Several years ago I took the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory.  Among other things, it measures where you are on the introvert-extrovert scale.  I had taken the test previously and had always come out as an extrovert.  This particular time it categorized me as an introvert.  Hmmmm.  As I shared these results with some of our friends, they laughed!  I had to agree with them.  Although fairly close to center, I believe God made me an extrovert.  My family and friends agree.

As I was pondering this recently, it highlighted an important truth to me.  If I really want to get to know the treasure hidden inside some of my friends, I need to be willing to journey with them.  A journey reveals more of who they are than a one time test or a short acquaintance.

I am so thankful for several friends who have been willing to journey with me.  I can tell them the truth about myself and it doesn’t scare them.  As a matter of fact, they draw closer.  They want to be on the journey with me.

I’ve come to call these journeying friends along-siders.  They come along-side of me for parts of my journey and we travel together.  My husband Bill is a one of a kind along-sider.  For over thirty-eight years we have been journeying together.  I’m not sure there is anything I could tell him that would shock him.  He has been my best lover and biggest advocate.  I’ve learned to trust his wisdom even when it doesn’t make sense to me at first.  I couldn’t have asked for a better traveling companion.

But Bill is a unique along-sider.  All the other along-siders on my journey drop in and out at different times.  And I love each one for their personal contributions.  I need their different contributions.  Each has contributed to the person I am today.

One of my other along-siders is a fellow Navstaff wife.  I so appreciate her ministry to women and am always honored when she wants to include me.  Our relationship hasn’t always been easy though.  But we’re willing to face the hard things.  It has been a special bond as we’ve struggled through some issues together.  I have benefitted.  I think she has too.

There is another friend who drops in and out of my journey.  She is a professional counselor and has given me an open door to call her.  Her gift of godly discernment has helped me many times when I’ve felt like I’ve hit a wall in my spiritual growth.

I’m thankful for my local along-siders.  We journey together more frequently.  Their gift of friendship and trust is important as I learn what the strengths are that God has given me and how I live them out in my daily relationships.  Their contribution is priceless.

Each of these wonderful friends and many others who walk parts of my journey with me has helped me to break out of my cocoon and become the women God designed me to be. I’m glad they are treasure hunters.

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”
R. Buckminister Fuller

“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
Proverbs 17:17

We know each other, but not well.  We see each other in our common place, but we don’t talk a lot.  We smile and are friendly.  I’ve heard things about her, and I think they are true.  Those things have colored my picture of her.  The crayons are not in my hand.

With my heart I believe that she is a treasure wrapped in a brown paper package.  But I don’t really know.  I haven’t taken the time or created the opportunity to open that package.  If I don’t I’ll never experience her treasure.

Last summer I read a novel, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.  It is a story about some maids working in the deep-south in the 1960s.  The maids were not only in charge of house cleaning and silver polishing, they also had significant nanny responsibilities.

One of the stories in the novel that has stuck with me is a conversation that happens one day between one of the maids and her little charge.  This wise older African American woman was helping the little Caucasian girl understand that her importance and her significance were not in the color of her skin but in what was inside of her.  The maid took two identical pieces of candy.  One she put in a little brown paper sack and the other was put in a little white paper sack.  The child opened both of the sacks to find the same candy in each.  The object lesson from the wiser older woman helped the young child understand that the treasure within is the important thing not what it is wrapped in.

Sometimes I too need help and the reminders of wiser older women to encourage me to discover the treasures that are sometimes hidden deeply under layers of wrapping.

We do Bible study together.  Sometimes we don’t agree on the interpretation of a particular passage.  Usually I believe I have the right one.  L  This particular day I was quite sure I did and I wasn’t very open to her understanding of the passage.  The study came to a close cordially enough, but I could not rest.  After mulling over our discussion (mulling over ~ often a flashing orange light for me) and some additional personal study, I concluded that she might have been right … or at the very least, I was not 100% convinced of my own initial conclusion.  I shared my experience with her and asked for her forgiveness for my stubbornness.  She graciously granted it and I experienced a bit more of the treasure locked inside my friend.  I’m learning that humility is a key to opening treasures.

