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Kind Intention



I didn't plant it.  To be honest, I have no idea how it came to grow in my herbal garden.  At first, I thought it was one of my greens.  It looked to be a healthy plant to eat.  But when I tasted its leaves, it only gave me bitterness.  I continued to watch it grow; it even brought a few others with it.  Then it sprouted deep maroon tassels, and I knew that it was not a herb but a flower for my enjoyment.  Mm . . . it must be a Saliva plant, but I have never had that in my yard, and yet, here it grows.  It's stately, a vision right before my eyes whenever I stand and look out my kitchen window.  It's tough, even if it tends to droop and wilt in the summer sun, it will bounce right back to full stance after a spray of water.  It came into my life, uninvited, unplanned, and unknown to me.  Yet, here it grows with kind intention right before me everyday.

It's rather like the kind intention I have experienced recently.  Through a series of meeting up with old friends, I have found myself able to try my hand at teaching.  At this phase in my life, I have realized my desire to be a mentor.  I want to pass on to the next generation, the joy of being one who's called to journey with people on their path of health. I never expected myself to be here.  But as I sat in a recent meeting, I felt I was in my backyard garden, for all around me, there were names of former colleagues and friends I had met and cherished long ago.  They just kept popping up!  As I walked out to my car, I mused out loud, "Oh Lord, what are you up to in my life?  I never knew this may be what You have had in store for me, what next?"  

Kind intention is the good pleasure of God alone.  It is with that kind intention He brings about His will on earth.  I have a part in that as I allow myself to be participant with Him. I am discovering the key to view His work is watching for the uninvited, unplanned, and unknown events in life.  For often in those very things, God is revealing the kind intention of His will for us . . .

"He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His kind intention,
which He purposed in Him (Christ) . . . 
Ephesians 1:9

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