Andrea O. Freeman

The ability to breathe is the difference between our life and our death. Without oxygen, and our body’s ability to circulate that through an amazing, intricately and delicately designed system, we would not be here. I can remember from a very young age, probably 5 or 6 years old, experiencing the fear and nearly breath stopping reality that I was not where I was supposed to be. We were living in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and I was in first grade I think, and rode the bus home from school like any other day. On this particular day though, my bus driver dropped me off at the wrong bus stop. And because I was fully trusting this bus driver to get me home, I stepped off the bus and onto the sidewalk, and watched the bus doors close, and the bus drive away and didn't give it a second thought. Until I began to look around, and was suddenly aware that this was not my street and I was in unfamiliar territory. My little heart started beating fast, and I was scared, but somehow I decid...

….In life, some moments mark the start of something new. You realize a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. You sense a shift happening; you will never be the same. (“Adored by the God Who Sees Me: Day 5 A Life with Purpose” Bible app devotional by Kerry Clarensau and Kay Burnett) Day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year, we are all going through some similar seasons and some very different seasons. I have started reading a Priscilla Shirer book recently about the interruptions of life and how we perceive them. There is a shift that occurs in us when we choose to see life’s interruptions as divine interventions. God has purpose in every single thing that happens to us. The good, the bad, the amazing and the absolutely horrible. He is in it with us when we are knocked to our knees by the unexpected, and more than anyone on this earth our Father God experiences the entirety of it. He knows our shock, our pain, our anger, our disgust, our disappointment, our disillusionm...

I am weary, Lord, life is really hard a lot of the time. But You are good, always good, always faithful. Always near. Always God. You never change. That’s solid ground beneath my feet even when the pavement of the road of this life is cracked and marked with the occasional pothole. It’s not impossible, even though it feels as if it is sometimes. I stumble as I step, and fall to my knees but I always get back up. I refuse to be a casualty of this war. I will not be a victim. I will endure. I will remain determined and move forward, even if it is just one small step at a time. There are some days when all I know to say in my prayers is, “Help me, God…” or “Lead on, Father…”. He knows. He sees our condition, feels the weight of the burden we carry, and is right there ready to take it for us. Sometimes, I wonder if I am strong enough, and I have to lay it all before my God and ask, “What am I to do with this, Lord?” “…Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid, for the L...

But he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.” John 20:25 MSG Recently, I had to undergo a minor procedure and it was not something I expected to have to endure. A second time. It was bad enough the first time, but a second time? I have seen my doctor more in the past 10 days than I normally do in an entire year and I have learned a lot but the great mystery remains: the human body is quite amazing. I wish mine had managed this particular issue better than it did, but thanks to the excellent care of my doctor, I am on the mend. The things we experience from the sense of touch, can set us on a perspective in life to expect things to always go a certain way. We are either more certain or more uncertain by what the sense of touch provides to us from one experience to the next. We want something tangible to know something is true and real. In John 20, we read about the experience Tho...

“After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.” (John 10:4 NLT) Exploring the sense of hearing this week, and my focus is on this concept of the sheep knowing their shepherd’s voice. In John 20 we read about Mary Magdalene’s encounter with Jesus at the empty tomb. She arrived and to her dismay discovered He was gone, and her grief shifted her state of mind into fear that Jesus’ body had perhaps been taken, stolen. She was desperate to find Him, to care for his body, this Savior who had changed her life in so many ways. I imagine for a moment how lonely this moment must have been for her, because she had not yet identified fully that Jesus although He was no longer present in human form was most certainly with her in Spirit. As He appeared to her, we read on and delight in experiencing with her the joy of hearing Him call her by name, and she instantly recognizes Him! Her ears did not deceive her, even though her e...

"...this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in him..." (John 9:3 NIV) It is a new month, May is here! The countdown is on with just days remaining in this season of transition for our family. My son Bailey is closing out his senior year of high school and preparing to enter college next Fall. It is incredibly emotional and overwhelming, particularly for him right now. We are walking with him through these last days of his high school experience and praying for him to seek solace in the Father, and savor these last moments. It is too easy to want it to just be over and done, because he is carrying such a heavy load of work and expectation from so many sources around him. I think so many of us observing from the outside, too quickly cast our opinion as to how it should be handled, and often times giving our advice and intended wisdom without considering the recipient’s state of being. Bailey is a powerfully sensitive and creative soul, and we have wa...

“He is not here! He is risen!” (Luke 24:6 NIV) Last night I was imagining from my tiny perspective, what it must have felt like to approach the tomb where they laid Jesus’ body, to see the stone rolled away. The quiet moments after the women had already been there and the angels had just told them that He was not there, He is risen! The hush just before Peter must have come upon the now empty tomb and peered in to see the cloths laying on the floor of the tomb where He was laid. I imagine the birds must have been stilled even, all nature quieted just for a moment, as everything awakened with the sun that morning to realize this man whom God had sent to bring about salvation for all mankind in a most extraordinary act of sacrifice and mercy-was RISEN! I find myself on my knees, just in awe of what has happened here, the experience these women, these disciples had, has left a mark upon this world that I cannot completely appreciate until one day I am in the presence of A...