It’s always easier to open a treasure if you have the keys.  Getting to know a person for myself, believing that the treasures are hidden within us and humility have been some of the big keys for me in opening the treasures of my friends.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, …”
II Corinthians 4:7a

or Opening a Brown Paper Package.  We had just moved to Sacramento and our older son was in junior high.  It was important to us that he was plugged into a good youth group.  That morning we had visited a church and noticed that there was a picnic later in the day for new kids to the youth group and their parents.  Not knowing anyone, Dave and I went.  As Dave was joining in with whatever the boys were doing, I was wandering around in a haze.  I know I looked like the new mom on the block.  Trisha noticed and invited me to sit next to her with several other parents.  That was a very welcome invitation and, by the way, the beginning of a special friendship.

Several years later, after another major move, I was in a similar situation.  This time I was wandering around the ladies coffee hour before Bible study at the church we had recently decided to attend.  I was obviously new and Marion approached me and guided me to a small group.  Interestingly, Marion has also become a very dear friend.

Noticing and taking initiative is the first step in opening brown paper packages.  I am so thankful that Trisha and Marion both took initiative with me.  They continued to get to know me and help me get involved in the women’s ministries of our new churches.  I remember going to coffee one day with Marion and she asked me, “Sue, how would you like to be involved in our women’s Bible study ministry?”  She opened the door wide for me.  What a huge risk on her part!  I had an answer and she supported me.  Marion was opening the brown paper package that was covering the real me.  Thank you, Marion!

My friendship with Janine is less than a year old, but it is very special to me.  The very first time we met we realized we had a lot in common.  Besides both of us being the mother of two sons, we both have a heart for listening to God in solitude and silence and helping other women do the same.  My church invited me to facilitate a one day retreat on that topic.  Even though Janine lives an hour away, she made the retreat a priority and attended.  Not only was her presence a huge affirmation, but at the end of the day before driving home she offered to de-brief with me.  Her questions and her affirmation continued to open my brown paper package.

Bill and I have enjoyed being part of a couples group for several years.  Although we all have a lot in common, we also all have a lot of differences.  Ed and Mary own a cabin in the mountains and several times the ten of us have squeezed in their cabin for a weekend together.  Thank you, Ed and Mary!  As we live together, our differences shine.  Mary is wonderful about stepping aside and giving anyone else access to her kitchen.  The treasure inside Mary’s brown paper package is more evident as we live together.  What a gift she is to our group.  Although it is rarely possible to move into each other’s worlds like that, it highlights the importance of spending time with friends on their turf to see what is inside their brown paper package.

Assuming there is a treasure inside the brown paper package of a believer’s life is always a correct assumption.

To be continued …..

“…It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…”
Galatians 2:20

I don’t ever remember a time I didn’t want to be a mom.  Thank you to my mom who enjoyed being a mom; I had a wonderful example before me.

To Mom, family dinners were important.  Mom not only made a balanced meal each night, she set the table (till me and my sisters were old enough to help) each night in a way that communicated this time with family was important.  The table always looked nice.

To Mom, our activities were important.  Mom not only made sure we got to the activities we were enrolled in, but she often was involved in them herself.  I remember her watching and silently encouraging me as I tried out for the Color-guard in high school.  And Mom was always involved in Scouts with us either leading our troop or helping with our projects.  And I’m quite sure Mom and Dad sacrificed financially so we could have some of those important childhood experiences like summer camp.

To Mom, school was important.  Mom helped and encouraged us with our homework.  She always made sure our clothes were ironed and we looked nice as we left for the bus in the morning.  Even though Mom was a teacher by training, she knew school was more than reading, writing and arithmetic.

