Lessons from Heidi

I finished reading Heidi recently, and I found it very interesting that Klara’s grandmother encouraged Heidi to pray to the Dear Lord. Even when Heidi didn’t get what she wanted ( which was to go home) the grandmamma encouraged her to keep praying with the idea that the Dear Lord may have a better plan. She said that if you forget the dear Lord that He will forget you. Okay, well, if you are a Christian I know you are not forgotten and God doesn’t forget the sins of the unbelievers as He is a just and righteous judge…only puts the sins of His children away from Him (who have repented and believed …but they aren‘t as close to Him when they sin until they repent). He will bring His children to repentance through chastisement and love. Still, the story had a good message in showing how God was working it out that Heidi didn’t get to go home when she wanted to. In the story God had a reason for this and a better plan. Klara likely wouldn’t have come to visit and wouldn’t have learned to walk again if Heidi had not stayed longer. Heidi helped others with what Klara’s grandmamma taught her which was confirmed to her by her own experience in praying and seeing God work things out in a way she didn‘t expect. She also got to read hymns to Peter’s blind grandmother having learned to read at Klara’s home (also something that Klara’s grandmamma encouraged her to do…to learn to read). Peter (a boy in the Alps) destroyed Klara’s chair out of jealousy while she was visiting Heidi, and his conscience tormented him. He was later forgiven after admitting to it, and even in this God was working in the story. The wheelchair having been destroyed made it so that Klara had to get up and try walking to see the beautiful place that Heidi was enjoying amongst the flowers.
In the story Heidi was sent home through the kindness of a doctor and Herr Sesemann. In the end, Heidi had the affection of the Sesemann family and the doctor and her grandfather. The grandfather was to share her with the doctor with them having separate quarters from the doctor, so that Heidi could be a help as the doctor aged. Peter and his mother and grandmother also were blessed through Heidi in the story. If you are willing to read a simplistic but interesting children’s story with an uplifting message, then I would encourage you to read Heidi by Johanna Spyri sometime. It was written in the 1880s and set in Switzerland and the Swiss Alps.
In my own life many times I have prayed for things, but often they don’t turn out the way I want them to. I know that God’s plans are far better though -- and His timing. I just have to wait and see. Perhaps I won‘t know all the whys until Heaven. Right now I am suffering with bad back pain which has kept me in bed most of the time for weeks (more than even my normal fibro. Pain does) I don‘t know for sure what is causing it to be like this. Some dreams for my life haven’t ever come to anything at this point. They might never be anything more that just daydreams, but I hope that in some way God uses me for His glory (which is more important) …and that even now through my blog and Facebook that He is using this “broken vessel”. This life is fleeting. We can’t be certain of what we will be able to do the way most people think…you could end up disabled or dead tomorrow or tonight. Are you ready?
“Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” James 4:14 NASB