God did something really cool today. It was the first "book club" meeting to chat about "One Thousand Gifts" (by Ann Voskamp) at the park. I pulled up and the kids tumbled out of the van and of coarse, the door was left opened in their anticipation of playground "freedom". As I meandered around to close the door a woman frantically got out of her van begging "Have you seen two little boys?" She was calling their names out into the empty park. Seriously, they disappeared. At 4 and 6 years old they left the house while a caretaker was sleeping and could have been anywhere and gone for any amount of time. Two Mom's waiting for the book chat jumped up and ran to their cars to help search. I ran down to the field and asked the guy on the riding mower if he had seen them. In fact, he had seen them 30 minutes prior and said they were down by the busiest road in Augusta hanging out by the development sign but that there was a man with them. Adrenaline pumped as I left my kids with another Mom who had pulled in to join us and drove to search for the boys. My hunt came up with nothing. God's eyes are always open. After returning to the park along with the others, we Mom's just stood together speechless, gut-wrenched for this other Momma...left searching. Calling the police was the next thought on everyone's lips but we had all moved in such a hurry we didn't have enough details to give them, not even the desperate Momma's name. Nothing to do, but pray to the God who knows the number of hairs on those little lost boys' heads.
After leading in a desperate prayer on their behalf, asking God for protection and for a protector to come along and be His hands and feet, I lifted my head to see a tall, bald, tattooed man, awkward to interrupt prayer, ask if we knew two little boys that he had found on the very edge of the dangerously busy road. It was him...and his girlfriend that God had sent to the rescue before we even had bowed heavy hearts in prayer. Ecstatic, we told them that we were just praying for them and that God had used them for those boys. Taken aback but overjoyed they beamed and accepted our request to join us in offering a prayer of thanksgiving to God. "Father, thankyou for what you have done. For answering our prayers before we even uttered them. By sending Bruce and Jane and giving them a heart to protect these children. Bless them, today, Lord and may their eyes be opened to seeing more of your fingerprints on their lives." Total strangers giving God the glory through "eucharisteo" for the things He has done.
As they were about to leave, they muttered something about good karma, then Jane said "It was nice meeting you, can I come and join your Bible Study sometime?" Wow, God! Eucharisteo...offering thanksgiving and finding the joy (chara) of seeing you at work...just what we were trying to get at with this book chat. And there it is on page 44
After leading in a desperate prayer on their behalf, asking God for protection and for a protector to come along and be His hands and feet, I lifted my head to see a tall, bald, tattooed man, awkward to interrupt prayer, ask if we knew two little boys that he had found on the very edge of the dangerously busy road. It was him...and his girlfriend that God had sent to the rescue before we even had bowed heavy hearts in prayer. Ecstatic, we told them that we were just praying for them and that God had used them for those boys. Taken aback but overjoyed they beamed and accepted our request to join us in offering a prayer of thanksgiving to God. "Father, thankyou for what you have done. For answering our prayers before we even uttered them. By sending Bruce and Jane and giving them a heart to protect these children. Bless them, today, Lord and may their eyes be opened to seeing more of your fingerprints on their lives." Total strangers giving God the glory through "eucharisteo" for the things He has done.
As they were about to leave, they muttered something about good karma, then Jane said "It was nice meeting you, can I come and join your Bible Study sometime?" Wow, God! Eucharisteo...offering thanksgiving and finding the joy (chara) of seeing you at work...just what we were trying to get at with this book chat. And there it is on page 44
"When one is thirsty one quenches one's thirst by drinking,
not by reading books which treat this condition."
Jean Pierre Caussade.
Opportunities to act in prayer and not just speak about praying are everywhere. Ann writes on page 60 that "Three times a day, Daniel prayed thanksgiving for the everyday common, for the God-love spilling forth from the God-heart at the center of all. The only real prayers are the ones mouthed with THANKFUL lips." (Daniel 6:10, Phillipiams 4:6, I Timothy 2:1) Interesting how everyone knew Daniel was a praying man becuase he did it (humbly, not pridefully but) PUBLICLY. Thinking about our morning and how God answered the first prayer before we even prayed it (because he already had it in His plan to do) but how the thanksgiving prayer ushered in an opportunity for this couple to see how they fit into His plan. One lady noted that perhaps God allowed it all to meet with this couple today and to reveal Himself to them through our prayers of Eucharisteo (greek for thanksgiving). My spirit can't help but agree. How He pursues! Now THAT is my kind of book club!!!!
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