Anticipation

For we are all His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. ~ Ephesians 2:10


We have some friends that live two doors down from us.  Their first child, Ruby, is about 16 months old.  Last Sunday, they all showed up on our doorstep with a little bowl of three perfectly dyed eggs.  And Ruby had food coloring all over all over her - up her nose, on her chin and all over her hands.  As we stood there on the front porch talking, I thought about how much fun it is to dye eggs each spring for Easter.  There is so much to take into consideration to get everything just right - the temperature of the water, holding the eggs just right so no fingerprints are left and mixing the exact amount of food coloring for all those favorite colors like periwinkle and sunset orange or sky blue and mint green.  No matter what I serve for Easter dinner, there is always a centerpiece of towered dyed eggs and a bouquet of fresh spring flowers.  As I watched them walk away, I smiled at Randy and laughed as I said, “Easter eggs have come early this year.”   And I knew why too.  They couldn’t wait for Easter weekend to watch her dye those eggs.  The anticipation was unbearable because there is nothing more exciting than watching your kids do the simple ordinary things each season like bake Christmas cookies, wave sparklers on the 4th of July or hunt those just dyed Easter eggs hidden around the yard after Sunday dinner - especially when they are doing them for the very first time.  Somehow though, even as they grow older, the excitement doesn’t really fade away.  There may be less blue dye up their nose and more on the counter top that won’t fade for a month, but there is always still something eventful to laugh over, to enjoy, a new story to add to that ever-growing family history book.  


I wonder if God delights in those ordinary things that He sees us do when we are walking in the good works He prepared for us to walk in.  I want to believe He does.  I want to believe that when we are obediently following Him as He calls us to, it is just like watching our child dye those eggs or wave that sparkler. 


What does He think when we step out in faith with a joyful and excited heart not really knowing what is going to happen, yet trusting in Him and staying the course all the same?  Is it like watching your child cross the street for the first time alone?  We whisper those instructions, with our heart beating a thousand miles an hour, that we know they will never hear as we watch from afar.  Look both ways.  Watch for cars.  Look again and again and again.  We gasp as they take that first step off the curb and it seems forever until they reach the other side in safety.  Then they are out of our sight and we fight the urge to not sneakily follow them all the way to their destination.  So I wonder, is God standing there at the edge of Heaven whispering words of encouragement even though we might not be listening? Is His heart beating with excitement as we step up and accept the responsibility He has laid at our feet hoping we remember He is there, He is watching and that He is only a whisper away?


I think it is just like that.  


In the end, I think it is just like the one day, you leave your child dying eggs while you switch out laundry wondering what bizarre and crazy colors you are going to end up with and you return to find periwinkle and sunset orange and sky blue and mint green.  You smile and you couldn’t be happier when they sit on the table in a perfect dyed egg tower centerpiece.  Because I believe with each year that passes, we are perfected under God’s ever watchful eye.  I think when God looks down upon us in these moments, He is smiling and He is proud.  I think He is pleased not because we are perfect, but because when we follow obediently in His footsteps, we are perfect enough.  The truth is, we never, ever, have to worry that we might hear him wrong because we have a God who is bigger than our mistakes.  He can still use it to His greater good in His own perfect way.  And when He pastes the story in the only history book that matters, that blue dye we spilled all over the counter top will be more beautiful than anything Michelangelo ever painted.

Faith like a Ferret

"And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." ~ Matthew 21:22


In the Bible, Jesus tells me that if I have faith the size of a mustard seed, then I can move a mountain into the sea.  Most of the time I would settle for just a portion of Poe’s faith.  It is a never wavering and always present faith.  It is evident in every move she makes.  There is no obstacle that her creative and quandary-solving mind can not overcome  She wears her faith like an attitude and defeat is not in her vocabulary.  Sometimes God sends people into our lives to teach us something we need to know.  They cross into our path.  They may drift in and then, they may drift out.  They may stay for a while or maybe a lifetime.  I believe that He sent Poe to teach me about faith.  And leave it to God to do it in an unusual way.


Poe is my ferret.  She weighs in at not much more than a mustard seed, can curl up in the palm of my hand and can back down 200 pounds of our Labrador Retrievers just by making her presence known.  I firmly and undoubtedly believe that if the devil himself were standing in front of her - she would back him down too.  She wouldn’t even have to perform her Weasel War Dance to get it done. She is also a thief.  If it isn’t nailed down, then she assumes it is rightfully hers, that she may take it whenever a whim strikes her and hide the loot in any one of her many dens.  This list of items is vast but include things such as my Blackberry, the T.V. remotes and mouse pads with cool pictures on them given as Christmas presents.  I keep praying for a treasure map with an x that marks the spot. Our intelligence department has shared their knowledge, but we are on a need to know basis: location one - the sofa.  We have a little tear in the lining.  It is a small tear - I can barely get my fingers through.  


