Guest Blogger PAMELA THORSON
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Friday, February 3, 2012 • Pamela Thorson
Dear Gentle Friends~
You're in for a memorable visit with my special friend and author, Pamela Thorson. Pamela is a woman I greatly admire and respect. Her courage and servant's heart touched me deeply the first time I read about her life. You'll be inspired by her devotional,"Whiter Than Snow."
Until this week, the Idaho Panhandle had been having an
uncommonly mild winter. In fact, until this week, the cheatgrass around our
house had sprung up to declare an early spring, and one little miniature rose
bush in our garden had been stubbornly holding on to a last vibrant show of
tiny orange-gold blooms.
But this week, winter caught up with us in a big way. We awakened this morning
to find that a big, beautiful, fat snowfall had blanketed the landscape. The
snow covered the blemishes of the dead garden and hid the bare, frozen ground
beneath.
It was a transforming snow, softening the weedy, rocky hills that form the
canyon of the Clearwater River. Even the
straggly pines along the banks of the river became lovely sculptures under its
graceful hand. It also threatened power lines and turned the roads into ice
skating rinks. I always marvel something so delicate and fragile can change a
landscape and transform the course of human lives so dramatically.
Wash
me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psalm 51:7
No wonder God used snow to
describe one of His most amazing attributes: the purifying power of His mercy.
Snowflakes are intricate, fragile, and exquisitely lovely particles of frozen
vapor possessing the collective power to alter everything upon which they rest.
In like fashion, mercy falls delicately from heaven upon our frozen, barren
lives. It covers our sins and imperfections and powerfully transforms even our
bleakest landscapes into works of beauty.
Have
mercy upon me, O God,
...According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Psalm 51:1
Mercy, like a snowflake, is a
mysterious force; individual in nature; completely unfathomable; so totally new
and breathtaking every time it falls. Its mere presence inspires awe. It
reflects the light by day and makes even the darkness bright. It arrives at the
season of our lives in which everything has died and turned cold. It comes in
abundance, obliterating past footsteps and covering our dirt. Blemishes become
completely white. The parts of our landscape that cannot be changed are
softened by its hand.
"Come
now, and let us reason together,"
says the LORD,
"Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow...."
Isaiah 1:18
This afternoon, the snow has
let up a bit. My husband has been out clearing the pathways. Man and animals
have trampled the snow and marred the pristine landscape. But another snow is
coming. We will probably awaken tomorrow morning to find that a brand- new snowfall
has repaired the damage to its beauty. Once again, everything will be
sparkling.
Clean.
Renewed.
Exactly like us when we look to the sky for God's mercy to fall. It never
fails. Dirty, bedraggled, cold, and dead, we lift up our faces to the heavens, and
before long the first delicate flakes caress our faces: pure, amazing, gentle, powerful
mercy.
The LORD's
lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Thy faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:23
BIO~ Pam was born at the Millington Naval Base outside of Memphis, Tennessee,
the first child of a Wisconsin navy seaman and
a Southern belle. Her early life was marked by many moves around the country as
her father pursued a career in broadcasting. After traveling throughout the
deep South and the Pacific Northwest, the
family finally settled on the Nimipuu (Nez Perce) reservation in Idaho. Pam met her
wonderful husband during college, set her roots down deep along the banks of
the Clearwater River, and happily began a home
and family.
Pam and Aaron educated all five of their children at home. They began
homeschooling in 1982 and graduated their youngest daughter in 2006. Pam and
Aaron have been married nearly forty years. They have five grown children, two
sets of precious in-laws, and two adorable granddaughters.
Pam has long loved to write. In 2008 she wrote
Song in
the Night, the true account of her son's spinal cord injury in Canada, their
fight to keep the doctors from pulling the plug, and the subsequent journey
back home.
In 2000, Pam became certified as a nurses' aide to care for their injured
son. She and her family have operated a certified family home licensed by the
state of Idaho
since 2000. In 2011, she completed the practical nurse program and earned her
license as an LPN.
Her conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ in 1975 thrust her into an adventure
with her Savior that has spanned thirty-seven years. Her love for and devotion
to life has come from this association with her Creator.
Pam adores her husband, her family, and friends. She enjoys her beautiful
little log home, good coffee, the sound of the river at night, and just about
any kind of Christian music.
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About Pam's Book~ Euthanasia, life-support, and disability are not
subjects most normal teenagers want to think about. For most people, in
fact, they are best relegated to dry medical journals and television
debates. No one really knows what he would do if faced with living the rest
of his life in a broken body.
Kevin was a normal, healthy 19-year-old who loved Christian
music and playing his guitar for God. He planned to use his music in
ministry. But in 1997 a botched back-flip in Canada during a youth ministry
trip ended those plans and placed him at the center of a desperate fight
for his life.
Pam Thorson recounts the true story of her family's
nightmare as they struggled to live out their faith in the face of
impossible odds. Song in the Night
traces the family's journey through the events surrounding Kevin's injury,
the fight to keep the doctor from pulling the plug, and God's divine
display of amazing grace as they walked through the valley of the shadow.
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Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1930580381
Release Date: June 2008
Publishing:
Pine Orchard
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