To Mom, the local church was important.  Mom planted the seeds of faith in my life by bringing me to church, Sunday school and youth group.

To Mom, our friends were important.  Mom brought us up to know how to be a friend and how to communicate with our friends.

To Mom, vacation was important.  Every summer she got the whole family ready for our two week vacation with Grammie and Grandpa.  A highlight of the year for all of us.

To Mom, our home was important.  Being a homemaker was part of who she was and it was a priority for her.  To this day, keeping her home guest ready is important to her.

To Mom, traditions were important.  We always had home-made Halloween costumes, Christmas stockings and Easter baskets.  Traditions were not only about things, they were about family and celebrating together. There were a lot of extended family dinners throughout the year often including our second cousins as well as the first cousins.  I have many good memories as a result.  (This was one of my hardest adjustments to marriage as Bill and I had very different experiences with family holidays growing up.)

On February 24, 1976, I became a mom and Mom was there to help me adjust to this new precious life that had joined our family.  Thank you, Mom.

With Mom’s coaching, encouragement and love over the next several years, I also learned that “once a mom, always a mom”.  Mom never stopped wanting to support me in my motherhood journey.

Mom is a very young ninety-something now.  Both our sons are married and have children of their own.  Mom is now a GREAT-Grandma.  Last December we received a letter from Mom early in the month suggesting how much money we should spend on Christmas.  I smiled, “once a mom, always a mom”!

I love being a mom and a gramma ~ Mana to our grands ~ I can’t help it, it’s in my genes!  🙂

Mom on the left visiting her older sister, my Aunt Elizabeth a few weeks ago.

“Honor your father and your mother”
Exodus 20:12 and Matthew 19:19

Early last fall one of our pastors preached a sermon from Ephesians 2 that has stuck with me.  He spoke of the implications of the terms Paul uses to describe us in verse 19.  We are no longer strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.  Because this is true, Brian exhorted us to do away with every other category we have for each other.  We cannot look down on others (nor can I look down on myself).  And we can never be exclusive.  I was convicted as I thought about how I sometimes categorize some of my brothers and sisters in the faith.  Although I don’t remember him referring to this reference in II Corinthians 4:7, he could have.  As members of the household, we all carry this treasure (the Holy Spirit) in jars of clay ~ or ordinary clay pots ~ or brown paper packages.  The size and shape of brown paper packages vary but what is most important about all of them is what is inside.  And brown paper is not opaque!

Deb and I have a special friendship.  Along with JA, the three of us share vulnerably from our lives and encourage and pray for each other.  What is unique about our friendship is we live in three different states and a big part of our friendship is by email.  Last week Deb shared this story.  And she graciously is allowing me to share it with you.  Thanks Deb!

I had an experience Tuesday where I really felt like a brown paper package that no one had any interest in.

We just joined a new church and the pastor has been very encouraging and affirming of us.

There are many marriages struggling in the church so I offered to meet with some wives to encourage them and share some of the treasures that have helped me during the past 25 years.  His wife has a group of 30 young moms she meets with on Tuesdays and she had asked him and another pastor to come and address their questions on marriage and parenting.  He asked if I’d come to and answer a few of the questions so the women could have the opportunity to get to know me.

Now for starters I am severely hearing impaired – I can do one on one, or speak to groups ~  but discussions?  That was way out of my comfort zone.  But I sensed God wanted me to go, so I went.

I get there about 15 min early.  Some women are setting things up.  They barely speak to me except to say they don’t need help. So I’m left on my own as the young mom’s start arriving.  I try to talk with them but they aren’t at all interested in talking with me.  In fact one asks have I been able to find friends my own age?  Most of the time I’m sitting by myself and feeling very alone and on the verge of tears.

When the morning discussion starts, the pastors initiate but soon ask me to address some of the questions.  You better believe I’d been praying James 1:5 for wisdom and the Lord was very present.   What He gave me to share really resonated with the women.  And can you guess what those women did after?  They came up to hug me, thanking me for coming, and one even came up and said, “I would love to sit at your feet” and I’m thinking “you wouldn’t even talk to me an hour ago!!!”

