Category Archives: God’s character

Am I understood?

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About a year ago I witnessed something grand in the heavens. Jack and I were on our usual late-night stroll when the clouds broke to reveal a gorgeous full moon. But what caused me to stop and stare was the magnificent rainbow around it!

Rainbowed moonStumbling around the block with my eyes riveted on the sky, I figured the whole world must be watching this incredible phenomenon. As soon as we got home, I turned on my computer, certain that the rainbow-moon would be front-and-center on the news with pictures to prove it. But to my surprise, there wasn’t a mention.

Was I the only one who’d witnessed it? Several days later I got my answer.

Rainbows began appearing around the moon every night, and not just that. They began showing up around porch lights, headlights, and street lights, too. That’s when I realized, “These aren’t God’s wonders at all!”

Having heard friends talk about rainbows around lights, especially at night, I finally knew my rainbow-moon hadn’t been real. It only existed because my deteriorating eyes had created it, and…. I was on my way to cataracts.

Weeks passed, and my light show grew more dazzling. Sparkling white stars began competing for space with the rainbows. No star-of-the-magi could have been more beautiful, but when it came to night driving, I was in trouble.

I tried to describe the problem to people who’d never seen what I was seeing, but they would only raise their eyebrows and say, “Really? That’s weird.” Others would simply change the subject.

Talking to a cataract-person who shared my light-show phenomenon was much more satisfying. They understood, and their own stories matched mine. Together we could chat openly about our limitations and what could be done about them.

It’s always a huge relief to be thoroughly understood. Yet often, when we attempt to explain ourselves, we get thoroughly misunderstood. This can be the cause of problems that should never have to be — especially in relationships.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be accurately understood every time? There is Someone who does this well. God is a champion listener, and each time we go to him explaining our sorrow, fear, anger, frustration, or confusion, it’s ok to picture him nodding, with his hand on our shoulder saying, “I hear you, and I completely understand.”

No raised brows. No change of subject. No conversational confusion. Even if we can’t voice what we’re really feeling or sort it out in our own minds, God is able to fill in the missing details, put all of it in order, and understand our deepest longings. More than that, he knows exactly what to do next and will lead us to practical help.

Cataract surgeryThrough a cataract-friend at church, God led me to a competent eye doctor, who performed flawless surgery on my cataract-eye. And it’s a blessing to drive safely again…. even though I do miss that beautiful rainbow-moon.

“Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath.” (Psalm 116:2)

Sounds Good

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The other day, I wasn’t getting anything accomplished at home so decided to run the long list of errands I’d been putting off – seven stops.

Self-checkoutLast on the list was Walmart, and by the time I got there, I was dragging. While shopping at mega-stores, I usually have too many items to wade through the self-checkout process, but today I had only half-a-cartful and went for it.

Struggling to figure out the code for onions, I looked toward the self-check employee for help, and she stepped right over. “You don’t have to scroll through all the produce pictures,” she said. “Just look at the sticker on your onion. See that number? Punch it in right here.” She pointed to the screen, encouraging me do it myself.

Then she said something I didn’t expect. “You sure do smell good.”

Arm and HammerI looked at her face and saw she was just a teenager, which made her compliment all the nicer. “It’s my laundry detergent,” I said. After smiling at me, she moved away to help someone else, leaving the sweetness of her remark behind.

I thought about this young girl as I pushed my cart toward the doors, wondering if she was always kind like that. And then I thought about my own off-the-cuff remarks and how often I give in to whining, complaining, or criticizing. Those things seem to come naturally, while voicing words of benefit to another often takes studied effort.

The Walmart girl had been a wonderful example of how it ought to work. And right away I thought of another good example: God.

The greater part of his words to us are kind ones, full of positive promises. They’re meant to encourage us when we’re low and strengthen us when we’re weak. They dissolve our fears, give us hope, deliver peace. Best of all, they’re words of love. If I take in more of God’s sweet words, surely more sweet words will come out of me.

Grocery cartWhen I next went to Walmart, I looked for my favorite self-check girl, anxious to have another conversation with her. It was her uplifting words that were drawing me back to her. I’m pretty sure God’s uplifting words are meant to draw me back to him, too. And though the sweet-speaking Walmart girl wasn’t available that day, God was.

“Let your conversation be always full of grace…” (Colossians 4:6)

What’s the story?

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This week God told me a story with a beginning, middle, and end.

I was sitting at a red light facing a stormy Lake Michigan, appreciative of a moment to study the churning water and its white caps. Winds over 30 mph rocked my car at the T-intersection as I waited for the green light.

Still growingJust then I spotted a tree directly across the road that must have been damaged on another stormy day. Apparently winds had been wild then, too, strong enough to twist the top right off the tree, leaving only a ragged stump. Despite such radical damage, it was growing new branches and taking on a new shape.

I snapped a photo and didn’t think much more about it.

Later, in the middle of the night, a loud noise woke me from a deep sleep, sounding like a giant Velcro patch being slowly torn apart. Since my window was open, the strange sound seemed especially frightening. But then came a giant thud, and I knew what it was — a tree that had just been torn apart.

IMG_3257The next morning I pulled on my boots and went looking. Only a few yards behind the house lay a tree that had been ripped in half from the bottom up and in its fall had pulled down a second tree. Both had landed in an enormous tangle of trunks and branches.

As I studied the damage, an old King James Bible word came to mind: rend. That version of the Bible uses rend to mean a tearing away, a ripping, a splitting. It was a word God used to pronounce judgment – “I will rend the kingdom from them. I will rend their wall. I will rend the heavens.”

IMG_3258Taking a mental measurement of the two fallen trees, I thought about how just the day before, and for years before that, both had stood 50 feet tall, strong and straight. And I thought about the stumpy tree at the red light…. and that’s when God told me a story.

“Though I sometimes rend things away, I usually follow that with a rendering.”

I had to head home to dictionary.com to find out what rendering meant and learned it was to provide or deliver. So, to rend is to take; to render is to give.

God was saying, “Sometimes my story-telling in people’s lives begins with a rending as I separate them from something they want or think they need that is really inappropriate or harmful. But my rending is always done with wisdom and an eye toward positive purposes that will come over time.

That was the beginning of the story.

The middle came next. “If you pay attention, you’ll see that I follow each rending with a rendering. I deliver what’s needed to start again, to experience new growth — much like the tree near the lake. I render the ability to do things better, to make different decisions, to rearrange priorities.

“In other words, I’m behind the rending but also the rendering.”

And the end of the story? “That,” he says, “depends on how you respond to the beginning and the middle.”

“[God] will render to every man….” (Romans 2:6)