Saturday morning ramblings....

Wow! I have one last large test to take this coming Tuesday morning and then, finally, I will be done with all of the basic requirements to this degree. I will be fully in the school of education. Sometimes, dreams and goals take decades. I must be slow! LOL

The house is quiet this morning -well, nearly this afternoon. I am going to be cutting Mark and Michael's hair today. Mark is preaching in the morning for Dr. Perry and he doesn't want to look like an old hippy. I wonder if he has prepared a children's sermon.

He will be a jack-in-the-box tomorrow morning since he will be leading the music and preaching. However, he loves preaching. Mark is a gentle shepherd type pastor. I have never heard him beat a congregation. He reminds me of the Shepherd in Psalm 23.

Dr. Perry is leading a revival in Calhoun, GA at First Baptist Church. I know that he will influence many people for the Lord this coming week. He, too, is a shepherd in the way he leads a church. Dr. Perry is always, gentle and loving; yet, convicting in his messages.

BTW, there is a wonderful book that I highly recommend. A Shepherd Looks at PSALM 23, by Phillip Keller, is a wonderful read for those needing to see this aspect of our wonderful Lord's nature.

Yesterday, after supper, Mark and I went down by the pond and sat at the picnic table. Paul and his friends had dragged this heavy table down by the pond last week-end while they were fishing. The movement of the water always mesmerizes me. Even on this rather small body of water, we see the force of the moon's pull working. It reminded me that God works and pulls in each of our lives. We may think that we are small but God's care and power is still evident.

As we were sitting in silence, watching the water and the ducks, Mark spoke. "Debbie, look up."

Flying overhead was a hawk. What another amazing creation of God's to watch. The hawk just kept allowing the winds and air currents to carry him along. When he would begin to descend, he would turn his wings and body in such a way as to allow the wind to pick him up and send him on. He wasn't wildly flipping his wings. He kept them spread and trusted the wind to carry him where he needed to go.

Isn't that a poignant picture of how God works in the lives of His children?

We are called to trust him.

Again, Mark spoke, "That hawk appeared for a minute to be falling and without any work on his part, but by simply angling his wings in a different way, he was lifted higher in the sky. Look how he glides."

This made me think about my life. I have had to get new perspectives at times when I was falling. Yet, without any work on my part, just faith, God has lifted me. Now, granted, sometimes that has meant a totally new direction. Sometimes, it has felt like God didn't understand and know my desires.

I wonder, did the wind carry that hawk in a new direction? Possibly.

As children of God, we are sometimes carried in places that we didn't choose. I understand that scripture where Jesus tells Peter that in his youth he went where he wanted to go but a time would come when God would take him to places that Peter didn't choose.

I imagine that Peter didn't like being bound and he probably wondered how this could possibly further the Kingdom's work. But, he went forward, while knowing that his life would be radically altered by serving a risen Savior. I think that Peter was like that hawk. He had to allow the winds of God to carry him along and not struggle against it.

The verse is John 21: 18

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go."

The picture I see is one of Peter stretching out his hands not to allow man to gird him but to allow God to carry him along during these times in his life