"Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King" (Psalms 149:2).

What a blessing to receive messages of encouragement!  Many have written and we receive strength and renewed hope as we read them together.  One reader, apparently noting my message about Ester's Biblical namesake, observed, "I see our King holding out His golden scepter towards Ester extending grace, calmness of heart, tender mercy and healing (Esther 5:2).

Children's Hospital Boston is a large medical center specializing in treating children with severe medical conditions.  It probably has the top pediatric cardiology department in the entire world with an entire floor devoted just to heart kids.  Thus children come from all over the world to receive needed treatment.  On Ester's wing of the hospital there's a large dotted world map indicating the many distant locations represented by the patients.

Yesterday I had stepped out of Ester's room for a few minutes and was sitting on a couch by a staff elevator when I saw a very interesting sight.  A tiny infant was being transported and was accompanied not only by the medical transport personnel but also by a security detail.  I wondered whether it might have been a VIP since I don't suppose they had to worry about a tiny infant in an incubator escaping!  Perhaps this infant might be a child of a king or some other dignitary and the security detail was needed for the child's protection.*

My Dad, who has been in the Lord's presence for over eight years now was a pipefitter; my Mom, who went to be with the Lord last November, was a country girl housewife.  They loved me and all their children and we love them.  But I naturally do not come from royalty. I am not a "blue blood."

But spiritually I am a child of the King!  Like the Psalmist in today's passage I rejoice in my King.

But as I prepare this today I just sense some readers do not feel loved. I suppose in part thiis is due to seeing kids at the hospital who seem to always be alone.

Our heavenly Father, the King of Kings, steadfastly loves and cares for each of us.  The apostle John, writing of Jesus, records "to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12).  Here's the truth.  If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you are a child of the King!

A tent or a cottage, why should I care?
They're building a palace for me over there;
Though exiled from home, yet still I may sing:
All glory to God, I'm a child of the King! *


Be encouraged today,


Stephen C. Weber

Daily Prayer: Thank you that I am a child of the King! Amen.

Brooksyne's Update on Ester: (Written from the hospital and updated 9/1 AM) Ester is making progress and began drinking and eating solid food yesterday after the nausea finally left.  Ester's nurse practitioner concluded that morphine used for pain was the culprit.  The chest x-ray taken yesterday revealed that she has accumulated too much fluid around her right lung so they're treating this condition with meds, therapy, etc.  It's not uncommon for this to happen to fontan patients such as Ester.  She feels much, much better and even laughed and carried on with her dad last night.  She's also now able to get herself out of bed and take short walks.  She'll have an x-ray this morning to check the fluid level again.  As far as her new pacemaker goes a nurse did a check on it and feels it is working wonderfully.

We're unsure of when we'll be heading home, but we're sure ready to get back!  Somehow a chair converted into a bed just doesn't feel quite as good as the bed at home.  But I sure am thankful for the makeshift bed so I can be by Ester's side all the time.  Our family is so grateful for the prayers of our many friends!

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Stephen's note: Clearly I miss Brooksyne's editing and input in these messages. Yesterday she read the message at the hospital and found several mistakes and chuckled that I would make them the way I did.

I am staying at a home for parents with kids who are in the hospital and working from a kitchen counter with lots of distractions on a small laptop in which I feel very klutzy. (Actually I probably look pretty klutzy working on a desktop as well!)

I am really having some great ministry opportunities sharing with other families. Today I will visit in ICU with a young German couple whose daughter has had severe medical complications.

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Several alert readers pointed out it should have been "Where's Waldo?" rather than "Where's Elmo?" in my Boston area photo collage yesterday. I'm not sure who or where Elmo is.

Answers: (see yesterday's message for photos)

1) College girls are in front of a statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard.
2) Memorial Drive in Cambridge looking across the Charles River to Boston University.
3) Cow in front of Four Seasons Hotel.
4) Statue of Phillips Brooks at Trinity Church. Brooks wrote "O Little Town of Bethlehem".

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* On the opposite end of the VIP spectrum as we discussed this Brooksyne pointed out that it also might be that this child was a victim of abuse and the security was related to Children's Services.