“Hide in the Cherith Ravine.”

1 Kings 17:3

I live at the bottom of a long ravine.  A river that flows north cut through the earth ages ago, creating a long ravine at the lowest part of the long, long valley.  There is a lot of life in and along the river, and in all of the cities and villages that have grown up along its banks.

Elijah, one of the most colorful Prophets of God, had again stirred up trouble by dropping a “God-bomb” message to the King at the time.  After delivering his unpopular message, Elijah literally ran for his life.   God told him to “hide in the Cherith Ravine.”

God knew what Elijah was dealing with.  He knew what it cost Elijah to be His Prophet in those days.  And He knew Elijah needed a break.  God was there in that ravine, and provided the rest and refreshment that was so sorely needed.

When mortals step out at God’s bidding, there is an added cost because of the increased spiritual battles that rage when we “mess with” the Kingdom of Darkness.  God’s Kingdom is in deadly conflict with the kingdom of this world, and anyone  God calls into that conflict becomes a living target.  It’s as if they are handed a t-shirt with a big bulls-eye target printed on the front and back.  And the Enemy of our souls draws his bow.  

Elijah was a major target for the Kingdom of Darkness.  I’d say he had a full bodysuit with the targets plastered all over it. (It seems that part of his special toolkit also included being an extraordinary runner as well.. . running the other way.)

God was with Elijah.  He knew every detail of the evil Battle that swirled around Elijah all the time.  God knew his exhaustion: Physical, emotional, and spiritual.  When God drew him to the quietness of the river ravine, He provided the much needed rest. Ravens brought his bread and meat beside the stream of fresh water . . . morning and evening, every day.  There was much more drama ahead for Elijah, but God provided the simple daily refreshment for His faithful prophet.

God knows what we need in our humanity.  When we faithfully follow His plans for us, He faithfully provides what we most need. . . for the next step in our journey.

“He guarded him  . . . 

like an eagle

that stirs up its nest 

and hovers over its young,

that spreads its wings to catch them

and carries them on its feathers.”

Deuteronomy 32:11

I tend to avoid pushy people.  They ruffle my feathers.  But when God gets pushy,  . . . I’ve learned that I’d best pay attention.   I know I’m not going to win that fight.

There’s a huge old gnarly tree about 3 miles from my house, and in it is a massive  nest.  Eagles.  Every year, the eagle pair adds to the huge thing, and soon I  begin seeing the babies being cared for by the attentive parents.  They truly do “hover” over their little ones, and continue to stay with them for the entire summer.  It isn’t that long before the young eagles are nearly the size of the parents, yet they continue all sharing that family nest until late Fall.  

God takes care of us that way.  Nurturing, protecting, and staying very near in our beginning stages of being His.  Then there’s a gradual “weaning” us off of our total dependency, and we have to learn some lessons from experience.  

When it comes time to begin strengthening our wings and learning to fly, God begins to get ‘pushy,’ like the eagle parent.  He starts moving us to the edge, and with a nudge…we’re out there.  Over the edge, flapping like crazy.  As the free-fall begins, He swoops in and carries us away from the pending crash.  Again and again, we get the nudge, without our permission, and freak out in panic.  Again and again, He catches us on His wings…and we grab onto His feathers, gradually learning how amazing it is to be flying with Him.  The landscape broadens . . . the sky beyond our branches is amazing, and the wonder of the ride draws us into venturing out on our own.  Scary, but we begin to learn how to “do it better” next time.  

If He didn’t love us, He wouldn’t push us.  And we’d sit out our lives in the big old picky nest.  Not much of a view.  

But He wants us to experience the wonder of soaring high.  Where He is.

What’s God nudging you to do?  For me it has seemed like that cycle has repeated many times in my life.  And I am the richer for it.  Though those flight lessons are scary, very scary, the View from above … seeing what He sees … doing it with Him,  has been worth it all.

And best of all, . . . . He is there.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” 

 John 1:5

I planted the seeds in the Spring, and forgot about them.  I wanted to give a moonflower vine a try.  I had never done very well with planting vines, so I soon forgot all about what may have been going on in that little spot of earth.

