Mended Vessels

Nothing ever occurs to God. — “Has it ever occurred to you that nothing ever occurs to God?” Our pastor threw out that little nugget as a side comment in a sermon on faith, and it stuck with me. There are no surprises for God. He’s not sitting around thinking, and then gets a brainstorm: “Hey, […]

No Surprises

24 Apr, 2017 in Devotionals / Faith / future / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Peace / Questioning God / Storms / Such a Moment / Trust tagged Faith / For Such a Moment / God / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Trust by mcoutu

Spring training baseball — Baseball is back. Spring training has begun and once again we can enjoy the sunshine, warm breezes, and fresh air while the “boys of summer” play their games. Some people find baseball boring, while others love the strategy and the thrill of seeing a home run or an amazing play that […]

Put Your Heart Into It

6 Mar, 2017 in Baseball / Devotionals / Faith / Life / Love / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Such a Moment / Trust tagged baseball / boys of summer / Christ / consistency / Faith / For Such a Moment / God / heart and soul / life / love / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / unfailing love by mcoutu

Weeds — Just over a month ago, I bragged on Facebook about finally getting shrubs and flowers planted to landscape our three-year-old home. Then we were gone for a month for a mission trip and vacation. We returned to find a forest had engulfed our house that would require the entire Narnian army to slice […]

Weeds Thrive on Neglect

15 Aug, 2016 in Devotionals / Discipline / Faith / Growth / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Such a Moment tagged Faith / For Such a Moment / God / Jesus / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels by mcoutu

They call it “Bush TV.” In remote parts of Africa, far from modern civilization, people still gather around a roaring fire before and after dinner. They sit and gaze into the flames, conversation rising and falling with the fingers of fire. Topics range over the day’s events, plans for tomorrow, […]

Watching a Fire

25 Jul, 2016 in Devotionals / Joy / Life / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Such a Moment tagged Africa / family / fire / For Such a Moment / joy / life / Marie Wells Coutu by mcoutu

Truth or Lies? — Who can you believe? Airlines “promise” to get you to your destination on time. But most of them only succeed 85 percent of the time. And even to meet that, they have to pad their flight times. You’re happy if you arrive on time, even though you had to wait […]

Promises, promises

18 Jul, 2016 in Devotionals / Faith / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Such a Moment / Truth tagged Faith / God / Jesus / lies / promises / Truth by mcoutu

Leaves breaking forth — I am not a gardener. Never have been, don’t think I ever will be. My husband accuses me of having two black thumbs. I do get a little bit of pleasure out of planting a few flowers, but I hate weeding. And don’t ask me to pick vegetables! (Strawberries, maybe, once […]

Nurturing New Life

6 Jul, 2016 in Devotionals / Faith / Growth / Life / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Such a Moment tagged Christ / Faith / For Such a Moment / God / Jesus / life / Marie Wells Coutu by mcoutu

The water that I give will become a spring welling up to eternal life. John 4:14 — Water is the source of life, but it can also be the cause of death. While part of California is burning due to lack of rain, people in West Virginia have died because of historic flooding. In our part of Iowa, we’ve had less than twenty percent of the average […]

The Paradox of Water

27 Jun, 2016 in Devotionals / Faith / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Storms / Storms / Such a Moment tagged Christ / Faith / For Such a Moment / Jesus / Marie Wells Coutu / Thirsting for More by mcoutu

I know all the birds of the hills. Psalm 50:11 — For the last three years, a pair of robins has built a nest on top of the light next to our front door. Right now, they are raising their second batch of babies for the year. The male and female robins take turns watching the nest and searching for food […]

3 Ways We Are Like Robins

20 Jun, 2016 in Devotionals / Faith / Fathers / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Such a Moment tagged children / Faith / Fathers / For Such a Moment / God / Jesus / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels by mcoutu

How many personal letters have you received this year? Not Christmas letters, birthday cards, personalized fundraising mail, Facebook messages, or emails. I’m talking about an honest-to-goodness, preferably hand-written, physical note, arriving courtesy of your very own U.S. Mail carrier. In this age of almost instantaneous communication, the tradition of actual […]

Mail Call

6 Jun, 2016 in Devotionals / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Such a Moment tagged Connections / For Such a Moment / Friendship / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels by mcoutu

Who is like the Lord? Nobody — Self-identity. My two-year-old granddaughter is too young to have determined her self-identity. One minute, she might be dressing up in frilly dresses, a fancy hat, and “shades”–being what we might call a “girly-girl.” Ten minutes later, she could be playing roughhouse, trying to keep up with her big brother. She is […]

Who Is Like You?

16 May, 2016 in Devotionals / Faith / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Self-identity / Such a Moment tagged Christ / Faith / For Such a Moment / God / Jesus / Marie Wells Coutu / Mended Vessels / Restoration by mcoutu