Do you believe in miracles

We are all familiar with the idiom extending an olive branch. But what does it mean? This term has Biblical origin dating back to the Old Testament and is an offering of peace. In ancient Greek and Roman times, the olive branch was offered literally. In Rome, defeated armies carried an olive branch to indicate surrender.

In today’s modern society, the olive branch is used metaphorically rather than literally to convey the message of peace. Peace negotiations are used to settle differences between nations and in our personal lives.

LASTING LOVE is one of my earlier publications, an Easter story about death and resurrection. It is also a story about peace and forgiveness. There’s a lot of heartache and conflict packed into this short ebook. But the message it delivers is huge. Before Abbey Jordan can find happiness with Brady Jones, her fallen angel, she must find it in her heart to forgive him and offer an olive branch.

When Vermont florist Abbey Jordan’s nursery manager quits a few days before Easter, she is left up the proverbial creek without a paddle. But when she places it in God’s hands, she finds Lasting Love in a garden of roses.

Brady Jones has a daughter to raise, is out of work, and knows more about cultivating roses than anyone in rural Vermont. And when Abbey hires him as the horticultural manager of her floral shop, it seems like the answer to her prayers. But just on the brink of a budding romance, a fire destroys the nursery and buries all hope of love.

And when all fingers point to Brady for starting the fire, he falls from grace and off the pedestal Abbey has placed him on.

With its old fashioned classic appeal, the Lasting love rose is beautiful and timeless. It’s dark red with vibrant green leaves and big beautiful blossoms. It shimmers with a striking boldness and is a hearty climber. Bearing this in mind, I used a Lasting Love branch as the peace offering between Abbey and Brady.

Without giving the story away, a miracle occurs in Abbey’s life through Divine Intervention. Using a Lasting Love branch, Abbey extends it to Brady in the hope of reconciling their irreconcilable differences.

Upon checking the status of Lasting Love today on Amazon, I was rather shocked to find several customer reviews that were not there the last time I checked. More shocking, some were downright insulting, the worst of them advising it should have been a freebie! On the flip side of the coin, some were equally flattering.

 What do I think about this? As with all things in life, you can’t please everyone. I just know that even after two years and two publishing houses, people are still buying Lasting Love. It was initially contracted by The Wild Rose Press for their White Rose line, the inspirational line. Not long after its release, the inspirational line branched into its own publishing house White Rose Publishing.

Even though the miracle in Lasting Love is purely fictional, the miracle evolving around the Lasting Love in my life is very real. The rose intrigued me so that I bought one of these shimmering jewels for my garden. I planted it with great expectation, confident it would sprout up to its promised Jack in the Beanstalk height, showering me with dozens of fragrant crimson blossoms that would make my neighbors pea green with envy.

To my dismay and great disappointment, my Lasting Love rosebush was a dud, a joke, a real lemon. In spite of the numerous accolades by customers who raved about their Lasting Love rose climbing the stairway to heaven, mine neither blossomed or bloomed or grew an inch.

I continued to nurture my little midget through autumn, losing hope when winter set in. We had a particularly frigid winter with lots of snow which buried my little pet. After a particular heavy snowstorm, the awning caved in and collapsed on my precious rose.

With the dawning of spring, much like the Lasting Love rose in my book, my rose resurrected with a vengeance. But even though the foliage was green and glossy, it remained a bud less three inch plant all summer long.

In late August, I suffered a massive heart attack and was not expected to live. Doctors saved my life through open heart surgery by implanting a heart pump in my chest. My own heart had failed perilously and permanently. When I came out of my four day coma, my cardiologists informed me that I was alive due to a miracle through Divine Intervention.

When I returned home three weeks later, it was a sunny fall day. My Lasting Love rose bush was as small as ever. But popping its head out of the glossy green foliage was one beautifully fragrant red rose.

I’ve just read Lasting Love again and got chills. Miracles happen every day. Do the insulting Amazon customer reviews bother me? Not in the least. Obviously, they never experienced the miracle of life.

