so he became the means for others to stand.  There’s quite a story in that for us, isn’t there? 

One pine near the house is about 70 feet tall. He’s missing all his branches on one side about half way up and he has a funny bend in his trunk.  From that you can picture the years he spent trying to get around a tree leaning against him.  He is also blackened on one side where a wild forest fire tried to snuff out his life.  He’s certainly not the straight beautiful pine you see in pictures or Christmas trees.  He’s not perfect, but still he grew and for all the scars and bends and burnings, I see him as more beautiful than the straight, full trees surrounding him. 

Those twists and turns give him character.  The black burn place is a beautiful contrast to his lighter brown bark and I think he’s beautiful. 

I wonder if, when he was but a sapling – a skinny piece of wood and needles, the heavy snows of winter came and covered him so completely that he seemed to be just a bump in that white landscape. Did he wonder if he would be crushed by that blanket of snow? Or when the elk herd marched through the forest, would he be trampled underfoot?  Or when the hot dry summer came and all the green grass was parched and dead, would a hungry deer eat his branches?  

I believe all of these things happened to my brave tree, and I think about the story of his growing – he did grow.  Winds, winters, fires and drought assailed him.  Still he grew.  His roots searched deeper and deeper for something to hold him fast.  They reached for water and nourishment. 

And since God created Him, (if he could think) he would know that God found a way to hold him fast.  And my friend, God will hold us fast as well.

Jeremiah tells us
But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.”

It’s the same way for us in this world.  We are planted here.  We sprout and grow and when we’re in the dry times of our lives, we must send our roots deep enough to reach the water of God’s love.  We need God to hold on to and grow and stand firm.  

Paul prayed in Ephesians 3 (TLB)

. . . I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,
the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources
that He will empower you with inner strength
through his Spirit.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts
as you trust in him. 

Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 
And may you have the power to understand,
as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high,
and how deep his love is.  
May you experience the love of Christ,
though it is too great to understand fully.

Friends, your battles may also have been, or may still be, against pain, sickness, loneliness or emptiness. And, like the tree, there have probably been fires in your lives - hard times that came suddenly, and sometimes all you could do was stand.

God’s love gives us power and strength to stand as the fires burn, and to become beautiful in the eyes of the One who made us.  Your scars and bends and burnings make you into a tool for God to use to fulfill his purposes.   

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good 
to them that love God,
them who are the called according to his purpose. (the purpose He has set out for you.)  

I believe that trees, or yes people, with scars and burns and bendings are more interesting and more beautiful than just perfect Christmas trees.  I wonder if you do too.

Love, Diane