Words of Faith

My job ends the last of this month. Perhaps the thing I will miss the most is also the thing I used to dread the most—those 2 hour (one way) trips to Reserve each week (and sometimes several times a week). I disliked with a passion those trips, and yet it is while driving on those trips that I get the best inspiration from the Lord. I will miss those opportunities for inspiration.

On the last trip of the month, it was particularly enjoyable, and not because I knew it was the last one I would make for a while, but because the early rains this year caused a multitude and variety of wildflowers to line the roadway. What a joy those deep purples and oranges, pinks and reds brought to my soul dotting an otherwise brown landscape. The flowers certainly made the trip more bearable.

Then it dawned on me that we are a lot like those flowers. Would our marvelous Creator of the Universe highlight the roads with color and wonder, and not do the same with our paths of relationships in our lives? I remember having a poster in college that said, “Bloom Where You are Planted”, with a picture of a small white flower growing in the crack of a sidewalk. That is really what our God wants His children to do- bloom where He has planted us.

We may not know why we are “planted” in Datil, or Chicago, or San Antonio, etc., but the reality of life with the Lord is that we don’t necessarily need to know why we are planted where we are. We can trust our Lord that HE knows. We just need to bloom. We are here in this life not only to bring glory and pleasure to our Creator, but also to bring joy, color and fragrance into the lives of those who are traveling our same life path- just like the wildflowers along highway 12. The Lord plants, if you will, us into the paths of other people for a purpose. Sometimes we are to bring joy and color to others’ lives. Sometimes they add much needed color to ours, and sometimes we grow alongside a contrasting or complimentary color, so that when the world looks at us together, it cannot help but praise the God who made it so.

Some wildflowers grow right up close to the highway, and others are off in the distance a bit. One recent morning it looked, from the road, that one nearby rancher’s pasture was covered with a light snow. It being June, however, I was quick to realize that a certain white wildflower (sounds much better than weed) that grows close to the ground was in grand bloom throughout the field and indeed made the pasture appear to be covered with a light early morning snow. We too may be comfortable right up where the action of the highway is, or we may be content to be in the background of the Lord’s work. Either way, we are not invisible or unnoticed. Our planting is part of the Lord’s grand plan and we can be confident that as we bloom where He has planted us, we become part of the Creator’s bouquet, fulfilling our purpose in our life and the lives of others, and becoming a sweet aroma to the Lord and each other.

I could have missed it. We were, after all, late in leaving home, and our goal of reaching Yuma before dark seemed an utter impossibility. We were speeding down the Interstate, and it would have been easy to miss the small patches of yellow color that brightened the brown landscape in the distance.

It was rush hour and there was construction all over in Tucson, and I could have missed the yellow and orange dots by the roadside. I was focused on traffic and the little blue Toyota truck that seemed intent on keeping every driver on edge as it weaved between slow moving traffic amid lane closures and construction equipment. But that too was a blessing and cause for thanks.

I could have been oblivious to the purple beauty lining the 6 lanes of traffic on the costal highway, as the traffic alternately crawled and sped northward. I could have missed it all- the beauty, the protection, the way the Lord worked out the entire trip to see our young Marine graduate from another phase of training. But I didn’t, because I was looking for Him. The Bible says that God will be found by those who search for Him with all their hearts, and that is what I had determined to do. I was looking for my Creator and Love in this trip, and I found Him all along the way.

It is so easy to go about our lives and the stress and strain of it all, and not give much thought to our God until it is time to say the blessing at meals (maybe) or until it is time to read our Psalm before we fall, exhausted, on the pillow at the end of our day. We may rise early to have our “Quiet Time” and then slide through the day until we come to its close and realize that we left our recognition of God’s presence on the end table with our Bible and prayer list. It is easy to take God for granted through our busy day, but not if we are actively looking for His touch in it, and I am determined in my quest to become closer to God, to develop my awareness of Him and to look for Him in every moment of my day.

We travel through our days and may say to ourselves, “Oh, that was a neat thing to have happen,” without realizing that our loving Creator orchestrated that thing- from the least to the greatest. As the people of God draw closer to Him and become aware of His constant working in our lives, that is what we discover is normal- God always at work in our lives in even the smallest areas. A friend recently related that on her shopping trip, (and you must realize that where we live, a shopping trip is a 3 hour one way drive to Albuquerque to Costco) she realized when she arrived, that she had forgotten her coupons. Ugh- you can’t just run home and get them. As she entered the store, however, and took her cart, there in the bottom of the cart was a flyer of coupons, with the ones she had intended to use still in it! She was so thrilled in realizing that her God- the One who loves her most in this world-had done that for her!

During the early years of married life, I would leave notes of love, encouragement and affirmation in places that I knew my husband would have to look during the course of the day- in between folded clean clothes, in the cupboards, next to his shaving things, in his shoes, etc. They were meant to be surprise affirmations of my love for him and reminders that he was in my heart and thoughts. I wanted him to know through each day that I loved him. God is the same way. He orchestrates little affirmations of His love and care for us, and reminders of our place in His heart all the time. They may be beautiful things to look at, scents for us to enjoy, good parking places, a deer that suddenly runs OUT of the dark road before us instead of staying in our path, coupons, safety, a smooth day, protection, sudden peace and ability to deal with a difficult person or situation, etc. The Lord leaves little messages and reminders of His love and presence all over our days if we will simply realize them and look for Him in it.

In talking with friends recently, about things that are “normal” in society now, that back when we were growing up, were extremely abnormal. Whether it is in the area of technology and electronics, (Who ever dreamed of the kids watching a movie while you’re riding in the car! I personally think of all the sleep I would have lost, since that was the first thing I usually did on trips, or so they tell me) social mores, family values, music, politics, etc. They tell me there is a whole new “normal” now. Holding hands and watching TV at your boyfriend/girlfriend’s home is the exception, and casual sexual activity beginning as low as in Jr. High is now the norm. Folks in their 40s and 50s working to get their children through the teen years and putting them thru college, planning weddings and such are now raising grandchildren for their absentee or too young children/parents. Seniors growing old together and providing the stable home for generations to gather around have given way to seniors divorcing their spouses of 20,30, 40 or more years to have a fling or live the “independent” and “free” lifestyle that someone has told them they always wanted. Society changes. Old things become new, and then old again.

And the children of God? We are developing a new normal, too. No longer are we content to have sitting in our pews on Sunday and Wednesday, giving our tithe, singing our songs, be our normal. No longer are we satisfied with mediocre service to our King. Like the culture around us, we are developing a new normal:

“ Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth.”
(Joel 2:28-30a)

Our normal is becoming the extraordinary experience of living each moment, each breath, each heartbeat in the reality of the presence of our holy God as He leads us through this journey and we not only know He is with us and speaking to us, but we are listening. We are paying attention. We hit more times than we miss. We are victorious more times than not. We walk and talk with the Master of the universe as we anticipate His return forever. We are looking for Him, determined not to miss Him. That is our new normal.