One day, she accomplished a feat worthy of a page in Ferret History.  Randy has a little crate under his desk that he uses for a paper recycle bin.  There were a few pieces of paper in there with a small community phone book, still in the plastic, on top.  I am still not sure how she managed to retrieve the phone book and get it out of the bin.  All I know is I came out of my writing room because I heard a thump, thump, thump...and here comes Poe with the phone book in tow, her teeth bared and embedded into the plastic.  I stood there waiting to see what would happen next.  She saw me and stopped.  She waited.  When I didn’t make a move in her direction, she continued around the end the love seat and headed for the sofa.  I started to laugh because I realize what is about to happen.  And she stopped  giving me that don’t-you-dare-doubt-me look.  All I can say in reply - oh me of little faith!  I am still in awe at what happened next.  She continues on her path and gets even with the sofa.  She then jumped, phone book still in her mouth.  She didn’t make it.  She tried seven more times before she switched tactics.  You thought I was going to say give up didn’t you - oh you of little faith.  Poe never gives up.  At this point, she looks around.  Now keep in mind, she has never let go of the phone book.  She drags the phone book to the other side of the coffee table.  Now underneath the coffee table is a stack of magazines.  This in no way hindered her.  She used my neglectful housekeeping to her advantage.  She backed all the way up across the living room.  Phone book at her side, teeth sunk in and ran toward the coffee table, up onto the stack of magazines and pushes off to give herself leverage and then jumps up and onto the sofa phone book still in her mouth.  She turned and tried to drag the phone book back and down through the cushions.  


Now this is where my husband I disagree.  He says I was mean to take the phone book away and I say I was saving her the disgrace of defeat.  You can decide for yourself.


At this point, I am in amazement that this has even happened.  One thing I did know was that even if she did get the phone book between the arm of the sofa and the cushion, it would not have fit through and down the little ferret hole she had created in the sofa lining.  When I picked up the phone book, Poe still has her teeth bared and sunk into the plastic, all her little legs splayed out and she is holding on for dear life.  I immediately panicked and set the phone book down.  I didn’t want her to fall to the floor.  


Sure, that was in the realm of possibility.


I tried to pick her up and the phone book came with her.  I literally had to put them both on the floor and pry her teeth from the plastic with my thumb and first finger while pulling the phone book to safety.  I took the phone book back upstairs to the recycle bin.  She defiantly followed and stood looking at me from the doorway with disgust.  I walked downstairs and heard a thump.  I stopped two stairs from the bottom and turned around only to see Poe at the top of the stairs, phone book by the plastic in her mouth staring down at me. Before I could make my move, she jumped down a stair and the phone book followed.  She wasted no time.  She was half-way down before I captured her.  The tug-o-war was waged.  Ultimately I won.  Not that I am bragging.  I simply have an advantage. I can shut the door to the room where the phone book was returned.  For the second time.  She just can’t reach the handle.  Why it did not occur to me to shut the door after I returned the phone book the first time still eludes me.


I made the statement that God gave me Poe to teach me about faith.  And she does.  She has taught me to hold onto God’s promises.  His promises are found in His word.  We are told to ask believing to receive.  We are told that we can accomplish anything through Christ’s strength in us. We are told we can move mountains. And there are so many more.


God never lies.  His words are Truth.  He never makes mistakes.  Not even when He answered that prayer for you, just not in the way you wanted Him too. I read somewhere, “God’s answers are smarter than our prayers.”  I believe that because in weakness and desperation, I can pray some outrageous ideas.  We are called to walk in faith and not by sight.  Now for some, seeing may be believing, but in God’s vocabulary it is the definition of doubt.  God calls us to step up and when we do, great things happen because God works through ordinary people to create extraordinary events.  I learned this from reading Max Lucado and John MacArthur.  Every story in the Bible is about ordinary people who had extraordinary faith in what God was telling them to do.  Whether their mind conceived the task was in the realm of possibility or not, whether they believed they were capable or not, they acted in faith when God called them that He would make it happen.  And He did.  


Because God can do anything He chooses.  Even create an animal, at the dawn of creation, to teach me about faith in 2010.  That is one omnipotent, awesome and powerful God. And I am so grateful and humbled that He is on my side when my smaller-than-a-mustard-seed of faith rises up ready to serve whenever He calls my name.