It Starts with Me

We prayed for the blessings, that seeds sown would bear fruit. And the Spirit instructs, When the gift is then given, you will lay it down.

My heart recalls the choice to lay it down. The gift was given like the start of a promise. No sooner could we say baby - and it was growing as surely as His grace is in the knowing - it was taken up again, consumed in holy fire. And after the offering...peace.

"Oh, God...." the heart prays in long heaves of weeping. "Let this be my offering. Take it up. Make it wholly yours." Laying it down again, a thank offering for what He would do, for the promises taken in blind faith.

With the gift of grace abounding comes assurance of purpose, spoken from eternity. And here she grows as the lilies of the field, adorned more beautifully than all of Solomon's robes.

Offering it up again from open hands, the Lord commands, Pour it out.

The angel of God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told (Judges 6:20). 

When man's word fails, the Son of Man fails not. My hope is in Him, the Word eternal.

When the experts dash hopes for the future we turn to the Expert who holds the plans of futures past. When the experts tell us the dream is impossible, we fix our eyes on the One who makes all things possible. "Exceedingly low" probabilities don't exist in the Kingdom of infinite possibilities. When inviability steals our vitality, the Breath of Life makes dreams viable.

Now standing there at the foot of the alter, barefoot on holy ground, He draws a circle around me in the sand.

The changes that come - like tides and time - were purposed long ago... before the oceans rose and swelled with gravity... even before the universe began its turn upon the pendulum of time.

The purposes of today? The purposes of all our tomorrows? They begin right here within my small circle on the earth.

This man who stood with you at the alter, he has been entrusted to you - to love, to serve, and yes, to obey. This child, this one beautiful girl - she will be a woman of strength and character - she too is entrusted to you. This family, those faithful parents, the siblings, all have been entrusted since before you ever came to be. Those grandparents, their epic legacy is yours. Keep writing the story. Let it unfold because I AM the author of the plotline, a magnificent journey in faith.

It begins here, right here, with me.

So I step out on the waters of the unknown, where feet may fail. The promises lay smooth as glass beneath my feet. Fluid surface of change rising and falling in crests and troughs, crashing down upon the Rock. Yet my confidence is in Him. With eyes fixed and trust without boarders, each step is a ripple beneath my feet. Each one producing larger and larger ripples moving outward to fulfill His greater purposes.