As the end of October arrives, the radiant foliage that captured and raptured our hearts for much too short a time, has all but disappeared now. There’s an uninvited crispness hanging in the air, further reminding us that fall has truly fallen…and the first frost has permission to brush its icy masterpieces onto the faces of every pumpkin growing in the pumpkin patches all around town!
As a little girl, I can remember my heart racing at the first thought of making a trip to Jackson’s Pumpkin Patch, with my brothers and three younger cousins. My mom and my aunt drove us there nearly every year. It was the highlight of our October! Dressed in our warmest sweaters, my brothers, cousins, and I raced through the pumpkin patch in opposite directions with one idea in mind. To pick a pumpkin we could call our very own! After an hour of what we kids liked to call, search and rescue in the pumpkin patch; each of us toted our selections back to the car. My brothers loaded the six pumpkins we chose into the trunk of my aunt’s car, while mom found a place alongside of them for twelve muddy shoes. Then we headed back home to enjoy the hot spiced cider and doughnuts mom set out for us before carving our pumpkins. With very little help from the adults, six sets of children’s hands went to work, eagerly designing our personal pumpkin heads. With bursts of laughter and occasional sighs of frustration echoing out of our hollowed-out pumpkins; we all sliced and diced and scraped; poked, prodded, and pulled-out everything that hindered our pumpkin heads from becoming the masterpieces we intended them to be. Their expressions ranged from cute…to comical…to creepy (my brothers pumpkins were always the creepy ones). But nothing our own hands carved that day could’ve brought those pumpkins to life any more than the candles we placed down inside of them when we were finished. The moment my mom lit a match, and its flickering flame collided with the tips of the candlewicks; a magical transformation occurred inside each of our pumpkins. For us kids, it was like watching new life explode inside each pumpkin head! Every beautiful expression carved… came alive in that moment! Needless to say, our own faces lit-up at the sight of them, too! When darkness fell that evening, we carried our new creations outside and lined them up on the front porch step for all the world to see. After all, who wouldn’t want to share something so beautiful?
Every one of those pumpkins we carved as kids, had its own unique story to tell the watching world. Because of the willing hands of a few young carvers that day, every pumpkin head’s story was literally transformed from its former life in the pumpkin patch; into a story of light…not of darkness anymore. You see, the carver is the pumpkin’s only hope in this world!
Though you and I are anything but a pumpkin in this world, still…a pumpkin’s journey from the pumpkin patch to our own front porches; uniquely points our hearts towards the process of what it’s like to become a child of God:
The Pumpkin Patch!
–Much like a pumpkin, God (The Heavenly Carver) sees you in a field ripe for harvest; and runs for you. Then He picks you up, washes the dirt off you, and calls you His very own. You become His chosen treasure.
God tells our own hearts this in His Word: “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away.” (Ezekiel 36:5a NLT)
The doorway leading to the pumpkin’s heart.
–The pumpkin, at this point, knows the carver can be fully trusted. The pumpkin invites the hand of the carver in, willingly surrendering as the carver works to make a new opening in the pumpkin’s hard outer shell.
God tells our own hearts this in His Word: “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, I will come in…” (Revelation 3:20a NLT)
The carver wields the blade of his knife deep into the heart of the yielding pumpkin.”
–The carver’s hand again, wields his blade deeper into the pumpkin’s heart…removing all the seeds of sin, doubt, lust, impurities…cutting away the excess…scraping and smoothing its walls; all in preparation for the gift of light the carver plans to leave inside of the pumpkin.
God tells our own hearts this in His Word: “I will take out your stoney, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you…” (Ezekiel 36:26a,27a NLT).
The carver places his gift of ‘light’ inside of the heart of his pumpkin!
–No pumpkin on its own can ever come to know this priceless gift of light inside of it without the touch of the carver’s hand.
God tells our own hearts this in His Word:
“Your lives light up the world! So don’t hide your light! Let it shine brightly before others, so that your commendable works will shine as light upon them, and then they will give their praise to your heavenly Father in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:14a, 16 TPT)
The Carver calls you out of darkness to ‘experience’ His Gift of Light for yourselves.
Only the carver’s hand can give the pumpkin new eyes to see with…eyes capable of seeing far beyond the darkness of the old life it once knew, sitting in the dirt of the pumpkin patch. Finally, the carver’s blade leaves the pumpkin with a giant smile…reflecting to the watching world, that nothing in life compares to the gift of being cleaned from the inside out! Seedless… the pumpkin now gratefully, bears the precious light of the carver himself!
–God tells our own hearts this in His Word: “But you are God’s chosen treasure, set apart as God’s devoted ones. He (The Heavenly Carver) called you out of darkness to experience His marvelous Light, and now He claims you as His very Own. He did this so that you would broadcast His Glorious Wonders throughout the world. For at one time, you were not God’s [children] but now you are. At one time, you knew nothing of God’s Mercy, because you hadn’t received it yet, but now…YOU ARE DRENCHED with it!” (1Peter 2:9b, 10 TPT)
HEART TRAPPINGS PRAYER:Thank you for choosing us, Lord…for rescuing our souls from this world’s deep darkness and placing Your priceless gift of Light down inside of us. Our hearts are so grateful for the Gift of new eyes to see with…eyes now capable of seeing life from Your Beautiful Perspective. May ‘our eyes never fail to see there’s great delight in following Your ways’ (Proverbs 23:26). As Your Own personal creations…Your Masterpieces… You set us out on the doorsteps of this world to shine for You. So those living in the darkness of this world ‘will see your beautiful works and have a reason to glorify You…’ (1Peter2:12b TPT). May we never forget that we are chosen by Your Hand and uniquely fashioned…to BE THE LIGHT OF THIS WORLD! Empower us to do just that until You come back for us. IN JESUS NAME… AMEN
I once heard it said, “The only constant in life is change.” If ever there was a season in life that typified this truth, it is the season of autumn. I’ve always loved it! At the first sign of it, my heart begins to yearn for another glimpse of the indescribable colors God paints in broad strokes, all across the face of the Rocky Mountains. Sometimes, as I look at those glory-splashed hillsides I feel as though I’m seeing a combination of hues taken from God’s Own Divine Palette that may never be there again! That’s when I can hear the Artist Himself whispering down into my spirit, “For your eyes only….my child!” What a privilege it is as His child, to bear witness to this limited-edition beauty of God’s Handiwork. His Hand-Painted Masterpieces brushed onto the mountainsides of my own world! Who wouldn’t want to glimpse such splendor? It’s the very reason my husband and I faithfully embark on our mountain drives every fall season. In all the years we’ve been going on these fall excursions, my heart has only been disappointed once…and it taught me something my heart will never forget.
