-Some have asked me why I decided to write a book. Well, it all started with the loss of my husband. After his passing, all of a sudden I began receiving letters and visits, and then, more letters and more visits. People were checking in on me through calls and texts and acts of service. It showed me the truest time in my life that we are better today. Grieving together made everything better. During my time off, I started to read the Bible more. In moments of prayer and reading, people started to come to mind. So, I started sending them a verse here, and a song there. I receive good responses back every time, and I realized that I really needed those words of affirmation. Hearing things such as “You don’t know how much your timing mattered” and “How perfect this is” and being able to do something for someone else felt so good. It meant a lot for them to feel like it was Jesus who came and sent it to them. Through this, I thought of “sending and mending”.
A Mender
(Noun - a skilled worker who mends or repairs things; repairer; fixer) A mender lives inside of my heart to do the work that only He can. For an even deeper look into this word, I want to explain one of the Father God’s redemptive names, Jehovah Rapha.
“The basic meaning of the Hebrew word, rapha is ‘to mend’ as in ‘to stitch up or mend a torn cloth’. Rapha also means, ‘to cure or cause to be cured, to heal, to position, to repair, to make whole’. When we say, ‘Jehovah Rapha’, we are saying, ‘God, the mender, the one who makes us whole’.” (Chester Kylstra and Betsy Kylstra, Biblical Healing and Deliverance: A Guide to Experiencing Freedom from Sins of the Past, Destructive Beliefs, Emotional & Spiritual Pain, Curses and Oppression)
Not only does He want to comfort us; He wants to make us whole in spirit, soul and body. As my heart mended, I started to become a sender with messages from the mender, the Holy Spirit. The Mender is the healer of all. He came to mend the One. Yet, through the power of choice, His mercy and grace is available to mend all of mankind.
“He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.”
-2 Corinthians 1:4 TPT
My Prayer
May these resources and energy help to mend your heart, and may you become the sender so others can feel the Mender helping them connect to a happy heart. My prayer is that this apparel will inspire you to send and mend your own heart and others using the best Physician around, Jesus. Let Him hold you with every stitch, mend you with love, mend you with His breath, and mend your minds with truth.
“She is not afraid of tribulation, for all her household is covered in the dual garments of righteousness and grace.”
Proverbs 31:21 TPT
May grace and peace be your portion. Please know you have been prayed for and may any gift you have received from these resources hit the mark!