Got time and strength to notice the awe?
I was introduced to the world of the weird (for lack of a better word) by my grandmother, a person everyone considered strong in her faith.
Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
I was a child.
My grandmother, a devout Catholic with no vocabulary for “hearing from the voice of God,” but instead an intuitive inner knowing that could not be verbalized, was bothered one evening. She told me that she had been thinking about her dear friend all day and could not get her friend out of her mind. She wasn’t sure why.
In the end, my grandmother decided to telephone her friend.
A phone call is a no-brainer for us, but phoning to talk was not done by my beautiful grandparents, who lived through the Great Depression. Phone bills at that time were calculated by the number of minutes spent on the line. Once, I called my mom from their house to ask her to pick me up, and my grandfather paced behind me, quietly cursing me under his breath in Italian (I knew THOSE words!) for taking four minutes to say what could’ve been said in two minutes. In his opinion, this was extreme wastefulness on my part! It would be another half hour before my grandmother could calm him enough for him and me to resume our card game.
And thus, my grandmother, fighting the same inner resolve against wasting money on an unnecessary phone call and listening to my grandfather pacing back and forth next to her, cursing, phoned her friend.
After my grandmother said a few compassionate words, she hung up the phone again. “Mrs. Cabianca found out today that she has cancer,” my grandmother informed us who were waiting near the phone.
Mrs. Cabianca was shocked by this diagnosis, as she was as healthy as a mule, or so she thought.
“That was weird,” I thought, staring at my grandmother.
I resumed playing cards with my grandfather, and my grandmother resumed washing the dishes, apparently unperturbed by this usual unusual occurrence. I guess this sort of thing wasn’t uncommon for her. But God had planted a small seed of faith in me that day.
Was there more?
What do you do with the “weird stuff” that you have heard about or (Heaven forbid!) has actually happened to you?
Do you:
- Brush it aside, assume THAT CANNOT BE, and go on eating your lunch and being distracted by the games on your iPad – I, for one, would never do that. Just sayin’. (If so, your ears are lying on the floor, friend. God wants to speak to you through them. Do you have the courage to try them on even for a few minutes? Then you can put them back on the floor again, until you are strong enough to try again.)1
- Do you hold one ear up to your head for an instant, and then quickly dispose of it, like bathwater? Even though your ear never QUITE touched your head, you ASSERT STRONGLY that THERE WAS NO SOUND. You know you are right. (I would never simply assume I’m right! Just sayin’.)
- Do you hold up your ear, and give it a listen? Do you shake out the cobwebs in your ear and in your head before giving it a go again tomorrow?
Are you longing to hear?
If so, I have great news for you, friend:
Those who are hungry and thirsty to be right with God are happy, because they will be filled.
As the song below sings, “everything here ain’t quite what it seems, there’s more beneath the appearance of things,” plead with God to help you hear. That’s when the fun begins, friend. God, help us pick up the clues we stumble upon in this life, and help us want to find you and open the door to the greatest gift of all, you, Jesus.
Thanks for liking me! I like you too! – Proven HERE, HERE, and HERE! Let’s journey together!
Photo Credits: Is That Heaven Opening? by Qiu MinFeng on Unsplash, Baby Birds Know How To Ask For Food! by Sandi Mager on Unsplash
1 That approach is just fine by the way! We are babes in these things, but if you are taking steps on our journey, however small, you can be sure God is pleased with you, friend. (Keep walking)
Restoring Life 