In the Presence of Giants....

 December has been a whirlwind of excitement and morning sickness for me!  Yes, we will be welcoming baby #6 in July of 2020, and yes, perhaps we just may have lost our minds...ha!  But the excitement in the house is certainly palpable and we are excited for what God has in store for our family in the new year.

In the past few weeks, Eva turned 3 and is now almost entirely potty trained, Hallelujah!  We chopped down a Christmas tree and had lunch in a castle afterwards. We've made about  20 dozen Christmas cookies, watched lots of great Christmas movies, the kids decorated the entire Christmas tree by themselves this year...and I didn't even "fix" it (yikes!), the kids have hunted for their Elf on the Shelf with great enthusiasm every morning, there have been a few fun days of ice skating in the backyard, we've been reading the Christmas story verse by verse each day, we got to go to a Penguins game because a very generous neighbor gave us tickets, and this week we had an amazing field trip to see the Goodyear Blimp.  And did I mention I've spent most nights sick on the couch???

When I look back over all that has happened this month, it brings me such joy...because in spite of all the high and lofty expectations we put out there every year for what Christmas should be like, it never really goes down the way we expect it to, does it?  The house has been a crazy mess most days. My to-do list seems to grow longer and longer.  I guess that's why I'm trying not to put my hopes and expectations in a perfectly executed Christmas, but in a perfectly faithful and trustworthy God. 














Standing in front of the blimp this week, I was just astounded by the sheer size of it.  I couldn't even capture it all in a single picture.  I've seen it many times, over the years, flying in the sky, but never imagined what it would be like to stand right beside it, and even touch it!  And even there, right in the same room with it, I still felt like I would never fully be able to grasp the full magnitude of it...it was just too big.

Isn't that how God is to us...but so much more?  His glory extends so far beyond our horizons of comprehension.  His love for us is so much deeper than anything we have ever or will ever experience from anyone else.  His grace and forgiveness, again and again, are so incredible they leave us speechless.  But He didn't leave us to only wonder about Him from afar...He became close and personal with us.  And His humility, to come to earth as a tiny, helpless baby...to give of Himself that much for people who deserved nothing from Him...is absolutely incredible. 

At Christmas, we think of God in terms of His incarnation as a tiny baby...but let's not limit Him to that image alone.  He humbled Himself so much, and He wanted us to be able to grasp Him, to be able to be in the same room with Him and not feel overwhelmed, to feel like we could actually reach out to Him and have a close relationship with Him.  And when I think of this, I am truly speechless, I am flooded with a same sense of awe and wonder, that a God so vast and magnificent and perfect and powerful would do that...for me.  

How many people can say they touched the Goodyear Blimp??

This Christmas, whenever you see a Nativity scene, think about how the God of the Universe, too vast to comprehend, has made Himself accessible to you and me.  Born in a dark and dirty stable with farm animals, growing up not as a King but as an apprentice to a humble carpenter.  What better gift could I ever ask for at Christmas?  How much I want to abandon all the materialistic trappings of "Christmas" as we have come to know it so well, and put more focus on this one simple truth.  At Christmas, when you stand before the Christ child, lying in a manger, you are in fact standing in the presence of a Giant God.  May He flood your heart with joy and peace this Christmas season.  May you be filled with wonder at the thought of being loved so deeply and so unconditionally as He loves you.

Being Thankful in ALL Things...

If you want a challenge, just try to get through an entire day without uttering one word of complaint.  

Develop an attitude of Thanksgiving 

in every situation.

* Joyce Meyer *

I was preparing to host Thanksgiving early last week, cooking food, cleaning, doing extra laundry so I could take a day off on Thursday.  I started to look online for some Thanksgiving quotes to share as we sat around the dinner table eating our meal together with family.  One quote in particular stood out to me.  And little did I know how much I'd be tested to live up to the challenge it presented!  On Wednesday afternoon, I joked with Derrick that it'd be nice to have a day off from laundry on Thursday.  I felt prepared and excited for the following day to arrive.

