Please read the following segments and record God’s obvious point in each one:
Isaiah 41:24-24 – “False gods can’t prophesy accurately”
Isaiah 44:6-8 – “God is the only true God.”
Describe each thing Isaiah 46:10 says God does.
“He makes known any part of history He wants. His purpose will stand and He will do what He wants.”
What would you consider to be the key to your own personal trust in God?
“I felt His love and care for me as a child, especially through Heidi and the finding of my lost piece of bookmark (Narnia helped, too)”
Read Daniel 11:2-4 and circle names of two recognizable kingdoms it describes
“Greece” and “Persia”
In verse 2 the angel told Daniel that “three” more kings would appear in Persia, then a “fourth” who would exceed the others in wealth.
Who was king at the time of Esther (Esther 1:1-3)? “Xerxes”
Next, let’s look back at another king in Daniel 11:3. You are very familiar with this mighty King. He was depicted in Daniel 8:8 as the horn broken off ‘at the height of his power.’
Who was he? “Alexander the Great”
Look back at your notes in session 8. To whom was the Greek Empire ‘parceled out’ after Alexander the Great died, and his legitimate heir was murdered? Please also list the lands parceled out between them:
| Names | Lands |
| “Cassander” | “Macedonia & Greece” |
| “Lysimachus” | “Thrace & parts of Asia Minor” |
| “Ptolemy” | “Egypt & parts of Asia Minor” |
| “Seleucus” | “Syria, Israel, Mesopotamia” |
Dearest Rachel –
This particular lesson didn’t have a whole lot of room for extended, personal answers from you; most of these were basic, fill-in-the-blank sort of things. Which is fine, as far as learning goes – writing answers down (indeed, writing anything down) is an excellent way to enhance one’s memory of what you’re trying to learn or otherwise remember, in this case, the lesson at hand – but doesn’t do much for discovering (or re-discovering) bit of your personality. Granted, that’s a very peripheral objective, and one that I’d wager very few people’s lesson books would be able to illustrate, but the fact that it does show through in your work leaves me digging for it.
There is one particular nugget in this one, though, and it’s a little embarrassing for me to acknowledge, since it’s something I didn’t try to learn about you through, back in the day. You told me numerous times about how you related to the character of Heidi (and, if I recall correctly, that of Joanna Spyri herself – but that came later), and even as a grownup saw your attempts to reach out to your parents about their faith as akin to that of Heidi’s efforts to draw out Alm-Uncle. I think you also used the sequel, Heidi and her Children, as a guide to dealing with Daniel on occasion (although you certainly read a number of actual guidebooks and manuals along the way as well, some of which I discovered as we slowly cleaned the house after your passing).
What’s embarrassing to admit about this is, despite knowing your affinity for this book and its subsequent sequels, I never bothered to read them in any effort to understand you better, and perhaps I should have. Sure, we shared a lot of pop (or past pop) culture together, which added to the bond that we had, but this is something that was formative in you, and I never really took the time to look into and understand you from this perspective. Granted, I never read any of your voluminous Nancy Drew collection, either, but you’ve never cited her as a role model, so knowing her wouldn’t have been nearly as much of a key to understanding you.
Another thing you mention was a moment of finding a lost piece of a bookmark – and I’ve no idea what specifically that references (and whether you still had that bookmark when you passed – or if we threw it out, like the workmen casting Kane’s “Rosebud” into the fire as mere rubbish). What I do know is that it was probably your first lesson on asking God for some of what most people – including me – would consider too trivial to bother with. You would pray for guidance whenever you were looking for something you needed around the house – especially once the search had begun to take an inordinately long time – and far more often than not, you would find what you were looking for shortly thereafter. I suspect your first experience with this was when you tore a bookmark and couldn’t find the torn piece, and with that success, continued the practice ever after.
I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t engage in the practice to nearly the extent that you did – although in fairness, I did experience a couple of what I would consider fairly stupid losses just this past week, where an item that I thought I had just set down promptly disappeared on me. After all but tearing the place apart that I had been in, I decided to call out abashedly to God about the loss – at which point, I turned around to discover what had been lost almost immediately. It’s a lesson I really should take more to heart going forward; but at least I can thank you for putting the practice in my head to even try.
With that said, thanks for keeping an eye on me like this, honey, but if you could continue to do so – and wish me luck in keeping it up – I’d be grateful. After all, you can see that I still need it.
Letters to Rachel 