😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. This past weekend I had the pleasure of staying at a log cabin in Hocking Hills, OH with 23 other ladies. It was a great time with God, friends and not having to focus on chores for a few days. I named the weekend Friends Camp 2020, but I was informed that my daughter that wasn’t able to join us called the weekend Glamping with God. I’m not sure if she knew how right she was. There were definitely many moments of experiencing God’s presence during those few days and I imagine all 24 of us walked away with a slightly different experience.
It’s interesting to me how we can find God’s message to us in the most common, ordinary things. On Sunday morning as we were cleaning up before our departure, I was looking for a clean washcloth so I could wash the countertop. I went through the kitchen opening every drawer searching for a washcloth. It’s always like a seek and find game when you’re in someone else’s kitchen. I finally came to the conclusion that we must have used them all, so I got one from the bathroom. A few moments later when I was standing by the sink looking into the living room area, someone opened a drawer and from that angle I could see that there were towels in the back half of the drawer that appeared to be empty when I opened it. Originally, I was too close to the drawer and only had a narrow view of what I was looking into. Similarly, when I was a landscaper, I would have to step back to get the full affect of what we were installing. And even just a few months ago when I went to a paint night with a friend, the instructor kept telling us to step back to look at our work. When we are too closely involved in what we are doing, we can be very easily blinded to what’s going on right round us. God, He’s got that world’s eye view of what’s happening in our lives and can grasp the whole picture, which is why He is constantly tell me and maybe you as well, to stop, take a step back and look at what’s really going on around you.
Some of the adventures we jumped into during Friends Camp 2020 was a 7 mile canoe/kayak trip on Saturday and Sunday we did a 7 mile hike from Cedar Falls to Ash Cave and back. One of ladies that made the 7 mile hike is recovering from knee surgery she had a few months ago. With walking sticks in hand, she powered through the highs and lows, stepping over rocks and roots, and climbing over fallen trees. At the end of our hike I complemented her on being such a trooper and powering through. She said it takes persistence. With that thought in my head, I imagined a rainbow, God’s symbol of His promise to us. I started to think how God’s promise to us is so massive and wide, but we try to look at it with a microscopic view and far too often miss the big picture of what he is offering us. I imagine Him guiding us through the Roy G Biv (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) lines of His promise and feeling that our life, more times than not, feels like an uphill battle and we’re constantly trying to make that climb. He starts us out in that violet arch which is more narrow and has less overall area to travel. As we work through the indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red seasons of His promises, we will find that the arches gradually get a little longer with a little more incline to work up. These arches may require a little more patience and persistence to work through them, but we need to keep in mind to step back and get the full affect of the beautiful rainbow He is painting in our lives. If we don’t, even though we become covered in the rainbow He has painted with our lives, we may never recognize the beauty He has created. Don’t just take a snapshot, step back and look at the full picture. Look at where you started your relationship with Him and what it has grown into. Celebrate the hope of His promise and keep your eyes open for His rainbow. He may even bless you with a double rainbow. Bless others and be blessed.
#Madisa&JohnReddick – You Keep Hope Alive
Third Day Devotions 