At 10 pm on Wednesday however, things started to go downhill fast.  First Reese started to throw up...then Sienna.  Every 20 or 30 minutes all night long one of them was throwing up.  Around 4 am Carter and Lawson started groaning and Derrick started feeling sick.  By 5 am all three of them were throwing up also.  This continued through the rest of Thanksgiving day.  I was literally on my feet all day, cleaning people up, bringing them cool towels for their heads, sips of water to drink, changing the TV from one movie to the next.  It felt like one of the longest days of my life.

The Thanksgiving Turkey we never ate.

I thought of Joyce's quote often that day.  When she wrote it was this the kind of thing she had in mind...to be thankful, even in a situation like THIS???  But there were moments throughout that day that God prompted me to remember that, yes indeed, there were still many many things that I could be thankful for.  I was very thankful that Eva and I never got sick, and that I was able to care for everyone else.  I was thankful and so touched by one friend who left her own family on Thanksgiving Day to drive over to my house with a huge batch of chicken noodle soup, which was an amazing help for several days.  I was thankful for all the food I had prepared which could be frozen and used for easy meals in the days to come.  I had to chuckle to myself (in exhaustion) by the end of the day as I was folding my sixth load of laundry.  "Thank you God for my washing machine!"  I was thankful for so many friends and family who were surrounding us with their prayers that day.  And I was ever so thankful that that night, everyone fell into bed, and slept through the night.  Just like that, it was all over.

The timing seemed terrible, and the day was not spent in a way I ever care to repeat, but I think sometimes God allows us to go through things like this just to remind us that Thanksgiving can come in many forms, and that it shouldn't only be taking place in our "good times."  I have a sign hanging in the hallway upstairs that says, "What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?"  I saw that sign many times on Thanksgiving Day as I was folding and putting laundry away and I thought to myself, "Yes God, I neglect to thank you, every day, for so many blessings you have bestowed upon me.  It is so much easier to focus on the bad things and complain about them.  Help me to shift my attitude and my focus to the blessings.  Help me to stop taking things for granted that You do for me every day.  Thank you for Thanksgiving this year, and for using it to remind me of some of the things I REALLY should be thankful for."

Thank You, God, For Leaves....

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.  For His steadfast love endures forever.  Psalm 136:1

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving season?  Have you taken the time from your busy schedule to stop and reflect on this?

My daughter and I took an early morning walk yesterday.  The sun was shining and the rain the night before had left the leaves all coated in tiny ice crystals.  Each leaf shimmered in the sunlight as if glitter had been sprinkled over it.  We could not help but stop to wonder at the beauty.

Later that same afternoon, my son Lawson was equally enthusiastic about the leaves for an entirely different reason.  The leaves had been holding on to our trees for what seemed like forever and the rain and wind finally freed them at last.  He was dying to rake them up so he could jump into them.  Again and again, he ran all the way to the edge of our property so he could get a 30 foot running start and jump cannonball style into that pile of leaves.  Again and again I raked them back into a heaping mound so that he wouldn't hurt himself.  Something as simple as dead leaves brought him such joy, just as they had for me, earlier in the morning. 

 Today I had the privilege of teaching Sunday school to about 35 1st through 3rd graders.  I wanted to talk to them about Thanksgiving and found an awesome game to play with them.  I found an old shoe box and filled it with various household items.  Then the kids took turns drawing out an item and we talked about why we were thankful for it and how it was a blessing to our lives.  They pulled out a toy tambourine, a battery, a toy football, a pad of paper, a seashell, a Bible, a banana, and a bar of soap.  And I asked them how often they stopped to thank God for these things which certainly added meaning and fun and better health and beauty and inspiration and convenience to their lives.  When was the last time you thanked God for a notepad to jot down a grocery list...sure beats carrying around a stone tablet! 

As Thanksgiving approaches, take time to think back over the past year and really consider ALL the things you have to be thankful for.  It is all too easy to dwell on our difficulties and troubles and forget about these things.  How much richer and fuller and more meaningful our days become though, when we stop to truly appreciate the very small blessings we encounter throughout the day. 

Tonight, I want to say, Thank you God for leaves, because they brought me many smiles yesterday.  Thank you God for the way You remind me, through tiny details and oft-overlooked beauty, of Your love, Your care, and Your plan for me. 

Teach me to Really See...

 Lead me by your truth and teach me, 

for you are the God who saves me. 

All day long I put my hope in you.

