I sometimes picture myself as a little girl wandering through the woods with Jesus. He is holding my hand guiding me through the paths while I am looking around at everything in curiosity and amazement. Occasionally something will catch my eye and I run off to see what it is, but I soon find myself running back to catch up to Jesus, because as exciting as everything is around me, the real adventure is where in the world is he taking me?
This of course relates to real life, getting distracted by what is around me, but eventually realizing it isn’t as good as Jesus anyway, so I begin my journey back to him. I sometimes can see him in the distance and just have to pick up my pace to get to him, but other times I lose sight of him all together. So I start heading in the direction I think he’s in, and the closer I get, I can hear him calling my name, hurrying me along to come be with him again.
I’ve been wandering alone lately. I’ve been trying to catch up to Jesus, but things keep getting in my way. But I know I’m getting closer because last night I heard him calling my name.
I came home yesterday to the best surprise. I walked in the front door to find the dining room decorated with a “Happy Birthday” banner, a cake with candles to blow out, my favorite appetizers, birthday presents, and my wonderful family singing Happy Birthday to me. My birthday is in April, but they couldn’t stand the thought of not celebrating with me, so August 12th was going to have to do. But the love didn’t stop there…
I was told to close my eyes, and my brother led me into the kitchen. I opened my eyes to a decorated Christmas tree, a Christmas present, and everyone singing along to “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” (seriously, how awesome are these people?!). We took a Christmas picture, and then supper was ready. And what was for supper? THANKSGIVING! I ate just as much as I normally would, and was in a nice turkey coma the rest of the evening. But once again, the feeling of being loved wasn’t over.
I hadn’t checked my fundraising balance all day yesterday, so I decided to check it before I went to bed… $10,150!! When I checked the day before I had $7,100… The first thing that came to mind was “Apparently God knows I can’t handle any more stress”, because this surpasses my next deadline of $7,500 and almost even gets me to my December deadline of $11,000!
So in the midst of trying to find my way back to Jesus, here he is, calling my name, reminding me he has been here all along, and he’s not going anywhere. A past relationship of mine had me believing I had to earn love from people. I’ve lived this lie for many years now, and it wasn’t until yesterday that I actually realized it. But I see now that God has been using everyone’s prayers, donations, beautiful words, and kind gestures to help break down those walls for me, showing me how many people love me and are by my side. You all play a bigger part in this story than you even know, and I thank you for that. And I bet God thanks you too, because I’m guessing he’s been trying to crack open this lie for a long time now.
So here I am again chasing after Jesus, knowing he is waiting patiently, but also excited to show me what’s ahead. I’m going to grab on to his hand and try to not let go, because this adventure is one that I don’t want to do without him.