You see, I have a tendency to set myself up for disappointment by assuming things are going to be the same as they’ve always been. A few years ago, when the fall season descended on me, my spirit was particularly thirsty for a glimpse of those glory-splashed mountainsides. I’d undergone several surgeries on my right eye for a detached retina and for most of that particular summer, I was restricted from any sort of mountain drives, due to the pressure change it placed on my healing eye. When that constraint was finally lifted by my doctor, both my heart and my eye leaped for joy! Jim and I climbed into the car and headed straight for Squaw Pass; a favorite mountain retreat from which we love to view the Aspens. A recent summers-worth of hardship behind us now, I fully expected a show of glory-splashed hillsides like no other. But as we rounded each curve, near-empty aspen branches already shivered in an early fall breeze. The entire forest echoed with the crunch of coffee-brown leaves being scattered all across the forest floor. These were not the colors I’d expected from the Artist’s Palette. Only once did we spot an aspen tree with golden leaves still clinging to it. Though I understood that this scenery, too, was the Handiwork of God’s Brush, it was hard to picture this one splotch of gold standing in the midst of a mountainside full of barren branches as being the feast my eyes and heart came to devour. Worse than this, an unanticipated silence reigned in my soul because of it. To me…it seemed that the only thing highlighted in this particular day’s scenery was disappointment.
The following morning, I headed for my parent’s house to help care for my 83-year-old Dad, still recuperating from surgery. As I walked through his front yard, the sound of my feet crunching in ankle-deep, fallen leaves shifted my focus back to yesterday’s disappointment. Though I was standing in a different corner of my world; the scenery surrounding me was strikingly similar to the mountain drive we’d taken the day before. Barren branches, broken limbs, and a sea of lifeless, mushroom-colored leaves, yielding one last time to the chilly, autumn breeze. Had it not been for a single, burgundy, maple leaf that wafted down from a neighbor’s tree and came to rest in the middle of this sea-of-sameness; this landscape, too, was void of any color at all. I stood there not quite sure of how to react to another of Heaven’s one-splotch-of-color Masterpieces. In response, my beauty-starved spirit prompted me to pull out my phone and snap a picture of that single burgundy, maple leaf. And for the second time this autumn season, I left that scene in silent disappointment. Thankfully… the story didn’t end here.
That same evening, I sat at my desk reading a passage from Philippians 4:
“Be cheerful with joyous celebration in every season of life.” (vs. 4)
“Fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising Him always.” (vs.8b)
These words spoke directly to my heart that night. In the silence of the next few seconds, I pulled out my cell phone and glanced again at the picture I’d snapped earlier…the one I’d deemed anything but beautiful. That’s when I heard the Whispers of the Artist Himself speaking again, “For your eyes only…my child.” Though His words had made perfect sense on all our drives through glorious, color-splashed mountainsides, I struggled now to understand them in the context of His one-splotch Masterpieces.” Before I could utter even one question back to God, He was already gently, reminding my heart of this, “I am here, too.”
His last four words impacted me in a way I will never forget. Nor will I ever look at the gift of God’s one-splotch Masterpieces quite the same. In reality, His words were His Signature on both of them. As my husband and I drove by those barren hillsides that fall day; we missed the true Beauty of that One-splotch of Gold we did see. In our disappointment, we also missed seeing the message that every aspen tree’s barren branches were pointing our hearts towards: Beauty still resides even in the midst of all this world’s barrenness.
Sometimes the things that we deem as ‘anything but beautiful’ in this life… are anything but what we deem them to be. God’s Perspective is as far removed from ours, as His Ways are higher than our own. Even so…just how often are we intentionally looking for Him in the circumstances of our seasons? Many times, I’ve regretted not having looked deeper at my surroundings that day while I stood in my dad’s front yard, ankle deep in lifeless leaves and broken branches. Had I done so, I may have seen it more as the timely Masterpiece God wanted me to see all along. I would’ve seen His Signature scrawled across that single, burgundy leaf, and I would’ve known that He placed it there as a reminder to my fragile heart in its own season of struggle, of this Beautiful Truth… “I Am here, too.” Here in your barrenness. Here in your brokenness. And here, standing before you as your Greatest Hope in the midst of all this world’s hopeless-ness.
“Fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising Him always.”
(Philippians 4:8b TPT)
HEART TRAPPINGS PRAYER
Dearest Father, help us to see the beauty you are continually painting onto the mountainsides of our own seasons in life. Open our physical and spiritual eyes to see the Beauty in both the Glory-splashed, Hand-Painted Masterpieces you set before us…as well as those one-splotch works of art that our frail hearts tend to question so frequently. Whatever season we find ourselves standing in…may we cry out in the words of King Asaph, “How we thank you, Lord! Your mighty miracles give us proof that YOU CARE.” (Psalm 75:1) Teach us to look for Your Signature…especially in our brokenness. You are our only Hope in the hopelessness that surrounds us in this life.
The Debbies…”Life is better when we are two-gether!”
“God has a bigger vision for
our friendships than we can
ever begin to understand.”