 Ps. 25:5 (NLT)

Two consecutive days could not have been more opposite from each other in my wildest imagination.  Yesterday was consumed with taking my youngest daughter to the pediatrician after she had spent the entire night before awake and coughing.  At the doctor's office, there was immediate concern on the nurse's face when Eva's blood oxygen reading came up low after three attempts to test it.  Quickly, the pediatrician came in and ordered she be put on oxygen and Albuterol.  A flu test was done...and we sat and waited.  Her oxygen level went up a little, her fever started to drop after a dose of Ibuprofen was administered. The flu test came back negative and they sent us to Children's Hospital for a chest x-ray.  In the hospital waiting room, Eva threw up all over herself and me.  It was one of my lowest moments to be sure.  Hopeless could not even begin to describe how I was feeling as everyone in the packed waiting room looked on in dismay and disdain at my vomit covered clothing.  Every time someone exited from the exam room, their faces changed when they saw me sitting there.  Both Eva and I were offered hospital gowns to change in to.  I chose to wait it out but changed her into the gown.  Later that night, showered and feeling much better, I got the news that the x-ray was normal.  Eva slept through the night and today, apart from a little cough and very low fever, she was almost completely normal again.  

This morning, I took the two older girls into the city for a school time Symphony concert.  As an usher led us to our seats, I was excited to see that we were being taken to the Grand Tier Balcony seats, literally the best seats in the house.  We sat down on the plush velvet chairs, our own little balcony seemingly hanging out right above the stage.  As the performance began, I sank into the comfortable seat and just basked in the beauty of the music.  I let out a long sigh, soaking up this little slice of heaven.  I enjoyed hearing pieces that were familiar from my many years of playing in small orchestras.  Memories from those bygone days flooded back to me as I sat there.  I enjoyed watching the musicians, all working together as one to create something of very great enjoyment and beauty.  And it struck me right there, how different these days were from each other.  

How odd life is, when it swings us back and forth from very low lows to very high highs.  How quickly, I find myself going from my highs, back to those lows again.  How convicted I was tonight when I thought back on my desperate prayers of yesterday, for healing of my daughter, and the realization that I had forgotten to thank God today for healing her so quickly.  Oh when will I ever learn?  

What I lack is perspective...the ability to see above and beyond what is happening right now.  What I need more of is constancy, the ability to take my cares and concerns before the Lord and walk with Him through my struggles and valleys.  Even if I lived a thousand very bad days in a row, I would still have hope because I would still have God.  As hard as that is to accept, I know it to be true.

Teach me to really see, oh God!  Teach me to see things the way You do.  Teach me to trust You, just as much in the difficult times as I do in the good ones.  Teach me to put my hope in You, all day long.  And help me to remember that hope placed anywhere else will only lead to disappointment.  

Waiting...

Truly my soul waiteth upon God  ~ Psalm 62

The smell of baking cinnamon rolls wafted through the house this morning.  My dear husband must have been inspired while I watched the Great British Baking Show with my oldest daughter last night because he spent that hour, in the kitchen, whipping up this delicious treat for us.  The smell was intoxicating and my sweet son Lawson could not bear the wait.  "Are they ready yet?"  "How many minutes until they're ready?"  "How many minutes now?"

Finally I pulled the cinnamon rolls out of the oven.  "Can I have one now?"  He looked up at me with great longing in his eyes, but once more I told him he had to wait.  "You can't have one yet, Lawson, they're too hot.  You would burn your mouth."  I almost caved in seeing the look on his face.  He stood there...watching...waiting.  And then, finally, I cut a cinnamon roll out of the dish for him and he took it back to the table to devour.

As a loving parent, though I wanted to make my son happy, to fill his rumbling tummy, I couldn't give him the cinnamon roll too soon.  If I had taken them out of the oven early, the dough wouldn't have been cooked.  If I had given him one hot out of the dish, he would have been burned.  In love for my son, I had to make him wait.  And it was very hard for him, but it was for the best.

Again and again this week, I have sensed the Lord giving me reminders of the importance of waiting.  "Oh, but God, why can't I have an answer right now?"  "Why can't You fix this problem, heal this person, resolve this situation, now???"

And sadly, I'm often too wrapped up in my complaining, my longing, my self-centered desires for what I think is best, that I don't even wait to listen for His answer.  Ever so softly though, in His perfect timing, He shows me a better way...His way.

