Life in Technicolor

The Wizard of Oz is my favorite movie of all time. I suppose it was in college when I first started piecing together the reason why it is my favorite movie. It all boils down to the fact that there’s no place like home.

This afternoon, we were driving home to Tennessee from North Carolina. It was a gorgeous day in the mountains. Yet, the sky was gray and over cast. I was enjoying the view through the lenses of my sunglasses. Then, I got to thinking about how parallel to the movie and the greater scheme of life that moment truly was. Everything around me looked like the “before color” scene in the movie.

As a child, I remember feeling like I really was loosing my mind when Dorothy would open the door to her Kansas home and find a world filled with color and wondrous things that she had never seen. I always thought to myself, “Wait, I thought this was a black and white movie.” Then, the whole middle part of the movie would take place in full color and it would eventually go back to the grey color scale once she woke up from her dream.

Life on earth is beautiful, yet much like the movie, we find ourselves living in shades of grey, rather than colors beyond our boldest dreams.

This is kind of wild, but I promise you after I had this thought train this afternoon, I saw a gorgeous rainbow through the grey clouds over the mountains. I just love how God gives us glimpses of the colors of glory. Yes, we temporarily return to the shades of grey, where things aren’t necessarily as He intended them to be when He created the world. Yet, He has redeemed those shades of grey and is using them to paint with a new palette of colors for His new creation.

I have never seen as many rainbows in one year as I have in this one. I’ve already written about the day we saw two rainbows in one day. Yeah, well I haven’t written about how we actually drove THROUGH FIVE rainbows within 30 minutes in September.

To me, rainbows are the most physical evidence of God’s promises that I could ever behold on earth. God knows all the tangible trials we have been through this year with my husband getting laid off. Some days we wonder how on earth we are going to be able to pay the next bill. Break that sentence down…How.On.Earth.We. That’s just it.

GOD shows us rainbows after rainbows from HEAVEN and reminds us of his promises. This year, it’s been to remind us of his promises of provision. He keeps on providing unperverted rainbows to remind me of His absolute truth and faithfulness. He also reminds me that in light of eternity, this is just one more shade of grey that He is allowing beautiful colors of His glory to shine through. He is proving that His grace is sufficient for me.

My circumstances may seem colorless at times, but that’s just because of the lense I’m perceiving it through. All along, there’s really color there. I just have to switch my lense to an eternal one.

Oh, and also, He has it so that any route I drive to work, I have to drive by pastures full of cows. Yeah, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and He has promised us as believers that He will supply all of our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Jehovah Jirah- My God provides.

Putting on That Old 45

Tonight I was writing a note of encouragement to someone who just lost her sister. As I was doing so, my husband put on one of my dad's old records that I didn't even know we had. The oldie, "Last Kiss," began to play. It was a song that my dad and I always got excited about when it came on the radio and called, "Our song," because we always sang it out to the top of our lungs in the car together. Funny thing is...it's a sad, depressing, and not so theologically correct song. But it was ours, nonetheless.

Anyway, I just thought to myself, "Wow, that was kind of a nod from God." He knew that I needed encouragement and reminder of joyful times with my Daddy even as I was trying to encourage someone else. He knew that I needed the reminder that the suffering I saw my dad go through was not in vain. It was to serve a greater purpose. It was for this reason...

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort." - 2 Corinthians 1:3-7.

It's not about us. It's all about Him. "But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed."- 1 Peter 4:13. As strange and dichotomic as that sounds, it's true...there is joy and fellowship when we participate in the sufferings of Christ. Why? Because it all leads back to the fact that He is weaving a gorgeous portrait and landscape of glory. It's for himself. That sounds selfish, huh? Not at all. It's for himself, but He graciously offers the gift of dwelling in His glory to us. I can't wait for those clouds to be rolled back as a scroll some day and for my faith to be made into sight.

Great. Is. His. Faithfulness.