So thankfully it ended on a good note – but those 45 minutes were AWFUL!

And I wonder how many times does this happen in the church – we don’t accept people until we see something to approve of?

And that’s where your brown paper packages come in Sue – everyone is fearfully and wonderfully made.  So no matter how brown that paper packaging may be there is treasure in there just waiting to be discovered.  Can I look at the people around me eager to accept them as Christ accepts me in order to bring praise to God – seeing them the way you describe Sue – even before the packaging is unwrapped?

Ahhhh, and that’s the challenge.  How can I get to know the treasures that are inside all those brown paper packages, all those people who are part of my household that sit around me every Sunday?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and members of the household of God,”
Ephesians 2:19

The alphabet is one of the first things we learn as a young child.  When I browse the children’s section of a bookstore or a library, alphabet books abound on a variety of subjects. Our kids memorized their first verses of scripture following the letters of the alphabet.

In the last month I’ve visited all three of our GRANDchildren.  Judah lives in SC and Jack and Ashlyn are in Kansas.  They are all pre-schoolers.  Perhaps that is why the alphabet is on my mind.  I sang it more than once in the last few weeks.

So creating an alphabet that highlighted some of my most major spiritual lessons was easy.  In some cases it was hard to choose one word.  Here’s what I settled on.

A ~ aroma ~ What a privilege that God allows us to be the fragrance of Him to our world.  II Corinthians 2:14  And what an awesome responsibility that is.
B ~ brown paper packages ~ The best thing about brown paper packages is what is inside.  The Holy Spirit lives inside of us who believe.  It is His aroma that is evident to my world.
C ~ consecrated ~ I love that God consecrated me BEFORE I was born.  An amazing thought!  Jeremiah 1:5
D ~ desires ~ God both gives and fulfills the desires of our hearts.  I’m learning to pray about my desires and asking God to define and refine them.
E ~ echoes ~ The name of this blog, Echoes of Grace, comes from I Thessalonians 1 in The Message translation, “… our life is echoing the master’s words …”
F ~ fruit ~ “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me …”  Philippians 1:22  Fruit-bearing is one of my desires.
G ~ grace ~ This is what the Christian life is all about!
H ~ holy ~ An amazing thought that God implants His holiness in me!
I ~ identity ~ My primary identity is my relationship to God.  I am His child.  John 1:12.  Although I didn’t realize its significance 45 years ago when I first memorized this verse, it has become important to me.   More thoughts with “J”.
J  ~ John 1:12 ~ “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the  power to become children of God”.  During my college years, this was the first verse I memorized after realizing that being a Christian spoke of my relationship with God, not just my religion.  My parents took me and my sisters to church as we were growing up.  Church had always been part of my culture. I can’t remember a time when I did not believe in God.  But it was never a personal relationship.  So receiving Jesus was the next step for me.  Receiving is still an important part of my Christian walk.  As I read my Bible, I’m always thinking about how I can receive what I’m hearing from God.  How do these words relate to where I am today.
K ~ known ~  “Jesus knows me this I love”.  This saying hangs in our bedroom under a
grouping of family pictures.  I love the truth it communicates.
L ~ loved ~ “Jesus loves me this I know”.  And He loves me a LOT!  I John 3:1 is translated in The Message to say, What marvelous love the Father has extended  to us!  Just look at it – we’re called children of God!  Another version translates “extended” as “lavished”.  WOW!
M ~ meditation ~  I have found this discipline so life-giving for me.  Psalm 1:1 and 2 is a favorite, “Blessed is the (wo)man… whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law (s)he meditates day and night.”
N ~ “naked and not ashamed” ~  This phrase from Genesis 2:25 describes my heart for this blog.  I desire to share vulnerably with my readers from what God has done in my life.  If it is indeed God’s work, then I cannot be ashamed!