I am so humbled when I see how very similar I am to a five-year-old, panting over too-hot cinnamon rolls.  I see what I want and I want it right away.  But God says, "Wait!"

Lawson could have reached out to grab a cinnamon roll all by himself this morning, but he listened, and he waited.  Will I do the same?  Perhaps the hardest part of having faith in God isn't some action I must take, but is instead having the patience, having the discipline to obey and merely wait...and listen.  Further instructions will surely come. 

God, please help me to focus not on what I think I need, but first and foremost on YOU.  Help me to trust you, even when I don't understand the things that are happening in my life.  Help me to be patient in the waiting and to be still so that I might hear Your voice.  I have faith that You love me, that You have a plan for me, and that You know what is best for me.

How to Love Life...

 Every year this week in November is a week of birthday celebrations.  This week Carter turned 12 and my sweet mom turned 72.  There was cake....lots of cake.  There was singing.  There was laughter as Mom tried to swipe some of the decorations off the cake before dinner and when she tried to put her mouth right on the candle after we sang Happy Birthday to her.  Thankfully I was there to pull her back in the nick of time!  Two birthdays, 60 years apart...one so filled with hope and potential and seemingly endless possibilities...the other, a light that once shone so brightly, now fading away more day by day. 

If there is anything my mom taught me about life, it was not to waste a single day.  She certainly didn't.  My mom had such great excitement over the first bloom of spring, a beautiful sunrise or sunset, a bird she hadn't seen before, a shell she found on the beach.  She appreciated things that many people overlook for their entire lives.  She reveled in what many may call, "the mundane"...but which was not, in my estimation, mundane at all.  And Mom cared about people.  She was always helping people, either through her job, or family, friends, and neighbors.  Even now, when she doesn't have the words to express something she sees, I'm sometimes able to fill in the blanks of her garbled sentences to figure out what she's trying to say.  "The fall leaves are so pretty, aren't they, Mom?"  "That sunshine sure feels warm doesn't it?"  "Those clouds are so big and fluffy aren't they?"  Maybe having to be a kind of interpreter for Mom is giving me a whole new level of appreciating the world around me.  Perhaps, seeing things through her eyes, the eyes of a woman suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, can teach me something about how to love life.

 When I lean in to hug Mom these days, there is a difference.  She holds on...and I can sense in that lingering embrace some of the pain, the sorrow, the discouragement she must carry with her now, 24/7....and yet, also within that hug I know she still has hope.  I'm certain of it because of her frequent smiles.  I'm certain of it because of the faith I KNOW my Mom had for all the years I have known her.  She may no longer remember my name, but sometimes if I play an old hymn she can still remember the words to the song. 

For me, the hardest thing about losing my mom this way is the silence.  I've already forgotten the exact date of the last time she sent me an email, of the last time we spoke on the telephone (we used to talk almost every single day), of the last time she said my name.  But again, this teaches me....it teaches me more, day by day, not to take anything for granted.  It teaches me to cherish those we love the most.  It teaches me how to love this life I'm living, to embrace all of its seasons, and to use my trials to reach out to and encourage others who are struggling. 

While my mom slowly slips away from me, I can feel the grip of God growing ever stronger.  He gives me new hope each and every day.  His mercies are indeed new...every morning!!  I will not allow bitterness, frustration, anger, comparison between my life and the lives of others to cloud my vision of all the blessings I still have.  This is how to live life, and this is how to love life.  My mom taught me at an early age and I will carry it with me for the rest of my life....

You're Invited!

You're Invited!

Don't you love an invitation?  I certainly do!  There's a certain kind of feeling you have when you first see it.  You know that someone has thought of you and wanted you to take part in their special day.  There is an anticipation, and excitement, a joyfulness...

The first clue that this party is not typical, is evident when you read who is hosting it:

GOD

"OK, maybe someone has a good sense of humor," you think.

"You're invited to partake in My celebration," you read.  But, when you glace over at the "date" on the card, you become puzzled.  You read and reread what has been written there.

EVERY DAY.

There must be a mistake here.  Who sent this card again?  This is really getting weird now.  What's this all about anyway?

When you continue looking for the venue of this party, you really get a shock.