–Angela Sackett –
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The Glory of Friendship
by Debbie Allen
There is a divine beauty to be found in that moment when we first discover the gift of friendship has come our way in life. Instantly, two hearts can feel at home in each other’s presence. Even though they may have just met, they already feel like old friends. Ralph Waldo Emerson put this another way: “The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.”
Nearly a lifetime ago now, just such a friend stepped into my life. The first few moments of what was to become a life-long friendship, began in the hallway of the Baptist Church we attended with our families. My best friend, whose name was also Debbie, and I were both young mothers still in our twenties, at the time. After church one Sunday, Debbie and I decided just a smile-in-passing wasn’t enough anymore, so we stopped to chat face-to-face. Conversation flowed comfortably between us from the beginning. The only thing that was uncomfortable as we stood across from each other that day in the hallway was me. I couldn’t imagine Debbie seeing me as anything but a giant olive standing on two toothpicks! You see, I was v-e-r-y pregnant with my youngest son at the time. Of course, that was anything but true from Debbie’s perspective! She eventually shared with me that what she’d really seen that day when she looked across at me was… ‘the friend she’d been praying for so long for God to bring into her life.’
You can imagine how very humbled this ‘olive standing on two toothpicks’ felt in that moment! SO humbled…but at the same time SO very grateful; for I, too, received a gift that day! The gift of true friendship which I still treasure, now over forty years later!
Debbie’s always been a true friend to me; the kind of friend whose footprints will remain imprinted in my heart for all eternity. She and I have shared so many precious times together. At one point, we were seen so often together, we were dubbed by others as, “The Debbies”. Our response? “Two-gether is always better!” No one ever argued the truth of that!
Whether Debbie and I were away on a church women’s retreat, sharing coffee and chat at our favorite Starbucks, or sipping on a glass of cabernet while doing crafts in her basement, the camaraderie only grew sweeter and the friendship deeper because of those times we chose to pass sitting in each other’s presence. Eventually, our friendship expanded to include our husbands and children. In our younger years, our families camped, hiked and canoed together, times too numerous to count. Debbie and I still reminisce fondly over all the memorable weekend getaways she and I planned and spent with our Hubbies. There were also the seasonal concerts we attended, and the family sleepovers we participated in on New Year’s Eve for many years. Such occasions provided us the perfect back drop for engaging in an all-night game of Pinochle or Texas Hold ’em! And last but not least…there were the good old days of the Backyard BBQ’s and Bubinga Nights that will never be forgotten! Bubinga was a very special telescope Debbie’s husband, Bruce, designed and built by hand. He spent so many hours and such late nights working beside Bubinga; that Debbie came to refer to this ‘thing of great beauty’ as ‘the mistress.’ Of course…we all understood Debbie was just kidding. And yet… somehow Bubinga ended up in pieces; stashed between the bedroom closet and the farthest corner of the garage. Perhaps Bubinga’s silent message to the world in all of this is, ‘Some friendships are meant to be, and some are not. LOL!
In all seriousness, friendship is not to be taken lightly in this life. All friendships are built on a certain level of love, devotion and trust, but I consider Debbie and I’s friendship unique, in that it was also founded on the wings of prayer. God was and still is at the heart of our friendship. Because of that, the time we share together…whether in seasons of great blessing or in great sorrow, the bond of friendship is both deepened and heightened by God’s Greater Love present between us.
Finding a true friend who’s willing to take time out of their own life, to strengthen you with their presence and prayers, bless you with their love and devotion, and faithfully, encourage your heart with fresh hope and inspiration; is a rare and beautiful gift. Ecclesiastes 6:14 speaks of such a friend as being “a great treasure.”
Through this legacy of friendship Debbie and I have shared down through the years, God has taught me that true friendship magnifies God’s Heart in so many ways. Friendship is about just ‘being with’ someone who allows you to be yourself in their presence; and they love you anyway. Over time, they become our most trusted confidants, and the prayer warriors our hearts can count on, to drop to their knees at a moment’s notice and struggle alongside of us in every season and through every storm of our life. We always have the freedom to laugh or cry and sometimes both, in the trusted presence of a true friend. Friends are always a phone call or text away, and never fail to step in and act as the timely voice of wisdom when our hearts are hurting the most.
Even as I write these words, I can’t help but see the Goodness of God’s Heart woven throughout the gift of True Friendship. Every aspect of it points us to God’s Unconditional Love and His Abundant Grace. If I look a little deeper, I see the glory of friendship as two-fold. From my own experience I’ve come to look upon this gift as both a rare treasure and a great reward.
A rare treasure, in that as we walk side by side in a true friendship before others, we become God’s earthly reminders to a hurting world that we don’t have to walk through life alone. There is Someone Who Loves us for who we are, no matter what.
God also intended the gift of friends to be a great reward to you. When you feel the warmth of a friend’s arms around your shoulders, hear the voice of encouragement in your ears, or sense the strength that rises when a friend comes alongside you in your pain; your heart can know without doubt… that it is the very Presence of God Loving you through the gift of that friend He gave to you! And that has to be the Greatest Reward that any true friend could ever receive on earth!
“The Faithfulness of God’s Love is the very Source of Love
that sustains and nourishes every true friendship.”
–D. Allen–
HEART TRAPPINGS PRAYER:
Dearest Lord, the treasure of true friendship on this earth is one of Your greatest gifts to us. Please help us to walk wisely within them, and to see friendships as the blessings you meant them to be to us. Thank you for the joy they bring us, for the prayers they pray with us, for the shelters they become to us, and for the encouragement they offer our hearts in every season. I praise You Jesus, for being our Greatest Friend in this life; and for the Faithfulness of Your Love, which is the very Source of Love that sustains and nourishes our truest friendships on earth. May our friendships continue pointing others to the One Who Loves them most in this broken world we live in. Your Friendship is our Greatest Treasure and our Highest Reward both now and forevermore! In Jesus Name…Amen
My Granddaughter, 7yr. old Makayla, preparing to hike on some of the same paths I walked on as a little girl, while enjoying time at our rustic family cabin.
