God and the Goldfinch by Sharon Heagy

While picking saskatoon berries one morning, a unique birdsong captured my attention. I could hear the bird but was unable to spot it.  Its song soothed my senses and blessed away my stress.

Birds have always had a special place in my heart and I watch them with keen interest. How do they fly? How do they sing? How they can eat their own weight each day and not gain an ounce? How can a sparrow stand outside in minus 53C windchill eating seeds and not turn into a ‘sparrowcicle’? They are miraculous. Perhaps it is my fascination with birds that led me to my request of God.

It was at a significant low point in my life.  Terrible circumstances surrounded me.  The passing of a two-year-old girl, a family friend who died in her mother’s arms, was particularly crushing. 

In my own family I was struggling as my kids were making destructive choices despite fervent prayers, leading me to believe I was a lousy mother and an ineffective follower of Christ rather than realizing they had free will.  Spiralling down I crashed into a crisis of faith.  There was no light. There was no hope. I questioned everything I believed, even to the existence of God himself. Was I just nuts? Had He ever spoken to me? 

            Sitting on my deck, weeping and crying I called out to God from the depths of despair, not even knowing if I knew Him anymore. “Are you there?” I railed. “Do you care? Please, God, show me. Right or wrong I am asking for a sign. I’m desperate, Lord. Please. Please just send one goldfinch to the yard right now and I will know the truth.”

            In the receding wake of shuddering sobs, I waited. Waited as the sky grew dark and the birds went to bed. No goldfinch. No promise. No answer. I went to bed devastated and exhausted, feeling deserted and alone. Sleep was elusive and when it did come it was restless and short.

Dawn greeted me with puffy eyes and a groggy head.  Leaden feet padded their way into the kitchen where I leaned weakly on the counter. Blankly my gaze came to rest over the windowsill.

I froze for a moment, then started to melt. There, outside my window, was not one goldfinch but an entire flock! They covered the feeders, the hedges, the guy wire on the power pole. It was an explosion of yellow. Never have I seen so many goldfinches in one place and never have I seen that many since. 

            In that moment I knew without a doubt that God had answered my prayer.  Hope was restored, faith was resurrected and I knew the truth.

            Now when circumstances challenge and test my faith I know He is with me. The following verse girds me and gives me hope:

“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

(Lamentations 19-23NIV)

            

     This is the direction I received to find my way out of the pit and I want you to know that if you too find yourself looking for a pinpoint of light in the darkness, be encouraged. He is right there beside you and will help you find your way. And if there is any way that I can pray for you, let me know. It would be an honour and a privilege. We are in this journey together.

Shrinking Violet, Shouting Stone ~ Valerie Ronald

One of my earliest childhood memories is the scent of clean cotton warmed by my mother’s skin. Her full skirts offered a shy little girl a safe place to hide from inquisitive adults trying to engage her in conversation. I remember being just the right height to grasp the fullest part of her skirt and roll myself into her side. Childish logic told me if I couldn’t see the person trying to speak to me then I wouldn’t have to answer. If I was particularly reticent, my mother had to disentangle me from her skirt before she could move.

Nowadays I prefer to call myself an introvert rather than shy, although I still find it difficult to extend myself to strangers and social gatherings often exhaust me rather than energize. I am quite content with my own company much of the time. Deliberate socialization is something I need to work at. I admit when COVID-19 hit, I secretly rejoiced in having permission to stay at home. Not to say I don’t enjoy people but prefer a few close friends or family to unfamiliar crowds. 

How did I end up here? I asked myself the first time I stepped up to a microphone to address a large group of women. That question and the memory of hiding in my mother’s skirts often comes to mind before I speak publicly. The response to the question is what gives me courage to unroll from the skirt of shyness and speak with confidence. Not confidence in myself, for like Moses, I am not eloquent and my shyness often makes me slow of speech and tongue. My confidence is in God, whose promise to Moses is the same to me, “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” (Ex.3:12)

 God has chosen to place me in opportune situations to share His good news.

 ~ Good news too important to keep to myself. 

~ Good news emboldening me to look each person in the eye with a holy joy bubbling up inside as I tell what it means to me.

~ Good news able to make all the difference in the lives of my listeners. 

I speak about the Gospel - the good news of forgiveness, hope, joy and new life found in a relationship with Jesus, my living Savior. God’s extraordinary direction comes through opportunities to tell His story and mine to guests at Christian Women’s Clubs throughout Canada and the United States.

 In Luke 19 the Pharisees criticized Jesus for allowing His disciples to shout accolades of praise to Him as made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 
“I tell you,” He replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40 NIV) 

 If God can use inanimate stones to proclaim the deity of His Son, I know He can use a reticent introvert like myself. He is the only reason this shrinking violet has become a shouting stone. No cause or campaign could stir me to speak like I love to speak about Jesus. When I speak about Him I feel His passion giving strength to my voice, His truth enlivening my words, His love shining from my eyes upon the people listening. I am no preacher, but I know intimately what He has done for me and what He means to me and I cannot help but share it. Occasionally God gives me the gift of hearing how some part of my story was influential in a woman giving her heart to Him. This fills me with abundant joy and praise for the One who saved her. 

 Sometimes when I am giving a talk I experience a sort of “out-of-body” view of the whole scene and have an internal laugh. It reminds me of the story of someone finding a turtle on a fence post. How did a creature unable to climb vertically arrive atop a fence post except by someone putting it there? Only God could take a shy introvert, flood her with exciting news about Himself and then put her on multiple “fence posts” from which to share it with many others needing to hear. 