WHEREVER YOU GO, I WILL GO.
I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS.

Where do you RSVP?  You scan further down.  After RSVP, there isn't a phone number or email address, just the words,

REACHABLE BY PRAYER ONLY

It's tempting just to rip up the invitation, to throw it straight into the recycling bin, but something causes you to file it away with your other mail for the moment.

The invitation fades from memory, but the words come back to you a couple of weeks later when you wake up to a particularly stunning sunrise...

You're invited!

"OK, God.  I don't know what this is all about or what agenda You have for me, but I'm busy today."

Out for a walk a few days later, the brilliance of the changing fall leaves catches your eye...

You're invited!

Driving at night, you glance out the car window to see a gleaming half moon, shining in the clear night sky...

You're invited!

"Oh, I see now, God.  I see what you are trying to tell me," you think to yourself.  But do you??


Every day, from the moment you awaken to the moment your head hits the pillow, You're Invited.  You're invited to be in a relationship with Someone Who loves you unconditionally and more than anyone else ever will.  You're invited on your good days and on your bad days.  Accepting this invitation could change your entire life...but it's so easy to brush it off, to keep going at it alone, to think you're fine without God.  And maybe you are...for right now...but will it always be this way?  And couldn't accepting this invitation have the potential to make your life so much richer, so much fuller, so much better than you could imagine?

The invitation stands, every day, for as long as you draw breath...but will you accept?

Thanksgiving...

Psalm 9:1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

This past weekend, I went away for a Women's Retreat in the rolling hills of Ligonier, PA.  The leaves were at the height of their color and beauty, and as I drove along I wished that I could stop, more than once, to take a photograph.  The intensity and variety of the colors was truly breathtaking.  As I neared my destination and was driving now on a smaller country road through peaceful farmland, something caught my eye.  On my left as I drove was a lovely farm and a sign by the roadside stated the name, "Pleasant Meadow Farm."  Then what really caused me to take notice, was just past that on the right...another farm named "Chilly Bleak Farm."  I chuckled to myself at those two names, which could not have been more different from each other.  Two farms, situated almost across the street from each other...what had caused their owners to name them such different names?  

Perspective is a powerful thing.  How we choose to focus our attention every day frames our entire point of reference.  Whether I choose to focus on the positive or the negative, that will determine the course of my entire day...and life!  And I truly believe the starting point for gaining a positive perspective is the way we go about Thanksgiving.

Colossians 3:17  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I walked in to Trader Joe's to grab some groceries, on Halloween Day, and saw, front and center, a display of Christmas items.  It was as if the coming of one holiday immediately ushered in the anticipation on the next big holiday.  I'd just come from my Bible Study where we had been discussing Thanksgiving and how it often seems completely skipped over.  Nowadays, Halloween ends and all focus goes to Christmas.  But let's not be too quick to pass over Thanksgiving.  We may be missing out on the greatest blessing of all in doing so.

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and all the anticipation that comes with it.  But perhaps, in order to truly appreciate the Christmas season, we need to first quiet our hearts and take some time to reflect on our blessings.  Dwelling on and expressing gratitude for the good things in our lives is a healthy practice, one that shouldn't by any means be assigned only to the month of November.  In taking time to be thankful, we are given the gift of new perspective.  In making a note of and even writing down our praises to God, we take our focus off the things that are difficult in our lives. 

Psalm 100:4-5 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

God challenged me over the course of this year to be more thankful.  I started working on a thankfulness journal at the beginning of summer and try to record things in it frequently.  Now as I look back over the hundreds of things I have already recorded, I can't help but feel even more thankful.  When I see the way God has blessed me, in just a matter of a few months, I am awed.  Though my days have often been a challenge, in reading over my reflections of Thanksgiving I see a whole different story unfolding.  I see a story of how God works in my life, even in the midst of great trials, and moves with strength, beauty and love.  I see how even on the hardest days, He has never abandoned me.  And I see how He has worked in and through my trials to bring about more good in my life. 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

But how can I give thanks in ALL circumstances, you might be thinking.  This statement sounds counter-intuitive and frankly a little bit crazy when you stop to consider the kinds of circumstances some people are dealing with.  Once again, I think the point being made here is that even on our darkest days, we can still experience joy.  Even during very difficult situations, we need not look very far to find things that are beautiful and good.  And for those things we can be thankful.  It is all a matter of perspective, a shift from focusing on the hard things and averting our attention to our blessings.

