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Hills and Valleys

" For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills." (Deuteronomy 8:7)

Spring is alive and well right before my eyes.  The birth of new baby birds is played out each day, as I watch from my kitchen window.  The family started out with at least 3 babies, but unfortunately 2 found our pool before they found their wings.  But the last one has figured it out, navigating the steps and the crevices as it hops and chirps across the pool deck.  Just in time the mother bird is there to interject feedings to the delight of her prodigy.  She is right on time, at least every 2 hours and reminds her eager offspring of the danger of getting to close to the edge of the steps by being a barrier to its reckless hops.  Life outside of the nest is seemingly harsh, certainly not an instant perfect flight.  It comes with ups and downs, trying out wings not fully developed and  spindly legs that don't always coordinate.  Rather, it is a life with various hills and valleys. . . 

So the children of Israel are getting ready to cross into the long awaited promised land.  Moses is offering his final words of exhortation, encouragement and warning.  All the people have known is wilderness land, desert and heat.  But now the promised land will offer a different terrain of hills and valleys.  That must mean new ups and downs, new challenges to navigate, new opportunities to put their faith and trust in the Yahweh, the very one who saved them from their Egypt oppressors some 40 years ago.  This was another generation of people that needed to try out their wings . . .

 Being on the verge of birthday #62, I realize anew that life is made up of hills and valleys.  Being a follower of Jesus has never made me exempt from failures, pain, despair, disease or a myriad of other life situations.  Things will always happen, even when a day can seem to start out so well.  I am not immune to tragedy.  Yet it is somewhat ironic that there in the midst of life challenges, is where I am to live and thrive, to cultivate the land, plant vineyards, grow families and rejoice (Deuteronomy 8.) There is where God dwells and strolls alongside of me, humbling and transforming me into a much better version of me.  And when hilltop experiences come, victories are so much sweeter.  They are of a redemptive quality just like Tiger Woods winning the Master's this year!  

So thank you Lord, for giving me this year of being 61 and blessed, for the hills and valleys I have crossed; all making it to be my best year ever!  
"But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys . . . a land for which your God cares, the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year."  (Deuteronomy 11: 11-12)




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