“Between every
two pines
is a doorway to
a new world.”
–John Muir–
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Frenzy in the Forest
by Debbie Allen
As a young girl, I remember spending nearly every weekend up at our family’s rustic, cabin during the summer months. My brothers and I loved it! Life was so different up there. For many years it was our home away from home on the weekends. Up at the cabin, my parents were far more relaxed. Even the dirt that seemed to follow us everywhere we went, didn’t seem to bother them. It was almost as if my mom and dad expected us kids to get dirty. So, we did! We relished the idea of spitting watermelon seeds on the ground, wading in the muddy creek with our shoes still on, and playing for hours, taunting the campfire flames with our sticks; all without consequences. Though many decades have passed since that time, my heart remains a treasure trove of precious memories linked to both my childhood and those carefree, cabin days. In many ways, those cabin memories and the experiences connected to them, have helped to lay the groundwork for how I chose to live my life out all these years! Let me show you what I mean.
It was early morning at the cabin, over 60 years ago. While mom and dad were cleaning up after breakfast, I watched my brothers, Danny and Doug, removing a log panel on the frontside of the cabin. It was what we called, the secret door. It covered a hidden storage space. A few hundred cobwebs later, they retrieved the old wooden ‘Red Flyer’ wagon from within that deep, darkness. Towing the wagon behind us, all three of us raced up the hill to our favorite spot, planning to ride it back down the mountainside! That wagon was the closest thing to flying we ever experienced as kids…even when the ride came to a crashing halt at the bottom of the mountain. Though the flight always came with turbulence, it proved exhilarating too, in spite of all our crash site injuries.
Most of the time, we’d spend half-days flying down that mountainside, but not on this particular day. My dad’s cousins from Arizona, Weldon and Juanita, and their little girl, Elizabeth; were visiting for the day. That meant all the men and boys were going to be hiking the wagon trail and exploring the remnants of a miner’s camp, on one side of the cabin property, while 5-year-old Lizzy and I spent our time wandering in and out of the forest trees on the other side of the cabin. My mom and Juanita just planned to sip campfire coffee all day long at the picnic table, while catching-up with each other. It sounded like the perfect plan for all of us…until it wasn’t.
You see…Lizzy and I, and her baby doll, really did wander in and out of the forest trees for the rest of that morning. We were so busy laughing and talking, playing and gathering pinecones to make her dolly a forest bed to sleep in; I didn’t notice the cabin was no longer in my sights. Realizing nothing in our surroundings looked familiar to me anymore, my heart raced to the tune of my dad’s warnings to my brothers and I, whenever we played out in the forest.
“If you can’t see the cabin, then you know you’ve gone too far.”
Up until now, I’d always abided by that rule.
“We’d better be heading back to the cabin, now.” I suggested to Lizzie, not wanting to scare her. One of us shaking in our boots was enough.
Slipping her hand in mine, I picked a direction I thought was right and we started walking. But the trees grew thicker and thicker, and the pathway steeper. Every step I took led me to believe I was still going in the wrong direction.
Stopping to rest, I felt Lizzie’s eyes on me.
“It’s going to be ok, Lizzie.” I said with a forced smile.
My expression must’ve contradicted my words to her, because the next thing I watched Lizzie do was to pat her dolly’s back as if consoling her.
“Shh-h-h, its ok, baby.” she whispered, “We’re just a little lost.”
I swallowed hard at Lizzie’s words. Hearing her say the word ‘lost’ out loud somehow made the reality of our situation too painfully real. What if we never get back? I thought to myself.
“You’re right, Lizzie…we are lost.” I admitted. “And I’m not sure which way to go.”
I expected to see crocodile tears welling up in her blue eyes by now. Even I was trying hard to blink tears back. But the next thing I knew, Lizzie was wrapping one of my hands around hers, and the other around her dolly’s hand. She followed suit. Soon, we’d formed what I now know to be a prayer circle, right there in the midst of all our forest frenzy. Our heads bowed; I opened my mouth to pray but Lizzie had already said it all for both of us.
“Dear God…we’re just a little lost, so please send us a little help? Amen.”
The forest was so hushed in that moment you could’ve heard a butterfly land on a wildflower. But not for long. After Lizzie’s ‘amen’, that changed. Something belted out a squawk so obnoxious, it startled us both to our feet. I felt Lizzie trembling, so I covered her ears and pulled her closer. I just wanted whatever it was to go away…but it continued squawking even louder. And to that horrendous melody, the ‘squawker’ added chattering and screaming! Finally, still holding onto Lizzie, I spun completely around to find a giant, Blue Jay glowering down at me from one of the highest treetops on the mountainside! Though I was deathly, afraid of birds, I somehow found it in me to glare right back at him. It seemed as long as I did so, he remained quiet. In the silence of that ‘little-girl vs winged-beast’ stare down; I was able to capture the distant rumbles of a motorcycle growing closer. By the time its rumbles turned into roars, I knew the motorcycle passed us by, somewhere way up above our heads. While watching the Blue Jay fly off in the direction of the fading motorcycle sounds, something occurred to me. The road my dad drove me up here on must be up above us! All we had to do was climb up the mountainside to get to the road… and then follow the road back to where the cabin driveway intersected with it!
With tremendous effort, Lizzie and I and her dolly did hike up the mountainside to the road that day. I carried Lizzie a good portion of the way, so by the time we reached the cabin driveway it was a welcome sight. Though our young brows were drenched, our stomachs growling, and our lips parched, our hearts were filled with joy. Lizzie wriggled down out of my arms, and her feet hit the ground running at the sight of the cabin. I wasn’t too far behind her! If the big-word, hallelujah, would’ve been a part of my little-girl vocabulary back then; the sounds of me shouting it throughout the forest would’ve far surpassed even the Blue Jay’s squawking that day! In much the same way Lizzie prayed for us earlier in the middle of our forest frenzy; this little girl with wisdom far beyond her years, again spoke enough for both of us. For the entire length of the driveway, Lizzie bolted towards our mothers’ open arms, shouting at the top of her lungs, “I been found… I been found!”
