Seeing God In The Ordinary – Part 6
Bracelets like the ones the woman is selling are made in local villages from the grasses growing. To me, these are visual reminders to be grateful for what I have. There is always good to be seen no matter what the situation is being faced.
For many Filipinos daily life of meeting basic needs is hard, but the resiliency of Filipinos is humbling.
There really is nothing to complain about.
And God’s Word tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Developing this attitude is part of seeking and setting our minds on things above (Colossians 3:1-2). Colossians 3 also tells us to be thankful (3:15).
I bought these bracelets from a woman who makes them from the long grasses around the province area where she lives. She sells them for 10 pesos each (around 20 cents US) to earn enough for feeding her family. As I spoke with her, Josh Groban’s song, Thankful, filled my head:
Somedays, we forget to look around us,
Somedays, we can’t see the joy that surrounds us,
So caught up inside ourselves,
We take when we should give,
So for tonight we pray for, What we know can be,
And on this day we hope for, What we still can’t see,
It’s up to us, to be the change, And even though we all can still do more,
There’s so much to be thankful for.
Look beyond ourselves,
There’s so much sorrow,
It’s way to late to say, I’ll cry tomorrow
Each of us must find our truth,
It’s so long overdue,
So for tonight we pray for, What we know can be,
And everyday, we hope for, What we still can’t see,
It’s up to us, to be the change, And even though we all can still do more,
There’s so much to be thankful for.
Even with our differences, There is a place we are all connected,
Each of us can find each others light,
So for tonight, we pray for What we know can be,
And on this day, we hope for, What we still can’t see,
It’s up to us, to be the change, And even though this world needs so much more
There’s so much to be thankful for.
(To listen to him sing this song go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TEqgU4LpnA)
ROCKS
Suffering is part of life and though our journeys through life may feel scattered, God takes the pieces and makes something beautiful out of them for His glory and for our good.
I may have mentioned in previous blogs that I was sexually abused as a kid. That left my life feeling messy and in scattered pieces. God, in His faithfulness has walked me on many healing journeys regarding this. While in the Philippines I went through an intense healing journey and one day when I was out walking I found the rock pictured above. When I first saw it on the ground I thought it looked really neat but I walked on by it. Then I felt like God told me to go back and get it, so I did. When I picked it up this thought struck me, “just like this rock has many pieces in it, my life has many pieces too but God binds those pieces together and makes something beautiful out of all the hurt, pain, anguish, and sadness.” Bill Gaither’s song, Something Beautiful, went through my head, “Something beautiful, something good; All my confusion He understood; All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife; But he made something beautiful of my life”
(Listen to the song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMQqSarDf8Y)
Ecclesiastes 3 says For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal;…
The day after Jerard’s funeral and burial in 2012, his twin brother, James and I walked to the cemetery to visit the grave site. James found a heart shaped rock and he was so excited to put it on his brother’s grave to let Jerard know he loved and missed him. James asked just about every day for the first six weeks after his twin died to go visit his brother. And always he’d pick up the heart rock from his brother’s grave and say something about loving and missing his brother.
Sadly, one day we went and the cemetery workers had cleared all the stones away from all the graves, including the heart shaped rock. James was almost disconsolate about this. He and I prayed that we would find another heart shaped rock to take the place of the one that had been taken away. And my son, at the age of 4 1/2 years old learned a big lesson about the faithfulness and goodness of God because later that day James came running up to me with a rock in his hand; “Look, Mom! Another heart shaped rock for Jerard!” We said a prayer of thanks to God for His goodness and faithfulness.
The rock pictured above has been kept in our house next to a picture of Jerard so we always have it.
Both rocks remind me of so many verses in the Bible about God being our solid Rock – 1 Samuel 2:2 says, “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.”
Psalm 18:2 states, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Read all of Psalm 18 – there are many references to God our solid rock).
Jesus taught us in the parable of the houses, one built on sand, one on rock, that only by building our life on the Rock, Him, do we stand firm – Matthew 7:24-25 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.“
“On Christ The Solid Rock I Stand” is one of my favorite hymns because, as the chorus says, On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. No matter what we are facing God’s Word is our solid foundation to build our lives upon.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GswGE6rQhmE)
Psalm 71:1-3
In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
2In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!
3Be to me a rock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
(former) MISSIONARY MUSINGS 