GROWING SEEDS: "Hold Tight...Be Patient...and Wait for the Tug"

 

 

The year before Chuck and I were married, we commissioned an artist in Dallas to make a life-size sculpture of a young boy and his grandfather fishing off a log.  The grandfather had his arm around the boy's shoulder and was looking at him as if to say, "Good job, boy....hold the rod tight....be patient ....wait for the tug".

The statue were a replica of my husband's son Troy and Chuck's father, Pap.  He commissioned it as a way to remember the cherished moments of grandson and grandfather spending quality time together.  And Chuck was massively proud of this project.

When we moved from Dallas to the lake 18 years ago, we moved Troy and Pap with us as they sat on that bronze log and fished the days away.  It was a way for people to find our house by boat....a life-sized memory that made us smile each time we went to the boathouse...and was a great conversation starter as we told the story of Troy and Pap to anyone who would listen.

But now, the lakehouse is sold....everything has been moved....the page has been turned.   That same little boy who is now a man, came to move the statue one last time this week; to his own house.  It will continue to be smiled at by those who see it...the story will continue to be told and the memory and legacy will most certainly continue on.

But it wasn't until it was being moved a few days ago that I saw it with a different set of eyes.  I saw the complete picture.  I was reminded that God was much like Pap....arm around His children's shoulders saying, "Good job, child of mine...I will encourage you through the Floods of disease, death and discouragement.  I will help you hold your head up...to be patient...and to wait for My Spirit's tug.  I will see you through the Summers Heat and the Winters Snow." 

And the promise that He will never be further than the seat on the log next to us through all the days of our life, and then we will dwell in the house of the Lord....forever.

"God Is Always Near Us.

Always For Us.

Always In Us."

Max Lucado

GROWING SEEDS: "Groans of the Heart

 

 

So there once was this lady named Elizabeth.  She longed for a child....she prayed for a child....she begged God for a child.  But there was only silence.  Year after year, prayer after prayer went by....only crickets could be heard through her sobs.  Until one day in her senior citizen age, God said, "It's time, Elizabeth.  I am giving you a child."   I can only imagine somewhere between her belly laugh over the craziness of God's statement and the tears of joy over the miracle, she must have wondered, "But why now, Lord?"

Social Security had already kicked in for her and she was probably wondering if maternity was even covered.  The thought of a baby crawling around hanging onto her Medicare walker must have been terrifying and yet, the happiest feeling she had ever felt.  Oh, to have been a bug on the wall of her mind!

We've all been Elizabeth.  Longed, prayed and begged God for something we desperately wanted and needed; something we felt would be good for us....and wondered if God even heard our prayers or cared about our happiness.  Much like Elizabeth from Luke 1, I am coming out of a season of crickets.  God has been strangely quiet on certain daily prayers I have prayed over and over for years....begging for rescue....negotiating with Him and pleading for MY way and in MY time.

But as I step ahead a few paragraphs into this new chapter in my life, I stop and look back and it all makes sense.  The years of waiting....the deafening sound of silence...and what looked like unanswered prayers were just the opposite.  He WAS answering my prayers.....but in His time; not mine.  Because my time wasn't the best time....it just seemed that way from where I was standing.

And in the words of Tim Keller, "Liz, when a child of Mine asks Me for something, I don't give them what they ask; I give them what they would have asked for if they knew everything I know." 

Trust God's timing, friends; it's always right on time.....

GROWING SEEDS: "The Yellow Brick Road To Home

The Wizard of Oz. Now there's a movie I love to watch! A hundred years ago when I was 10, it would come on just once a year. Those were the days before VCR's and DVR's and being able to record 16 shows all at the same time. You actually had to be present when it came on and there was no fast-forwarding through commercials. Bathroom breaks were scheduled and I was ready with popcorn, blanket and my favorite spot on the sofa two hours before it was scheduled to come on.

Every - Single - Time.

There's something about flying over the rainbow.....dropping smack down into a new beautiful world....and starting the journey to find Home. Having to walk an unfamiliar road and meeting the brainless scarecrows, the heartless people who have rusted from much rain in their lives, and the cowardly lions who carry fear in their pocket everywhere they go.

It always reminds me that my journey on this earth is just that........a journey. It's a bleep on the radar in the whole story of my eternity. I have been the scarecrow..... scatterbrained, making bizarre choices without the guidance of God......and I have been the heartless tin man as I passed people up needing help, time and time again....and I have carried fear in that most coveted of places next to my heart.

But I long to be Dorothy......always looking ahead to the Finish Line....Heaven. The FAITH to know that if I just keep walking....if I just keep pressing on and keep my eye on the Prize and stop focusing on the often-times difficult road I'm walking and concentrate instead on the destination, one day I will top a hill and I will see it. Home. I long for my eternal Home. I long in a way that brings tears to my eyes and a desperation in the deepest parts of my soul...because there really is, "No Place Like Home".

"My home is in Heaven. I'm just traveling through this world." 

Billy Graham