My pounding heart could do nothing in that moment but fully agree with her; for I too… had been found. By a squawking Blue Jay, planted on a branch and meant to draw my eyes upward…a roaring motorcycle, whose timely arrival pointed out to me the road home…and my God, Whose Hand of Love and Faithfulness I’ve been able to trace throughout many similar experiences, my whole life long.
Dearest Father, Lord, and Savior…how deeply intimate and far reaching is Your Love. Yours is an endless Love that is beyond measurement. It transcends our human understanding…and yet, it’s simple enough for a little child to grasp. The little girl inside of me still cries out to you, “Show me the right path, O LORD; point out the road for me to follow…” for you are still Faithful to do so in every one of my life’s circumstances. “You are the hope of everyone on earth…” “You formed the mountains by Your Power…” “We stand in awe of Your Wonders.” “From where the sun rises to where the sun sets, You inspire shouts of joy!” (Psalm 25:5b,6a,8b). Lord, continue to show us the paths You choose for us and supply the strength and wisdom we need to walk on them in a manner that brings Your Name Glory!
“From the ends of the earth I call to you, my heart grows faint!” (Psalm 61:2)
“I love these little people. And it is
not a slight thing when they who are
so fresh from God, love us.”
–Charles Dickens–
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Cries in the Darkness
by Debbie Allen
As a mother, one of the greatest miracles I ever experienced in my life, was the beautiful act of giving birth to each of my three sons. Though it’s been over forty years ago since my youngest was born, few things in my life have compared to the experience of this miraculous moment! I still remember the sweet sounds of each of my sons’ first cries; piercing my ears in the delivery room. Those cries always ushered in a look of great relief on my doctor’s face; before he stretched my son’s tiny squirming form out across my chest. I’ve never forgotten the incredible feeling of his tiny heartbeat racing against my own. Drawing my newborn as close to me as I could, I knew from that moment forward; my life was never going to be the same. My heart overflowed with the million little things I longed to one day share with this precious gift of love. However, my heart never imagined the immensity of all the things he’d be teaching me.
Crying is every healthy, newborn’s first reaction to being pushed from his mother’s womb. Even as brand-new parents, Jim and I anticipated our son’s first cries. They were well-received inside the walls of the hospital delivery room. But, our first night back home, it didn’t take us long to figure out why science labeled the cries of all newborn infants as biological sirens! The joyous sounds we’d relished in the delivery room, suddenly mutated into ear-splitting cries in the darkness. Cries equipped with the power to transform our peaceful home-front into a battle-front of sorts. That place where we engaged in a constant fight against sleep deprivation, and everything else that accompanied multiple responses to our baby’s needs all hours of the night!
Answering our son’s cries in the middle of the night, and fighting our way through those trenches of sleeplessness was no laughing matter. I never imagined there was a level of exhaustion that could be so deep. Though sleep deprived nights proved to be a rigorous training ground for the first few weeks, eventually, the nightlife centered around my baby’s cries morphed into a new kind of normal. My routine didn’t change much, but my perspective shifted. I began to see tiny miracles tucked inside those midnight runs to the nursery. One night, half asleep, I scooped my little crier out of his crib to nurse him. In the stillness of those moments, the words of the doctor who delivered my son stormed back into my thoughts: “Y-e-s…” he’d spoken over my son’s first cries, “…these little wonders are wired for sound by God Himself!” Though I’d given his words no thought at the time, now they captured my attention!
A week later, at a doctor appointment, I asked Dr. Kirk what he’d meant by that statement. Grinning, he shared, “Humans naturally cater to their own needs; to a me-first mentality. One of the greatest of those needs is sleep. When a baby comes, unfortunately, that need doesn’t change. And if it were left up to moms and dads alone to wake themselves out of a dead sleep… babies might cry all night long. God had a better idea. He equipped newborns, at birth, with the ability to cry at a decimal level so toxic to a parent’s brain; mom and dad will do anything to stop that sound. It’s a sound that really can’t be ignored.”
Hearing the truth behind my doctor’s explanation intrigued my young heart. I was in awe! With a vocabulary of one single word, “WAAAAAAHHHHHH!” my newborn son not only opened my eyes every night, but he also roused in me a deeper consciousness of just how intensely the Lord loves His children…both as newborns and as parents. By wiring newborns for sound the way He did, God in His wisdom, saved parents from themselves, as well as newborns from their parents! Perhaps on a deeper level, He even intended such noxiousness to rouse our sleepy spirits to see there are needs in this world much greater than our own…needs that really shouldn’t be ignored.
As time went on, I began to understand my son’s cries weren’t about the sleep I was losing…but the new insights I gained because of them. Somewhere in-between his cries, my heart grasped another miraculous truth. The cries of my newborn were no less than God’s invitations to walk with Him in sacred places. I began to see that every midnight trip I made down the hallway to the nursery, was really a promise to my son’s anxious heart that his cries were being heard; and my love would never fail him. Pressed close to my heart while I nursed him, my son came to recognize my loving presence as the source of nourishment he could fully trust to satisfy the gnawing emptiness down inside of him. The thousands of miles I rocked him, caressing his tiny features, praying for fevers to break, singing over him and pacing the floor in the darkness while he cried; were all reflections to his innocent heart, that even though life was filled with struggles, our greatest Peace can still be found in the midst of our greatest storms.
As parents, our greatest desire for each of our infant sons was that they sensed through us; the reality of the Lord’s Loving Presence standing near to them on those sleepless nights. Even as newborn infants, Jim and I longed to introduce them to the cast-iron certainty of what it is to hear the encouraging Voice of the One Who Loves them most, Whispering down into their ears. We prayed our sons would feel the comfort of Heaven’s Touch every time we embraced them in our earthly arms. And by God’s Grace, we hoped each of their tiny spirits somehow sensed the never-ending Faithfulness of the Lord’s Enduring Love surrounding them.
