New Review of Swallowed by LIFE posted on Amazon

From Jesse's Dad - This review is from: Swallowed by Life (Kindle Edition)

 Having lost my 10 year old son, Jesse, to Burkitt's Leukemia just over a year ago, Swallowed by Life by Ada Brownell echoes some of the very questions that I was asking after my son's death. I highly recommend it to those who are grieving and those who wish to come alongside someone who is grieving.

 I especially enjoyed her thoughts on the person being more than just the body. This is illustrated wonderfully by examples of body parts and organs being removed, cells and tissues constantly being replaced, and yet, the person we are remains.

 I also appreciated her take on Heaven: a child enjoys playing with toy cars, but an adult drives a real car. A child can't imagine giving up the toy car, whereas an adult realizes that driving a real car is far superior to playing with a toy car. So it will be in Heaven. We will find that all of our earthly pleasures where but a training ground for their Heavenly counterparts.

LIFE QUIZ

Questions

1.  Your body developed from ____ cell.

2. Your body now has about _____ ________ living cells.

3. These cells are constantly ______ and being __________.

4. When God designed you, and loved you, He made you more than a _______.

5. Our skin is rebuilt in ______ days.

6. Cells ______ to replenish themselves.

7. About ________ die every minute.

8. When God created Adam, He made him a living _______.

9.  It is the Spirit of God that gives us a ________ and ________.

10. When sin came into the world and brought death, God promised a Redeemer that would give us back ___________life.

11. For nearly _______ years, prophets wrote and preached about the coming Messiah.

12. The Bible says, “Greater love hath no man than to __________________

for a friend.

13. ___________did that for us.

 14. God loves me just as __ ______.

Choose from these answers:

Messiah

Dying, replaced

Body

Seven

One

Eternal

Lay down his life

Life

Jesus

Soul

I am

Divide

75 trillion

4,000

© Ada Brownell 2012

Mama Liked the Chicken's Tail

 THE CHICKEN’S TAIL

           By Ada Nicholson Brownell

                                               

            When I was growing up, our family went to church most Sundays knowing dinner was still running around in the chicken pen.

            Whether we got out at noon or 1 o’clock, the family tackled the necessary chores to put dinner on the table. Dad or one of my brothers caught the chickens. Mom put water on to boil and went to the cellar for vegetables and fruit.  My older sisters, four of them until they started getting married, peeled potatoes and helped prepare other side dishes. Dad or a brother killed the fryers, dunked them in boiling water, plucked the feathers, and over an open flame burned off pinfeathers.

Mom washed and cut up the chickens, immersed them in flour, salt and pepper, and slithered the pieces into the frying pan.  The aroma filled the comfortable two-story house.

I helped set the table and fill the glasses.

            Often friends, relatives, preachers or missionaries joined the 10 of us for dinner. After someone prayed, Mom glanced around at each child and said, “FHB.” Translation: “Family Hold Back. Don’t take all the food before our guests have some.”

            Since I was the youngest, I usually got a meaty “wishbone” which you don’t see when you buy a cut-up chicken today. Mom always ate the chicken’s tailpiece.

 “I like it,” she’d say with a smile.

            It was a bony piece, and none of us liked the idea of eating the “last piece over the fence.”

            Years later, after I became a mother, I understood why Mom loved the tailpiece. It was because she loved us and wanted us to have the meatier parts.

            Sacrifice is just part of love.  Jesus gave us that example when he sacrificed Heaven and came to earth to suffer and die so that we could have eternal life.  “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

            I’ve always been a little like the chicken’s tail piece—last in many ways, and not the most beautiful and desirable.  But Somebody loves me anyway.

                                                            ###