I think of Paul and Silas, in prison, singing praises to God.... 

Acts 16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

What a ministry we all might have if we responded to our difficulties in this same manner...if instead of lamenting our troubles, we turned around and acknowledged instead the goodness of God.

Don't neglect to anticipate, prepare for, and celebrate this beautiful season of Thanksgiving.  Don't miss out on all the blessing that there is in being thankful...any time of year.  Thanksgiving is medicine for the soul...it is what elevates you from a chilly, bleak outlook to that beautiful, peaceful meadow.

Goodyear Blimp flying overhead

Thank you God, for this day, and every day you have given me before it.  Thank you for ALL the ways you lavish Your love on me, even when I am completely undeserving.  Thank you for reminding me of all the beauty and goodness that surrounds me, even on the most difficult days.  I ask you to avert my eyes from the struggles and help me to focus instead on the joy of living in Your presence.

Considering How To Run...

A centipede was happy till one day, a toad in fun said, ‘Pray, which leg goes after which?’ Which strained his mind to such a pitch he lay distracted in a ditch, considering how to run. I think there are a good many toads in the world, and sometimes, not in fun at all but very seriously, they manage “to strain our minds to such a pitch”, that instead of going on in simplicity we may easily find ourselves distracted in a ditch, not running, but only considering how to run.
- Amy Carmichael


I've got to step outside of my problems in order to see what is going on around me,
the bigger picture, the Grand Plan...

A hike in the woods in the Fall...what a beautiful time to be out in nature, observing so many glorious colors, and smells!  The leaves were floating gracefully from treetops to their final resting places on the ground.  The kids were brimming with excitement at the prospect of hiking on such a perfect 70 degree day in October.  They could scarcely wait to jump out of the car and begin down the trail.  My youngest son in particular, did not understand that a hike is not a sprint.  He soon learned, after tripping on a rock, that you have to choose your steps more carefully on a hike than on a walk down a sidewalk.  But as I observed him, his fervor for soaking in all the sights and sounds, how he darted off the path to explore every big rock we saw, to find the "perfect" walking stick, and how he was so eager to stick little fingers into the freezing cold water, I began to let go of some of my fears and adopt more of his eager excitement.  He was not wrapped up in "considering how to run."  He did not let fears slow him down or steal his joy of that moment.

How often do I miss out on joy because I am considering how to run?  How often am I stuck in a ditch of fear, worry, despair, or self-pity while life is quietly passing me by?  This year, after undergoing foot surgery, I literally had to relearn how to run.  I was at a low point in my physical strength and had to rebuild my stamina step by painstaking step.  Now, when I run, it is not easy or pain free, but there is a newfound joy in it.  I do not let the struggle hold me back from continuing to run.  I do not dwell on the distractions, but on the sheer joy of running.

This is God's will for you too.  He doesn't desire for us to be trapped in our struggles and pains.  We have to keep running, keep pressing on.  As Paul said in 1 Tim 4:7 "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race; I have kept the faith."  In this I see the simple formula for running our races and running them well.  It's all about faith, and not at all about me.  It's all about God's strength, not my own.  It's all about trusting in His perfect plan for me, even when the way seems steep and treacherous. 

Help me, O God, to run the race and to run it well, even when the course appears too difficult.  Help me to keep the faith so that I may not waste time in considering how to run, but to trust You with my every step.

Promises...

 Psalm 18:30-33 (NLT) 

God’s way is perfect. All the Lord’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection. For who is God except the Lord? 

Who but our God is a solid rock? God arms me with strength, and he makes my way perfect. He makes me as surefooted as a deer,

enabling me to stand on mountain heights.

We joyfully welcomed back the sunshine today, after a cold and blustery day yesterday, with a hike at a favorite park nearby.  On a hillside at the park, paths are cut through high grass and wildflowers, which feels a bit like walking through a giant maze.  The kids love it, being literally engulfed by nature as we go.  They reveled today in collecting as many woolly bear caterpillars as they could hold.  One even made it all the way home with us "by accident"...but I'm not sure I quite believe that!

