Swishing with Awareness – Denise M. Ford

On New Year’s Day we went to the Calgary airport to pick-up our daughter-in-law’s mother. Unsure if we had missed her, my husband headed to the baggage carousels while I placed myself outside the swishing doors that open to arriving passengers.

Photo Copyright by Sergiy Serdyuk

Swish! An excited woman ran eagerly through the doors to her awaiting partner. He enveloped her in an embrace that emanated a wave of resounding relief. I found myself sighing with them as I recalled the same repeated scenarios my husband and I had experienced during our long-distance courtship.

As my husband returned to wait with me, he gave me a pointed nudge which I thought meant that he too had been reminiscing over thoughts of our past reunions.  Not so!  He tugged my coat sleeve to force my attention to a two-year-old boy with a suitcase in tow as his father called after him to turn around.  The boy kept pulling, stubbornly going away from his father. The Dad finally reached him and guided him back to his mother and siblings. 

We remarked to each other how that reminded us of our grandson’s chaotic attempts to thwart his parents’ guidance. As we chuckled, the same little boy came running before us, but stopped at the swishing doorway.  His Dad strode quickly behind him with guarded supervision. The boy watched intently as the doors swished, opening and closing, releasing passengers who hurried by him.

Swish, swish. The little boy’s arms pushed tightly against his sides. He closed his fists in a determined posture. Swish! A lightening move by the boy as he dashed through the open doors. His Dad, in a second of paused disbelief, reacted and ran after his son just before the doors pulled shut.

Swish!  We witnessed a blurring rescue as the Dad ran back out with his son in his arms. Immediately the alarms began to ring loudly, and the doors refused to swish open. I don’t know how long the alarms kept ringing, because my husband looked over to the baggage area spotting our intended passenger.

Photo by NATIONAL POST

Still laughing, we passed by the Dad and son as they rejoined their family. I paused to say,

”Your son reminds us of our grandson’s curiosity and boldness.”

“I’m just glad I got him in time,” the Dad replied.

Days later, these incidents served as metaphors for my thoughts on this new year. I followed a prompting to go to the familiar words of Isaiah 55:8.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.

I had prayed through this verse repeatedly as a series of provision and placement unfolded during 2019. Like that Dad who sprinted into action to provide a quick rescue for his son, I had offered up grateful praise as unique provision unfolded and came to our family through God’s specific placement.

Provision and placement for a permanent job for my husband that allowed him to work remotely from home. Now he could schedule time for his most important role as Pop-Pop to our grandchildren.

Provision and placement for our daughter-in-law as she interviewed for a new teaching role. She planned to truthfully disclose her pregnancy and admit that she would need to go on maternity leave one month into the school year. During the interview, I prayed for the principal to recognize Catherine’s incredible teaching talents and to sense an unmistakable bond between them. Minutes later, Catherine called to relate her good news. “She offered me the job, stating that she felt a true bond between us!” 

Provision in God’s sovereign timing and with His wise placement.

I scanned over Isaiah 55 beginning at verse one. The second line states,

“Listen to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.”

How often had I yearned for responses to my prayers for the provision of a focused path in my writing?  Often, I felt like that little boy, determined to try a new experience without realizing I wasn’t prepared for what it would entail. I tried to pursue a consistent writing schedule, but my curiosity would lead me to jump from one idea to the next.  Write a devotion, develop a short story. Create character development and dialogue for a play.  Blog to inspire others, blog as a memoir. Blog but don’t post my unrefined meanderings.  Write to inform, apply my journalism background.  Research and write. Encourage and write.  I was towing too many things, stubbornly heading into a chaotic collision of ideas tumbling about me. 

Like the reuniting couple, had I fallen into a long-distance relationship with my writing? When I embraced an idea on my writing list, I felt like words would pour forth, unbounded and free. But when I stayed away from it, I wondered if writing was worth the effort and energy it required.  What would I need to give up so I could make this a lasting priority?

Continuing to Isaiah 55:3, “Incline your ear, and come to Me.  Hear, and your soul shall live.  And I will make an everlasting covenant with you —The sure mercies of David.”

I feel rescued by these words. As I read them, they shake together like pieces in a rain stick, coursing on a path I thought I couldn’t or didn’t dare follow. Like that airport couple coming together in sheer relief, I am embraced and enveloped in a moment of time when I know for certain that I will be safe in the steps I take in my writing. I will find strength in the bond provided by God. I will listen and I will delight in the abundance of writing ideas He provides.

I do believe that we often find ourselves placed in moments we need to experience as they unfold before us. If we see and hear what those moments may provide for us, perhaps we will

become aware to what we need to understand.  Perhaps we will recognize an unmistakeable bond, a covenant laid forth for us to accept. 

I offer to you, this reassuring word that seems to greet me each new day this year.

Awareness!

Become immersed in it.

Awareness!

Become intensified by it.

Awareness!

Become determined by it.

Let it open your ears to listen and to follow the messages presented to you.

Let it open your soul so you may delight in the abundance of mercy offered to you.

Awareness!

Let yourself respond within an everlasting covenant with God.

Swish! Awareness!

May you feel free to run into the embrace that awaits you.

As needed may you be scooped up and rescued so you may begin again.