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus.” 
- 2 Corinthians 4:13 - 14 NIV 

 Valerie Ronald lives in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. She is a graduate of Vancouver's Langara College journalism program, and has worked as a newspaper reporter, freelance writer, public speaker and bookstore employee. Valerie finds being a member of the Manitoba Christian Writers Association has honed her writing skill and confidence. She writes devotionals for her home church bulletins and her online blog. Her current book project chronicles how God's faithfulness saw her through the dark valleys of divorce and cancer. Along with her husband, Valerie enjoys spending time with their blended family and six grandchildren. She is a nature photographer, water colorist, cat lover and Scrabble addict.

More of her devotionals can be read on her blog   https://scriptordeus.wordpress.com

I Have Only to Listen by Joylene M. Bailey

Photo from Pixabay

You will be in an accident today.

These are the words I heard as I left our country driveway to spend a long day in the city running errands. Our three little girls were strapped in the back seat of my van. 

We had much to accomplish that day and I had lists upon lists doing loops in my head as I paused by our black mailbox at the end of the gravel driveway. 

In the middle of all that brain clutter, and just as I started to pull forward, the words you will be in an accident today zapped like lightning on a perfectly clear day. I put on the brakes.

Did I hear that right? Surely that was just a weird random thought.

Nevertheless, I prayed for God’s protection, then triple checked both ways and eased onto the highway. All through the day I was hyper vigilant; double checking left and right before making a turn, waiting a few seconds longer when the traffic light turned green, scanning side roads, checking and rechecking the rear-view mirror, and rubbernecking to see past blind spots.

As we neared the end of our day and our errands, I began to think that the morning’s thought must have been my wild imagination after all. Then, as I slowly ventured into an uncontrolled intersection on a residential street, a red sportscar came barreling towards us from the right. I slammed on my brakes as he sped by, scraping his driver’s side quarter panel across my front bumper. He never stopped.

I remember sitting there stunned. If I had been going at regular speed, we would likely have been hit broadside. But the words that morning had made me cautious all day. And for many weeks after, the streak of red paint on my black bumper reminded me of God’s extraordinary direction and protection.

Like others who have written here, I’ve had multiple experiences when I’ve felt God’s extraordinary direction. Not all of them have been as dramatic as this story. Some have been a quiet obedience to the still small voice, with nobody to witness it but Him. But all of them together have affected my writing, because they have taught me how important it is to listen. 

These days, more than ever before, I try to listen for His direction before I sit down to write. What is it that He wants me to say? Sometimes I head into my writing day with a clear idea of what that is, and other times it’s not until I actually begin that it becomes clearer.

Then, I try to listen while I write. As the words and ideas flow onto the page, some feel right and some don’t. I take that as God's direction.  

Finally, after it’s written, I “listen” for a sense of peace about it. When peace is there, then I’m pretty sure it has His okay.

This “listening” for His direction in my writing is a practice I’m still trying to make a habit. Many days I forget and fail to do it. It's a conscious act that I regularly need to remind myself to do. 

I really think God directs us all the time but we - at least, I - don't always recognize it. My responsibility is to listen.  

One more story to reinforce that thought ...

This is a true account of how my daughter received God's extraordinary direction through her four-year-old son. She’d been misrepresented and falsely accused by a superior in her business and was enraged and upset as she headed out for a walk, pushing her one-year-old twins in the stroller. Little Man, walking beside her and completely oblivious to her feelings, suddenly asked, “Mommy, can you tell me a story about a little girl named Grace?” 

We have only to listen.

~~~~~

Joy lives in Edmonton with The Cowboy and Babe. Find her joy infused view of the world at Scraps of Joy.

Extraordinary Love by Alan Anderson

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16, Revised Standard)


The writing prompt for July caused me to ponder a lot. Ideas of how to approach this post did not come to me like others have. With only a day to go until the date for this post, even now I ponder. Now I must write and put a message together.


Since the Covid-19 virus invaded our world I have not written too much about it. Other writers have done a superb job of offering their perspectives on an enemy none of us are familiar with.


In my May 22, 2020 post I included thoughts on the virus in my message, “Writing in the Cracks of Life.” Until now this has been the only piece I have written on this crisis. 


Since governments began to “lockdown” cities and countries because of the virus a lot has happened. The crisis has shown the evil, cruel, mean, uncivilized, and criminal side of people. This time of a worldwide pandemic has also shown the beautiful, good, and compassionate side of people.


As a Christian man, my attitude has not always been sympathetic to the experiences of people during this time. Time to be silent, to ponder (I love to ponder), to pray, to listen, and to ask a question became a need. My question, where is God in all this craziness and disruption?


The answer or, “extraordinary directions,” came through the well-known, John 3:16 passage of the Bible. God loves the world. God is in the love all around. This is never to be ignored or forgotten. While in the past months evil for a time has gone mad, God still loves people. The media played up the riots that broke out after a man was murdered. Some people seem to have used this tragedy as an excuse to show their angry and destructive side. God’s love still became clear.
 

I read an article about two buddies. One man is Black, and the other is Caucasian. Both men see beyond their colour. Instead of rioting or protesting these guys sat outside and offered to give people an opportunity to talk. They set up chairs and a cooler with beer and waited for people to drop by. All they wanted to do was care for people amidst a troubled time. They reached out to their neighbours. This is love in action.


One question in my mind and heart is this. Have we as God’s people forgotten His love for the world? Can it be when we behold the evil of the day we neglect the fact God still loves people? I wonder how our world would change if instead of being overwhelmed by it we loved the world instead.


On our own we cannot change the world. We can, however, reach out to our neighbours. The Covid-19 virus does not seem in a hurry to leave. We have time to show love to those in our part of the world. Instead of being overwhelmed we can overcome. The love of God can overcome us as we reach out to people around us.  God loves the world and so must we.


My friends, what can you do to show this extraordinary love to the world? I ask myself the same question.




https://scarredjoy.ca/