Read customer reviews here

www.amazon.com/Lasting-Love

Purchase Lasting Love

http://www.whiterosepublishing.com/Lasting-Love

Watch trailer by Hywela Lyn

The Gift

Merry Christmas!
A few days ago, Linda Swift shared a personal story with Delle Jacobs on her blog. I was so moved by what I read, I requested permission to post it today. Linda and Delle Jacobs have kindly granted permission. I can’t think of a more appropriate time to count our blessings than Christmas Day. And with no further ado, here’s Linda.

The Gift

All of my family is musical except me. And it was after a performance of her husband's band at a casino in Tunica, that my daughter had an almost fatal accident. While standing on the sidewalk in the wee hours of morning as he loaded his equipment, she was run down by a casino employee, high on drugs, thrown onto the windshield of his car, which hit a wall and caught fire. She was helicoptered to a trauma hospital in Memphis with multiple injuries. Her dad and I arrived from Kentucky and after an all-day wait, she had hours of surgery. Our first miracle was that she lived.

We stayed in a motel for a month, taking turns with her husband, sitting at her bedside, so that she was never alone for a moment. When word spread that she was injured, fans of her band and her husband's filled her room with flowers. There were so many and the scent was so heavy that one physician who entered remarked "Why, this is like a funeral home." A very inappropriate remark in my opinion!

Still too weak to travel to her home in Nashville, she was moved after a few weeks to a rehab center nearby. And when she was finally given permission to travel, my husband and I went ahead to prepare her condo for an invalid. Both bedrooms were upstairs and not wheelchair accessible so we had to buy a bed for the living room. Her dishwasher didn't work and neither did the stove oven. Remember, she and her husband traveled with their respective bands and domestic life did not have priority. But since I was responsible for cooking nutritious meals, I needed proper equipment.

After a couple of days of frantic shopping for appliances, a bed, and groceries, then a frenzy of cleaning as we had been warned of her wounds getting infected, we fell into bed for a few hours sleep before her homecoming.

Sometime after midnight, I was awakened by a loud noise like someone hitting a wall. I tried to ignore it but it only got louder. Muttering something unprintable, I staggered to the window and looked out. And there by the front steps was a lone figure doing something with wood and a hammer. At first, I couldn't figure it out, and then it dawned on me. A man was building a ramp over the concrete steps.
Something we had not even thought of!

I called my husband to wake up and join me. And together we determined that it was the young man next door. We had met him and his wife and son when we came two days ago and had heard our daughter and husband speak of them before. They had come to Nashville from New York City because he wanted a career in music. For the time being, they were both employed at the nearby mall, where he worked a late shift as a security officer. Since they had lived in a big city, they had no car and both walked the couple of miles to their jobs as they had no other mode of transportation. My daughter and husband had loaned them their car at times for buying groceries and other necessities.

The night was freezing cold and the guy was bundled up in a jacket, sock cap, and gloves as he determinedly hammered away at those boards until he had the ramp finished. And as I stood there watching with tears in my eyes, I felt such gratitude for this simple gift of kindness. It was truly more beautiful than the roomful of flowers I had tended every day. And even more special because I felt it had been a financial sacrifice to buy the lumber as well as a difficult task to build it in the middle of this frigid night.

My daughter came home, and after a fourth surgery and many more weeks of intensive therapy, she was able to walk again. And the much-used ramp was finally taken down. Now only a few scars remain to remind her and us of that almost fatal night. And this is the second miracle.

The neighbor couple went back to New York City after a time because their family needed them there. And the full time career in music hasn't happened yet. But I remember them from time to time and make a wish that all their dreams may soon come true.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful story with us today, Linda. Oliver and I wish you and your family a very blessed Christmas. Keep your loved ones near and dear to your heart! Wishing all a wonderful, safe and Happy Christmas!

To learn more about Delle Jacobs, visit her blog:
http://dellejacobs.blogspot.com/