Someone new has entered my life.
I was going about a normal work week. I wasn’t looking for or considering someone new to edge their way into my treasured time.
I am way too busy with important things.
Real important things. I had to get the rental property cleaned for the new renters moving in Friday. Wednesday evening meet my brother half-way north to get my dad who had chemo treatment in Atlanta this week. Paint mother’s office furniture. Go to my day job. Tuesday and Thursday, go to my night job following day job. Create 3 different invitations in Photoshop. Catch up the yearbook pages. Check in with grown children. Read real important email. (I have a new follower on Pinterest. ) Read my devotion so I can put a check by scripture verse. Cook. Wash.
Real important things.
Then there was a twist of events. It snowed in Georgia. You may have heard about it. (On ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, Weather Channel, MSN, ESPN, Sports South, Facebook, maybe Twitter ) Or lived it. I didn’t go to my night job Tuesday, or my day job Wednesday or Thursday.
Daddy wasn’t leaving Atlanta . Not even my brother’s driveway for that matter. I had time to paint mother’s office furniture.
But the kicker was the devotion for 3 whole days was based on the SAME verse. How random and time saving was that?
I dutifully read it. John 21:17 Day 2: I didn’t even skip words I knew. Jesus is talking to Peter and he says, “Feed my sheep”. I have always understood it perfectly: spiritually feed my sheep, right?
But God stirred my heart to remember my dear friend Emily, (she doesn’t know me but I like her a lot so basically she is my very dear friend) who writes a blog “Chatting at the Sky”. I remembered that Emily was traveling with Compassion International in Uganda. And Emily had been sending out heart felt post about the poverty in Uganda.
Feed my sheep? Past tithes and local giving?
No God, I don’t’ send money to people I don’t know. Because…well, I don’t.
Day 3: Time saving verse again, maybe not so random. I can’t say exactly how it happened but it involved my memory being stirred of a devotion in December. How God’s money is to flow from my hand into His work. Hmmmm. So in an effort to pretend I would be a team player, I clicked on the link in Emily’s new post.
I had the ingenious plan to fake God out.
I would meander through the site as if to simulate choosing a child. Who would I choose? Most likely a boy about Ethan and Ward’s age. I looked at boys in that age.
I checked Compassion International out. A 70 out of 70 rating for charity accountability and transparency. Plus they are not just Christian based, they are Jesus based. Which should be the same thing but in our “christian” world of charity, it isn’t necessarily so.
Then I prayed about it because (this was to be the defining moment of my fake) if I actually put it to God in a prayer He would surely recall that I don’t have an extra $38.00 a month.
He didn’t recall that. It went down like this: for whatever reason I recalled a $38 dollar meal at the Mexican Restaurant. (I know, the chips and salsa were free…was it imperative to order cheese dip too?).
So I began to look at the children and really pray. My eyes fell on Morrine. I quickly looked past her because I wasn’t choosing a girl. I raised my two, had cheerleaders squads for years, and I now teach in a middle and high school. I know about girls.
I don’t hate girls. I have loved them wholeheartedly. But sweet girls are often dangerous to good mental health.
In fact, I have a theory. If one has to have an angry encounter with a pretty, sweet teen girl or a smelly, gun wielding robber boy thug, take the robber boy thug. At least the option of death could come quick.
So I was definitely choosing a boy.
Yet after passing the hundreds of precious faced little boys, Morrine was who I could not shake from my mind.
Her tall, gangly self holding her shoulders back the way my mama taught me, and her Mona Lisa smile (which was maybe a smile and maybe not) filled my heart with love and hope for her.
So today I am thankful for the new important person in my life. I pray she knows how special she is to me but most importantly to Jesus.
I may never know what happens to Morrine past my sponsorship days but John 21:17 didn’t say I would. It just says, “Feed my sheep.”
Thinking about it? Click here. And please let me know if you do.
thank you Jan! Morrine is very privileged to have a sponsor whose writing is so captivating…i could read on and on. God bless you.
Oh sweet, your words were the best Valentine’s Day present! So glad you stopped by and let me know you were here. Thank you, Shellina, for your kind words of encouragement.
This is a wonderful story, Jan! I love how you put it “…He would surely recall….He didn’t recall that.” Boy does that sound like similar conversations I’ve had with God…it’s nice to know I’m in good company 🙂 – and very thankful for Morrine.
Thank you Michelle. Your words of encouragement mean so much. I called mother last night after reading your blog and told her, “you have got to read Michelle’s blog. It is such a blessing!”