“Apart from Me You Can Do Nothing”

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Two weeks ago today, I told you about our trip to see our son John and his family for some fun time and some working time. Today I invite you to:

Rejoice with those who rejoice . . .
Romans 12:15

. . . because God answered so many prayers in regard to this trip.

The fun time was truly fun time. We ate together and talked together and played “this little piggy” and Candyland® and train and “Ride a Little Horsey Up to Town” and had all sorts of Notty-Little-grandsons fun.

Sandwiched in between all that fun, we worked. As I told you in mid-January, I put the last picture on the last page of the last unit of From Adam to Us on January 15. That left us ten days to wrap up the last detail before sending it to the printer on our self-imposed deadline of January 25.

Ray and I headed north on the 16th to finish up the details with John. As it turned out, wrapping up those details stretched into fourteen days instead of ten. The quality of the curriculum was more important than our deadline. One nice thing about it was that we got to stretch our visit, too.

For those fourteen days, the whole Notgrass History crew — that’s John, our daughter Bethany, our daughter Mary Evelyn, our-son-in-law Nate, and Ray and I — worked hard, while our great staff members Ethan and Michelle assisted us. By last Friday evening, everyone else was finished with their jobs and John and I sat side by side in his office, doing the last last-minute details.

One of my personal goals was for the curriculum to include photos from all around the world. Among the thousands of photos, I wanted to be sure that the curriculum had at least one photograph taken in each of the world’s 196 countries. John’s work on the index had revealed that I had missed two. We went to work, found what turned out to be two of the prettiest photos in the whole curriculum, and found spots for them.

Then on Friday morning, we turned through every page for one last look. Satisfied that we were truly finished, John started uploading files to the printer; Ray and I hugged our sweet son, daughter-in-law, and grandsons “so long”; and we climbed into our car. I shouted, “Halleleujah!” Ray backed out of the driveway and we headed for home. Early that afternoon, while we were traveling south, John sent out the news that all the files were at the printer!

I have often heard people speak of a “weight off their shoulders” or “a burden lifted.” My feelings were more positive than that. I felt light and free, happy and satisfied.

We asked God to help us finish, and He answered, “Yes.” We asked Him to bring us back home safely after a wonderful, exhausting trip, and He answered, “Yes.” He gave us the strength to start a job and follow it through to completion and for that we are grateful. I have a deep realization that we can do absolutely nothing apart from Jesus and that everything we complete in our lives is not our doing. We cannot lift a finger, breathe a breath, or think a thought by ourselves. Even what we think we have done ourselves is actually a gift.

I am the vine, you are the branches;
he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit,
for apart from Me you can do nothing.
John 15:5

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