Forty-two years today of celebrating God’s faithfulness. That late summer evening on a grassy lawn, I was labored over by One who had been preparing me for my new birth for months. There were those last contractions of His wooing call and my last moment wrestling and response, and I began to take my first tottering steps in a new-found adventure where I could know the God who was endlessly working yet had not lost a bit of power or resources along the way.
Forty-two years now I’ve been experiencing His kindness, patience, direction, and provision. Forty-two years of discovery of layer upon layer of His spectacular goodness in rest and play and wrestling through to find His presence in stormy days and dark nights.
Several things stand out this morning.
He wants me to enjoy Him and enjoy the relationship we have. It took me a long time to really start to get that, but the words “Come play with Me” spoken just a few yards away from the spot I’d begun my journey with Him transformed my life in mere moments.
I have only this tiny span of life on earth to offer Him my trust. Once I end this physical part of my existence and enter the rest of eternity, the work of belief will be past and I will never again have the opportunity to trust Him for what I cannot see, for what is not yet unfolded but promised. I don’t know of any way I want to thank Him more for all He has done to rescue, redeem, and provide for me than to trust Him for whatever next step is before me, as complex as it may be. No obstacle is too big for Him, it is just a matter of how He is going to work it out this time.
He is disturbingly patient! He is way less worried about when something will unfold than I am. (I’m sure I don’t need to describe more to you; you likely experience Him the same way.)
He IS who He says He is and will DO what He says He will do. And every day now is a new canvas to see what He is painting on this day, what colors He will choose, what images He will make to reveal more and more and more of His faithfulness. My opportunity is to watch, to be amazed again, to run and get a friend and say, “Look at this! He is at it again!” He is the smartest, kindest, and most creative One. He is brilliant in His plans and wise in how He goes about every single thing. He is utterly lavish with His grace and love and provision, yet persistent to let us get the best, even if it isn’t at all the way we’d hoped the provision would come.
Last night I had a delightful discovery, a perfect reminder and launch into His fun as I move into a new year. A young man we’ve been getting to know joined us for dinner and conversation for the evening. At one point in the sharing of his story he was telling us how he got to Mansfield and asked us if we knew another guy from our town. The name was of a classmate/friend of one of our sons, who had spent much time with us through his growing up years and who I’ve had the privilege of talking with for hours on end. It was one of those ironic “full-circle” evenings, brimming with the unexpected surprise in what and how God had accomplished bringing something new to us through an old and dear friend. I had to shake my head again. Sometimes I think of God kind of like a wild-haired Doc Brown, full of excitement over what He is working on to amaze us next. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be about a whole lot less that that.
Here we go, into another day that is just now dawning, another chance to slow down and notice and listen and watch for whatever He has for August 25, 2016 to unfurl. Our participation can make a big difference in how beautiful the day becomes. Whatever hardships or tragedies or heartbreaks may be part of it, I am convinced that He will give us the opportunity to see Him still at work, being true in the face of the wounds and scars of earth to have a way forward that will be more than enough, better than we could have planned, far more abundant in His best stuff than we would have guessed. It is who He is. I have tried to record much of what I’ve seen Him do, the things He’s let me glimpse.
“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs.”
(Thank you to Jon Ford and Kris Davis for your part in the adventure of yesterday.)
Photograph is of my journals and some of my reminders of His faithfulness.
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