Fall is, in some ways, a melancholy time for me.  The glory of summer is now quickly fading and I tend to dread the cold, dark, lifeless days of winter.  But today on our hike, something caught my eye.  As we walked along, I focused in on the seed pods at the top of so many now-dead plants.  And one word kept coming to mind: Promises

What are these seeds but God's promise of another year of growth?  These seeds symbolize the promise that summer will come again, in all of its glory.  What we are entering now is, just a season...but it too will pass.

How often do I need to keep this kind of perspective in my own life?  The things I'm experiencing now are for but a season.  Seeds have been sown that have yet to blossom and grow to their full potential.  Though things may seem dormant and hopeless, there is the promise of hope to come.

But this is such a simplistic view on life, you may think.  How can I trust a God who allows so many bad things to happen to me?  If God cares, why would He let this happen.  Why......??

You know the funny thing about milkweed seeds is that they will not grow if they are not exposed to the cold.  My kids are always asking if we can collect the seeds to plant more in our yard for next year, but the process to prep the seeds in order to get them to grow is a little time intensive.  They need to experience winter in order to grow into a new plant next summer.

Praying Mantis

There is a reason, likewise, for my seasons.  God works in and through the winter, perhaps in ways imperceptible to me. But He is always working, preparing me for what lies ahead.  His promises hold true.  There will be another summer.  I won't be able to truly blossom without this season of testing.  Notice that He doesn't expect me to walk this path on my own strength or intuition.  I look to Him for protection and He shields me.  He arms me with strength, He makes my way perfect, He makes me surefooted. 

He can work in my seasons and use them for His glory, if I will allow Him to.  And how could I not, after all He has already done for me?  Though winter looms in front of me, even still the promise of another beautiful summer is evident everywhere I look...and it is a promise I can hold fast to.

When I Walk in the Valley or Stand on the Heights...

 Growing up in flat South Jersey, I never encountered large mountains.  When winter came, we sometimes visited a park that was a retired landfill to go sledding.  It was the biggest hill around!  I distinctly remember the first time my family vacationed in New England and we drove to the top of Mt. Washington.  I spent most of the drive up and back down the mountain, cowering on the floor of our minivan with a towel over my head.  Looking over the edge, beyond the small guardrail, at the dizzying drop-off was too much for me.  I remember the wonder I felt when I saw truly magnificent mountains out west.  My husband and I took two 3,000+ mile road trips and visited many National Parks prior to having kids.  I saw places that I had only previously seen in photographs...seeing them in person was breathtaking.  My fear of heights has lessened a little since childhood, but you can ask my husband how close I was willing to get to the edge of the Grand Canyon!!



Perhaps the best way to appreciate a mountain is when you are standing at the base of it, in a valley.  What does the valley do but magnify the wonder and majesty of the soaring cliffs?  I must alter my posture, crane my neck, to see the top.  The perspective I gain from mountains and valleys truly alters my very flat view on life.

I am a creature of comfort.  I don't like to be pushed near the edge of those dangerous precipices.  I am overwhelmed by the depth of my valleys in my difficult trials.  Flat...safe...untested...all seem more appealing to me.  But no matter where I grew up and where I now live, flat is not my reality.

View from the top!

What can God teach us from our mountains and valleys?  Is there a lesson to be learned in all the highs and lows we experience?  God knows our tendency to forget...to forget how much we need Him ALL the time.  If my life were always status quo, I would certainly not rely on Him the way I do when I experience perspective-changing hills and valleys.  A cliff brings me to a place of healthy recognition...in my insufficiency, in my lack of knowledge, in my need for help.

And can I share with you the times I've experienced the most joy in my life?  No, they weren't in my peaceful, predictable, meandering moments.  Joy is never more real than when you are toiling your way through a dark valley, or standing on the precipice at a staggering height.  God is my help...how could I ever forget this or take this incredible statement for granted?

Give me today, my daily bread, oh God.  And for me, this may just mean that what I need most is a valley, or a cliff...to remind me first and foremost of my great need for You.

Psalm 121 (NLT)

 I look up to the mountains—

does my help come from there?

 My help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth!

Psalm 23:4 

 Even when I walk through the darkest valley,

I will not be afraid,

for you are close beside me.

View from the balcony in Grove City Chapel