GROWING SEEDS: "Life Is Lived Forwards, But Understood Backwards"

Have you ever felt completely and totally alone? You could be standing in a roomful of people, yet you didn't exist....no one saw you...you felt invisible. This was a description of me in the 6th grade. I was awkward, shy and felt the sting of being an outsider.

And I couldn't see past 6th grade.

I've found in the many years since 6th grade that it's not until we've traveled down the road a bit and stood on that tall mountain we just painfully climbed, that we can look back over the valley and appreciate the reason for the rugged terrain we just walked. These roller coaster, yellow-brick-road life experiences we survive are all part of God's plan.

"In those days you were living apart from Christ.

You were EXCLUDED from citizenship.....

you lived in this world without God and without hope.

But God, Himself has brought PEACE to us."

Ephesians 2:12-14

He saw our loneliness...our exclusion...our need for a Savior...and what did He do? He adopted us as His own. He rescued us from 6th grade. He stared into your lonely eyes and said, "You are now part of my family, sweet child of Mine. You no longer are alone."

I look back on that horrible year....and I recall the emptiness, the rejection I felt. Little did I know that a year later, having survived the rough terrain of 6th grade, I would accept Jesus as my Father, be baptized in front of those who ridiculed me, and have a part of God gently placed inside me. He placed His Holy Spirit as a permanent stamp of ownership, a promise really, into my soul that day a year after 6th grade.

I was rescued.....and handed the adoption gift of Peace.

So friend, whenever you feel unloved, unimportant, or unnoticed, remember to whom you belong to. And remember that life is lived forwards, but understood backwards.

(Original Post from July 2018)