The Road Home

Recently I was able to go to the beach with my family. It was an amazing time of relaxation and bonding. The trip there was full of excitement and anticipation. Yet, after a 10 hour trip back from the beach to a pit stop with another 6 hour trip home ahead of us, it seemed like it took ages for us to get home. The thing is...the entire trip home was less than a full day.

As I rode in the passenger seat, gazing at the open road ahead of us, I thought about how this trip compared to our journey to our true home...Heaven. Life is full of anticipation and excitement. But...our heart longs for more than the journey. It yearns to be home...in a place of settlement and consistency.

Life on earth is a dear blessing from the Lord to allow us to magnify Him. Sometimes we feel like it's about us and the journey we are on. Yet, it's not. It's all about how we exist to bring Christ glory. He has already made our travel arrangements.

We may be going through a trial that makes us feel discouraged or worried. Could that be an event that catapults us toward putting our trust completely in the one we claim to be Lord of our lives? We may feel tired. Maybe that's a circumstance given to us to remind us that our Heavenly Father is so good and gracious that He offers rest to those who are weary that come to Him. Along the road of life, we may feel like we need a vacation... but maybe that's just an opportunity to recharge and allow our minds to be reset with the perspective that should have been in our foreground all along.

In this world we are surrounded by unsettling events and inconsistencies. But, there is someone who is absolutely constant surrounding all of those episodes and holding all things in order no matter how chaotic they may seem from the seat we are in on this drive home.

The road home is shorter than it seems. The eyes of our heart tend to drift off of the keeper of the beautiful abode that awaits us. I don't think that God intends us to wish our lives on earth away by any means. We are to be joyful and thankful for the gift of life on earth with which He has blessed us. But, He does set eternity in the heart of every person. That's the longing that I'm talking about. It's a homesickness. I thank God for the journey of glorifying Him despite my imperfections. But, I long for the day that I can join loved ones who have already rung the door bell of Heaven in glorifying Him in Glory. There really is no place like home.

Through the Rain Speckled Windshield

I've seen a lot of interesting things in the parking lot of our local movie theater...teenie boppers lined up for the Jonas Brothers Movie, the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile, multitudes of refillable popcorn buckets...But tonight, I saw the God's promise.

I was in the middle of pouring out my heart to my husband about how 10 years ago at a youth retreat, we had to talk about where we saw ourselves in 10 years. I was telling him that some of it had come true, but there were things that had not yet, which disappointed me. A lot of it has to do with our current circumstances and the constant reminders around us that certain things just cannot be right now. I was really heavy hearted. In the middle of my sorrow, my darling said to me, "But those were your plans, not God's plans. He has an even greater plan for you." That hit me square in the mouth. But, I still was struggling with swallowing it all.

As we were pulling out of the parking space, my husband slammed on the breaks and put the car in park and simply said, "Woah," and lifted his eyes to the sky. I picked my gaze up off the floor mat and beheld what he did...a mix of white and dark grey clouds through the rain speckled windshield with a single raindrop trickling down like a stream of tears...and...a rainbow.

All I could say was, "God is such a stinker." He surely was listening to my heartache at that moment. In my mind I was having a wrestling match with Him. I knew He was real and that He cared for me, I just didn't like my circumstances. But then, He reminded me that if His promise to Noah was true, his other promises to the rest of us were absolutely true as well. I could literally see his honesty in the sky. We sat there and watched the rainbow fade, but reminded ourselves that His promises never fade.

He has promised that He will never leave me or forsake me. He has promised that He knows the plans for me- for a hope and a future. He has promised that He will provide all of my needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. He has promised that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He has promised that He makes all things beautiful in His time. He has promised that His grace is sufficient for me.

It's not about me. It's about His plans and His story. I GET to be a part of His.story.

Every time the old hymn by Helen H. Lemmel, "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus," is sung in church, I remind my husband that I want this played at my funeral. Maybe you'll understand once you read the words...

