30 Blessings

Wow. I have been truly blessed. • • • I am sitting at home, with a cough that keeps me from doing almost anything, and a nose running to Timbuktu & back... and in this I am truly blessed. • • • A week ago I arrived in Alabama, to bless my friend and stand up in her wedding. The circumstances were unusual, but I was there. I had traveled 56 hours by bus to arrive there, but the journey to that day started so many years ago. • • • May I pause and just recognize God's plan here? For it is grand. It is vast. And it is beautiful. • • • In this story there are two humans, both children of God, and he had made them and he saw them and he said - these children I have made are so good, but I have better for them. I have grown them in loving families, and given them dreams that are big and beautiful, and they have followed in chasing after those dreams as big as I AM. God said, I love and support these children, and I have brought them into a place where they could feel alone. They could get distracted or overwhelmed and feel as though they are not enough. I did this to strengthen our relationship because it is true they cannot achieve the best I have for them alone. I want to show them how much I love them, and how much help someone walking alongside you can be. I want to show them that I understand their needs and will always provide the best for them. And so God started crafting a friendship. This friendship was based on communication and mutual sharing. It was based on support and love given freely, unconditionally. The friendship provided strength when they were weak. Wisdom when they were hurt or confused or fearful. A listening ear when each was brave enough to honestly speak. This friendship build a foundation of time spent in person and then continued when God's direction took the two humans apart. The friendship blessed both the children and the Father, because the friendship was not just  between two, but three. In each meeting and talk God was welcomed, and often encouragement would continue into prayer. The love shared between friends was compared to the first source of love, the Being who is love. Support and strength was drawn from the Creator and Bringer of Hope. Wisdom was gleaned from the Shepherd and Guide. • • • Rebekah and I have been blessed with an amazing friendship, crafted by God. I recognize this through the many many times we have helped one another, and He has used each to say or do the thing the other absolutely needed in a specific moment. I recognize that God has also blessed this friendship beyond difficulties like distance, or time apart. • • • I also recognize that God has not only been building a friendship, but making a promise. To both of us. A promise of support. A promise of a kind ear. A promise of needs met in supernatural ways. A promise of things bigger and better than we can do on our own. • • • I want to recognize one more thing. My friendship with Rebekah is not a singularity, or the only way God has shown himself. I want to recognize how God has crafted my communities all around. I was only able to be at Rebekah's wedding because of those people, those friendships, those blessings. How amazingly intricate is our God! How amazing that YOU are a part of my story, that my story is your story because God has intentionally tied us together as well! In recognizing the awesome work God has done in this one friendship, we also recognize the potential he has waiting in all of the other friendships he is and has crafted.