So many things in life are intimately connected to our relationship with God, the Father. Parenthood is no exception. Thanks to the miraculous way God wired my son’s cries, I came to know in a profound way, the beauty of walking in sacred places with my Heavenly Father. Every time I set my foot down beside my Father’s Foot in the darkness, it became a teachable moment for my young mother’s heart. In the beginning, my desire was to become the perfect parent. But God envisioned something much greater for me. While I rocked my son back to sleep one night, I felt the rush of my Father’s Whispers telling me, “Stay like this little child.” In the deep silence that followed, I pondered both His words and my son a little longer. I realized My Father, Who is the only Perfect Parent there will ever be; was asking me to consider the ways of my newborn son; and let them teach my heart how to Love Him even deeper.
“Stay like this little child…” All of God’s children are called to love Him in this way. To love Him unreservedly, ‘with all our passion, prayer, muscle, and intelligence…’ (Luke 10:27 MSG). Like my newborn, we are not to be afraid to draw near to Him or cry out in the darkness that surrounds us. As we listen to the sounds of His Voice rising and falling in our ears, we come to know him as the One Who Loves us most. His very Words speak Life down into us. They are the only trusted Source of Nourishment our soul needs. The Father asks that we hear His Voice daily…listen to His Instruction…and walk in His Ways. Only then will our hearts come to know and trust in the Father’s Love without fear or reservation.
HEART TRAPPINGS PRAYER:
Dearest Father in Heaven, I’m so thankful to be your child. Not only are You amazing, You do amazing things for us from our first breath to our last. From the moment You show us the way out of the darkness of our mother’s womb into the Light of Your Face, You are showing us the Way to Your Heart. Thank you, Father, for the gift of Your Whispers in my spirit so many years ago. I have both pondered them and treasured them my whole life long! Now, Father, on a much grander scale…hear our cries in the darkness that surrounds us in both our nation and in this world. Open our spiritual eyes to see the greater needs of the helpless and respond. You are our only Answer! You are our Father…we are Your children, those who never outgrow our need for Your Great Love. Help us to remember and remain faithful to the words You gave me so long ago: “Stay like this little child.” Hear our cries and anoint us with the courage we need to act accordingly!
There is a kind of purity, innocence and wisdom in life that belongs to children alone. Out of the mouths of little children flow the sweet, unheard-of, and outrageously funny ways of thinking; that wield the power to leave us laughing, crying, and even scratching our heads in amazement at the depths of truth that we sometimes find hidden there.
Consider my six-year-old nephew, Calvin, for instance. Ever since he was able to utter words, it wasn’t hard to see that he was a deeper thinker than most children his age. As I stood watching Calvin playing with his older cousins in our playroom one evening; I was amazed how differently he played than his cousins. Two of the girls randomly grabbed matchbox cars from a jumbled pile, then drove off in two directions to get to a bare spot on the carpet where they decided a pretend store was located. Not Calvin.
“That’s not where the store is!” Calvin insisted.
Then he ran over to the table where they’d all been coloring earlier and showed them exactly where the store was located on the map of the pretend city, he’d drawn-out in red crayon! The girls watched his eyes toggling back and forth between the map and the floor for a few seconds. While they stood there giggling, Calvin scooped-up an armful of Legos and proceeded to build them a two-level store on a different corner of the carpet.” The right corner!” as he put it. He even designed an elaborate parking lot in front of that store where the girls could park; so, a policeman wouldn’t give them each a ticket! He has a v-e-r-y creative mind and every detail matters most to him. Though some adults might call this quirky; in our family, we’ve come to label Calvin’s canny ability to reason things out and solve problems that other kids didn’t even know existed as his Little-Old-Man Syndrome…a little boy who is wise beyond his years!
One day over breakfast recently, Calvin’s Grandma shared the cutest story about him. Calvin is almost a grownup now. He’s six-years-old and his Little Old Man Syndrome continues growing right alongside of him. While Calvin was vacationing in Hawaii with his mom, dad, and little sister; he decided something was missing in his little life. I’m sure he must’ve pondered it on the beach for a while before deciding the matter was serious enough to ask his mom about it.
“Mommy?” he inquired, tugging on her shirt, “When is another baby going to be coming into our family?”
Now…knowing Calvin’s deep thought processes, mom knew to respond quickly before any new questions formed on his horizons.
“Calvin, Mommy and Daddy have talked about it…and we both decided that there isn’t going to be any more babies coming into our family.”
He was not at all happy with the finality of mom’s answer back. So…with scrunched brow and arms folded across his chest, the little old man rose-up inside of Calvin to help him form a new hypothesis concerning his dilemma. One that made perfect sense to him…and still left him with a smidge of hope.
“Mommy, you and daddy don’t know that!”
“What do you mean, Calvin?” Mommy responded, confused by his adamant insistence.
“You and Daddy can’t know that because… only ‘The Belly’ knows!”
The mind of a little child is truly one of this world’s greatest gifts and deepest mysteries, all rolled into one! Children often take something we, as adults, know to be true, and exchange it in their minds for something they think makes perfect sense to them. But because of their own inexperience and lack of understanding in life, it too often leads them further and further away from plain truth.
Did you know, even as adults, something similar can happen to us in the spiritual realm? Our own know-it-all hearts, too often, confront God in a manner similar to how Calvin reasoned with his mom. We take our questions and dilemmas to God, but we don’t always agree with what He has to say back to us. What’s best for us in our own eyes doesn’t always align with God’s Perspectives and what He knows is ‘best’ for us in life. That’s when the distance between God’s Perspectives and our own perceptions grows as wide as the chasm that existed between Calvin’s endearing, ‘Only the Belly Knows’ theory; and God’s, ‘Only the Father Knows’ Truths for living life.
