I’ve had a crazy week with very little white space. My son came home from college on Wednesday evening because his school went online in anticipation of Hurricane Ian and I wanted to spend some time with him. Although I don’t have a post today, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Florida who are reeling from the aftermath and for the people in South Carolina who are now in its path. I pray for protection and intervention. I pray that God will make Himself known both through the miraculous and through the simple acts of kindness of His people. Won’t you join me?
When we walk with Jesus, we should always expect the unexpected.
I was taking a walk last week around the campus where I work. As we approach fall, there’s not a lot blooming. There’s a lot of green still and a few leaves are falling, but there’s not much color yet.
The entire world is embracing orange these days. Pumpkins and pumpkin spice are the flavors of the month. We long for the cooler temps and brightly colored leaves that usher in the fall season.
So when I happened upon a patch of brightly colored hot pink spider lilies I just had to smile and take a photo. The calendar may say it’s time for the autumnal equinox, but nature seems to have other plans.
I’ve always enjoyed those whimsical flowers. They look like something Dr. Seuss would have dreamed up. The fact that they appear in the fall, really makes me smile.
They remind me that it doesn’t matter how much we plan. We can want a new season to begin with every fiber of our being, but in the end, it’s all in God’s hands. Our desire for control can be so very costly, because in the end, we have very little of it. God apparently likes a shot of bright fuchsia in His fall palette of colors even if the retailers do not.
I’ve learned to expect the unexpected when walking with Jesus and I’m even learning to embrace it. So, I smile at those whimsical bright spider lilies and peacefully wonder, what other surprises might be in store in the coming season. There’s really no way for me to know, but He knows and that’s enough.
When we listen daily for God’s whispers and follow His nudges, we are often rewarded in ways beyond our imagination.
I’ve recently been reading through the book of Ruth. It’s one of those books of the Bible that doesn’t come up that much. Seas don’t get parted. Manna doesn’t miraculously fall from Heaven. God doesn’t speak in a booming voice, but He’s there just the same and I suppose that’s why it appeals to me so much.
Ruth is a foreigner, a Moabite girl, who marries a Hebrew boy. He and his brother, mama and daddy are foreigners living in her land. They moved there to escape a famine. The daddy dies and within ten years both of the sons die too. The mama is left alone with her two daughters-in-law. She decides to go back home to Bethlehem, (yes that Bethlehem), and tells the two young women to return home to their fathers. One goes, but one, Ruth, refuses.
She speaks words to her grieving mother-in-law which go on to become some of the most quoted in the Bible.
“But Ruth replied, Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16
Her oath to a God she barely knew, would seal her fate.
There’s something called prevenient grace and it’s a term that means that God is pulling all sinners towards Him and providing for us before we even know who He is. That grace is always at work as it was with young Ruth.
Her husband was dead and she didn’t know the first thing about Bethlehem, yet she felt drawn to her mother-in-law and to her God.
Big miraculous moments always make the headlines as well they should. When God moves in huge ways that we can’t miss, we tend to take notice. But, the truth is, He most often moves in nudges and whispers. Ruth felt some kind of nudge to stay with Naomi. After arriving in Bethlehem, she felt the need to go and gather grain for food for them.
God led with a nudge and Ruth followed every time and in the end, He sent her a new husband, Boaz, and due to her obedient listening, our sweet Ruth, a widowed foreigner, got to be in the direct bloodline of Jesus. Ruth had a son named Obed. Obed had a son named Jesse and Jesse was the father of King David.
The seemingly helpless, hopeless and lost, put into God’s hands, can always be redeemed. Ruth reminds me that God is always at work and even when all we can do is take one tiny step at a time, when we walk with Him, He will always provide and quite often, in ways completely beyond our imagination.
One day last week, the school where I work, hosted a welcome back event to kick off the fall semester. We engaged the Chick-fil-A truck and our school mascot. We invited all of the students as well as our faculty and staff. It was a beautiful day and we had a big turn out.
For about an hour, it was an ideal event.
Then the clouds quickly moved in and we heard a loud thunder clap. In almost no time, the rain came down in buckets and most people scattered. We took down the tables and chairs and moved inside. The sweet Chick-fil-A people brought us all of the remainder of our sandwiches in warming bags.
The event was effectively over an hour earlier than advertised.
When I went back outside to see if we had missed anything, there were two disappointed girls walking slowly towards the now empty area where all of the fun had been. They were wearing raincoats and looked a little shocked. I asked them if they had come for the event. They said they had been walking our way when it began to rain, but they were so close that they just kept walking.
The only thing they saw was an empty lot, but I knew there was more.
I told them there were plenty of sandwiches and drinks left inside the building and I invited them in. It was a joy to see them light up at the news.
There were other students inside who welcomed them. They were excited to learn they hadn’t missed it after all and they sat down and ate.
I thought about those two late arrivals long after I went home and changed into dry clothes. I thought about how often we give up on something because we think we missed our chance. How often was what we were looking for just right around the corner?
Rain is a guarantee on this side of eternity, but as people of faith, we never walk alone. God walks with us and He sends us people along the way to point us to shelter when we need it and sometimes He sends us blessings when we least expect it. Sometimes I need reminding. Perhaps you do too.
When we plant, we are placing hope and faith in the future.
I was recently eating a pear that I had picked from a tree at my Mama’s and Daddy’s house. It was sweet and super juicy, so much so that I had to grab an extra napkin. I have looked forward to eating those pears every year in late summer, since I can remember and it made me think of my grandmother who planted it.
I wonder if she had any idea that over fifty years later, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren would still be enjoying the fruit from that tree or that the tree would still be producing so much fruit that its branches have to be supported because of all of the weight.
I am told that she ordered that tree from a catalog. She planned for it, waited for it to arrive, dug a hole and planted it in just the right spot.
She also planted scuppernong vines in several different places. One of them in particular, had big delicious golden berries. When I was growing up, my mama, sister and I would fill huge bowls with them in the early fall. I looked so forward to it. We would eat as many as we picked and when I remember those moments, my heart always fills up with joy and gratitude.
My brother is nine years younger than I am and he also has wonderful memories of the fruit that vine produced.
My grandmother didn’t live to see or taste the fruit of the many trees and vines she planted. A heart attack took her away before I was even born, but the fruit she planted lived on long after her physical body had passed and some of it still does.
My hubby and I have even been talking about taking a cutting of the pear tree to create a whole new tree, something that would have never even been possible if my grandmother hadn’t decided to take a chance and plant something.
We live in a world of instant gratification. We like to see the fruits of our labor immediately, from our careers, to weight loss, to relationships, if we don’t see measurable results fast, we consider our efforts, if not ourselves, a failure.
Maybe our high-tech busy living, has given us a faulty sense of reasoning. That old pear tree reminds me that God sometimes calls us to move a little more slowly, to take the time to plant many things and to become comfortable with the fact that some of what we plant won’t grow. We should plant anyway.
It also reminds me that we may never see the fruit of some of what we plant, but that doesn’t make the fruit any less amazing. Sometimes I need reminding. Perhaps you do too.