Soon buds and blossoms began appearing from my annual favorites . . .always a delight for me.  Always a surprise, as well, because I  forget what  I’ve planted.  I didn’t even notice the small vine winding its way among the flowers that  began to open.

Then one day I noticed a strong vine that had stealthily been winding its  way up the simple trellis.  The long, twisted, closed blossom was a puzzle….I’d forgotten the vine 

hidden in all the flowers. Day by day I saw it, puzzled about what its tightly twisted secret held.  It looked so ready, yet it held tightly to its secret.

Then, one moonlit evening, sitting on my little balcony enjoying the cool summer air, I saw the secret flower, open and shining white against its vine.  Such a surprise!

The Moonflower!   Only appearing in the darkness, and closing in the light.

I don’t know how long this moonflower had been blooming.  I hadn’t watched for it in the night.  The darkness had kept its secret.  It had been holding its beautiful surprise throughout each day as all the others showed off.  The moonflower waited for the darkness to bring its soft glimpse of beauty, only seen by watchful eyes.  

Now, I see the tightly furled petals hiding among the leaves each day… knowing that in the night…in the darkness…its beauty glows.  Only watchful eyes will note its soft glow when my little balcony, enveloped in the quiet evenings,  has gone to sleep.  As the gentle moonlight touches the shy petals, its quiet secret is exposed.  My moonflower reflects the soft light of its name.  In the morning, it is gone.

Some of the most precious glimpses of the sun are those reflected in the darkness.

May our lives, with the Son in our hearts,  gently, beautifully reflect our beloved Light of the World and bring a similar glow in these dark nights.

                                                                                              Isaiah 46:4

I am getting older.  I’m not happy about it.  I am now relating much more to memories of my mother and grandmother than I ever had.  Things take a little longer, and I care about that  less.  I knew this season of life would come, but am not honestly ready yet.  

I had never pictured this season of life as being alone.    That reality makes me sad.

                                                            Yet, I am not alone.

The Forever Love of my LIfe is here with me.  Since I was a little three-year-old girl, I have been deeply aware that God has been near…ever present … no matter where in the world I have been.  

He has been there. 

Isaiah wrote throughout his own process of aging.  He had been walking through his long life with the Presence of God.  In his quietness, the seasons of being alone, Isaiah

focused on God and wrote.  Fully attuned to the Voice that he had learned to recognize and trust, Isaiah wrote.  God spoke to Isaiah of His love for the people of this earth, His thoughts toward humanity, His love and longing for all the generations to come, filling the earth.  Isaiah wrote for the people of his time and for the ages to come, including the world of our times.  The old prophet wrote of God’s plans for the people of this earth throughout the centuries.  He wrote of events of the ages past, and of this present age.  He wrote of God’s thoughts and plans for the ages to come.  He wrote of our world now.

Isaiah heard God’s Voice like few ever have.  

But Isaiah also heard God’s thoughts toward himself,  as a man.  He wrote of  God’s thoughts toward humanity, and toward you… and me.    He wrote tenderly, lovingly, intimately . . . knowing things we would not likely voice.  Fears, insecurities, doubts, even of growing old, he wrote honestly and as a man.

      Isaiah wrote that God knows…understands, is present,  and loves us through it all.

If you were to describe your life’s fragrance, what would it be?   How would the  people in your life describe it?  Like a rose?  A lily?  Stinkweed? (Sorry!)

The “Song of Songs” book of the Bible is a very sensual book.  (OK…how many of you have just put it on the top of your reading list?!)   It is full of examples of all five senses.  The writer here, a woman in love,  focuses on the sense of smell.   She invites a process that will change her life.

The process of capturing the fragrance of flowers involves cutting . . . crushing . . . drying to a crisp . . . burning, and a lot of waiting for the fragrance to be extracted from its beautiful  flower.  That process sounds like a lot of “pain” and “dying”, and “waiting”, doesn’t it?  But in the end, the very essence of that flower is captured.  It is then that it can be shared with others, and spread.

