Threads of Life

Donna picked me up from the airport in Chicago last week and continued to be my “chauffer” for the next 24 hours. She was lovely, bright, dressed impeccably and obviously loved the Lord. After meeting her I was now looking forward with great anticipation to my speaking engagement at her church, Oak Community Church!

As we were driving to my hotel she asked me where I was from and I told her, Roswell, Georgia. She was surprised and said she had actually lived there herself for almost a year many years ago.

Then she went on to tell me about her time there. She had a wonderful neighbor who had invested greatly in her life. The neighbor had also taken her to a large Bible study at a church nearby where she had made a recommitment to Jesus Christ.

She then told me the neighbor’s name. Barb E-. I was blown away. I know Barb well and in fact had lived not too far from her at the same time Donna lived there. We had almost been neighbors! And the Bible Study? It was the very one I directed for almost twenty years.

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In September I taught a retreat in Dallas for Grace Community Church. The church was doing the Amazing Collection and was obviously enjoying it very much and “learning for life” about every book in God’s Word. One of the attendees told me that she had been so surprised and delighted when she was watching the First Thessalonians DVD. The testimony was Gaye-Lynn Smith; Gaye-Lynn had given her story literally from her death bed and had passed away shortly after filming. What makes this so remarkable is that Gaye-Lynn had been a missionary in Papua, New Guinea with her years before. After she left the mission field she had lost track of Gaye-Lynn and was so ministered to when she saw the testimony.

Gaye-Lynn’s was probably one of our most miraculous testimonies. We had actually come across Gaye-Lynn’s story through Discipleship Journal Magazine and had been able to contact the church who had filmed her. We then contacted her husband who was living in New Guinea to get permission to include it in our study. And now God was using it to encourage a woman who had served along side Gaye-Lynn in New Guinea years before! Amazing!

When I look at the many times threads of lives have woven together it really is something only God could do. Several years ago, Donna had lived in this area for only a few months, but was saved through a woman who brought her to our Bible Study. Twenty years later she was able to tell me, the speaker she had brought in to minister to the womens’ ministry she was now directing!

Gaye-Lynn passed away years ago but was still touching the life of a friend long after she had gone home to be with the Lord.

God is writing a story. We seldom see all that He is doing with the threads but when occasions like these arrive I am reminded that He is weaving something beautiful.

Corrie Ten Boom wrote the following

My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me,
I cannot choose the colors He worketh steadily.
Oftimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not til the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas, and explain the reasons why.
The dark threads are as needful, in the Weavers skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.

Job 7:6
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle

Apple of His Eye

It had been a packed week of meetings and work and house guests so there had been little time to prepare for the talk I was to give to the women of the First Presbyterian Church in Orlando. As I drove to the airport I prayed fervently that God would somehow give me the time I needed to put the finishing touches on the speech.

When I got to the airport the Delta official announced that there was a full plane so we were to board as quickly as possible in order to stay on time. As I handed him my boarding pass he said, “Mrs. Harley we have upgraded you to first class.” I couldn’t believe my ears but sure enough, there was “my seat”, large and comfortable with the amenities that go with First Class!

The man next to me was quiet, engrossed in his own work and so for nearly two hours I had all the time I needed to fully prepare. No other passenger was as thankful as I was! I praised God all the way down to Orlando for His great kindness to me.

Two days later I was returning to Atlanta. As I again boarded the plane I realized that this time my seat was in the VERY back and I was squeezed between two rather large men. As I fastened my seat belt I had to laugh! “Lord, I see that when I am going to do your work, you give me the best seat but when I am all done, here I am in the very back!”

A few minutes later the stewardess came to the back of the plane and announced that there was a seat up front and wanted someone to move up there. No one raised their hand and she left.

“That is weird”, I thought. I would have assumed that EVERYONE would have wanted to move to first class.

Again she returned and asked the same question. No one moved and again I wondered why no one raised their hand. This was all so strange!

The third time she returned and with firmness stated that the plane could not take off until SOMEONE took that seat! I raised my hand and was ushered to First Class and there had not only had ONE seat but TWO large seats to spread out in!

As I slid my body into those wonderful leather, comfortable seats I started laughing out loud! “Lord, you are just beyond WONDERFUL and I now can see that you can do and will do ANYTHING for your children! I am spoiled beyond belief!”

Does our God have a sense of humor? I think so, in fact I think that day proved not only His sense of humor but His omnipresence, omnipotence and above al His personal love for and delight in His children. And in those moments I think He is calling from heaven, “I know YOU and I love YOU! You really are the apple of My eye!”

I have flown many times since then and never again have I received an upgrade. But on that day I received a special gift, a personal love gift from a personal God.

We have experienced this often in Big Dream Ministries. There have been many times that we have heard a shout from Heaven as God does something BIG for the ministry such as a large financial gift from one of our generous donors. But there are other times when He does small things that take our breath away such as providing a copier at no cost from a company who doesn’t even know much about the ministry. These overwhelm us because He shows Himself so very personal, so intimate in His love, so aware of even our smallest needs. And in both times we are thankful.

Psalm 17:8
Keep me as the apple of Your eye.

Not So Cheap

It was the picture by the recipe in the cookbook that caught my eye! It showed a lovely rustic pottery bowl filled with the most delicious looking pasta and vegetables. The recipe called for pasta, fresh vegetables and two different kinds of cheeses.

Pasta! A cheap meal! It would fit right into the steam-lined budget Beloved and I had come up with the night before after finding that our budget for two months had been maligned. So we went over every penny we had spent and found the culprit and not surprisingly it was “groceries”. July had been a particularly celebratory month with much company at the cottage and many meals enjoyed with friends and family. And it was there that the budget went out the window and our food allowance went through the roof.

But once the problem had been identified I felt confident that I could quickly get it under control and we would be back in great financial shape within a month or two. After all, I KNOW HOW TO COOK CHEAP! So the pasta with vegetables looked like the perfect recipe…cheap and delicious! So off to Kroger I went with my small grocery list in hand.

Every few weeks I buy a gift card and pay for groceries with that. It makes checking out fast and also saves me from writing twenty checks to Kroger every month! So at check out I swiped my card, never looking at the price and went my merry way.

The pasta was boiling in the pot when I glanced at the receipt. $21.95! I had just spent $21.95 for a pot of “cheap” pasta! In fact it was not cheap because the specialty cheeses and pasta had cost a fortune! I was shocked…and mad at myself for not paying close attention. And the verse came to mind .. “For which one of you when he wants to build a tower (or cook dinner!) does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?”

Considering the costs….Christ was not talking about dinner but far more important things. He basically asks us to see nothing as important, nothing that can even begin to compare with the great joy of following Him. But that is not a cheap decision just as it is not cheap grace. . It is very costly. It literally costs everything.

But like me and the pasta dish we all want something cheap. Instead of fellowship with God we will substitute just about anything else yet in the long run the cheap costs us far more than we were ever wanted to spend. It catches us off guard, deceives us into believing we really are getting a deal. But Christ offers us the greatest treasure of all and then turns around and reminds us that it comes with a cost.
Consider…consider…consider.

It is all worth it. In the end it is worth everything.

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
John 14: 27