Of good and perfect gifts (like friends and open doors)

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Categorized as  blog,  friends,  prayer, 60 Days of Beauty, Bethel college

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights…”  That’s what a disciple of old once said, and today, my heart says, “Amen.”

Social girl that I am, it’s been one of my heavier crosses to bear this last 16 months or so, since the dark day that the turn-around times at work ramped up and the four walls closed in around me.  I don’t get out much these days.

In what has been a time of much solitude and desert wandering, still I have found that the very desert blossoms, and in a time of enforced stillness, His voice can be heard.  Odd, is it not, how beauty is found in the barren?

One of the lavish blessings I have received during this difficult time is friends, many of them new ones, who have done the single most powerful thing that a human being can do for someone else –  that is, to step forward and carry another’s burden to the throne of grace.  Not only that, but these ladies have been life givers, nurturers who speak words of life and encouragement, even words of caution if needed, and in doing so, they’ve lifted my arms.

This morning, I had the rich blessing of having coffee with one of those faithful ones who has poured life into this girl’s heart.  Little did I realize what she was sacrificing to meet me there in the place where I create.  I was humbled to the core and grateful – deeply – when I learned at the end of our time that my dear friend Barb took a whole vacation day.  Just for me.

That’s grace, isn’t it?  Receiving a gift we didn’t deserve.  Grace humbles us and brings us to our knees.

And speaking of grace, remember a couple of weeks ago when I talked to you about open doors?  About how He orders our steps and makes straight paths for our feet?  It’s a beautiful thing when the hand of God moves in your affairs and does that very thing, opening doors and expanding territories in miraculous ways that have His DNA all over it. 

Join me, won’t you, over at Bethel College where my first blog post goes live and a new chapter begins for this writer.  For those of you faithful column (and blog) readers, this will be a familiar piece as it was originally published in The Goshen News when our Bethel journey first began.  I’d love to have you visit me over there.

Your faithfulness warms my heart.  It’s a grace I never quite get over, that our stories resonate with so many of you, and that you actually bother to tell me so.  It’s undeserved, but a gift.  And I, for sure, am grateful.

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