My head hit the pillow last night with one “soul”itary plea. “Lord, take the steering wheel; chart the course, and lead the way. With peace, I slept while God rested and renewed me.
Waking early, one more imploration headed to God’s ear. “I need a sign. Yours must be today’s voice– the message, please.”
First, came my walk. Inspirational music blasting from my earbuds refueled my body, heart and soul; but the day’s roadmap still eluded me. I repeated, “Lord, I need Your sign”.
Next on the agenda was walking my brother’s and sister-in-love’s four-legged family. Soon as I took leashes in hand, the two pups fled to their owner’s sides. They didn’t need to bark up a storm to let me know I was not their choice to lead the way. I quipped to God, “See, even the dogs know I’m lacking ‘leader of the pack’ skills. I really need a sign”.
After my arms getting an aerobic workout pulling and tugging Gibbs and Buttercup outside, I compromised the goal of a walk for the necessity of a pit stop. Just beyond the condo door was a large patch of deep dark mulch. Any port in a storm, so I concluded getting them there was all I (and they) could manage.
To Gibbs and Buttercup, loyalty and love were their greatest gifts to offer. So, why was I separating them from their master and mistress who, at the moment, direly needed their loyalty and love. I envisioned a parallel. When our greatest setbacks or defeats strike, one of Satan’s most luring deceptions is to influence our feeling of separation from God, our greatest and most needed source of loyalty and love. At that moment, I questioned if I unknowingly might be mirroring the devil a tidbit. Here I was, in a time of setback, pulling Gibbs and Buttercup away from Nick and Suzanne. I decided my intentions were good. My timing was awful. Instantly, I did an about face. No more tugging in the wrong direction. We headed back to secure all in loyalty and love; BUT NOT BEFORE GOD SENT HIS SIGN.
At my feet rested a lone, pure, white rock. How had I not seen it before? I sensed a heavenly whisper, “Maybe, it just now was placed!?!?”. The pad of mulch I had dragged the pups to was deep, dark and dense — much like the current moment. Yet, there in its midst was an unblemished rock the size of my palm.
Picking the rock up, I noticed though a shiny bright white on top, its underneath was mired with the black mess it was sitting in — so seemed life right now. However, soon as I picked it up, the dirt fell off its surface. I was amazed and wondered how anything could remain such a pure white while surrounded in a wet, filthy mound of debris? Again, I heard a whisper. “My child, the world beneath your feet so often rests in nightmares, but I am always above you and protecting you from its bleak blackness. My promise is to snatch you out of all worldly dirt. No matter how dark the place in which you are standing, crawling or kneeling in prayer, My presence is there with you, waiting to be your rock.
The world we live in may be mud and slime, but regardless of the mess, we are created to, none the less, shine forth the contrast of God’s pure, white, redemptive loyalty and love. No matter the darkness beneath our feet and defeats, God’s loyalty and love never disappears. God gets down in the mulch with us. No mess is too dirty, or deep, for Him not to show up and stay. We only need to cling to Him. You better believe, I squeezed that lone, white rock in my hand and carried it inside both the condo and my soul.
Uplifted in a Broken Down World 