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Damascus Experience

The evening breeze and sunset invited me to sit back on my patio lounge chair.  As I did, here came Goldyn too.  He invited himself onto my lap, all 85 lbs. of himself.  He has never thought his size a limitation for my lap. After a few turns and readjustments, there we sat, serene and squeezed.  For a moment, I was reminded of when my son, a toddler, did the same.  I'd be sitting on the couch, writing, and up he'd come to squeeze between the corner of the couch and me.  There in his spot, he contentedly sat with me.  Now, after all these years, I have my Goldy mimicking the same. . . 

The quiet gave me time to think about my day.  I often find myself wondering what is God up to in my life?  I really don't understand His ways or thoughts. The turn of events in our life was something I never dreamed possible.  But that was being totally naive.  I don't know why we think we have earned immunity from hardship.  So when that unexpected happens, we are taken a bit off guard.  Yet I am discovering that stripped of what we thought we needed to live our days out may become our own Damascus Experience. . .

The man called Saul was going about his business, being zealous for what he believed was right.  Until that day he met his match while on the road to the city of Damascus.  He received not only a divine intervention from God, but one that was quite direct.  The vision blinded him for 3 days, but opened his eyes to the faith, grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ.  He walked away changed forever, and became the apostle Paul, the very one who was given some of the deepest revelations of God himself.  

It is interesting to me that as I had been praying for a Damascus Experience for other family, that what I prayed for others has somehow played out itself in me.  Once again, I should have known and been the wiser.  But, as I allow my eyes to see and keep an open heart, what I thought could be our doom may turn out to be of such great value, not in terms of temporal finite things, but in stock for all eternity. 


It's just like the words of one of my favorite songs spell out.  "He'll use and he'll do anything that he wants to, to tell us I love you . . . He knows how to get a hold of us to show us He's enough . . . "  So I'm walking in these days having a very fresh glimpse of the One who saved me.  My little suffering is nothing in comparison to what He suffered for me on the cross.  And yet, in this very thing I sense anew his grace, his love, and kindness.  It makes me want to get much closer to Him, to spend more time in His presence. . .


Sort of like, this big ol' Goldyn boy who is drawn to my lap even if there would seem to be no room. . . but he, like I, will always find the room upon his Master's lap. . .  


"Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ . . ."
                                   Ephesians 1:3


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