"An Artist's Walk with God"

As my parents age and I see their struggles and I feel sadden at the once vibrant laughter that filled our home, the games of scrabble and monopoly we stayed up late to play and the giggles we let loose each night as we mimicked “Little House on the Prairie” with our good nights.  I find it is replaced by slow movements across the floor to avoid a fall; the daily thought of losing a partner that has been there for life and just that dreaded fear of being alone.  Even though I see their fear, don’t we all struggle from things that make us sad and alone no matter what our age or stage of our life is?

One thing I have learned during this extended visit with parents is that God knows my fear and my heart. He knows I need His reassurance that the two people that once made me feel safe in this world now need MY reassurance. Am I strong enough? This makes me feel alone and scared.  Many of you know my older brother was killed 23 years ago and I still wish he was here to be the BIG brother!  We all feel this way at times, and we all know we should rely of our almighty God, but we still fret more than we should.  It is easier to fret that give our fears to God, right?

So God gave us a verse that fits so well for this time.  He says in Proverbs 15:15:  “In the light of the king’s countenance is life, and his favor is like a cloud of the latter rain.” So that does this mean and how did this help me?  First, the early rains in spring are needed to prepare the soil for the seed.  Then the farmers sow the seed in the early spring. But, later in the year we see the latter rains ripen the crop for the coming harvest in the fall.   God has this all planned out.

When we are going through our struggles, many times we cannot see the results of the early rains.  We ask why this current struggle in our life is and if I may confide, do we really care “why” while we are going through our struggles we just know we are sad and hurting.  But I as I have lived through my 50 years of life, I have to say, each time I looked to God, set my troubles on the altar of God, I saw His harvest…eventually!

I just never knew this verse was there and what it meant for me and for you.   My friend, God knows what is going to happen before we even feel that first drop of rain.  He actually sent the rain.  But He has prepared the harvest and there with His open arms to walk with us through every down pour.

I would challenge all of us (me included) to wake up each day and give our struggles to God with the confidence HE knows the outcome.  Let us be eager to see how God prepares the latter rain and what treasure His has for us….. if we will only believe in this verse.