O ~ omniscient ~ I need to trust that!  God is all-knowing.  For me this is a basic truth that undergirds all of life and gives a bit of perspective in hard things.
P ~  partnering ~ What a gift to me to partner with you as we walk this Christian life together.
Q ~ questions ~ Questions have been part of who I am for many years.  They have been an important part of my time in the word as well.  I often try to put myself in the place of one of the Bible characters and ask how I would feel if that was me.
R ~ reflection ~ I imagine you have noticed the upside down mountain picture on the home page of my blog.  It is a reflection in a lake of the Maroon Bells; one of the most beautiful spots in Colorado.  A reflection like an echo does not have a life of its own.  It is like a picture of the real thing.  That’s my heart.  I want to be a picture of Jesus to my world.  My favorite scripture on being a reflection is II Corinthians 3:18.  There are two big encouragements for me in that verse.  The first is, we are a reflection when our faces are un-veiled.  When I’m hiding behind a mask, there is no reflection.  The second encouraging truth is when I reflect God, I am also being changed into His image. Thank You, God.
S ~ stewardship ~ Colossians 1:25 speaks of this concept.  Any ministry that God allows me to have is a stewardship from Him to me for others for the purpose of making the “Word of God fully known”.  This is what I pray for my writing.
T ~ trust ~ a little word with BIG implications!  Trust is the verb form for the word, faith.  Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith (trust) it is impossible to please him …”  One of my almost daily prayers is, God, what would it look like to trust You today?
U ~ unadorned clay pot ~ In the Message translation, II Corinthians 4:7 says, “We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives.”  I love that!  My ordinary everyday life is a vessel for God to use.
V ~ value ~ Philippians 3:8 – “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth (value) of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord …”
W ~ workmanship ~ In Ephesians 2:10, this is the Greek word, poema.  It describes us who are believers.  We are God’s poem, His work of art.
X ~ eXperience grace ~ One of my prayers for myself and others is that we would understand and experience grace so the Gospel can grow and bear fruit in our  lives.  Colossians 1:6 ~ my paraphrase.
Y ~ Your (my) heart ~ Proverbs 4:23 is translated in NIV, “ABOVE ALL ELSE, guard your heart as it is the wellspring of life”.  This is a BIG challenge for me.  In order to do this, I must know my heart ~ the heart God gave me.
Z ~ Zephaniah 3:17 ~ “The Lord your God is in your midst,
A mighty one who will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness;
He will quiet you with His love;
He will exult over you with loud sing

In the life lessons section of my journal I have this sentence recorded, “Live from the heart God gave me”.

Initially that was a warning for me.  It was a corrective to what I used to think gave me significance.  My significance used to be based on what you knew about me.  It was always easier to advertise to you who I was if there was a uniform that did that for me.  So in elementary school and junior high, it was my Girl Scout uniform.  In high school I was hoping it would be a color-guard uniform ~ that never worked out.  During college it was the blazer that I got to wear that communicated the sorority I was part of.

And if there wasn’t a uniform, it was a role that I got to fill that communicated to me ~ and I thought to you ~ that I was significant.  It was usually a leadership role of some sort. I mistakenly thought that my usefulness was tied to a role or a uniform.  But I’m realizing the vanity and the pride in that thinking.  Not only that, but how incorrect it truly is.

I’m learning to love the line in the song, “My Favorite Things”, from The Sound of Music that speaks of “brown paper packages”.  The idea of course is that the wrapping is not what makes the gift special, it is what is inside that counts.  And so it is with us who are believers.

Author LeAnne Payne says, “Until we learn to yield to God all our needs, cries and the desires of our hearts in petition, we will neither know Him or our hearts as we should”.  I think my desires were right.  But how I thought they would be lived out was not.

