Wish you could see it. . .

As I try to put together a concise way to tell the ladies at bible study tomorrow (well, today in about 8 1/2 hrs.) how my friend is doing, I doubt I’ll be able to contain my excitement enough to communicate quickly and effectively. I suspect I will either blubber and not give any pertinent detail or go on indefinitely. As long as they get, “Safe, blessed, and grateful,” I suppose the rest doesn’t matter.

I got to see her and her six children off Wednesday, not knowing if she would make it to her destination safely, or if the van we gave her would get her all the way there. (over 200G’s and barely kickin’) After I not-so-lovingly encouraged her to get the h-e-double-hockey-sticks out of dodge before her husband could be released from jail and hunt her down, the next time I heard from her, she said, “I’ve been a busy little beaver since then.” Praise God for His purposes overwhelming my lack of faith!!!

She called me Saturday, gushing, “I know God wants us here. It is perfect. There is no one else here right now, so we have our own little mini-apartment.” (The other places she had considered would’ve required her and her 6 kids to share a room, yes, a room, with another family.) “It’s got two bedrooms with a bathroom connecting them–just like the Brady bunch!!!” Can I get a warm fuzzy navel over here? And then it just got better. “I know why God wants us here, Leslie. There is no drama. There’s not a bunch of other chicks here with all their sh** to deal with along with my own. I don’t have anybody to try not to fight with. I have been so much calmer since I’ve been here. You have no idea. Even with the kids!!” Praise God for peace!! After 13 years of drama, drama, drama, what a blessing to have a moment’s TRUE peace.

The van. The poor, poor, worn out van. It took them nearly three days to make a 12 hour trip. The money that was meant to cover everything, clothes, food, gas, etc. almost all went in the gas tank or oil tank or radiator. But she got there with 50 dollars to spare. The real miracle is not in that, though. It’s this, “Leslie, it was exactly enough for me to get another phone card when I got here.” Not, “it was pure hell because we had to stop every hour.” Not, “I thought I was going to strangle the kids they were so f***ing loud and obnoxious.” Not, “all my money went out the door into that d*** thing.” It was “exactly enough.” Praise God for a change of perspective!!!

They had a sad looking little toy poodle that they took with them on the trip. He disappeared on a stop at a restaurant. There was no place for him to wander out of sight, so someone must have picked him up. What was the response? “See kids, God found a home for him for us because He knew we couldn’t keep him when we got there.” They can’t blame Mom for making them leave it somewhere, and there was no tear-jerking scene as the shelter lady rips the poor dog from the crying toddler’s arms. God took care of every member of the family. He left no one out. It wasn’t “We lost the dog and the kids won’t let me forget it.” It was, “See? God’s taking care of all of us.”

It never fails to amaze me how our perspectives miraculously do a 180 degree turn when we step out in faith and allow God to provide for us. And it never fails to humble me when I am able to witness God doing a great, miraculous work of art in humanity, and am allowed to place a string on the loom. I might not know what came before, or ever know what comes after, but the moment I place my string where He says to put it, I see the beauty forming. I see a grand, intricate pattern taking shape. And when I step into the light at the end of my years, maybe, just maybe I will be able to see that amongst the bold colors and shapes and dark billows of shadow in the picture, there is a tiny, almost imperceptible string forming a crisp edge of silver that somehow defines the space.

May He burn every impurity from my heart so that I might walk the path before me with the light from His reflection, for then and only then do I become an instrument. Thank God we only take one step at a time, or I might never be anything more than a chunk of rock.