From my high window, looking over a park and strong, steady river, I now see hints of Autumn, with the subtly changing colors of leaves.  The coolness in the air is coming from the North.  Yet, the South Wind still breathes over my garden, and the flowers still bloom.  Their fragrance is at its finest, as if they know their blossoms will soon be gone, and with them, their fragrance.  

What fragrance do people catch from you?  Your life?  Do they wish they could “bottle” you?  Or cork you?  The process of capturing the fragrance of flowers involves cutting . . . crushing . . . drying to a crisp . . . burning, and patiently waiting for the fragrance to be extracted from its beautiful  flower.  

May we sense what our Creator-Gardener is working in our lives to draw from us a beautiful fragrance that is not only a delight to the people whose lives we touch, but may our Gardener be pleased and proud.

I will soon be the grandmother of 12 (plus 2 in Heaven.)  I am the mother of 3.  All of them have become an integral part of my heart, my thoughts, and my emotions.  Each is so very unique, and it has been a wonderful highlight of my journey to see the individuals they have become, and are becoming.

This “Wisdom Verse”, so ancient, is yet so timelessly appropriate for parents today.

I was thinking about what is involved in “training”.   I remembered an experience

from my early adult life, when I worked as a sign language interpreter.  I was called to a welding business, which was an entirely new experience for me.  I was soon in the welding area with my deaf client and his job trainer.  After some introductory conversation, we all put on our “welding helmets” and then we had to lower our  dark face shields.   I heard the trainer begin his training, and within seconds realized that I couldn’t see a thing, except the shield-darkened welding fire.  My deaf client quickly realized he was in the same predicament, but far worse in that he couldn’t even hear what the instructor was saying.  Deaf people, having no hearing, rely heavily on their sight.  But here he was, without being able to hear the instructions, now  cut off from “seeing” the signed instructions as his sight was cut off by the dark face shield.  

The one being trained was completely “in the dark.”  He and I were soon doubled over in laughter as we realized our predicament.  We couldn’t even see to sign to each other.   The poor trainer (also literally in the dark) had no idea what was going on that we found so funny.  We had to re-group, and figure out a different way to “train” this man. . . a way that would lead to his understanding and success.

Everyone involved had “done it right,” but it did not work because of the one unique aspect of  the “trainee’s” reality.

It’s similar to training a child.  We (“the trainers”) have a God-assigned responsibility to train the child He has given us.  Children do not come pre-trained, and each one has so many unique characteristics to which we have to pay attention and adjust our training.  He/she is not like any other child.  He/she does not learn in the same way as another.  

But they always learn best by watching the living example of those into whose care God has entrusted them.

“God so loved the world. . .”

John 3:16

In these present days, the world I’ve known has dramatically changed.  If someone had told me a year ago what my world would look like in 2020, it would have sounded unbelievable to me.   A global plague, unprecedented numbers of deaths . . .even in the most remote places on earth.  People jobless, homeless, and unable to even be together without risk.  Mob violence on the streets.  Our nation polarized . . . our “One nation under God” spiraling down to “Two Parties Under ???.”  (For me, there’s little “Under God” about it these days.)   And sadly, His People are part of it.

Perhaps the most powerful prophet of God in all of history, Isaiah was also living in a time of great turmoil.  God’s own people had turned their life focus on themselves and what they wanted, not looking to God for His Presence and Leadership in their lives.  

God wanted them back.

The governmental leader in Isaiah’s time is not even clearly identified. Governments come and go. It was the hearts and lives of God’s people He was talking to.  God can use anyone He chooses to use . . . even mules and birds.  

God’s consistent call is for His people to return to Him.  Jesus, in coming to our world and making the ultimate sacrifice for us, said, “God so loved the world that He gave His Own Son  . . .”  John 3:16  

As HIS PEOPLE….HIS CHOSEN [spiritual] NATION…His authentic followers around the globe, including those in my country, our highest mandate here on earth has nothing to do with a nation’s political leadership. 

It has everything to do with Whose we are.  That’s squarely on each of us to carry out, no matter what government is in the power seat.

Heart check.