I’m figuring out what is inside the brown paper package of who I am ~ what my desires are ~ what thrills my heart ~ the heart God created within me.  And I’m also learning what sidetracks me from living out of those God-given desires.  Galatians 5:16 teaches me that my flesh also has desires.  Those desires may look good on the surface, but underneath they sidetrack me from living out who I really am.

Asking myself some questions has helped me figure out if my desires are from God.
For instance, what is it about this desire that I think is life-giving?  And, what is it about this desire that I really enjoy?  What might God say about this desire?  Proverbs 3:5 is a good caution for me, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.”  I’m learning to allow God to speak to me and shape my desires.

Many years ago I heard the voice of God speak to me from Jonah 2:8 where Jonah is praying to God from the belly of the whale.  In the NIV, this verse is translated, “Those who cling to worthless idols, forfeit the grace that could be theirs”.  To be honest, I don’t remember the circumstance that caused that verse to speak to me.  However, in the last several months, God brought that verse back to me again as my husband and I are looking at some changes in the near future.  Change is always hard in some ways.  I want to cling to that which I know.  But the real question is, do I want to forfeit the grace that could be mine?  NO!  So I submit my desires to God.  And slowly my desires are changing.  I’m learning that the brown paper package that has been our life for the last few years no longer contains the desires God has given us.  So what is more important, the packaging or the contents of the package ~ the heart that God has given me?

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart”.
Psalm 37:4

Resurrection is bringing to life that which was dead.  The resurrection in my life dawned over a period of years as I pondered the life-giving truths of scripture.  The ah-ha moment came quickly as I realized what was happening in my life.

The Old Testament law in Leviticus 19 teaches me to love my neighbor just like I love myself.  And that’s how I “loved” for a long time ~ just like I loved myself.  For example, I never felt like I was good enough.  Others seemed to always have the opportunities I wanted.  So in loving them like I loved myself, I really didn’t believe that they were good enough either!  They really weren’t qualified for their opportunities either.

Another un-truth I clung to was that I needed a role or a title to have significance in the Kingdom.  And when I did have certain roles or titles, even significant ones, others always seemed to have better ones.  So in loving others like I loved myself I had to down-play their contributions.  I could not appreciate their contributions just like I never realized the significance of mine.  Attempting to love others like I loved myself was an exercise in futility.  No-one was experiencing love!

A few years ago I started praying that I would love others well.  God’s faithfulness in answering that prayer led to the ah-ha moment and a resurrection in my heart.  Something began to come to life in me.

Jesus gives us a new commandment in the New Testament in John 13 concerning love.  He teaches me to love one another just like He loves me.  The source of my love is not how I love myself; the source of my love is how Jesus loves me!  Ah-ha!  Resurrection!

As I pondered Jesus’ love for me, I began to experience my love for others changing.  I noticed opportunities to affirm others and I could genuinely do that.  Because I had the DNA of godliness, I was “good enough” and my friends were too.  After all, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”, Psalm 139:14.

And as I meditated on II Corinthians 4:7, The Message translation reads, “We carry this message in an unadorned clay pot”.  The message of the Kingdom doesn’t require a role or a title, a clay pot will do.  So it has become easier to love and submit to those who have roles and/or titles.  My submission communicates loving like Jesus loves.  Because I am experiencing God’s love for me, it has become natural to share it with others.  This has been transformational for me.  That which was dead came to life.  I’m finding myself loving and enjoying my friends and their contributions.  I’m not feeling threatened or insignificant.  Ah-ha ~ Love as Jesus loves me!

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
John 13:34

Bill and I recently returned from a mission’s conference at our home church in Illinois.  We always love going.  But this year was extra special.  Let me share three snap shots.

The first snap shot started over thirty years ago with a young non-Christian teen sitting in her English class in a public high school.  The teacher invited one of his friends, a missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators to give a presentation on linguistics.  Her name is Dorothy.   The young girl was mesmerized and decided to major in linguistics in college.  Noticing the special interest of the girl, the teacher re-contacted Dorothy after the presentation and asked her to pray for “that girl”.  For the next ten years Dorothy prayed for “that girl” never even knowing her name.