If we choose to trust in our own thinking, aligning what we believe with this world’s self-centered and immoral ways, perverted thinking, and skewed messages for our hearts, concerning how to live our lives; we are guaranteed with every step we take to be moving farther and farther away from plain Truth. Wisdom is completely void in this place.
God’s instruction for our hearts, however, is described in Psalm 19 as being ‘perfect’ and it ‘renews our life.’ Everything He tells us is ‘trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise’. His precepts are ‘right and make ourhearts glad.’ The ordinances of our Heavenly Father are ‘reliable and altogether righteous’. When we choose to trust them, our hearts find them ‘more desirablethan an abundance of gold’ and ‘sweeter than honey drippingfrom a honeycomb.’ God’s Words can always be fully trusted, telling us everything we need to know to live-out the life He gave us before others; so that others are pointed back towards God and His Perspectives on right living.
The world has nothing to offer our hearts that will ever supersede the value of trusting in God’s flawless and unchanging Truths to guide us throughout life. This is why its so crucial to teach our children about the One Who loves them most. To share with them the greatest commandment God ever gave to us:
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deut. 6:5)
On the heels of this commandment, Moses reminded the Israelites standing before the Promised Land:
“And you shall teach [God’s Truths] diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deut. 6:7)
When we, as parents do these things, every aspect of life becomes a platform for modeling our own love, trust, and obedience before God. Our obedience in this area also proves to be our greatest potential for passing along to our children, a visual picture of what it looks like to live-out a life of faith.
Nourishing the souls of our children with Truth within the setting of what God calls the family (one man and one woman), is the greatest thing a parent can do for them; before they step out into this world on their own. No one sends a soldier out into a raging battle without bullets, yet our children are sent out into the raging battles of this world far too often, without God’s Truth in their hearts to guide and protect them. The result? Failing to diligently teach God’s Truth to generation after generation after generation has brought us to todays world. A world filled with children who grew into adults having no appetite for God’s Truth. Because they are hollow on the inside from lack of spiritual development, their thoughts, desires, and actions are misplaced. Self-absorption is the new normal. Touching screens to connect with friends on social media replaces the warm touch of a genuine handshake and a cup of coffee in person. Our ears are so filled with Bluetooth ear-buds listening to the latest-n-greatest trending podcasts on “How to Live Life”; we no longer hear the Cries of the One Who IS the Greatest…calling out to our hearts to ‘Follow Him.’
We live in a Nation whose perceptions of right and wrong are just as far from True Wisdom, as Calvin’s ‘Only the Belly Knows’ theory was from God’s ‘Only the Father Knows’ Truths for living life. The wisdom of little Calvin still brings joy to my heart because I know that his mom and dad will one day, teach him the truth and set him on a right path of thinking. But what about our Nation? Our pride and preferring our own self-assured ways of thinking to God’s? Our indifference to His ways? How can we as parents expect our children to become a mouthpiece for Truth in this world; when so many have failed for multiple generations to teach them d-i-l-i-g-e-n-t-l-y, how to love the Lord God with all their hearts, all their souls, and all their strength? I believe that the fate of a nation hinges on the wisdom of its little children, or lack of it; and on the willingness of its parents to walk-out the ways of the Lord before their children, becoming the model of faith, love, and Godliness their children and this world so desperately need to see.
Our Father God’s call on each of our lives is to grow to love and serve Him wholly, and to diligently, teach our children to “walk in His Ways and do what is right in His Eyes.”(1Kings11:38); as opposed to walking-out the mis-guided ways of this world and believing the lie that Truth is relevant and “everyone does what seems right to him” (Judges 21:25 NIV). The farther we move away from God’s Truth for living life under His Authority as individuals and a nation; the more chaos and injustice will ensue…in our world, our governments, our streets and our homes.
Author and speaker, Charles Swindoll, once said, “Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” Why not make those deposits ones of Faith, Hope and Love; daily impressing upon their hearts how to love the Lord God with all their heart, soul, and strength. And on the day when they step into this world on their own with all those deposits we’ve made in them, they will understand that they are carrying something of eternal value. A heart that knows and loves God, the strength to walk in Truth and carry it to others, and a soul that will one day live forever! Not only are they the Hope of generations to come, but we as parents, “have no greater joy than to know that our children are walking in Truth.” (3 John 1:4 NIV)
HEART TRAPPINGS:
PRAYER:
Dearest Lord and Heavenly Father…what a gift you have given us in our children. I can’t count the ways you speak to my heart through them. Their laughter…their thoughts…their quirky little ways. You have placed a high priority on little children and so should we, as parents. You have hidden Your Wisdom for living life within them. I pray You will give us discerning hearts when it comes to teaching our children how to love you with all of their heart and soul and strength. Remind us as we peer out into the mess our world has become, that parents and the family (as You designed it), play a crucial role in passing the baton of Faith on to our children; and then out into our world. The Hope of our future generations depends on our faithfulness…both to You and to teaching our children Godliness. Forgive us for falling short of the roles you’ve given to each of us. Strengthen us so that we might walk in obedience before You in these difficult days. May we and our children continue to be a mouthpiece for Your Truth and Justice in the days ahead of us. Help us to set our face like flint to do Your will, and confidently know that we will triumph, because You are standing alongside of us.
Once upon a time…is usually the perfect beginning for a fable or a fairytale written for children. However, once upon a time…currently speaks of a one-of-a-kind tale in our present history we’d rather not have to tell to anybody’s children. The COVID19 virus. Its details have invaded our thoughts and our headlines, filled our hospital beds and big-screen TV’s, and impacted nations, cities, and lives around the globe for many months. Our hillsides aren’t enchanted anymore…they’re infected. In an effort to avoid an invisible enemy, the Kings and Queens in this story sit on disinfected thrones inside quarantined castles. Its Princes and Princesses are restricted from dancing inside each other’s arms at the Royal Ball, which has been cancelled, in the name of social distancing. The Royal Couple now stands no closer than six feet apart, having exchanged true love’s kiss for a mask. This story’s final message is anything but a fairytale. And if the truth be known, it’s not going to end with the heartfelt words, “And they lived happily ever after!” At least not while we’re living on earth.