1. O soul, are you weary and troubled?
   No light in the darkness you see?
   There’s light for a look at the Savior,
   And life more abundant and free!
   • 
     Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
     Look full in His wonderful face,
     And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
     In the light of His glory and grace.
2. Through death into life everlasting
   He passed, and we follow Him there;
   O’er us sin no more hath dominion—
   For more than conquerors we are!
3. His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
   Believe Him, and all will be well:
   Then go to a world that is dying,
   His perfect salvation to tell!

When I saw that rainbow tonight I was looking full into His wonderful face. And the things of earth grew strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Oh yeah. I actually saw 2 rainbows this evening.

The Unbuckled Shoe

Today is my husband's and my 2nd wedding anniversary. So far, it has been the best one yet. We have had a the most wonderful day together. God gave us an extra special gift wrapped in the bodies of an 80+ year old couple.

We decided to go on a lunch date together to make the day extra special and give ourselves more time with each other. We were sharing sweet memories with each other when all of the sudden my eyes fell on this poor old lady. I'm pretty sure that I was the only person in the restaurant who could see her. She had swung her left foot up to her right knee and was trying so very hard to just connect her Velcro shoe strap to the side of her shoe. Her face was in utter anguish. I've never seen such a painful face for the simple act of buckling a shoe. Her husband was completely helpless and just looked at her with a similar anguish on his face. I told David, "I've got to go help this lady. She needs my help."

So, I ran over there and said, "Mam, let me help you fix your shoe." She mumbled some incoherent words, but seemed appreciative. Her husband gratefully mumbled, "Thank You." I said, "You're very welcome," and returned to our booth.

He kept looking at me and as they were leaving came over to our table to thank me again. He said, "You wouldn't know it, but she was the former Miss Tennessee and she was so beautiful." He told us that she had Parkinson's disease and she had moments when she just wasn't there like when she asked him what his other wife's name was. Then, she had her good moments, like when she told him that she had written him a letter. He said when she told him that, he thought, "Oh, great, it's probably a 'Dear John' letter." Yet, when his eyes gazed upon the words she penned, he read the most beautiful letter he had ever been given.

With that, he shuffled his feeble feet out to his car to come pick up his bride. I pray that my sweet husband and I will always be in love like that. I know we will. I think God was just giving us a little glimpse of what it's like to grow old together with the one we love. Thanks, Lord, for that anniversary gift. It was the best.

True Heroism

Let me start off with a summary quote of John Milton's view of heroism..."True heroism is patience and humility in the face of suffering..."

"...we traveled again to Rwanda, where we stopped at a school for teenagers. Some were orphans who had lost a parent to AIDS or to genocide. As we left the school, we saw a group of teenagers waiting outside to greet us. One had a sign, 'God is Good.' George nodded and said, 'God IS good.' And these teenage children replied, in unison, 'All the time.' To suffer as the have suffered with genocide, disease, and poverty, and to still believe 'God is good. All the time'!" - Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart...

This just struck me...For years, we have said the same thing from our churches in America, with our own personal struggles. There are some of us who have been through devestating losses and trials who say this in agreement. There are some that face things that are on not so grand a level in perspective to the rest of the world, but they are large challenges on a personal level and they matter to God as well. How amazing that these children who have been through so much more than many of us ever will can still say that God is good all the time. He truly is. And He is receiving glory as they consider their trials pure joy, because they know that the testing of their faith develops perseverance. And perseverance must finish its work so that they may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1)

It's beautiful to hear the testimony of our wonderful God through broken spirits, like Job, saying, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." Job 13:15 Even in our darkest hours, God is still good and has a wonderful plan. His plan is far bigger than ourselves, yet His eye is on the sparrow and even more so, it is on us.

I have many more thoughts on the struggles and blessings of suffering, but these are just a few that I thought I'd share tonight. I am entirely grateful to Mrs. Bush for including this story in her book. I hope that the heroic testimony of these beautiful African Children blesses you as it blesses me. God IS good. All the time.