In the meantime “that girl” became a Christian and was introduced to Wycliffe Bible Translators by her boyfriend  ~ who was interested in aviation ~  during her college years.  Eventually they married and joined the staff of Wycliffe.  They have been serving with them since 1977.  But they never met Dorothy.

During the missions conference “that girl” met her prayer warrior friend for the first time!  It was an amazing reunion testifying to the faithfulness of God.

The second snapshot revolves around Noah, the 15-year-old son of our other missionary friends with Josiah Venture who are ministering in the Czech Republic.  Noah has been a contestant on the Czech Republic’s version of American Idol, “Czech Superstar 2011”.  You can see one of his renditions of a Beatle song and another from that genre here.  What I loved about this story is what Noah was trusting God for in his TV experience.  His prayer requests included that he would have boldness, humility, discipline and that he would be the light of Jesus as he rubbed shoulders with many in the TV and music industry.

The last snapshot is of the ladies weekly quilting group at the church.  This group of women meet on Tuesday mornings to learn the craft of quilting and to enjoy sharing around the Word of God.  This group is an official part of the women’s ministry at the church and meets at the same time each week as some of the small group women’s Bible studies.  It is one of the most successful outreaches to women that the church has!  It is the largest group; it is multi-generational; it reaches many women outside of the church family.

I see one theme in all three of these stories.  Dorothy, Noah and the quilting ladies are all living out who God created them to be.  They may not be proclaiming the Gospel with words but they are incarnating the life of Christ to their worlds by doing what they love.  In the midst of their everyday lives, in a public high school English class, on a TV set in the Czech Republic and in a quilting group God is advancing His Gospel in settings that may not hear of His love in any other way.

“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:16

Two of my neighbors have been reading the Gospel of John with me.  As we pondered and discussed the Palm Sunday narrative from John 12 recently, God challenged me with some questions.

It is a week before Easter.  Jesus is coming to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, knowing that the Cross awaited him.  How appropriate that he came riding on a donkey, a symbol of peace.

He was greeted by a large crowd waving Palm branches as he entered the city.  Palm branches convey the message of victory over the enemy.  But the victory they were looking for was a political victory.  They misunderstood.

I wonder how many times I misunderstand the mission of Jesus in my world.  Asking why is evidence of that I often misunderstand.  I don’t get it.  But I think I know why I don’t get it ~ I’m looking at all the circumstances around me and trying to make sense of the puzzle.  I think I don’t get it because I think I know the best way and the best way is not forthcoming.  And I don’t get it because I don’t have the big picture.  I don’t know the end of the story.  So I misunderstand.

Two exercises have helped me in my misunderstandings.  The first is deciding to trust the Word of God with the circumstances. I often pray, God what is it you want me to pray concerning this circumstance.  I have found this very helpful.   The second is pondering this question, how might God tell this story?

One thing I love about the crowd who came to meet Jesus is when they heard Jesus was coming they dropped everything to be with him.

It kind of reminds me of Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” ESV.   The questions that come to me are … What do I do to put myself in a place where I hear from Jesus?  I’m learning that one way I hear from Jesus is through the words of others friends who write.  I’m just finishing Howard Baker’s excellent book, The One True Thing.  It is an easy read but full of insights that challenge me in my relationship with God.  A second question that I need to ask myself is Am I willing to drop everything to meet with him?  Sometimes I don’t like the answers to my own questions!

One thing I love about Jesus is that he didn’t set the people straight with his words.   He let his actions do the talking.  Not only is a donkey a symbol of peace, it is also a symbol of humility, righteousness and salvation.  Zechariah 9:9.  Just a few verses later in John 12:45, Jesus says, “whoever sees me sees him who sent me”.

How often I believe my words are necessary.  Hopefully as I live my life with my friends, they will see Jesus.

“And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.”  John 12:45