If ever there was a time in history when we longed for fairytale living…it is now. This surreal story we are living in is pummeled with daily unknowns, mounting impossibilities, and endless, unshakeable foundations, in our past that have been shaken to literal pieces. With financial and health institutions floundering and businesses large and small, struggling to eke out new ways of finding their way back to Prosperity Road; life is anything but predictable. Stability appears to be a thing of the past. This is not just true of our own nation but, all around the world. Each of our lives has been deeply affected…and countless lives have been infected by this dreaded invisible enemy, COVID19. I find it interesting that this disease settles in the lungs; stealing away our very breath from us…the breath that was meant from the very beginning to bring praise and glory to our Creator in life. Maybe this virus comes to us with its own message?
It’s extremely humbling to wake up one day and find ourselves face to face with the truth of our own human frailty. Or at least, it should be. Though President Trump and many world leaders have proclaimed formal ‘days of prayer’ to seek God’s help and wisdom during this critical time in world history; there are still a brazen few, in the leadership world, who refuse to acknowledge their need for either; even in the heart of this crisis. As he watched the Corona Virus curve begin to flatten in his own state; the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, is quoted during a press conference to have proclaimed:
Governor Cuomo’s words sent chills down my spine. Denying God’s active Presence in the pandemic ? Just a few hundred feet away from where he spoke, could Cuomo not see Jesus was working fervently through the hands of first-responders, loving and caring for those quarantined lives hidden away in a field hospital, now standing in Central Park? Did he not notice Jesus helping prisoners find the strength needed to throw one more shovelful of dirt down onto wooden coffins filled with the unknown, dead; being buried in a mass grave site on Hart Island? Was it Cuomo’s heart breaking for all the tears that flowed down onto the hundreds of masked faces who lost loved ones to this virus? No, again. It was Jesus’ Heart. The Heart from which flows only Good. Cuomo saw his own pain and suffering, and simple math, as the reason for the Corona Virus curve flattening. I saw Jesus, His Pain and Suffering, and the high cost of loving others greater than yourself. I saw the Presence of God in the midst of all this chaos. And what about answered prayer? Without a doubt in my mind, I believe God did this! Faith did this! God’s Greater Purposes allowed this!
“Though the Corona Virus Pandemic makes its mark in history as the first of its kind; Governor Cuomo’s words and actions are simply another case of history repeating itself. Same sin, different day.”
Though the Corona Virus Pandemic makes its mark in history as the first of its kind; Governor Cuomo’s words and actions are simply another case of history repeating itself. Same sin, different day. You see God warns us to ‘trust in Him’ and ‘not to lean on our own understanding’ (Proverbs 15:6a) because ‘there is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way to death.’ (Proverbs 14:12). In the Garden of Eden, Eve ‘leaned on her own understanding’ the day she took a bite out of the apple that God told Adam not to eat; and humanity and all of creation is still suffering for it. Andrew Cuomo, just as good as took a bite out of The Big Apple, the day he uttered words that reduced the Glory God deserved down to human efforts and simple math; then denied God’s Sovereign Hand in flattening the Corona Virus curve.
Whether we are living in the ancient story of Eve’s little apple, or the modern-day tale of Andrew’s Big Apple; the message is still the same. We humans are constantly stepping across the boundaries that God draws for us in life, for our own protection. For our own good. Whether it be in word or deed, if we continue to lean upon our own understanding and self-sufficiency, ousting God from His rightful place in our hearts and in this world…the consequences are going to be disastrous for all of us. Perhaps they already are!
As I’m sure your hearts have perceived by now, the Corona Virus story has forced all of us to become the characters living inside a story we never asked to become a part of. There is no handsome Prince knocking on your door, holding a glass slipper in his hands; hoping it fits your foot so he may whisk you away to the royal life you’ve always dreamed of. However, the Prince Who is knocking on your door, is the Prince of Peace. Jesus. He holds in His Hands the story of your life. Not a fable, not a fairytale. But, a Journey with Him to the Land of Right-Living, and a life you never could’ve dreamed for yourself. Reach out and take this Prince’s Hand. After all… He gave His life for you so your story would have this perfect ending:
” …and they live Happily in the Ever-After!”
During this unsure time in our world, continue to persevere. The Prince of Peace stands before you, behind you, beside you and within you as a constant reminder to your heart during these tumultuous times; to set your mind on Him. He will keep you completely whole and steady on your feet; as you continue fighting through the ever-changing circumstances…unwavering in your faith.’ (Isaiah 26:3). Above all, continue to ‘trust in Him with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; but, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.’ (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Like the modern-day tale of ‘Andrew and “The Big Apple”, there will always be those people in this world who live for their own name and renown. But I assure you, their stories will not end well. The prophet, Isaiah put it this way:
“The path of right-living people is level. The Leveler [God] evens the road for the right-living. If the wicked are shown Grace, they don’t seem to get it. In the land of right-living, they persist in wrong living, blind to the Splendor and [Presence] of God.” (Isaiah 26:7, 10)
PRAYER: Dearest Father in Heaven,,,It seems our whole world is in turmoil these days. The economy, the church, our community; What once seemed unshakeable has proven shaky and unstable, in ways we never expected. Desperation and uncertainty span the globe, Lord. I cry out to You in the words of King David, as he prayed for his own people during a dark period in their history. “Lord…You have shaken the land and torn it open; mend it’s fractures, for it is quaking.” (Psalm 60:2). Open our eyes to see both Your Glory and Your Presence among us. Continue to fill our lungs with your breath; and may we not fail to utter Your praises daily, especially in the midst of difficult times. For only in You, Lord, will we find both rest and refuge for our souls. With You as our Stronghold…we will not be shaken! In Jesus Name, Amen
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